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HT Picks; New Reads
On the list of interesting reads this week is a history of an international community in south India that strove for utopia, a narrative on Banaras, and a book on the India-Pakistan relationship told through the perspective of the RAW and the ISI
The unique chromosome that makes Banaras
A cascading effect of events unravels in Banaras: on its ghats and in its lanes. Myriad lanes emerge like an umbilical cord out of the ghats to the womb of the sacred geography, to the infinite spots where the believers pause to experience the divine. Its waterfront, a grid of staircase leads one’s vision up and the eye meets a world that is frantic. The scene appears chaotic yet in sync. In Banaras: Of Gods, Humans and Stories, Nilosree Biswas and Irfan Nabi discern the engaging narrative of a unique chromosome that makes Banaras. Traversing within the maze, its topography, craft traditions, and gastronomic plethora, the book examines the tenets of its weave. There is a singular, unified, and unstoppable momentum to all this – akin to the unfolding of a scroll of a painting.
Inside the Secret World of the RAW and the ISI
From 9/11 to 26/11, Burhan Wani to Kulbhushan Jadhav – the India-Pakistan relationship told from the perspective of the RAW and the ISI.
With unprecedented access to the RAW and the ISI, the world’s most inscrutable spy agencies, Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark describe the workings of bitter rivals, mapping their complicated history from the 1960s to the present day. From the Parliament attacks to Pulwama, 9/11 to Osama bin Laden’s assassination, the rise of terror’s shadow armies to the fall of Kulbhushan Jadhav, here are some of the key events that have shaped the region, told from the split viewpoints of duelling enemies.
Levy and Scott-Clark also uncover a darker seam – of the destructive impact of CIA interference, and how the ISI fought for its life against dark forces it once funded, while the RAW created ghost enemies to strengthen its hand.
Revelatory and unputdownable, Spy Stories clears the fog to reveal the spies and their assets, as you have never seen them before.
In search of the promised land
It’s the late 1960s, and two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East Coast American family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the future bright.
So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to solve in Better to Have Gone, and it carries deep personal resonance: Diane and John were the parents of Akash’s wife, Auralice. Akash and Auralice grew up in Auroville; like the rest of their community, they never really understood those deaths.
In 2004, Akash and Auralice return to Auroville from New York, where they have been living with John’s family. As they re-establish themselves, along with their two sons, in the community, they must confront the ghosts of those distant deaths. Slowly, they come to understand how the tragic individual fates of John and Diane intersected with the collective history of their town.
Better to Have Gone is a book about the human cost of our age-old quest for a more perfect world. It probes the underexplored yet universal idea of utopia, and it portrays in vivid detail the daily life of one utopian community. Richly atmospheric and filled with remarkable characters, spread across time and continents, this is narrative writing of the highest order - a heartbreaking, unforgettable story.
*All copy from book flap and press releases.
