March 20, 2022 11:19:43 am
The seats for next year’s Formula One season are likely to be finalised by August-September (Express Photo By Pradip Das) In The Fast Lane: Indian racer Jehan Daruvala prepares to enter the world of F1 racing
“I have been a fan of speed, always,” says Jehan Daruvala, strolling in a bright and breezy living room of his fifth-floor apartment in the heart of Mumbai, overlooking a quiet, leafy lane that drowns out the noise of the gridlock at a junction not too far away.
Nothing about the picture-perfect Dadar Parsi Colony suggests it was built with speed in mind.
Where people forget to die
In the blue zones of the world, people eke out the most of every day, packing in as much as their spirit wants, without guilt or shame, fearlessly, greedily, hungrily, and with wanton desire to live the best they can today (Source: Suvir Saran) It is time that passes and yet it is we who behave like spent fuel. It is life that drives the engine of our lives and yet it is we who seem to think we are in control and in the driver’s seat. Seasons come and go, yet we think that we can live perennially, in one state. All but time is transient, and the sooner we accept that reality, the sooner we shall be at peace with ourselves, be able to live one with life, and be one with time.
‘The traditions and social movements that upheld compassion, solidarity and ordinary contentment are in retreat’: Writer Pankaj Mishra
Pankaj Mishra’s return to fiction over two decades after his very successful The Romantics (1999) traces the trajectory of neo-liberal aspirations and estrangements through the story of three IIT students — Arun, Aseem and Virendra — and the futures they create for themselves. In Run and Hide, in a reprisal of concerns that run through his non-fiction work, Mishra explores how the confluence of caste, capitalism and globalisation is shaping the emotional and political fabric of the country. In this interview, Mishra, 53, speaks about the freedom afforded by fiction to examine India at the present moment, making sense of the emotional baggage that led up to this moment and the pronounced alienation between generations in the country.
Chinese Whispers: Maroof Raza’s new book ‘Contested Lands’ adds to the historiography of an age-old rivalry between India and China
Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute; Maroof Raza; Westland; 250 pages; Rs 699 (Photo: Amazon.in) India and China are neighbours whose paths as newly independent countries have run parallel to each other since late 1940s. However, the history involving the two countries has been complex, argumentative and dramatic. Risks of a potential conflict between the two exist and their tussle will be a key arbiter of the future of the Indo-Pacific region.
In this context, Maroof Raza’s book Contested Lands is a timely book, given that the contemporary affairs involving the two neighbours is a continuation and reflection of historical dissonances. The book adopts a linear narrative that covers the genesis, course, contestations and collisions of India-China history in the 20th century. Books covering the arc of modern India-China relations have faced challenges negotiating the complex layers of events, stakeholders and disputes. Any underpinning messages in works dealing with India-China history can get submerged under a plethora of minutiae. Here, Raza keeps it lean and draws upon his versatile perspective as a strategic-affairs scholar and a former infantry officer to deliver an engaging narrative over nine crisp chapters that explain the history and their impact today.
What stays buried: In KR Meera’s Qabar, long-suppressed desires and truths are unearthed
Qabar by K R Meera; Translated by Nisha Susan; Published by Eka (Westland); 112 pages; Rs 399 (Source: Amazon.in) What are the things we bury in our hearts? Yearnings that we are too afraid to acknowledge, let alone act upon. Facts that inconvenience and irritate. Histories we would rather forget, and the people we once were. Excavations, if embarked upon, take their own time and, all too often, the results don’t necessarily offer comfort or closure. However, KR Meera’s novel Qabar, translated from the Malayalam by Nisha Susan, offers a glimpse of the one thing that might make the process worthwhile: the feeling of liberation that comes with finally confronting a long-buried truth.
Expecting better: An IAS officer’s guide to a seamless pregnancy
Nagpal with her book. (Photo: Durga Shakti Nagpal) If there was a book that people expected IAS Officer Durga Shakti Nagpal to write, it would have been on her crackdown on Uttar Pradesh’s sand mafia. Instead, Nagpal turns to a less obvious choice. Her experiences with pregnancy are shared with to-be mothers in Grow Your Baby, Not Your Weight. Nagpal addresses each trimester’s concerns based on her own experiences through two pregnancies, with the focus on maintaining weight while providing nourishment to the baby.
What makes a tree throw a party for every bird, insect and animal in this flowering season
The Red Silk Cotton tree is a virtual pharmacy, with its roots, shoots, and bark used to cure virtually everything, from cholera to snakebite. (Source: Ranjit Lal) Each and every one of these great trees, all over the country, must have sent out a personal invite by now:
“His Majesty, Kapok Maharaj, Semal Raja, Shahenshah Shalmali, Shamboji Bombax Ceiba aka Red Silk Cotton requests the pleasure of the company of all birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles to his Annual Open House to be held through March and April, 24×7 to partake of the finest nectar elixir in unlimited quantities…”
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