Books of the Week - Saturday, 27th November, 2021

Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute 
by Maroof Raza

About the Book

The India–China border dispute, going back a century and a half, predates Independence. As complex as the issue is, it pivots on two key questions: Who does Aksai Chin belong to? Will China accept the McMahon Line—which separates it from India's north-eastern front regions—as the international border between the two countries?
Despite several attempts, the two Asian neighbours have not managed to move beyond talks and towards a resolution. Why have bilateral talks not translated into concrete measures? Is there a lack of trust between India and China? How do the individual histories of these two nations contribute to their particular aggressive stances? Are there any other players pulling the strings of this strained equation?
In Contested Lands, Maroof Raza dives deep into the history of this long-standing territorial dispute, going right to the root of the problem. Clear-sighted, measured and rigorously researched, this is a necessary addition to the literature on India–China relations.

About the Author
Maroof Raza, a former Indian Army officer, was educated in India and in the UK. He is now a well-known media commentator on global, military and security issues, and is currently the consulting editor of India’s Times TV Network (for strategic affairs), where he has hosted award-winning shows like Line of Duty and Tales of Valour. Maroof’s areas of interest include the Kashmir issue, Sino-Indian relations and insurgencies. His published works include Kashmir’s Untold Story(co-authored with Iqbal Chand Malhotra), Shourya Gatha: Bharat Ke Veer Senani (co-authored with Lt. Col. Sheodan Singh) and an anthology of essays that he co-edited, Confronting Terrorism. He has also lectured in India and abroad on India’s security challenges, and on what India should do to become a great power.
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Books of the Week - Saturday, 20th November, 2021

The Promise: Winner of the booker prize 2021 
by Damon Galgut

About the Book
The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled.
The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title.
In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest. 
About the Author
Damon Galgut is the author of nine novels. He won the Booker Prize 2021 for The Promise, having been shortlisted for the prize twice before (The Good Doctor and In A Strange Room). He lives and works in Cape Town. 
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Books of the Week - Saturdauy, 13th November, 2021

The Custodian of Trust: A Banker's Memoir 
by - Rajnish Kumar 

About the Book
He was silently managing the crisis in India's banking sector then.
Now he shares these stories in his memoir.
It began from a modest house in one of the narrowest lanes of the old city of Meerut. From being a probationary officer in the State Bank of India (SBI) in 1980 to its Chairman in 2017, Rajnish Kumar had an amazingly interesting journey in which he saw the many changes in India's banking sector that greatly impacted the country and its economy.
As the Chairman of SBI, Kumar recounts, his term was rather momentous as the period-from 2017 to 2020-during which he shouldered this responsibility was rather unique under any circumstances. The Indian banking sector was going through one of its most tumultuous phases. The problem of non-performing loans (NPLs) had severely impacted the balance sheet and profitability of banks, especially those in the public sector.
In the aftermath of demonetization, the YES Bank fiasco, the crisis in Jet Airways and NPLs, among others, The Custodian of Trust is a candid memoir by the former Chairman of India's largest commercial bank. Anecdotal, engaging and evocative, this book is an unputdownable memoir of a former banker.
About the Author
With four decades of service in the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest commercial bank, Rajnish Kumar retired as its Chairman in October 2020. Credited with steering SBI through a very difficult period for the bank and the banking industry in India, he played a stellar role in saving YES Bank and led from the front to resolve the problems faced by many high-profile stressed assets.
An MSc in physics, Kumar is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB), an avid traveller and is passionate about badminton.
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Books of the Week - Saturday, 06th November, 2021

PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND PUNDITRY 
by Shashi Tharoor 

About the Book
Shashi Tharoor is one of India’s greatest living writers. In the course of a career that has lasted more than half a century (his first short story made it into print when he was ten), he has published over five million words—in books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and online media—on a variety of subjects. Pride, Prejudice, and Punditry brings together the very best fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from his published books and journalism—as well as many pieces that have been written specially for this volume.
There are ten sections in the book, each devoted to a particular topic. ‘In the Company of Giants’ looks at some of the most important figures of modern Indian history; ‘Into the Maelstrom of Indian Politics’ contains work on the Indian political scene; ‘Our Unruly World’ covers international relations and diplomacy; ‘The Hindu Way’ examines various aspects of the faith; ‘Musings of a Cricket Tragic’ includes some of his finest writing on the sport; ‘You Cannot Be Serious!’ is a light-hearted take on sundry matters; ‘Fragments of an Autobiography’ has poignant essays about his parents and an evocative look at his Kerala heritage; ‘The Spoken Word’ is a selection of his most famous speeches; ‘The Writerly Life’ comprises ruminations on writing and writers; and ‘Selected Fiction and Poetry’ showcases his masterpieces of fiction and poetry.
This book will give those new to the author’s work a panoramic view of the range and depth of his writing. Long-time fans will find fresh material to delight them as also ageless pieces that continue to enchant. Dazzling, inventive, and exuberant, Pride, Prejudice, and Punditry presents readers with the essential work of a literary genius. 

About the Author
Shashi Tharoor is the bestselling author of over twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a noted critic and columnist. His books include The Great Indian Novel, India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, The New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative (co-authored with Samir Saran), The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India, The Hindu Way: An Introduction to Hinduism, and, most recently, The Battle of Belonging: On Nationalism, Patriotism, and What It Means to Be Indian.
He was a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. In his third term, he is the longest-serving member of the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram and chairs Parliament’s Standing Committee on Information Technology. He has won numerous literary awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Books (non-fiction), the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. He was honoured as New Age Politician of the Year by NDTV in 2010 and won the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honour for overseas Indians, in 2004. 
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