Bibliofile

Who says Gandhism is dead? Doesn't seem so going by the number of books on the Mahatma (surely a publishing record there?). Even his autobiography, My Experiments With Truth, has long since crossed the million-copies-sold benchline. But there's more Gandhiana to come. Diplomat-author Gopal Gandhi is now at work on a book about his grandfather, the Mahatma.

To solve the mystery of the universe in just 100 pages is a tall order. But an 85-year-old retired army official, Lt Col P.R. Rai, claims to have done just that in his book The Great Pulsation—New Theory on the Mystery of the Universe. His theory: the universe is nothing but a pulsating cosmic force. ("All living beings have a pulse. So why not the universe?") There were no takers for his scientific/spiritual book. But Lt Col Rai resorted to what many authors do these days: self-publishing. He sent off the book to two people he thought would be interested: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Stephen Hawking. Hawking has yet to respond, but Kalam's invited the author for a discussion on his book.