Has your quest to win more friends for the Bach tribe witnessed an increase in numbers beyond the
metros?
Yes, it has. People as far away as Assam, Delhi, Jaipur, Vadodara read the column of The Statesman.

Beethoven rings a bell among Indians. But others like Mozart, Bach and Schubert are still not familiar names. Why?
Mozart is also quite well-known. His CDs abound in music/record shops. Bach and Schubert too are quite popular. The market is expanding because people are increasingly turning to this form of music. This implies that more efforts are being made by people to get deep into WCM (Western Classical Music). Often TV commercials (like Titan, Old Spice, Raymond and many more) use this music.

Thanks to being a part of the global economy, we have become more global in our tastes. But WCM still has not caught listeners’ fancy...
It’s catching on. WCM is equated with being posh, which is unfortunate. It’s a status symbol, which is unfortunate
too. In India, the process of getting converts is slow because Indian Classical Music (ICM) is so rich and
strong. But fusion will not work, as Ravi Shankar and Andre Previn have found out. People must be made to
appreciate that both ICM and WCM are just like sandesh and rosogulla, and must be tasted on their own terms.

Satyajit Ray’s Feluda Mysteries,
Art: Tapas Guha,
Script: Subhadra Sen Gupta, Puffin, Rs 99

The iconic Feluda, created by Satyajit Ray, has entered the world of comics. In A Bagful of Mystery, the detective's client Dinanath Lahiri finds his bag replaced with an identical one on a train from Delhi to Kolkata. As Feluda comes in to investigate, the bag throws up complex mysteries, replete with a rare manuscript and a diamond to add to the suspense. Ray’s tag does well for the book, for without it, it is quite flat and uninteresting. And yet, Ray’s fans shouldn’t give this a miss.

Sam’s Story,
Elmo Jayawardena, Penguin Viking,
Rs 299

This is a heartfelt story about life in Sri Lanka: of how a senseless war can divide and hurt peace-loving people. Sam, a boy from a poor family, comes to work for a prosperous, kind family.
Slow-witted and simple-minded, he sees life
with childlike innocence. This simplicity allows him to perceive home truths from a fresh, and at times funny, perspective. Through Sam’s eyes,
we see how poverty is the great leveller. This
book has earned the Gratiaen Prize for Best Book in Sri Lanka.

Scoop-Wallah,
Justine Hardy, Jaico, Rs 295

Sometimes the best of the inside stories are written by an outsider, as is this book by an English journalist who spent a year at The Indian Express. From covering polo matches and society weddings, to reporting on her journey through Assam and exploring the city’s underbelly, Hardy’s account is vivacious, evocative and extremely personal. Scatterings of her black-andwhite photographs add to the fine
descriptions.

Twenties Girl,
Sophie Kinsella, Random House, Rs 510

Sophie Kinsella tries her hand at writing a ghost story and a period piece, albeit with her own feminine wit. A young Londoner Lara is haunted by the ghost of her great-aunt Sadie, who needs her missing talisman to rest in peace. The treasure hunt turns intriguing and even romantic. The unlikely friendship between a modern-day urbanite and a feisty woman from the 1920s, with her own
mind, makes it a great chick lit read.