Poet of the soul By KEKI N. DARUWALLA As a poet Kersy Katrak did not get his due, but his poetry had yet to be fully explored and articulated when he died. Katrak’s poetry blends the serious with the laconic and comic, the spirit with the sexual. On New Year’s Eve last year, I telephoned… Continue reading Tribute: Kersy Katrak
Category: Books
Review: Personal Score – Zubin Mehta
Don’t look for cheap thrills in Zubin Mehta’s autobiography By Rekha DixitI thought it would be hypocritical to write about how good I am, so I’ve been very candid in my autobiography,” said Zubin Mehta before the launch of the English version of his autobiography, The Score of My Life (Roli Books, 201 pages, Rs… Continue reading Review: Personal Score – Zubin Mehta
The pages of history: J. N. Petit Library
The staff of the JN Petit, home to 150,000 titles, do more than just take care of books If you can’t remember the last time you visited a heritage library, you are not alone. Edged out by modern lending libraries, and threatened by the Internet, Mumbai’s heritage libraries are floundering. Some have been able to… Continue reading The pages of history: J. N. Petit Library
Shahnameh: The Great Poem That Came Out of Persia
By ROYA HAKAKIAN My earliest memories of the Shahnameh, the greatest work ever written in the Persian language, belong to my childhood in Iran. I and other girls in my elementary school recited verses of the epic poem, rounding out our chests and puffing our cheeks in our best effort to strike the pose of… Continue reading Shahnameh: The Great Poem That Came Out of Persia
Mehernosh Mody: La Porte des Indes
The Legacy of France in Indian Regional Cuisine The creation of the famous La Porte des Indes restaurants that sprinkle Europe is as much a love story as it is anything else. In 1986, Mehernosh Mody hired a young chef, Sherin, as his assistant. They soon were inseparable, and their mutual love for one another… Continue reading Mehernosh Mody: La Porte des Indes
Sugar in Milk : Lives of Eminent Parsis by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy
Authoritative, fascinating and insightful, Sugar in Milk is a collection of twelve in-depth profiles of some of the greatest Parsis India has produced. Ranging from the nineteenth century to the contemporary, here are freedom fighters and industrialists, a lawyer and a scientist, a field marshal and a western classical musical conductor. They are ordered chronologically… Continue reading Sugar in Milk : Lives of Eminent Parsis by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy
Sons And Other Flammable Objects By Porochista Khakpour
Sons And Other Flammable ObjectsBy Porochista Khakpour. 398 pages. $24. Grove Press. By Judy Budnitz In the opening scenes of Porochista Khakpour’s novel “Sons and Other Flammable Objects,” we meet the Adam family. The Adams fled their homeland, Iran, during the revolution, and now live in Southern California in an apartment complex called Eden Gardens.… Continue reading Sons And Other Flammable Objects By Porochista Khakpour
Thrity Umrigar: If Today Be Sweet
A Disquieting Clash of Cultures In a wintry suburb of Cleveland, a recently widowed Parsi named Tehmina has come from her apartment in Bombay to visit — maybe to live with — her only son, Sorab, and his American wife, Susan. The couple have a 7-year-old child nicknamed Cookie, on whom Tehmina dotes. If this… Continue reading Thrity Umrigar: If Today Be Sweet
The Song of Kahunsha
Canadian novelist and playwright Anosh Irani pulls back that iconic image of his home city of Mumbai, India — malnourished and deformed beggar children — to reveal the tender heart of human need in his devastating yet surprisingly gentle novel, “The Song of Kahunsha.” In this tale of a 10-year-old boy struggling to maintain hopefulness,… Continue reading The Song of Kahunsha
