Fishy memories fade away

FOLLOWING FISH (Penguin, Rs 250) by Samanth Subramanian chronicles a fascinating journey along the coastal region of India to explore “fish-related memories”, to use a phrase by the author. Put off by a childhood recollection of “a whole, steamed fish” on the dining table, its “colour such a wretched gray” that it reminded him “instantly of death”, Subramanian took years to outgrow his distaste for most things fishy. Only as a journalist, as he travelled far and wide from Calcutta to Gujarat to Hyderabad, Subramanian began to feel a lively curiosity about the lives and traditions of fishing communities, the mouth-watering recipes of coastal cuisine and about the threats and challenges faced by fishermen living in perilous conditions. This book is a treat in more senses than one.

The Carrie Diaries (HarperCollins, Rs 299) by Candace Bushnell reinvents the life of Carrie Bradshaw as a young girl. One of the best-loved characters in the sitcom, Sex and the City, Carrie is now synonymous with Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays her to perfection in the enormously popular TV show. Adored by millions as a feisty and ebullient individual, Carrie’s origins were humble, even provincial. These diaries record her anxieties, insecurities and vulnerabilities as she grew up in the back of beyond, her head stuffed with the Great American Dream. Carrie’s myriad adventures en route to her beloved New York City should delight her fans immensely.

ARMED MILITIAS OF SOUTH ASIA: fundamentalists, maoists and separatists (Foundation, Rs 495) edited by Laurent Gayer and Christophe Jaffrelot is a detailed study of the rise of insurgency in and around the subcontinent. From the Tamil Tigers to the Taliban, the contributors cover a large ground, as indicated in the subtitle. The essays are lucidly written and rigorously researched. Particularly notable are the ones by Marie Lecomte-Tilouine (on the Maoists of Nepal), Christophe Jaffrelot on Hindutva, and Nicolas Jaoul on Naxalism in Bihar. Other chapters cover Kashmir, Khalistan, Burma’s junta and Islamism in Bangladesh.

A Face of Bengal: looking through the prism of basic education (Ababhash, Rs 200) by Parimal Bhattacharya is based on the author’s travels across West Bengal to understand the richly complicated challenges faced by primary education programmes in the state. Part travelogue, part social documentation, this is a multi-layered narrative refracted through what Bhattacharya calls the “prism” of political and economic change. From the Sunderbans to Santiniketan, the distance covered is vast and the dramatis personae are various. Using real-life stories and anecdotes, the author makes dry-as-dust statistics look interesting.

Mother Teresa: faith in the darkness (HarperCollins, Rs 695) by Greg Watts charts the life and times of one of the most extraordinary human beings of modern times. Although a number of reliable biographies of Mother Teresa exist, this one makes a claim for originality based on the author’s access to the diaries and letters of Mother Teresa which were published only recently. Watts does not write a hagiography but maintains a tone of ambiguity, particularly regarding some of the controversial positions adopted by Mother Teresa, as on abortion. Watts writes movingly of the spiritual darkness that tormented Mother all her life.

The washer of the dead (Penguin, Rs 199) by Venita Coelho is a collection of ghost stories with feminist overtones. Most distinctly haunted by the spirits of the Brönte sisters and of the Gothic, most of these tales could have fared better without the stinging social satire and dour commentaries.