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On Hindi pop fiction
Published on Aug 30, 2024 09:39 PM IST
Though the term “Hindi pop fiction” is often used pejoratively, the genre itself is suffused with pathos and features stories that youthful readers enjoy.
Mayank Jain Parichha
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a celebration of Delhi’s natural beauty through the changing seasons, a volume on how the princely states became a part of the Indian union in the last days of the British Raj, and a volume that documents Dalit food history through the culinary practices of two Maharashtrian communities
Published on Aug 30, 2024 09:21 PM IST
HT Team
Daisy Rockwell – “Do whatever you need to do, but do not remain silent”
On Our City That Year, her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s novel, Hamara Shahar Us Baras, based on the rioting that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, on why writers must speak up, on her current project, and on mentoring young translators
Published on Aug 30, 2024 09:20 PM IST
Review: Against Storytelling edited by Amit Chaudhuri
A collection of essays by a range international writers belongs neither to academia nor to the commercial publishing industry but is rich in both theory and insight
Updated on Aug 30, 2024 09:18 PM IST
Tsering Namgyal Khortsa
Priyanka Mattoo – ‘It was like going from being a rock to a rubber ball’
On her memoir, Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones, that follows the trajectory of her life over the last three decades from her native Kashmir to Saudi Arabia, England, Italy and USA
Published on Aug 30, 2024 09:16 PM IST
Rush Mukherjee
Review: A Man of Two Faces by Viet Tanh Nguyen
More than a recounting of personal experiences, the book, described aptly as “a memoir, a history, and a memorial,” oscillates between past and present as the author juggles with the act of remembering itself
Published on Aug 29, 2024 10:36 PM IST
Why are so many beloved literary characters orphans?
An embodiment of self improvement, orphan protagonists are instantly sympathetic. A look at why numerous popular stories and novels are steered by those who are bereft of parents
Published on Aug 29, 2024 04:46 PM IST
Teja Lele
Two centuries after his death, why is Lord Byron still seductive?
The poet is celebrated where he spent his period of exile
Published on Aug 29, 2024 09:00 AM IST
The Economist
Review: Fallout by Salman Masood
On Pakistan’s recent political history from Nawaz Sharif’s ouster to Imran Khan’s rise, the souring of his relationship with the army, and his subsequent fall from power
Published on Aug 27, 2024 08:13 PM IST
Saleem Rashid Shah
Louise Fowler-Smith – “Environmentalism is above all other isms”
The author of Sacred Trees of India on hugging trees, on the veneration of trees in India, climate change and why artists should also be activists
Published on Aug 26, 2024 06:25 PM IST
Book Box | Why leaders should read science fiction
These three sci-fi titles are an easy way to get you started on the road to being a better leader
Published on Aug 24, 2024 06:29 PM IST
HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s pick of interesting reads includes a collection of three plays by Swadesh Deepak that look at inequality and the need to make difficult choices, a volume that celebrates India’s most remarkable trees, and a book that looks at the powerful role of photography in shaping our understanding of our history
Published on Aug 23, 2024 09:45 PM IST
HT Team
Sanam Sutirath Wazir – “I aim to shed light on the enduring effects of violence”
The author of The Kaurs of 1984 talks about highlighting personal stories of women survivors of the anti-Sikh riots so readers can grasp the full impact of events on lives
Published on Aug 23, 2024 09:44 PM IST
Simar Bhasin
Review: In Praise of Laziness and Other Essays by Indrajit Hazra
Touching on everything from Kumbhakarna and Huck Finn to football, this paean to the art of laziness is an erudite rant against misplaced notions of productivity
Updated on Aug 23, 2024 09:44 PM IST
Uttaran Das Gupta
Review: Broken Promises by Mrityunjay Sharma
Largely focusing on Lalu Prasad Yadav’s ascendancy against the major political events of the 1990s including Mandal and Masjid and on how his and Rabri Devi’s rule affected the state, Broken Promises explores why Bihar has lagged behind the rest of India
Published on Aug 23, 2024 09:42 PM IST
Syed Saad Ahmed
Talking Enid Blyton and more with the new Famous Five author
Sufiya Ahmed reveals how she reimagined Blyton’s most popular series and what’s next for the Famous Five.
Published on Aug 23, 2024 07:02 PM IST
Teja Lele
Discovering a calligraphic beauty
A manuscript that was recently found in the British Museum could change how scholars look at works by earlier historians of Delhi
Published on Aug 22, 2024 09:06 PM IST
Shafey Kidwai
Book to Screen: Eileen – Of desperation, deviance and deception
Eileen, the film for which author Ottessa Moshfegh co-wrote the screenplay based on her novel, is as uncomfortable in its skin as the title character is in her own
Published on Aug 21, 2024 09:07 PM IST
A gendered telling of Partition
The Radcliff Line demarcating the border between the newly independent nations of Pakistan and India was announced on 17 August, 77 years ago. Large scale violence and displacement on both sides of the border in Punjab and Bengal followed. Seven recent novels by women that look at the cataclysmic event
Published on Aug 20, 2024 06:26 PM IST
Review: ‘Held’ by Anne Michaels
Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, this novel about the burden of memory and love across generations is intense and unsettling
Published on Aug 20, 2024 02:25 PM IST
Rahul Singh
Roopa Pai – “Yoga looks at holistic well-being, not just fitness”
The author of Yoga Sutras for Children on how the yoga sutras came into her life, and why both children and adults can benefit from a knowledge of yoga that goes beyond breathing techniques and practising asanas as a form of physical exercise
Published on Aug 19, 2024 06:32 PM IST
Book Box | The Reading India Project
A book club sets aside bestseller lists, to discover India, one book at a time
Published on Aug 17, 2024 09:06 PM IST
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a collection of essays that sheds light on the complex fabric of identity in Northeast India, a tribute to poet and author Keki N Daruwalla, and writings by Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl on how to find meaning and fulfilment
Updated on Aug 16, 2024 10:37 PM IST
HT Team
Viet Thanh Nguyen — “We choose to remember and forget things ”
The Pulitzer Prize-winner on his dual identity, on memory and forgetting, and his memoir, A Man of Two Faces
Published on Aug 16, 2024 10:36 PM IST
Review: Kamal Haasan – A Cinematic Journey by K Hariharan
An insightful look at the magnificent 63 year long career and pan-Indian success of superstar Kamal Haasan
Published on Aug 16, 2024 10:35 PM IST
Shevlin Sebastian
Review: Contemporary Urdu Short Stories from Kolkata
Edited by Shams Afif Siddiqi and Fuzail Asar Siddiqi and translated by the former, this collection gives English readers a hitherto unavailable glimpse into the city’s Urdu literature
Updated on Aug 16, 2024 10:34 PM IST
Syed Saad Ahmed
Review: Blackouts by Justin Torres
This genre-defying novel that includes photographs, forms of erasure literature and detailed endnotes, can be read as history masquerading as fiction
Published on Aug 16, 2024 09:30 PM IST
Amitav Ghosh - “We are living through an epochal geopolitical transition”
On how writing the Ibis Trilogy was a process of discovery, the coming multipolar world and the changes it will bring, and how literary fiction and non-fiction can help us understand the ecological crisis that we are facing
Published on Aug 15, 2024 09:09 PM IST
Simar Bhasin
Review: A new translation of Portrait of Love by Suryakant Tripathi Nirala
Few writers dare to question, irritate and agitate the reader like Nirala did. Gautam Choubey’s translation successfully catches the spirit of the original
Updated on Aug 15, 2024 06:53 PM IST
Chittajit Mitra
A moment for f-Annes and misfits everywhere
Revisiting that classic children’s novel, Anne of Green Gables, in the 150th year of the birth of its author, Lucy Maud Montgomery
Updated on Aug 14, 2024 09:16 PM IST
Charumathi Supraja