Seeking a swift solution to the problems of his beloved people, when there are no easy answers

A fascinating account, although it takes the well-set, well-known pattern of so many celebrated stories of dreamer-doers.

If the book wished to look like a diary, it kind of succeeds, though I believe it is more akin to a magazine.

Hazrat Mahal, wife of Wajid Ali Shah, fought the British in 1857. A French journalist brings her little-known story to life.

A father going blind feels the seasons in his garden with his fingertips as his sons fight in Afghanistan

An unfinished log of efforts by governments not entirely determined to wage the prolonged battle that must be waged to end hunger.

The Indian establishment's craze for nuclear power and its destructive potential explained, critiqued, questioned

The emotions that propel this work are admirable. But it is far too scattered, leaving the many varied accounts in it a bit distracting after a while.

Those who know what it is to be elevated into ecstasy by the first-day-first-show electricity of a Rajni film will hover there as they learn of who goes into its making

Covers familiar ground but significantly adds to our understanding of a neighbour near yet distant

Sarna’s prose is precise and economical, as it should be in short stories. It is also elegant.

This first novel is worth reading as an insider’s view of Afghanistan in the late 1970s and later

Few sang as Rafi sang, few touched so many as he did. A mellow, melancholy memoir recalls a master we don’t know.

A largely sympathetic, and even one-sided account of the Maoists

The melodramatic world of the quirky Beatle grins back through atrocious typing, creative spelling and original wit

Fascinating memoirs of one of the Indian navy’s most decorated officers

A post-colonial tale of a native’s return is alive with Vassanji’s sense of history, and nationalism’s complexities

Overall, this is a book that is original, insightful and quirky.

Unused sources inform a history of the First Afghan War—the deceit on both sides, craven heroes, and a royal licking

Build up to moments when one might find oneself in laughter in the dark - a tonic for seasonal cheer.