Fantasy, religion, travel and salt

4 NEW RELEASES

Demons of Chitrakut
Book Three of the Ramayana

by Ashok K Banker
Penguin Books
Rs 350

This is the third book in Banker's seven-part fantasy retelling of the Indian epic.

The great mythological stories belong to all of us, the author suggests in his introductory note: "Does a grandmother consult Valmiki's original before she retells the tale to her grandchildren at night?"

In this book, the prince of Ayodhya prepares to face 14 years in exile in the tiny settlement of Chitrakut, deep in the heart of the forest.

A Spoke in the Wheel

by Amita Kanekar
Harper Collins
Rs 395

This new publication, from the increasingly popular genre of historical fiction, traces the life of a monk, Upali, who lived in the third century BC, under the reign of the Emperor Ashoka.

The story involves a search for what the Buddha's true message was and how it could be put into practical use.

The author, Amita Kanekar, has researched the politics, economics and society of the period but she's still unselfconscious enough to admit, in her Acknowledgements, that one sentence (where a brigand boasts about how mothers quieten their children by invoking his name) "is of course inspired by Sholay"!

Westward Bound: Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb

Edited (with an introduction) by Mushirul Hasan
Oxford University Press
Rs 495

Mirza Abu Taleb Khan (1752-1806), an erudite 18th-century scholar from Lucknow, travelled around England, France, Genoa, Malta, Turkey and Baghdad for four-and-a-half years, recording his impressions of the national customs and manners of Europeans, providing insight into the cultural streams in the East and the West.

This book, the original Persian version of which was edited and published by his son in 1812, is now available in this annotated English version.

The Romance of Salt

by Anil Dharker
Roli Books
Rs 395

It takes some doing to produce a book exclusively on salt but Dharker has managed just that with this 228-pager (with photographs!) that is divided into two sections: the first on Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi March, the second on a host of topics ranging from "Salt Wars" to "Superstition and Myth" to "Ladies of Salt".

This is a whimsical book but enjoyable "" if you have a taste for such things.