बुक्स and music

7 Secrets of the Goddess

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Publisher: Westland Ltd, Price: ` 395/-

Goddess Lakshmi massages Lord Vishnu's feet; is this male domination? Lord Shiva is half a woman; is this gender equality? Devdutt Pattanaik, a medical doctor by education and a mythologist by

passion, delves into these questions and more as he unveils the secrets of seven goddesses, including Gaia, the earth mother in Greek mythology. According to Pattanaik, the value placed on the feminine has been attributed to the

popularity and in fluence of the

village goddesses or 'grama devis', which have been revered in settlements across rural India since the dawn of time. The author also writes about Vitthai, the 'mother Vitthal' in the eyes of Maharashtra's sage Dnyaneshwar. Vitthal is the popular name of Lord Krishna in the state.

Gulab

Author: Annie Zaidi; Publisher: Harper Collins

Price: ` 350/-

There is a

mysterious, parallel world out there. Some believe, some ridicule and some dread. But what if one falls in love with a ghost, without even realising this? Together they build a house of dreams, till one fine day the ghost decides to move on.It is this dreading topic of the dead, ghosts and the parallel world that Annie Zaidi takes us to.We all have heard ghost stories where we have been told some spirits stay in this world because they have some unfinished job or some unfulfilled dreams. And it is this sense of

unfulfilment that has been bothering the protagonist, Nikunj, who after years of bewilderment and failed quests of

finding his beloved Saira, gets a telegram announcing her death and a request to attend the funeral.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life, Author: Sophia Loren

Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK

price: ` 699/-

It was a friendly and perceptive

policeman who,

seeing a confused teenager before him, may have helped launch a glorious career. It was Rome, 1951, and the girl, searching for a

leading film production firm but finding the address she had been given was of a police station, was wondering if she had been duped. Born Sofia Villani Scicolone Sep 20, 1934, in a small town near Naples, Sophia Loren's story is a Cinderella-like legend - from a

childhood where deprivation and hunger were not far off to the glittering film career where she worked with

household names and she tells of her life autobiography coming at the age of 80.It makes no effort to hide her scarcely enviable childhood where living with her maternal grandparents and the family teetering on the brink of impoverishment and

danger as the Second World War raged up the Italian peninsula - she herself got hit by shrapnel in a bombing raid but a kindly American army surgeon made the scar disappear.At that time she gave no indication of the alluring woman she would become- getting nicknamed Toothpick at school due to her scrawny build and dark colour before

blossoming out as a teenager.

Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers (1947-1963);

Author: Edited by Madhav Khosla

Publisher: Allen Lane/Penguin

Price: ` 599/-

Narendra Modi may well have taken a cue from the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when he decided to address the nation over radio in talks titled "Mann ki Baat". During the 17 years he held office, Nehru did that too - by writing regularly to the chief ministers. But these letters were for the nation, each exposing his views on a variety of subjects as he presided over the destiny of free India.

Nehru wrote to his chief ministers on the 1st and 15th of every month.The letters painstakingly catalogued the nation's journey from 1947 to 1963, a year before Nehru died, broken by what he felt was the betrayal of China.

In thoughts and deeds, Nehru wrote with humility, of lessons India could learn from other nations and societies.socio- economic outcomes.

mustread

Cricket World Cup: The Indian Challenge, Author: Ashis Ray, Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd,

Price: ` 499/-

This is a chronicle of the World Cup from an Indian

perspective: not a glorification of Indian cricket.Ashish Ray attempts a

dispassionate appraisal of the rise, fall and re-rise of Indian cricket in the one-day realm, for with it has increasingly since 1983 been

inextricably linked the financial

fortunes of world cricket. The book covers all 10 previous tournaments. Each of India's matches starting with the 1975 World Cup is recorded, as well as every single semifinal and final.The author has closely observed the game for decades as an eminent print journalist and also as a popular commentator, does not forget to record for posterity the

victory against the unplayable West Indies in their backyard - Berbice in Guyana - that perhaps boosted the morale of the till then lowly-rated Indians to come up triumphs at the World Cup less than three months later.The narrative is chronological, largely reportage, but becomes unsparingly critical of the cricketing demi-gods and the Board of Control for Cricket in India at times, as Roy's pen dissects the many failures of the side.

TOPFIVE

International Songs

1. In the lonely hour :

Sam Smith

2. X:

ED Sheeran

3. Wanted in voyage:

George Erza

4. Caustic Love:

Paolo Nutini

5. Ghost stories:

Cold Play

Courtesy: www.post.jagran.com