Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) The book shelf this week is loaded with exciting titles that tease the brain and broaden the horizons with words on Tagore, Islam and the trials of the Indian diaspora under Idi Amin. Browse with IANS:

1. “Filming Fiction: Tagore, Premchand And Ray”; Anthology edited by M. Asaduddin and Anuradha Ghosh; Published by Oxford University Press; Priced at Rs.695

Rabindrantah Tagore, Premchand and Satyajit Ray have deeply influenced India’s intellectual and cultural life since the late 19th century and their legacy continues well into the present. The book addresses the mutual relationship between literature and movies in the Indian context involving these three plinths of Indian cinema.

2. “On Tagore, Reading the Poet Today”; Essays by Amit Chaudhuri; Published by Penguin India; Priced at Rs.399

Rabindranath Tagore is widely regarded as a romantic poet speaking of beauty and truth. He is remembered as a transcendentalist, a believer in the absolute, a propagandist for universal man. But as these remarkable essays about the poet and his milieu show, his secret concern was really with life, play and contingency, with the momentary as with the eternal. The essays are written over 12 years. The earliest of them, “The Flute of Modernity” was first published in The New Republic in 1998 and the latest “An Anniversary Begins” was published in The Guardian in 2011.

3. “The Sacred Quest: Turning Darkness Into Light”; Written by A.K. Luthienne; Published Shree Book Centre; Priced at US$21 (Rs.1,038)

Some lives are connected with the same magic. This is the story of Ahqulieah, the alchemist, and her Magus, an ancient wise love — a king — who illuminated the world with his wisdom. Ahqulieah is Louise in this life but her quest is to find Magus, who took her on as an apprentice to pass the secret knowledge of mysticism, shamanism and universal truth. They are torn apart in their past life and Louise connects to him in this life through an ancient silver ring. It is based on the writer’s true life story.

4. “Culture of the Sepulchre: Idi Amin’s Monster Regime”; Written by Madanjeet Singh; Published by Penguin-Books; Priced at Rs.499

The book is not only a retelling of Idi Amin’s brutality and buffoonery, which unfolded in the 1970s but also a heartrending saga of the forced evacuation of the Indian diaspora from Uganda and their trials against the backdrop of a fierce internal armed conflict. The former high commissioner to Uganda offers a first hand account of the unimaginable violence and savagery.

5. “The Monk, The Moor & Moses Ben Jalloun”; Written by Saeed Akhtar Mirza; Published by Harper Collins-India; Priced at Rs.450

It is a novel about a deliberately forgotten history — a history that remains hidden in the sanctums of Western academic institutions. A group of young students in an American University in 2008 set out to discover those truths on their own; not just because they need to know but because they see how the past affects their lives in real ways. It brings to life an Islamic civilization that was a centre for sciences and liberal arts.