Murder she wrote

The Monochrome Madonna (Penguin, Rs 250) by Kalpana Swaminathan is that infinitely delightful thing: a murder mystery in the heart of Bombay. When a lurid version of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna is found in an apartment where a murder takes place, aesthetic disapproval could hold the key to finding the killer. Although humorously told, the story takes sudden plunges into the dark and the sordid, rather like the eccentric and unpredictable city it inhabits. This is the third novel that features Lalli, the vigorous, middle-aged sleuth who must play an unlikely Miss Marple and solve the mystery. She does so in style, occasionally producing clues with a cry of “Choo mantar!” A romp as well as a challenging problem to chew on, the book promises to be a gripping read.

Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language (Tranquebar, Rs 395) by Katherine Russell Rich traces its author’s journey through India as she tries to pick up a new language, Hindi. To discover the quirks and intricacies of a language is to discover the place that it comes from. Learning a new form of expression also becomes a way of discovering oneself all over again. As Rich learns “to go”, “to speak”, and to decide “I do not like that” in Hindi, a complex, chaotic country unfolds before her. Stories of her experiences in India are woven with insights from neurolinguists on how learning a second language affects a person.

The book opens with the author appearing “half-naked” at a temple after an experiment with a sari goes badly askew. Advocates of the dress code at the Tirupati temple might be happy to learn that after the initial shock, the incident was soon smoothed over. Rich tells her story with care and much warmth. But she undertakes a dangerously ambitious project — of wedding the patterns of language with the tumult of contemporary India.

Soap! Writing and Surviving Television in India (Collins, Rs 299) by Venita Coelho takes an unapologetic look at writing for entertainment in India. A step-by-step guide, it takes you through all the stages of the process, from pitching an idea to structuring the plot and creating characters whom viewers will identify with to wrangling with irate producers over payment. Shorn of most romantic notions about writing, the book comes with helpful tables and flow charts, and plenty of pithy commentary to make it eminently readable. Who would have thought that the trials of Tulsi were the result of such devious craft?

The Flaws in the Jewel: Challenging the Myths of British India (HarperCollins, Rs 350) by Roderick Matthews is a critical appraisal of British rule in India. The book examines the changing nature of the colonial presence in India, the transition from trade to administration, and the ways in which this defined the rulers as well as the ruled. The liberal emphasis on good governance, Matthews argues, masked an imperial policy guided by self-interest. This history, he says, will not be written in the manner of old-school British historians, who were largely apologists of the imperial regime. Neither will it endorse the Indian nationalists’ claim that British rule consisted only of deception and plunder. Although he tackles a much-visited subject, Matthews attempts a refreshing historiography, one that is shaped by the contemporary context of a robust Indian democracy.