The Glass Room by Simon Mawer: Ahaunting tale set in 1930sC z e c h o s l o v a k i a .

Spanning several decades,the book looks at individ-ual lives shattered bylarger historical shifts. Ittakes a little while to getinto but after a hundredpages, it's hard to putdown. It is a story of loveand mysteries, coincidence and ends andbeginnings. It carried me along. (AS)

Serious Men byManu Joseph: Thisbook takes into a

carefully constructedworld, where menpursue the truth, i.e.the fictional Instituteof Theory andResearch. Ayyan Mani,a Dalit secretary whoworks for ArvindAcharya, the director of the institute, isoutraged every single day by how poweris still distributed on the basis of caste.Joseph is able to probe the lives of charac-ters through desire, science and theeverydayness of things, still packing inmonumental happenings, which areabout to change their lives and everyoneelse's around them. (DA)

Room by EmmaDonoghue: Jack'svoice, which tells

this story, is one of themost brilliant creations ofthe year and when youread this book, it's easy tosee why Room was the

2010 Booker favourite. Though you wishyou'd been spared the hype around thebook, allowing you to savour it withoutknowing snatches of the story. A beauti-ful story of courage and parental love.(RC)

61 Hours by Lee Child:This is the next bookin the outstanding

series of Jack Reachertales. The book, as allChild books do, moves ata breathless pace rightupto a stunning climax,deliberately kept open-ended. This is probably not in the sameleague as One Shot and Bad Luck AndTrouble. But it is a great read and not tobe missed. (YA)

Museum of Innocence by OrhanPamuk: A book asmuch about lost

love as about Istanbul.Kemal meets Fusun andgets hopelessly tangled ina web of lust, love andobsession. For nine years,he visits the now marriedFusun and her family hop-ing to eventually win herback, becoming in the process, a collectorof all things associated with not justFusun but also his time with her. Adetailed, slow and languid read, muchlike a stroll through a much beloved city.(RC)

ANecklace of Skulls by EuniceD'Souza: A slim volume for some-one's collected works but it brings

together some of Eunice D'Souza's

best poems writtenover three decades.Simple, direct and

spare to the point ofbeing minimalistic,D'Souza's poems talkabout her Goan-Catholic upbringing,religion and marriage,repression and anger. Many of thesepoems are intimate with hard-hittinglines that resonated and remained withme. (AS)

CONNECTJustBooks Picks of 2010

Pg 7Quiz

Pg 11JustKids

Pg 12Author

Profile

Volume 1 Issue 11www.justbooksclc.comblog.justbooksclc.com

January 2011 For limited circulation

A Justbooks Publication

contd on pg 2...

Fiction

2 JustBooks Connect - January 2011

From the Editor’s Desk

Wishing you all a very happy2011. It’s that time of theyear when everyone tends

to rate and rank books they read lastyear

We at JustBooks have been toyingwith the idea of associating'RentalRank' with books and usingthe same to arrange books on theshelves at various branches.

There are readers who like to readwhat others are reading and there arereaders who like to read only thosebooks that others may not take tovery easily.

We think, arranging books on thebasis of RentalRank in all our librariesmay make it easy for people to knowwhat others are reading and maketheir decision on either going with thepopular rentals or sticking to the hid-den gems.

Watch this space, as we work on thedetails and implement this on anexperimental basis in few branches tocollect member feedback. If youalready have an opinion on this,please feel free to write to us.

On a transactional note, we areamazed by the number of interbranch activities that we see atJustBooks. The number of books thatwe move across branches and thenumber of members accessing multi-ple branches, lead us to believe thatthe platform we set out to build con-necting books and readers is trulyemerging.

The accessibility to books createdby JustBooks coupled with the flexi-bility in reader friendly plans seemsto be effectively addressing a gap thatwas not very visible when we startedoff.

As we strengthen our delivery net-work and sort out teething troubles,we expect to be able to serve morerequests in lesser time.

As the New Year starts, we wouldlike to take the opportunity to thankall our members for standing by us aswe went through the pain of growingfrom a four branch single city opera-tion to a 25 branch operation span-ning across 4 cities.

The journey would not have beenpossible without your support,patience and continuous inputs. Lookforward to your continued support aswe brace ourselves for a more ambi-tious and more fulfilling journeyahead.

Happy Reading.

The Help by KathrynStockett: Differentread for Indian

readers because of thepremise it is based in. TheHelp is set in Jackson,Mississippi, circa 1962 andtells the story of two blackmaids and a white womanwho decides to write down their untoldstories. It's a society divided along raciallines, as the Black help deal with restric-tions that can be suffocating and theboundaries they aren't meant to cross. (RC)

The Dead Camel and Other Stories ofLove by ParvatiSharma: This is

Parvati Sharma's first book.Her stories are touchingand insightful, full of ten-derness and humour.Sharma's prose style is ele-gant and quirky, full ofunexpected turns that took me to unusualplaces. These stories are not afraid of ambi-guity or darkness and this is refreshing.(AS, DA)

Jimmy The Terrorist by Omair Ahmed:Omair Ahmed tells usabout a father and son

in a small fictional towncalled Mozzamabad. Atonce political, but deeplypersonal in the way theworld affects and shapeshis characters, this book isan honest look into the lifeof these people, who the author knowswell. (DA)

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet'sNest by Stieg Larsson: The third andfinal book in the

bestselling MillenniumTrilogy was publishedafter Larsson's death andappeared in our book-shops early 2010. It's asequel to The Girl WhoPlayed With Fire and fol-lows Lisbeth Salander asshe recovers in the hospi-tal after being shot by her father and half-brother Niederman. Action, new romancesand alliances, this book is as enthralling asits predecessors, even if a bit too elaborateand detailed sometimes. (RC)

The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar:Our life- is it destiny or a path chosenby others? Is it a mere Russian

roulette of chancy events?How do we choose theroads to cross or thosewhich we don't? Whofixed the road map fromwhich we chose? SheenaIyengar's insights areintriguing- for our dailylives and game changing situations likeeducation, jobs, marriage and death. (DR,MS)

Crisis Economics by Nouriel Roubiniand Stephen Mihm: Roubini is notjust another economist who foresees

a crisis after the event.Dubbed a 'doomsayer', he ismore like a seismologisttracking the pressuresbuilding along the fault-lines of the financial world,predicting potential earth-quakes. In a simple lan-guage, this book will help us appreciate theunderlying causes and why the recoverythis time will be slow. We get a view of theroad and the pitfalls ahead. (DR)

My name is Gauhar Jaan: The lifeand times of amusician by

Vikram Sampath: Thiswork traces the interest-ing life of Gauhar Jaan, ahighly talented singer ofnorth Indian classical(Hindustani) music ofthe early twentieth cen-tury. Also a composer,dancer and a bold and good lookingwoman, she was apparently the first Indianwhose vocal renditions were recorded,each piece ending with the words in thetitle. This book is a must for lovers ofIndian music and its cultural history as itcaptures an important slice of it that hasperhaps never been brought out in a bookearlier. (PA)

Simply Fly: A DeccanOdyssey by CaptG.R. Gopinath: I

would highly recommendthis autobiography. Capt.Gopinath shows his sever-al avatars in one life: anarmy man, farmer, broker,hotelier, two-wheelerdealer, politician, and lastbut not the least, a pioneer in bringing airtravel down to earth. He was not bornwith a silver spoon in his mouth. A good,authentic, heart-warming and well writtensuccess story, that is worth a weekend ofreading. (DR)

contd from pg 1...

Non - Fiction

contd on pg 4...

Adomestic worker, Baby Halder tracesher unique journey in A Life LessOrdinary.

The first ever book in India by anyone in thisprofession, it created quite a sensation and gen-erated a lot of attention on the author and hermentor. Adopting a non-linear narrative thatmoves between the first and third person, Babypresents her story in a simple yet captivating

manner. Baby's mentor, Prabodh Kumar translated her originalBengali work Aalo-Andhari into Hindi. Urvashi Butalia, thewell known Indian writer and feminist rendered it from Hindiinto English with Zubaan publishing it in 2006.

A Life Less OrdinaryBaby HalderTranslation: Prabodh Kumar (Hindi), Urvashi Butalia (English)Zubaan

Pushpa Achanta

If You Don't Know Me By Now: A Memoir ofLove, Secrets and Lies in WolverhamptonSathnam SangheraPenguin

At the age of 23 Sathnam Sanghera stumblesupon a family secret that his father and oldersister suffer from schizophrenia. Then silence.It takes him another decade or so to come toterms with this and to then confront his familyand write about them and him. This tragi-comic memoir, which won the Mind Book ofthe Year Award in 2009, recounts Sanghera's

journey of childhood and adolescence in an immigrant Sikhfamily in the small town of Wolverhampton in the England ofthe 1980's. His education eventually takes him to university inCambridge and then to London. The distance between his twoexistences threatens to tear him apart and he decides to write aletter to his mother to reconcile his two lives.

Geetanjali Singh Chanda

The Return of Khokababu: The Best of TagoreTranslated by Sipra BhattacharyaHarperCollins

This is a collection of twenty five short sto-ries, chosen out of nearly a hundred writ-ten in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore.

Most of the stories are taken from the Bengalianthology Galpo Guccho (Bouquet of Stories).Five stories in this collection deal with thesupernatural, while several others address thesubtle and fragile nature of human relation-

ships. The focus is on that particularly intricate bond between aman and a woman, woven either by love or by the complex insti-tution of marriage, with all its socio-cultural ramifications. A fewstories in this collection defy being slotted into any neat genre.Inall these stories there is an undercurrent of melancholy, a feelingof uncertainty and conflict.

Dr. Rajeshwari Ghose

Small Wonder - The Making Of The NanoPhilip Chacko, Christabelle Noronha & Sujata AgrawalWestland ltd

As urbanization gathers pace, personaltransportation has become a big issueespecially in India, where mass trans-

port is of poor quality. A father driving a twowheeler, the elder child in front and the wifebehind holding a baby is a common sight inIndian roads. While sharing the road withsuch two wheelers, Ratan Tata, the head of

Tata group of companies, too felt anxious about the safety ofsuch families. He wanted to build a safe and affordable car forthem. To beat the boredom of board meetings, he got into thehabit of doodling during these meetings. One such doodle wasa car around scooter. That was the first rough sketch of Nano,Tata's dream economical car.

Manjula Sundharam

The Big ShortMichael LewisAllen Lane

This book is a welcome addition to others onthe global financial crisis. Lewis, a master storyteller, gives flesh and blood to the misunder-stood 'shorts'- those who bet prices will fall.

Even as spin doctors paint a rosy picture, theshorts keep their wits about. Unlike armchairscaremongers, shorts are willing to risk theirmoney where their mouth is.

They dug out the secrets behind the supposedly secure AAArated securities, spun by Wall Street's modern dayRumpelstiltskins out of sub-prime mortgage loans. Theyexploited that knowledge to make money. Who lost ultimately?

The book reads like an Arthur Hailey classic, with an amazingcast of characters.

Dr. Rajagopalan

Angela's AshesFrank McCourtHarper Perennial

When Frank McCourt's memoir Angela'sAshes was published in 1996, it won a slew ofawards, boomeranged onto bestseller listsand created a stir in McCourt's hometownLimerick. Despite the unrelenting gloom ofthe story, McCourt infuses humour into manysituations.

One wishes McCourt allowed moreinsights into Frank's thoughts becausethrough large parts of the book, the author

seems so determined to avoid sentimentality, that he alsoavoids reflection. It is still an engaging read for a picture of thetimes and a coming of age story told well

Anindita Sengupta

JustBooks Connect - January 2011 3

For detailed reviews check out justbooksclc.com

4 JustBooks Connect - January 2011

contd from pg 2

The Truth About Me - A Hijra LifeStory by A. Revathi, translated by V.Geetha: If one can

appreciate those peoplewho live at the marginsof Indian society andstill come out on top,this book is for her orhim. It is a simple andlucid rendition inEnglish of a self portraitpenned in Tamil initially. The first by ahijra (a transsexual woman) in India, theautobiography lays bare a story ofcourage and success in the face of traumaand extreme harassment. (PA)

You are not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier:Lanier, a pio-neer in virtual

reality, passionatelyappeals for restoringthe primacy of theindividual and warnsof the dangers of alock-in to demeaning'Web 2.0' technolo-gies. He asks pointedquestions on the 'open culture': Why areimportant innovations like Apple's iPodand Google's PageRank proprietary?Why are the real paying customers ofsocial networks, its advertisers, not itsmembers? In a way, Lanier argues whythe 'wisdom of the crowd' is a mere tooland not a superman. (DR)

Our Toxic World - A guide to haz-ardous substances in our every-day lives by Toxics Link: Toxics

Link a Delhi-basedenvironmental NGOhas compiled its 15years worth of actionand experience into aneasy-to-read graphicbook. Following theeveryday lives of theSachdeva family andtheir acquaintances,the book not only convincingly points outthe folly of our upscale, unthoughtfullives and the adverse effect that this hason our environment, surroundings andthe innocent bystanders, but also suggestsways to minimize this effect throughchanges in our attitude and lifestyles. (AJ)

The Big Short by Michael Lewis: Howdo Wall Street's Rumpelstiltskinsconjure up highly secure assets

from junk loans?Why do others buyit? Who tries to calltheir bluff? Whydidn't they informthe regulatorsinstead of trying ontheir own? Howcan you makemoney if you thinkthe price of some-thing is about to fall? Go ahead and readit, if you want to understand the playersin the financial markets. (DR)

Small Wonder - The Making Of TheNano by Philip Chacko, ChristabelleNoronha & Sujata Agrawal: It is excit-

ing to read the production and success

story of the Nanothat entered the mar-ket with a price tagthat is roughlyequivalent to theprice of a DVD play-er in a luxury carfrom the west. Theauthors give aninsight on theadministrative, man-agerial and engineering strategies adopt-ed at Tata motors to change the quality oflife for millions of Indians by building anaffordable and safe personal transport.(MS)

Linchpin by Seth Godin: It is challeng-ing to stand out inthe overcrowded

market place but SethGodin says in Linchpinthat becoming indis-pensible will help tosell. Passion, commit-ment and creativity cre-ates unique and indis-pensable experiences.This book is a motivational read for peo-ple who wish to follow their heart andmake a difference. (MS)

By JustBooks Literary Team :Anindita Sengupta (AS), ReshmiChakraborty (RC), Deepika Arwind (DA), Y.Ananthanarayanan (YA), PushpaAchanta (PA), Aradhana Janga(AJ), Dr.Rajagopalan (DR), Manjula Sundharam(MS)

Non-Fiction

JustBooks Connect - January 2011 5

Book Review

Life can't get any lower for JuddFoxman in Jonathon Tropper'sfunny yet insightful book. His wife

has left him for another man who hap-pens to be Foxman's boss. He has quit hisjob, left home and is living in a base-ment.

To add to the already complicated situ-ation, his father dies and his widowedmother announces that it was the not-so-religious dying man's wish to see hisfamily sit shiva, a Jewish mourning ritu-al.

This forms the basis of the story, toldfrom Foxman's point of view, since thisinvolves the entire family, including sis-ter, brothers, their spouses and offspringto live in close proximity for seven days,leading to tragic-comic, downright funnyand sometimes racy situations.

This Is Where I Leave You byJonathon Tropper is the ideal vaca-

tion read. It's incredibly funny and bris-tling with quips and doesn't require youto stress your mental faculties much.What lifts it from being the vacation bookyou forget all too soon is its brilliant writ-ing.

Central character Judd Foxman's facul-ties are certainly stretched to extremelimits as he is forced to sit shiva (a Jewishmourning ritual) after the death of hisfather with the rest of his non-religiousand highly dysfunctional family.

To make matters worse Judd's wife Jenhas left him for his boss, a radio show

host whom most wives seem to hate,except his, as Judd quips to a shiva visi-tor.

The sitting shiva ritual forms the spineof the narrative, creating situations thatare wicked, hilarious and even sad.Mama Foxman is a bestselling author onchild psychology and a shrink whobelieves in being honest with her childrenabout everything, including theirimpaired sex lives. Judd's older brotherPaul holds him responsible for an acci-dent in his youth that changed the courseof his life. Phillip, their other brother issomewhat of a vagabond with a taste forthe good things in life, like his life coachcum girlfriend's Porsche.

Their sister Wendy is mother to threeraucous kids and married to Barry, a man

who spends his life making dealsworth billions of dollars on his cellphone and not really noticing hiswife and kids. She has a romanticpast with Horry, their neighbourLinda's son (whose mental state isnot what it used to be), and whomshe visits during the shiva dayswhen the present gets too over-powering. Linda, a woman who isJudd's mother's best friend hassome secrets of her own.

Judd who's trying to get back toa normal life after his marriagedebacle hitches up with Penny, afriend with whom he has had anon and off thing in his youngerdays.

As the Foxman family's nervesare strained with the enforced

proximity and endless visits fromneighbours and friends withmountains of food, Jen, hisestranged wife, lands up. She'spregnant. And insists the baby is

his. While all these make for racy ingredi-ents, what lifts the book from becominganother banal bestseller is the witty writ-ing. Wisecracks drip off Tropper's pen aseasily as his many shaded characters. He even has the ability to make youbelieve in absolutely ludicrous situationsand wring enough humour off them tokeep you laughing out loud. As the ritualcomes to an end, it turns out that eachperson has reviewed or at least softenedtheir opinion of the other after seven daysof closeness and they are probably ontheir way to being a family once again.

Predictable but touching nevertheless.As for Judd, he finally comes out of hisgloomy existence to realise that life is fullof options, even if it means leaving orbeing left behind.

Reshmi Chakraborty

This Is Where I Leave You

Jonathon TropperOrion Books

The functional dysfunction of family

This book isdefinitely amust read

and maybe a'should buy' forpreteen and teengirls. A mustread because itinforms themabout the vari-ous phases thatthey will gothrough or havealready startedgoing through indetail.

A must buymainly due tothe fact that a girlcan keep goingback to it when-ever the needarises!

The preteenand teen years is the time when girls(and maybe even boys) are very unsureof what's going on, what they should do,etc. They sometimes find it difficult todifferentiate between right and wrong.Hence, this book can surely direct themas to how they could muddle throughthings in a better way.

For instance it lays emphasis on howthey must learn to accept their bodiesand realize that no one is 'perfect'. Thatmental and physical development is aprominent feature of this stage but it willnot occur at the same pace in one and all,is a fact accentuated in this book.Nowadays, when everything is soadvanced and children have much moreexposure to media, it highlights the truththat, there is a 'time' for everything andlet's not go speeding way too fast.

The realization that they don't need toworry about what others think of thembut just keep the focus on and performand that embarrassment are a part andparcel of everyone's life not just their lifecan also do wonders to their personality.The conviction to stand for the right and

lead others in the bargain will lend ahand in them becoming commendablehumans too.

Cultivating virtues such as forgiveness,compassion, honesty, etc. can actuallyserve the purpose of making them down-to-earth individuals. A conscious efforthas been made to introduce the girls tothe sorrow associated with situationsconcerning divorce, death of a loved one,suicide, etc. However, this has been done

in a subtle man-ner so as to nottraumatize thereader's mind.One other thingworth mention-ing is that thereare toll free num-bers (applicableonly in the US)as well websites(which can be ofcourse accessedby one and all)which providemore informa-tion or help onvarious subjectsbe it smoking,bullying, eatingdisorders, deathand grief, andsuicide. Thisbook is trulyhere to help girls

all over the globe. Mommies can also go ahead and read

this because it will assist them in compre-hending as to what could be possiblygoing on your lil' girl's mind. This in turnwill aid in understanding your preteen,teen better and in providing handy solu-tions in a tactful manner as and whenneeded.

And this understanding will transformus into our lil' girl's best pal, one intowhom she can confide and discuss any-thing she has doubts about. So all yougals out there- daughters, sisters, mom-mies, girlfriends, aunts, grandmas, etc.get up and get your copy of this remark-able handbook and have a great timereading these true stories all sent in by"The Girls".

6 JustBooks Connect - January 2011

Reader’s Contribution

Young book lover Raghav Srivathsshares his thoughts on JustBooks, IndiraNagar Branch.

Idiscovered JustBooks when I heardabout it from my father this summer.When I went inside, it was full of

books, just books. That's why, I think theynamed the library JustBooks.

I like JustBooks because there are somany books. Often, I am very confusedbecause there are so many books I like andI don't know which one to select. I like touse the library computer to search for mybooks. I usually pick books from MagicTree House, Rainbow Fairies, SecretSeven, Boxcar Children, Cam Jansenseries for myself.

My brother, who just turned five alsopicks books for himself like I Spy andDoctor Dolittle. It's so simple to borrowand return a book. The uncles and auntiesat JustBooks are very nice to me and mybrother. That is why, JustBooks is myfavourite library.

Raghav Srivaths, Age 7 years,Grade 2, NPS SchoolIndiraNagar

Reader’sVoice

Dimple M. Tahilramani

Chicken Soup for the Girl's Soul

By Jack Canfield, Mark VictorHansen, Patty Hansen HCI

Dimple is a mother of a beautiful 10year old daughter. She is softskillsand language trainer and loves read-ing books and interacting with peopleand believes that each of us is specialin his or her way.

JustBooks Connect - January 2011 7

1. "Must You Go" is memoir ofthis writer's wife:Harold PinterSidney SheldonKurt Vonnegut

2. Name the author of "The Keys to the Kingdom" series:Philip PullmanRick RiordanGarth Nix

3. It's called the 'town of books':Hay-on-WyePudducherryTranquebar

4. The famous quote "Nothing can come of nothing" is from:King LearWar and PeaceWay to Go

5. In 1984 which famous writer returned his Padma Bhusanaward in protest against the storming of the Golden Templeby the Indian army ?Girish KarnadKhushwant SinghArundhati Roy

JUSTBOOKSJUSTBOOKSTOP 5TOP 5

NNEWEW AARRIVALSRRIVALS1. The Sunset Club byKhushwant Singh2. Parrot and Olivier InAmerica by Peter Carey 3. Jimmy The Terrorist by OmairAhmad 4. Beautiful Thing by Sonia Falerio5. The F-Word By Mita Kapur

RRECOMMENDEDECOMMENDED1. The Curious Incident Of TheDog In The Night-Time by MarkHaddon2. Serious Men by Manu Joseph3. The Romantics by PankajMishra4. Women Of The TagoreHousehold by Chitra Deb5. Falling Off The Map by Pico Iyer

RRENTALSENTALS1. And Thereby Hangs ATale by Jeffery Archer2. The Red Pyramid (TheKane Chronicles) by RickRiordan3. 2 States: The Story OfMy Marriage by ChetanBhagat4. The Lost Symbol by DanBrown5. The Confession: A Novel by John Grisham

Begone, you bugs!

1.Harold Pintez 2.Garth Nix 3. Hay-on-Wye 4.King Lear 5. Khushwant Singh

From JustBooks blog - http://blog.justbooksclc.com

If there is one issue that bugs us booklovers, verily, it's them.Bugs, I mean. Haven't we all dropped a book in a hurry whenwe've seen them crawl out suddenly from inside the pages or

the spine of a dear & cherished book? Just in case you think thesecreatures are a 20th century phenomenon, rest assured they are not.

In this article [http://www.hindu.com/lr/2010/12/05/sto-ries/2010120550260600.htm] penned by the venerable K.K.SMurthy, Proprietor of Select Bookshop, Bangalore, he states:

"Aristotle in his Historia Animalium complained that he had found tail-less scorpion and other arachnids between the leaves of his books. C.M.ETowne's Autobiography of Master Bookworm also mentions that a wormwas born on the first page of Samuel Johnson's monumental Dictionary ofEnglish Language."

In the recently concluded Bangalore Book Fair, we bumped intoMr. Murthy in his stall. Cordial as always, he posed happily for ourroving camera.

One of these days, we will interview him for our blog here. Staytuned...

In this last part of our series, we willlook into how Karnataka came intoexistence.

During the period of British rule,areas that today comprise Karnatakawere under as many as 20 differentadministrative units with the princelystate of Mysore, Nizam's Hyderabad,the Bombay Presidency, the MadrasPresidency and the territory ofKodagu being the most importantones.

What this meant for the Kannadigasin these regions was that in spite oftheir large numbers they did not enjoyan administrative patronage. It wasagainst this backdrop that the move-ment that first started as a protestagainst linguistic oppression, soon mor-phed into one that began demanding aseparate state be created consolidating allKannada-speaking regions. This wasessentially a movement that was spear-headed by the poets, journalists and writ-ers and was called the Ekikarana or'Unification' movement.

R H Deshpande established theKarnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha inDharwad, with the objective of workingfor the resurgence of Kannada language.The influence and success of theVidyavardhaka Sangha soon paved theway to setting up other organisations likeKannada Sahitya Parishat(Bangalore) in1915, the Karnataka Sangha (Shimoga) in1916 and the Karnataka Samithi inKasargod.

The movement took a dramatic turnwith the arrival of Aluru Venkata Rao onthe scene. He made a case for integratingall Kannada regions of Madras Provinceand north Karnataka with Mysore king-dom. In 1920 at Dharwad, KarnatakaState Political Conference was presidedover by V P Madhav Rao and a unani-mous resolution was passed demandingthe unification of all Kannada speakingareas.

In 1924, the Belgaum congress was heldunder the aegis of the newly formed

Karnataka Pradesh Congress committeearm of the INC. Mahatma Gandhipresided over this historic conferencewhich was attended by Kannadigas fromall parts in large numbers. The tenth con-ference of the Ekikarana movement washeld on January 10 of 1946 in Bombay,

and turned out to be a defining point. Itwas inaugurated by Sardar Patel and inhis speech, Sardar Patel declared that theinterests of all linguistic groups would behigh on the list of priorities for the newgovernment of independent India. This

assuaged the apprehensions of the move-ment leaders and the common people.India soon gained independence in 1947.The joy of independence soon gave wayto disappointment as the new govern-ment started dragging its feet onKarnataka Ekikarana movement.Kannada speaking areas now gotgrouped under five administrative unitsof the Bombay and Madras provinces,Kodagu, and the princely states ofMysore and Hyderabad. The AkhilaKarnataka Ekikarana Parishat met inKasargod and reiterated the demand for aseparate state for Kannadigas.

In the same year, the governmentappointed the Dhar commission to look

into the demands of the Ekikarana move-ment. The Dhar commission in its reportopposed any reorganisation of the statesand recieved severe flak .The governmentthen formed the 'JVP' committee, whichhad Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Pateland Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya on theboard. The JVP report, however,favoured only the creation of theAndhra state while the KarnatakaEkikarana movement was given thecold shoulder. The Ekikarana move-ment saw this as a betrayal of theCongress which had declared the cre-ation of linguistic provinces as one of itsgoals in its 1951 manifesto.

The movement now formed theKarnataka Ekikarana Paksha to contestthe 1951 polls. In January 1953, themovement entered its last leg when atthe Hyderabad Congress session, a reso-lution was passed favouring just the cre-

ation of Andhra Pradesh but notKarnataka. This was the last straw and AJ Dodmeti, a senior Congress leader andthe member of the Bombay assembly,immediately resigned from his seat andlaunched a hunger strike at Jakkali in

Dharwad. This found widespread sup-port and the situation took a violentturn.

In the Hubli-Dharwad by electionsthat followed, the Congress suffered

a thumping defeat, while theKarnataka Ekikarana Paksha's candi-date won by a landslide. Bucklingunder pressure, Prime Minister Nehruconstituted the States ReorganisationCommittee or the Fazal Ali commis-sion.

The States Reorganisation Commissioneventually recommended the reorgani-sation of the states based on linguisticdemographics and it got ratified inparliament . This brought unbounded

joy to the entire Kannadiga populationthat now was merged under the state ofMysore. Along with all the joy, came theacute disappointment at the non inclu-sion of certain parts in the Mysore state.The biggest disappointment lay in thenon inclusion of Kasargod in the newlyformed state. The irony also lay in the factthat Kasargod was one of the bastionsfrom which the Ekikarana movement hadlaunched its agitation.

On 1 November 1973, Mysore state wasrenamed as Karnataka since it was feltthat Karnataka was more 'inclusive' of allthe other regions of Karnataka than thename Mysore. It's on this day every year,the birthday of our state is celebrated,popularly called as Karnataka Rajyotsava.

8 JustBooks Connect - January 2011

Tracing the story behind Karnataka RajyotsavaConnecting the dots

Subhash Bhushan

(Source credits: Wikipedia)

The provocative title achieves itsaim; you wonder what it's allabout and skim. And then you are

hooked. The first chapter "Very few specimens -

but a lot of bull" ensures that yourcuriosity gets the better of you; in the1980's the Indian government evolved ascheme to benefit the poor in Orissa bycreating a new, higher breed of cattlethrough artificial insemination. Rs. 2Crores and two years later, the schemeproved disastrous with hardly any cross-bred calves and the local 'Khariar bull'rendered almost extinct. This is just oneamong the many tales which might passoff as anecdote in social gatherings, butis ironically depressing.

Everybody Loves A GoodDrought is a collection of reallife stories documented bySainath during his travels aspart of a journalism fellowshipconferred by The Times ofIndia in the 1990s.

As Sainath explains in theintroduction "Too often, povertyand deprivation get covered asevents. That is, when some disas-ter strikes, when people die. Yet,poverty is about much more thanstarvation deaths or near famine conditions.It is the sum total of a multiplicity of fac-tors." Sainath is better known currentlyfor his candid well-researched editorialsin national dailies.

About 312 million (40 percent of thepopulation) in India live below the

poverty line. About 26 million have beendisplaced by 'development' - dams,canals, mining, industries, thermal plantsand defence installations and 75% ofthese still haven't been provided rehabil-itation even after 45 years. The first fiveyear plan gave education 7.86 percent ofits total outlay; this figure was down to3.5 percent by the seventh plan.Compare this with Kenya that spends 6.7or Malaysia which spends 7.8 percent of

GDP on education. In many states, morethan 75 percent of agricultural labourhouseholds are in debt, with Dalits andtribals the worst off.

But Sainath's book is not about num-bers and their statistical significance; it isabout people who live their lives being apart of them.

Covering issues like education, health,land, literacy, irrigation etc, Sainath's sto-ries have a matter-of-fact narration, fullof frankness. Basic fundamental rights

are merelywrittenword forthe poor,like promis-

es at election time, never to be imple-mented while loopholes are for theingenious to get richer and more power-ful.

School buildings taken over by herdsof goats in the absence of teachers

(and consequently students), headmas-ters and teachers nonchalantly collectingtheir salary from the coziness of theirhomes, household chores that keep chil-dren away from school, schools withbarely any infrastructure to support'education' are just some examples ofIndia's schooling 'strategy' in the ruralareas. And Sainath aptly comments "Thebasic reality of the education system (in thedistrict) is that there isn't one. Certainly nota system that works."

Take the case of health in India. Whilewe continue to build PHCs (Primary

Health Centres), like over 15,000 inBihar, nobody is accountable to see thatthese function as well. Modern medicinestill evades tribals who continue theirdependency (or rather belief) in the goodold magic man; as a result they havemore deaths and the highest infant mor-tality rates. PHC doctors, who operateprivate practices on the side, makemoney from both-the PHC and their

own practice. And then there arethe quacks who masquerade asrespectful doctors with degreesfrom unknown medical colleges.Sainath points out "We have built ahealth system for doctors, notpatients."

If you get the drift, from the titleof the book which happens to be asection heading too, then yes, it isabout how there is money to bemade when there's a drought,mostly from the drought 'relief'.

But just when you start todespair that maybe nothing

seems to go right in India, you getto the section "With their OwnWeapons" that documents thefights that some of these sameoppressed people have won despiteall the odds piled against them.

Sainath's unadulterated reportinghas always been impressive and itis no different here. These storiesfrom his 80,000 km long travelacross seven states demolishes

one's idea of 'development'; 'develop-ment' is always at some cost, most oftenthan not, borne by the poor.

There are just too many forces at play;the poor and gullible, the powerfulpoliticians, the corrupt officials andmany times the well-meaning govern-ment that ends up implementing ludi-crous projects that ends up lining some-body's pockets instead of benefiting thepoor.

Journey with Sainath and know Indiabetter, with all her faults, achievements,guts and corruption. Sainath helps youwith the math, the justification and rea-soning. Devoid of any development sec-tor jargon, this compendium is pureunbiased reporting at its best; sometimesthe government is at fault, sometimes thedenizen. You cannot like or dislike the'book'; what hopefully you end up likingis the bravery and fortitude and dislikingthe rampant corruption and apathy.

JustBooks Connect - January 2011 9

Everybody Loves A GoodDrought

P. SainathPenguin

India 'Shining'? Not quite yet!

Aradhana Janga

Book Review

10 JustBooks Connect - January 2011

The Other Face of Fear

Described as an "ethical shocker",The Driver's Seat is a spine-chilling tale that turns the crime

thriller upside down and inside out. Lise is a misfit, a spinster accountant

who lives in an unnamed city inNorthern Europe. Taking a few days offfrom work, she goes on holiday. Early inthe book, we are told that Lise is goingto meet a bad end, that she "will befound tomorrow morning dead frommultiple stab wounds…." The bookthen goes on to examine how and whyevents led to this and Spark described itas a 'whydunnit'.

The most striking thing about Lise isher remoteness. From the outset, weknow she is odd but her oddness is nei-ther explained nor judged. She goesshopping for her trip, buys outlandish,

psychedelic clothes. On the plane, shetries to befriend a man who is so afraidof her that he changes his seat.

Her other co-passenger, Bill, comes onto her and insists he is "her type". One isnot sure where all of this will lead andsome of the details seem superfluous butthis is a 'whydunnit' and they reallyaren't.

Reading the book becomes an act offaith. For much of the book, Spark'swriting is sharp and engaging enoughto make this easy. Lise's behaviourseems downright fussy sometimes butin retrospect, all of these details fitinto the larger scheme of things andone realises what a superbly craftednovel this is.

Many aspects of modernism comeinto play in this book-the single life,airline travel, psychedelic clothes, sex-ual freedom-and each of these ispushed to its boundaries. This is a sin-ister statement on a world that's madand clever in equal measure. Lise isrepresentative of this hideous combi-nation. (Just how clever she actuallyis, one understands only towards theend when the dreadful denouementplays out exactly as she had plannedall along.)

But the others characters are hardlyreassuring. There is the harmless butsenile Mrs. Fiedke who Lise befriends.There is Bill, a macrobiotics enthusiastwho natters on about Yin and Yangand insists he must have two orgasms

a day, never mind with whom. And soon.

This then is a world where normalcycannot exist, where cleverness hasreplaced intelligence, new age fads havereplaced spirituality and grotesque fasci-nations have taken the place of socialfulfillment.

Beneath all of this, Lise's lonelinessticks on like a portentous clock. Isolationis a precondition to terror in the book. Itis precisely because Lise is so alone thatshe can maneuver events the way shedoes.

What transpires in the end is depend-ent on nobody knowing where she is,and nobody caring. At one point in thebook, there is this passage: "Not really apresence," Lise says. "The lack of anabsence, that's what it is. I know I'll findit. I keep on making mistakes, though."

And this incongruous, seemingly

absurd statement says a great deal aboutthe universe Spark is describing, itsloneliness and futility, its sense of repeti-tion and error.

Fear is the most important emotion inthe book. The man on the plane is afraidof Lise and it is only later that we realisewhy. Because we know Lise will die, weare afraid for her. Certainly, there seemsto be no dearth of suspicious charactersin her life.

But Spark's genius is that she turnsfear on its head and makes us questionour assumptions about it. At a 100 oddpages, this is a brief book that packs in alot. It is ingenious in content and form.Its essentially bleak subject is set offwith incisive black humour, plenty ofwit and play. It is a delight to read onceand worth reading twice.

Book Review

Anindita Sengupta

The Driver's Seat

Muriel SparkModern Classics

Ana is a daughter of rich parents,who own almost everything;she, herself was rarely refused

anything she asked for. She also hasseveral friends, including her bestfriend, Zain, whose house is just roundthe corner. It is with Zain, that Ana hasher best adventurers. However, Ana ismissing something in her life - some-thing which her parents had deniedher for so long - a pet, most preferably adog. When she makes her first seriousattempt at getting a puppy into her life,she gets three fish instead.

Fish are one of the most remarkablyinert creatures of our planet; they rarelysleep, just eat, eat and eat, and wanderthe aquatic territory. It is totally uselessto teach a goldfish some tricks, as it hasan incredibly minuscule memory.

So, Ana just has to make do withwatching the fish grow, feed them everyday and indulge in some "activities"(more often dangerous than the "safe"ones like playing board games and play-ing cricket) with her best friend, Zain.Still, the fish are not to be left out from itall. Ana seeks to find some new foodsources to make the fish grow much fat-ter, seaweed would hit the spot; howev-

er the only place to obtain the seaweedis a highly forbidden local lake. So theduo set off for the lake while both sets ofparents are deluded into believing thatthey were out to have fun with a coupleof relatively harmless twins - Beena andMeena.

The lake soon turns out not to be onlya sewage dumping area, but a groundwhere a strange and wholly new typesof fish seem to inhabit its waters. Beforelong, Ana and Zain, beset with the bore-dom of the summer holidays, make aplan to catch the creature and possiblykeep it as a pet. Will they succeed, orwill they be caught before their attemptsare successful or worse still will they beeaten up alive?

The book was written in early 2010,published in June 2010 and reprinted in

July 2010. This is the first book of theZain & Ana series.

The author, Anushka Ravishankar isa Mathematics graduate, who turned towriting as a hobby. She has writtenover 10 books of verse, fiction and non-fiction in her literary career so far.Some of her other titles are AnElephant Never Forgets, AlphabetsAre Amazing Animals and Excuse Me,Is This India? The illustrator, ShiloShiv Suleman is an expert in the fieldof illustrations for children's projectsincluding the book Pampasutra.

This book is specially designed foryoung children, with the author mak-ing use of simple language. The storyis not made "too simple", but is ren-dered in a suitable way, and certainelements, which every small childloves to find in books like fantasy,mystery and humor are retained.Children will also associate well with

Ana and Zain and relish in seeing themdo strange (and dangerous) thingswhich their parents normally would notallow them to do at home.

The shortcomings can be said to bepresent in the novel's short length -more events could have been added,making it a much more interesting read.The story uses interesting pictures,which not only describe scenes in thebook, but plays a part in "completing thestory", and goes a long way in puttingan impression on the children. The bookis an interesting read and makes youfeel content. The author winds off thestory after giving explanations for everystrange event. It is unlike any otherbook series, that dont have a "complete"ending, and explanations given in thenext book of the series.

Just KidsJustBooks Connect - January 2011 11

At Least A Fish

Anushka RavishankarIllustrations: Shilo Shiv Suleman

Age group: 8-14 yrsPages: 108Scholastic

JustBooks Picks for Young ReadersLeaves by Enrique Lara

The Woodcutter Of Gura by VeenaSeshadri

The Veena Player by Anjali Raghbeer

Samira's Awful Lunch by BharatiJagannathan

The Rumbling Island by Zai Whitaker

A Curly Tale by Vayu Naidu

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Set In Stone by Linda Newbery

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

Jayanthi Harsha

Somerset Maugham wasprobably the ChetanBhagat of his day. The

highest paid writer in the1930s, Maugham was rich, pro-lific and acclaimed but criticsand peers remained sniffyabout him. Maugham reactedto this with statements like "Ihave never pretended to be any-thing but a story teller. It hasamused me to tell stories and Ihave told a great many. It is amisfortune for methat the telling of astory just for the sakeof the story is not anactivity that is infavor with the intelli-gentsia" (fromCreatures ofCircumstance,1947).

It is not surpris-ing that Maughamwas scorned because the intelli-gentsia of the day comprisedVirginia Woolf and James Joyce,compared to whose experimen-talism and risky prose,Maugham was conventional anddull. Was he aware of lack inhimself? Quite likely.

In his autobiography TheSumming Up (1938), he saidthat he stood "in the very firstrow of the second-raters". It wasan observation that must havebeen made with some bitterness.

The appreciation of his read-ers might have made up forsome of these slights-Maughamwas tremendously popular andcontinues to be. His handling ofplot is fairly skilful.

He often based stories on reallife, believing that the ordinarylife is the richest source of mate-rial for a writer. His novels areimbued with a tone of cynicismor world-weariness. This can bealienating at times, but at othertimes, there are real insights into

certaincondi-

tions. Many of his books havebeen made into movies.

Born in Paris, the sixth andyoungest son of the solicitor tothe British embassy. Maughamlearned French as his first lan-guage.

He became an orphan at 10and was sent to England to livewith his uncle, a reverend.Educated in Canterbury, hedeveloped a stammer during hisschool years and this humilia-tion found its outlet in his mostfamous work Of HumanBondage where Phillip, theclub-footed boy suffers similarlosses and embarrassments.

After school, Maugham wenton to Heidelberg University andthen studied medicine inLondon for six years. He alsolived in Paris for ten years as astruggling author and in 1897,his first novel, Liza Of Lambethwas published.

The novel, written in realistmode, drew upon his experi-

ences with patients fromthe Lambeth slums ofLondon. The bookachieved some publicacclaim and Maughamabandoned his medicalcareer. Soon after, he leftfor Italy and this pattern oftravel and story-tellingwould continue for thenext sixty years.

Stories about Maugham'ssexuality have intriguedpeople. He had relation-ships with people of bothsexes.

Most impor-tant amongthese was hisinvolvementwith a marriedwoman, SyrieWellcome. In1915, she gavebirth to hischild. After herhusband

divorced her, the two marriedbut he continued to live withGerald Haxton.

In 1928 Maugham settled inCape Ferrat in France and dur-ing World War II, he moved toHollywood. During the war,Maugham volunteered for theRed Cross and was stationed inFrance. There he met theAmerican Gerald Haxton, whowould be his long-time compan-ion. Maugham also served as aBritish espionage agent for ayear and is credited with pio-neering the modern spy storywith Ashenden: Or The BritishAgent (1928), a collection of sixshort stories set in Switzerland,France, Russia, and Italy. Otherrenowned works include TheMoon And The Sixpence (1919)which was loosely based onartist Paul Gauguin's life, ThePainted Veil (1925) and CakesAnd Ale (1930).

In the 1960s, Maugham beganto suffer from dementia. Hedied in Nice in 1965 at the age of91.

12 JustBooks Connect - January 2011

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SOMERSET MAUGHAMAnindita Sengupta