Published by Tarapress, 2019, 176 pages. Suraiya Hasan Bose—Weaving a Legacy: Radhika Singh “Suraiya Hasan Bose is a name inscribed into the craft map of Andhra Pradesh. It speaks of a lifetime of passion and commitment to the cause of handloom from pre-Independence India to the present day.” This book pays tribute to Suraiya Hasan …
Continue reading Suraiya Hasan Bose—Weaving a Legacy: Radhika Singh
Published by Picador, 2020, 224 pages. “How many times have I returned in my dreams to this hill. It is always summer as I look out over the gold and green fields, ditches foaming with hawthorn and lilac, river glinting under the sun like a blade. When I was young, I found sanctuary here and …
Continue reading Walking with Ghosts—A Memoir: Gabriel Byrne
Review by Sadhana RamchanderPublished by Rupa & Co., 2010, 346 pages. I have been fascinated by Gauhar Jaan's life ever since I came to know about her. I bought this hard-bound book in the bookshop A A Hussian some years ago but it sat on my shelves for a long time. I finally read it, …
Continue reading My Name is Gauhar Jaan! The Life and Times of a Musician: Vikram Sampath
Published by Sandstone Press, 2014, 256 pages. “Lots of writers have dared walk up to the edge of reason and stare into that great chasm, into the abyss. Very few people have got there and laughed out loud at what they saw. It’s the divine comedy.” —Bono, on Leonard Cohen You either love or hate …
Continue reading A Broken Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen’s Secret Chord—Liel Leibovitz
Published by Bantam Dell, 2001, 336 pages. What makes a movie great? Why are some movies memorable while others disappear into obscurity? The foundation underlying the performances and the directing is the screenplay. A screenplay can make or break a film. Going to the Movies is a combination of memoirs and a lesson on the …
Review by Sadhana Ramchander Book translated from German by Gita WolfPublished by Tara Books, 2018, 192 pages. Original version published in 2018. Frida Folk celebrates, in an unusual manner, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and her many ‘avatars’. This is indeed a fascinating book! It documents an unbelievable variety of interpretations of Frida—the woman and …
Published by Chatto & Windus / Vintage, 2014, 448 pages. “If you shut up truth and bury it in the ground, it will grow and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through, it will blow up everything in its way.” Emile Zola Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. …
Continue reading Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch—Nick Davies
Published by HarperCollins India, 2013, 252 pages. For many years, I’ve enjoyed the writing of Vinod Mehta, the editor of the Indian newsmagazine Outlook, so I was looking forward to reading his biography of Meena Kumari, an iconic Indian actress who died in 1972. But the biography was written on a commission soon after her …
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2016, 528 pages. It was in the early 80s that I first heard Bruce Springsteen. Looking for new music, I raided the tiny music shop in Secunderabad (India) and picked up Born to Run. I was hooked. The music spoke to me, although I was from a different culture and …
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1997, 374 pages. My fascination with Turner’s paintings began in the late 1970s. I was in my late teens, and we had just moved to Delhi. Instead of buying me new clothes for an upcoming festival, my mother, very sensibly, took me to a bookshop. The first thing I saw …
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