Braking News,
Sunetra Choudhury, Hachette India, Rs 350

Prior to the 2009 Assembly Elections, Sunetra Choudhury, a TV reporter,
along with her crew, traverses India to find the elusive Indian voter in various nooks and crannies of the country. As a reader, you journey along with her, as she bridges across
from one place to another, delivering unique perspectives on issues related to the elections. It is an interesting
read for anyone who wants to understand the ‘real’ Indian voter and not the one in the metros.

In Their Shoes,
Dipen Ambalia, APK Publishers, Rs 120

An Electrical Engineering graduate, Dipen Ambalia’s fiction makes for a decent debut. As you flip through the
pages, you find characters from everyday life narrate their stories, which brings out different emotions in the
reader. Browsing through different narratives of these ‘ordinary’ people makes you feel figuratively and literally
in their shoes. The book fulfils what it sets out to achieve, even though each
of the story might not evoke the same response from the reader.

Solo,
Rana Dasgupta, Harper Collins, Rs 395

Solo is a kaleidoscopic novel about the life and daydreams of Ulrich, a onehundred- year-old man from Bulgaria. It is a book about lost roots, broken traditions and wasted ambitions. Though Ulrich isn’t the agent of much action, he’s caught up in the momentous changes that are happening around him. At the root of the book is alienation, a nation’s estrangement from its culture and tradition on its way to building a modern society.

The Leader Who Had No Title,
Robin Sharma, Jaico Books,
Rs 195

From the author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, this is a motivational book yet again. Here, he shares tips on
realizing one’s potential in personal and professional life. The gist of the book is LWT (Lead Without Title). Sharma
doles out wisdom through a story and not in a condescending manner that
self-help book writers usually resort to. Seems like Sharma is here for a long haul, capitalizing on the success of his earlier books.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
reveals the ‘One Amazing Thing’
in her life to Srirekha Pillai

Despite being a disaster story,
One Amazing Thing is an emotional journey of catharsis than an actionladen physical rescue effort.
You are right. Though the background is one of natural disaster, One Amazing Thing is a novel that primarily examines whether a community can be built & whether true communication is possible, through storytelling, among a group of strangers. To make this truly effective, I had to create characters who were different in terms of race, age and religion. And yet they are able to connect in unexpected ways as they embark on an emotional journey.
The law of karma seems to be an
underlying thought.
Several characters in One Amazing Thing think about karma, but their understanding is not the same. Some have a more simplistic view; others understand it on a deeper level. My own belief is that what we put out into the world does come back to us, but not necessarily when we expect it to, and not necessarily in the form we assume it will take. The reach of karma is long - it can stretch across years or even lifetimes.
If you could share, what’s that one amazing thing in your life?
The most mysterious incident in my life occurred when I was returning from a pilgrimage to Amarnath. I got separated from my group in icy rain and could have died, out there on the glaciers. A man whom I'd never seen before took me down to where my group was camped. I searched for him the next morning among all the pilgrim camps, but I never saw him again.

One Amazing Thing,
Penguin Books, Rs 450