Books

What India Is Reading

Gursharan Kaur, Medha Patkar, Sharmila Tagore and Brajesh Mishra on the books they are reading.

What India Is Reading
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Gursharan Kaur
Raga’n Josh: Stories From A Musical Life
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I loved every page of this amusing, anecdotal account of musicians and am reading it for the second time now. This book was gifted to me by Sonia Gandhi. I am a student of music with a degree in Hindustani music but I have not read anything of its kind before.

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Medha Patkar, Religious Dimensions of Indian Nationalism—A Study of RSS by Shamsul Islam

Nowadays I get time to read only on the road, and this is one of the three books that are now in my jhola to read while I am travelling. I am interested in the book because the subject of communalism is of immense interest to me, having faced its wrath in Gujarat. The other two books which I am currently reading are: The Market That Failed—Neoliberal Eco-Reforms in India by C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh; and an equally interesting book: Amit Bhaduri’s Development With Dignity: A Case For Full Employment.

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Sharmila Tagore Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith

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This is one of his novels set in Edinburgh. It’s light reading but has a sense of values, showing the ethical and philosophical side of law. I have also just finished reading Vikram Seth’s Two Lives and Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian.

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Brajesh Mishra In the Rose Garden of Martyrs—A Memoir of Iran by Christopher De Bellaigue

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It’s a light and very readable account of Iran since the revolution of Khomeini. Books on food? While it’s true I am a connoisseur of good food, I like eating it, not reading about it!

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