Inky Fingers All

But what makes the book timely is the fact that it outlines the basics in terms of political equations and forces that went on to constitute the momentous 2004 elections. Whatever might happen on May 16,the 2004 results set in motion many things that have enabled Indian politics to come to this pass. They laid the conditions,forcing the Congress to come to terms with coalition politics.

The essays are topical — especially the incisive one authored by Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar called “Ten Theses on State Politics in India”. The essay has 10 hypotheses on Indian elections slowly becoming not just a sum of its parts (read states): Indian states,say both political scientists,exude pride,distinctness and confidence in regional identity,but not by opposing the organising principle of the Centre.

Elections this time are being interpreted as 28 sets of elections,a point this book makes continuously,and even in the way it has been conceived. Its essays detail the growth of modern politics in today’s India. The chapter on Uttar Pradesh by A.K. Verma and on Andhra Pradesh by K.C. Suri are again exceptional. Some chapters,like “The Elusive Mandate of 2004”,have been published before,so avid followers of Yadav and his team may be a little disappointed,as they may find that more familiar than it should have been.
This book,you might argue,is a little too late,considering that by this Saturday we will be forced to crunch an entirely different set of numbers,make sense of those and then find a new theory or a hypothesis to fit them.

But what makes the book timely is the fact that it outlines the basics in terms of political equations and forces that went on to constitute the momentous 2004 elections. Whatever might happen on May 16,the 2004 results set in motion many things that have enabled Indian politics to come to this pass. They laid the conditions,forcing the Congress to come to terms with coalition politics.

The essays are topical — especially the incisive one authored by Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar called “Ten Theses on State Politics in India”. The essay has 10 hypotheses on Indian elections slowly becoming not just a sum of its parts (read states): Indian states,say both political scientists,exude pride,distinctness and confidence in regional identity,but not by opposing the organising principle of the Centre.

Elections this time are being interpreted as 28 sets of elections,a point this book makes continuously,and even in the way it has been conceived. Its essays detail the growth of modern politics in today’s India. The chapter on Uttar Pradesh by A.K. Verma and on Andhra Pradesh by K.C. Suri are again exceptional. Some chapters,like “The Elusive Mandate of 2004”,have been published before,so avid followers of Yadav and his team may be a little disappointed,as they may find that more familiar than it should have been.
_This book,you might argue,is a little too late,considering that by this Saturday we will be forced to crunch an entirely different set of numbers,make sense of those and then find a new theory or a hypothesis to fit them.

But what makes the book timely is the fact that it outlines the basics in terms of political equations and forces that went on to constitute the momentous 2004 elections. Whatever might happen on May 16,the 2004 results set in motion many things that have enabled Indian politics to come to this pass. They laid the conditions,forcing the Congress to come to terms with coalition politics.

The essays are topical — especially the incisive one authored by Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar called “Ten Theses on State Politics in India”. The essay has 10 hypotheses on Indian elections slowly becoming not just a sum of its parts (read states): Indian states,say both political scientists,exude pride,distinctness and confidence in regional identity,but not by opposing the organising principle of the Centre.

Elections this time are being interpreted as 28 sets of elections,a point this book makes continuously,and even in the way it has been conceived. Its essays detail the growth of modern politics in today’s India. The chapter on Uttar Pradesh by A.K. Verma and on Andhra Pradesh by K.C. Suri are again exceptional. Some chapters,like “The Elusive Mandate of 2004”,have been published before,so avid followers of Yadav and his team may be a little disappointed,as they may find that more familiar than it should have been.
—Seema Chishti

The Hotel at the End of the World
Parismita Singh
Penguin,Rs 350
When my generation was growing up,two things were largely invisible: India in comic books,and the Northeast in Indian English writing. Yes,there was that one glorious page of Delhi in Tintin in Tibet — complete with sacred cow and manic driver — and the occasional Commando war-comic in which the heroic Brit or Australian was battling the murderous Jap outside Kohima. The first thing that one thinks about when looking at Parismita Singh’s first graphic novel is that,at least,we don’t live in those times any more. The second is wonderment,at how familiar yet how alien the stories that comprise the novel are.

The novel tells of two strangers arriving at a hotel,who proceed to tell their story,and hear others from those already there. Together,they are part-fairytale,part-modern fantasy,part-allegory,and wholly delightful. They’re familiar because the feel of the jagged-curve drawings is that of small towns throughout India. Unfamiliar because the iconography,the underlying legends aren’t those that most readers are accustomed to. In one place,a character feels angry — and it is illustrated by a death-head that’ll look pretty unique to most eyes.

The strongest story in the sequence wondrously recaps hill myth,the urban legend of the immortal samurai soldier,the Northeast’s feeling of occupation and contestation,and those Commando comics in a few compact,elegant pages. This novel is packed with similar effortless mixing of inheritances,expressed in visuals that correspondingly slip across styles — framed,frequently,by its truly beautiful horizons of clouds,flowers and bamboo. Read it to expand yours.
— Mihir S. Sharma