Superfast Primetime Ultimate Nation
The Relentless Invention of Modern India
Adam Roberts
Hachette India
311 pages; Rs 599
The book title Superfast Primetime Ultimate Nation may seem one of the most puzzling in recent memory, but Adam Roberts has a wise and witty explanation for it. “Understatement gets you nowhere in crowded, noisy, easily distracted India. Even overstatement often falls short,” he writes, pointing to the country’s “Shatabdi Superfast Expresses” and other examples of wordy overreach. “In India, a land of bombastic claims, you must be bold.”
Mr Roberts, The Economist’s former South Asia bureau chief, was among the most well-travelled
