HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s reading list includes the social, cultural, and political history of the Anglo-Indian community, a memoir-cum-travelogue that is a record of a young man’s unusual journey of self-discovery, and a book that talks about ways in which organizations and individuals can effect change in democratic societies
Following his dream
At age 28, when most people are expected to settle down or risk disaster, Jubanashwa Mishra decided on an extraordinary adventure. He had recently realized that he was in the wrong job and had given it up; he had tried to get over his first — and unrequited — love, but failed. Something had to change. Following the example of Sean Aiken, who spent 52 weeks working 52 jobs across Canada and USA, he began a journey that he hoped would help him discover his true passion. Over the next 28 weeks, he travelled to 28 states of India — by train, bus, shared taxi, airplane, bike, boat, and on foot — spending a week at a different job in each state.
This compelling book draws upon that 25,000 kilometre journey. We travel with Jubanashwa and discover what it takes to manage a small hotel in Udaipur; clean hillsides in Dharamshala; cremate dead bodies on the ghats of Varanasi; sell condoms in Bihar’s villages, and peanuts on Chennai’s Marina beach; help a caregiver looking after HIV positive patients in Shillong; go river-rafting in Jammu and Kashmir; and assist a tattoo artist in Goa and a motorbike mechanic in Aizawl. In between, there are memorable encounters with Buddhist monks, Aghori sadhus, Naxalites, Bollywood publicists, drug dealers and aged hippies — and a brief reunion with Sameen, the woman Jubanashwa had lost his heart to.
Funny, moving and always entertaining, this memoir-cum-travelogue is a record of a young man’s unusual journey of self-discovery, and an inspiration for all of us who want to take a chance in life and follow our dreams.*
A toolkit to protest and peaceful resistance
We live in times when large numbers of people are participating in democracy in deeper and more meaningful ways. From India to the United States to Hong Kong, democratic societies have seen movements that have brought about change. They have one thing in common: large scale participation by civil society and individuals and the absence of organized political parties.
How can individuals make their participation more effective? This book talks about ways in which the best campaigning organizations in the world effect change in democratic societies, how a citizen can engage with others who are like minded, and how vibrant and participative action by citizens makes democracy better and more responsive.
Featuring political cartoons that have the power to inspire, outrage or amuse, The Anarchist Cookbook is a book for our times.*
A portrait of a community
The first Anglo-Indian could well have been born not long after 20 May 1498 when Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, set foot on the shores of Calicut — a whole century before the British arrived in India. Today, after five centuries of ups and downs, twists of fate, and turns of destiny, the Anglo-Indian community is firmly established in its chosen homeland, India. The community has contributed beyond measure to the nation’s school education system; its soldiers and officers, teachers and sports stars have captured the imagination of millions. The Anglo-Indians’ love of yellow rice and ball curry, five-tier wedding cakes, and single-minded faith, rock ‘n roll, and railway institutes is well known. However, stereotypes and romanticized notions of the community aside, who really are the Anglo-Indians, and what is this community all about? Barry O’Brien, an Anglo-Indian with a ringside view and his finger firmly on the pulse of the community, delves deep into the heritage, culture, way of life, literature, social mores, and sheer dynamism of the community. There are four sections in this book: A Country Is Colonized, a Community Is Born is a historical account of the arrival of the European maritime powers, the birth of the community, its natural “Britishification”, and the emergence of two of its greatest champions, Sir Henry Gidney and Frank Anthony; Nationality: Indian; Community: Anglo-Indian dwells on “identity and integration” and the political transformation of the community through the lens of twentieth and twenty-first-century India and recounts the fascinating stories of those who left and those who stayed; The Anglo-Indian Contribution to Nation Building is a chronicle of how Anglo-Indians contributed (and continue to do so) to modern India; and, finally, The Way We Were, the Way We Are is a riveting narrative of the community’s culture, then and now. The social, cultural, and political history of the Anglo-Indians in India and the diaspora has never before been told in such a comprehensive, clear-eyed, engrossing, and enjoyable way. The Anglo-Indians is the best account yet of one of India’s most remarkable and enigmatic communities.*
*All copy from book flap.