Channel Tomes
Two books about two of India’s biggest TV networks are in the final stages of editing. More News Is Good News is about NDTV’s 25-year-long journey—it's India's first private newschannel—from The World This Week and The News Tonight to a bouquet of channels. The book, with articles from founder Prannoy Roy, as well as celebrity anchors like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vikram Chandra, Srinivasan Jain and so on, will be out in June. The second book is about TV 18, often NDTV’s rival, a small TV station started by Raghav Bahl and Sanjay Ray Choudhuri, which went on to become the biggest business and entertainment powerhouse, with channels like CNBC and Colors. The title is yet to be fixed and the book is slated for an August release.
Peking Briefs
There have been many China books recently, but the one to look out for is by former foreign secretary and national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon. Menon was also ambassador to China. Moreover, his father-in-law too was ambassador to China, and later went on to become the foreign secretary. His uncle, K.P.S. Menon Jr, too served as our man in Beijing.
Havana Nights
With a rapprochement with the US, Cuba is in the news. Graham Greene first went there in 1957; he again visited in 1963. He compared the two Cubas—one ruled by Batista (“Havana was not a colony of America; it was a colony of Las Vegas"), and the post-revolutionary state (the horrible poverty of consumer goods, the comical restrictions, the stodgy cheer of people). But it’s the Cuba of the thugs, policemen and intrigues that he immortalised. Our Man in Havana came out in 1958.
