Tuesday, Apr 16, 2024 | Last Update : 11:48 AM IST

Sridhar Balan

Rajen’s family business was in the hosiery trade in Calcutta (Kolkata). His granduncle D. Mehra had been introduced to the family business at an early age and was quite adept at selling hosiery, setting up shop at a pavement outside Kolkata’s iconic New Market. — DC Image

Book Review | How a hosiery salesman launched India’s first indie publishing giant

Rajen had already moved to Delhi a decade earlier to establish Rupa’s branch

25 Feb 2024 12:57 PM

Cover photo of 'The Book Beautiful – A Memoir of Collecting Rare and Fine Books' by Pradeep Sebastian. (Photo by arrangement)

Book Review | Oh, the joy of the book hunt, the thrill of wishful contemplation

Can we be treated to a display and exhibition of Pradeep’s collection?

02 Apr 2023 12:52 AM

Sculpture of toastmaster. (By Arrangement)

Sridhar Balan | Raising a toast to the golden storytelling legacy of Tbilisi

Each toast no doubt comprised a story about the happy couple

08 May 2022 11:41 AM

Tamada, the toastmaster. (Photo credit: Sridhar Balan)

Raising a toast to the golden storytelling legacy of Tbilisi

The world book capital was an initiative started by Unesco in 2001 after the idea was mooted first in Madrid in 1995

08 May 2022 11:13 AM

Cover Image of the book 'Why Don’t You Write Something I Might Read? Reading, Writing and Arrhythmia' by Suresh Menon. (By Arrangement)

Book Review | Of writers, ghostwriters and the magic of written words

This book is the result of a sportswriter turning his lens on to literature

17 Apr 2022 12:44 AM

The Happiness Trail — A Road Map to Success By Ramesh Venkateswaran. (Amazon)

Book Review | For young souls trapped on the hedonic treadmill

At the outset, Ramesh tells us that his book is not prescriptive or preachy nor is it a compass with a clear direction

29 Jan 2022 6:48 PM

Cover Image od Maurice Leblanc's book Arsene Lupin — Gentleman Burglar (Twitter)

Book Review | Arsene Lupin versus Sherlock Holmes

The history of Lupin has an uncanny similarity with that of Sherlock Holmes in the sense the character assumed a much larger than life role

26 Dec 2021 1:46 AM

The book comes with a list of questions for reading club discussions. (Photo: Amazon)

Book Review | Bookseller’s love story in wartime Paris shows past is never behind us

Fast paced, the book, though a work of fiction, has been well researched and with historical sources cited

06 Jun 2021 9:27 AM

Mr B a history buff was actually interested in finding some traces of Alexander the Great's historic march from Macedonia to Pakistan over two thousand years ago while the crew was more interested less in history and more in the sights and sounds of contemporary Peshawar. — DC Image

Book Review: A decent sort of madness

The director's threat to leave Mr B and make his find his own way home, is answered by 'please do. I will walk home with the donkey'

11 Apr 2021 8:26 AM

The book is a virtual “tour de force” of book history, of legendary booksellers and pedlars, of marginalia and scribblings which have a history of their own, of comfort books, of book collectors and libraries, of bookselling histories even amidst adversity in Paris, Venice and England and, above all, of reading.

That ‘Aladdin’s cave’ feeling

The book is a testament to the power and to the joy of reading

31 Jan 2021 12:14 AM

(Photo: Facebook screengrab, Representational)

A blast from the past can bring people together

It later transpired that he had attended the same school though in a different section of the same class.

06 Mar 2020 2:53 AM

As the title indicates, the stories are set in the rural hinterland of Purvanchal where time almost stands still and life seems immune to the pace of change. (Photo: Pixabay)

It is a fast train, it only goes slow

At the time, many have wondered at his decision, though others have followed in his footsteps.

07 Feb 2020 1:40 AM

KLF, where authors, readers mingle

The bells tolled on the Kozhikode (Calicut) beach for four days last week for a different reason.

24 Jan 2020 6:30 AM

The book as a product was to so designed that it had to “visually appeal” to the consumer.

The book as we know it is dead, but long live reading!

The print book is a physical entity, a product and requires certain optimal conditions for its continuance.

10 Jan 2020 3:44 AM

Tongue-in-cheek, sophisticated or naughty – the title says it all

Beauvoir’s title was most apt for the book but sometimes, titles can be misleading.

27 Dec 2019 3:25 AM

A story told well, had the power to entrance and captivate the listener. If the narrator was effective and powerful, the listener could imagine and visualise the story. He or she could “feel” it in the mind. (Photo: AP)

Drama in Madurai: The importance of feelings in learning

The great advantage with Father was that none of his workshops were ever the same, he always brought something new and innovative to each one.

13 Dec 2019 2:20 AM

Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, with Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo (aka Freda Bedi) at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, in 1971.

Liberation songs: Freda and the theris were not to be deterred

Gotami willingly accepted all the conditions and joined the Sangha happily thus beginning a long line of women monks that endures to this day.

29 Nov 2019 2:33 AM

E-books had certainly existed before the Kindle and other devices for they were an alternate form of publishing and for publishers, certain genres of publishing required the e-book format and now technology became an enabler. (Photo: Facebook screengrab, Representational)

Is your reading carnal or spiritual, for wisdom or comfort?

The emphasis therefore should be on the ‘content’ of reading and not on its format.

15 Nov 2019 2:07 AM

India was Zimmer’s muse, bedrock of his friendship with Jung

Jung’s engagement with India culminated in a visit in 1938 where he saw the temples devoted to Kali.

01 Nov 2019 7:13 AM

Lesson of Arabian Nights: Your life hangs by a story

Storytelling stresses the commonality among epics the world over, of gods who intervene in human affairs and even take sides in a war.

18 Oct 2019 1:36 AM

1 of 4

Columns

Aakar Patel