Author: Vedam Jaishankar
“One night after dinner when they headed for the orange juice, Rahul intensely studied another youngster awaiting his turn to get a glass of juice. The boy had a mop of curly hair on his head and looked sort of funny. Rahul drew Fazal’s attention to the boy and said, ‘Fuzz, in two to three years, that boy will play for India.’

“‘I looked at the boy who had this funny hair and then at Rahul and asked, ‘Are you joking or what,’ revealed Fazal. ‘I had seen that West Zone boy bat. Yes, he played well but I could not see anything extraordinary that at 4 years of age somebody could predict he would play for India soon,’ said Fazal.

“‘Next day, when we pored through the newspapers, we found the boy had scored a big hundred for West Zone. ‘Mark my words,’ Rahul said again. I just laughed.

“In fact in less than two years that boy played for India. And the same day he was selected to the Indian team Rahul reminded me of what he had said that distant day in Nagpur,’ recalled Fazal.
“The boy, incidentally, was Sachin Tendulkar.”

We think: Full of these small little incidents, like this one where a calm, unruffled Rahul takes constructive criticism from two guys yelling abuses at him while they watched him at a field practice, the book is interesting mostly because of the subject. Having said that, there is no excuse, in this day and age, for the book’s ‘text book’ appearance.

Author: Shashi Tharoor
“During this time Jawaharlal found his leader unwilling to lead. Gandhi ‘refused to look into the future, or lay down any long-distance programme. We were to carry on patiently ‘serving’ the people.’ This, despite the ironic quotation marks around the word ‘serving’, Jawaharlal continued to do, focusing particularly on the boycott of foreign cloth and the promotion of homespun, a cause which bolstered Indian self-reliance while uniting peasants, weavers and political workers under a common congress banner. But he was too dispirited to do more than extol khadi; in particular, he took no specific steps to combat the growing communalisation of politics.”

We think: A thoroughly objective account of the freedom years, illuminating the complexities, the public mood and the struggle of those difficult years all in Shahsi Tharoor’s lucid style. Two very enthusiastic thumbs-up.

On Balance An Autobiography

Author: Leila Seth
“It was then that we met. He was wearing brown and white co-respondent shoes, fawn-coloured gabardine trousers and a cream-coloured silk shirt. He was chewing paan, which made his lips look red and messy. He seemed pleasant enough, but this ‘England-returned’ man spoke English with a rather Indian accent and seemed to be showing off about his work and achievements. I was frankly put off.

“But it appeared that he liked me and told my mother so at the end of the next day. He found me, so he said, unassuming and intelligent. Ma was delighted and wanted to know my reaction. I made it clear that I was bowled over by Premo, and that, having met him only twice, it was a bit unfair to expect a balanced reaction from me. Unless I got to know him better, I could not take a decision.

Ma was nonplussed and disappointed. “But she knew that I was stubborn and there was no point in pressing the matter further. When Premo asked for permission to write to me, Ma readily agreed. This started our correspondence, which was good because through out letters we got to know each other and to understand each other’s lives.”

We think: A woman of many firsts, the author reveals her ‘trials’ and successes, balancing a home and a brilliant career in law. Her spirit shines through the pages making it a very interesting read.