Olympiad Training Kits

Doing well in examinations is one of the things we seem to be good at... and proud of. There are a number of Olympiads, examinations at the school level that gauge the potential of students in different areas, and of these the Maths one has been around the longest, delighting examinees with questions that tease and teach...

An example (taken from the junior level, the JMO, and just to give you a sample) :
P is a point inside the triangle ABC. Lines are drawn through P parallel to the sides of the triangle. The three resulting triangles with a vertex at P have areas 4, 9 and 49. What is the area of triangle ABC?

A number of books are available now to ensure that once you spot your budding Gauss or Noether, you can nurture him or her... The Universities Press, Hyderabad, is a great source for easy to read, challenging books on a number of topics in mathematics. Shailesh Shirali's various books on Number Theory, or his Adventures in Problem Solving, or Delampady, Krishnan and Ramasubramaniam's Probablity and Statistics, collections of essays from Resonance and the like. All can be ordered from SwB.

There are a number of reprints also available in India, most notably those by Titu Andreescu and his coauthors. Mathematical Olympiad Treasures and Mathematical Olympiad Challenges are two of the titles, but there are more resources. For instance, the Mathematical Association of India based in New Delhi has apparently brought out reprints of Murray Klamkin's International Mathematics Olympiads series. And Anthem Press reprinted the series on the IMO, Vols. I-III by Istvan Reiman. All very useful for doing the exams and sharpening ones skills...

The last few titles are not listed on Scholars since we don't typically list reprints. They are nevertheless interesting because there are remarkably few books available for this interest group. Should you need them- and we hope there are many budding mathematicians out there- do write in to us. We're more than happy to send them to you!

Khoj

Aptly named, Khoj in Khirki village is not easy to find, but once you get there, its quite an amazing retreat, one that is beginning to make a difference in the experimental art scene in Delhi. Recently they hosted an international Arts and Science residency with four artists- Rohini Devasher, Nick Turvey, Joanna Hoffmann, and Abhishek Hazra, one that concluded on the 26th September with a wonderful show of works that the four had put together, evolving out of discussion and interaction among themselves and with scientists from Delhi University, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Abhishek, whose art is inspired by the social history of science research, like that of C V Raman at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata, is a graphic artist with a wacky sense of humour. He is now spending a few months in Berne, funded by the Swiss Arts Council, found the Scholars blog interesting enough to make a wonderful set of posters for us, one of which is on the right. Thanks, Abhishek! Read more about him and his work on his own blog.

We hope to bring you news of the others by and by- Scholars was involved very tangentially with them all.

Khoj has a set of great publications- their catalogues of all the work that they have fostered and funded. We're happy to list one in our Art section, the 2002-2003 catalogue. Rs 500. Write in if you'd like us to get any of their other material as well. We'll khoj(!) it out....

Like the poster? Want a copy? We'd love to send you one (A4 size, only) and all you have to do is write in to us. There are two other posters also available (check out our Design site!), and two others by Abhishek. Brighten up your notice board, spread the word about Scholars, do us a good deed. Whatever the reason!

Context and Text

Leftword's Signpost series of publications on Issues that matter, brings out a timely selection of essays by Prakash Karat on the theme of U.S.-India strategic relationship, written over the last seven years. Entitled Subordinate Ally, this slim volume has been reviewed very favourably, most recently by Vekatesh Athreya in the Hindu who goes so far as to say "The level of media and public discourse on the nuclear deal and on foreign policy will be greatly enhanced if some of the print media contributors and the television anchors take the trouble to read and understand Karat’s book, instead of dismissing the Left as “irrationally anti-American”. But that may be too much to hope for."

Maybe too much to hope for, but given the precarious nature of coalition politics, its better to be informed. In our Strategic Affairs section.

Leftword, 120 pages, Rs 95. ISBN:978-81-87496-73-1

INTACH++

Many of you will be familiar with the books that INTACH has been bringing out over the past few years. Some, like Pradip Krishen's Trees of Delhi, co-published with Delhi Tourism board, and their books on Kolkata, Chennai, and on Delhi (co-published with Roli) are a visual treat, not to mention that they are an invaluable source of information. And convenient to carry around and refer to (which I do, ever since I discovered that the spectacular tree in bloom I saw outside the IIT Kanpur main block was a Moulmien rosewood or Milletia peguensis, and not kachnar). This afternoon, INTACH opens a small shop on the ground floor of their building in New Delhi, next to the Lodhi Garden. Apart from their books- not many, but a good selection- they also have crafts from all over the country. A good complement to the Crafts Museum and Kamala, but only if you live in Delhi...


Seeing how good these are, we've tried to ensure that all INTACH books can be ordered online via Scholars. Apart from the city books, of special note is Hands on Heritage, a great way to bring conservation and appreciation of our cultural heritage into the classroom. Most cities in India go back so many centuries, there is always something that is worth preserving that is not being looked after... And the only way to ensure that these do not disappear for ever is to show our children how to conserve these buildings and this environment. In our For Children section, but we also have a separate INTACH section in our Institutional Lists. Come, explore.... these books are good companions when you are on a cultural prowl!

The word and the world...

A film after our own hearts, this evening Sagari Chhabra's "The Word and the World" will be shown at the India International Center, New Delhi, at 6:30. Mahatma Gandhi, Manto, Mahasweta Devi, Tendulkar, R.K Narayan, Anita Desai, Vikram Seth are some of the authors who's works form the subject of the documentary which was produced by the National Book Trust. As many of you know, all NBT titles are available via Scholars, but more immediately, all the films of Sagari Chhabra can be obtained through us as well.


These include Asli Azaadi, a film on women freedom fighters, Now I will speak, on rape as a tool of aggression, and Hunger in the time of Plenty, on the tragedy of starvation deaths in times of food surplus.

Chhabra who runs Towards Alternative Thought and Vision (TATV) holds post-graduate degrees from Washington State University, where she was a pre-doctoral teaching associate, teaching Communication to undergraduate students, and the University of Delhi. In 2004 she was awarded the Asia Fellowship and spent a year in Myanmar, Malaysia and Singapore researching the surviving Indian freedom fighters in South-East Asia.

Check out her documentaries on our site, also the other documentaries we have on offer...

Is there Resonance in Mokokchung?

The Indian Academy of Science based in Bangalore brings out, each month, the wonderful science education magazine, Resonance. Currently under the editorship of S Mahadevan at the Indian Institute of Science, Resonance started off 11 years ago, the first editor being N Mukunda, also Professor at the IISc, and one who is well known for his expository style, and the clarity and elegance of his writing.

Over the years, Resonance has developed into a mature journal where the latest developments in science and technology are explained in appropriately simple language, and made accessible to the interested reader from the high-school level upwards. All branches of science are represented- from anthropology to zoology!- and there is something for everyone, from expert to beginner.

One of the most important features of this effort is that it takes itself seriously. Priced at Rs 350 for a personal subscription for two years, namely 24 issues of 100 pages each (yes, you read that right!), Resonance is accessible, instructive, and interesting as well. And a great place to get your first exposure to string theory, or stem cells, or supramolecular chemistry, or the Poincare conjecture...

Since 2005 it has been possible to subscribe online to Resonance through our website. Not just Resonance, all the journals published by the Indian Academy of Sciences: Pramana, Current Science, Sadhana, Journal of Biosciences, etc. And a host of journals from other academic bodies as well, but that will be the subject of another blog.

And Mokokchung? As many of you will recognise, thats one of the larger towns in Nagaland. The latest order for Resonance that we have received came from there and it got us thinking that this gem of a journal deserves to be known even wider... It would be wonderful if a copy could find its way into every high school library in our country. One way to make this happen- in a proactive manner- would be to gift subscriptions through us. We have just made this possible on the Resonance page at the Scholars site. Come on ... give!

Children's Book Trust. A Half Century later....

Keshav Shankar Pillai is, of course, more famous as just Shankar of Shankar's Weekly. The cartoons that he drew for the magazine offered a rich commentary on the political scene in newly independent India, and the satire and wit continued for over 25 years, from 1948 to 1975.

In 1957, Shankar founded the Children's Book Trust, and in the fifty years since, the CBT has brought out a large number of wonderful books for children of all ages, and in many of the languages of our country. These are described on the CBT website, but like most Indian books, deserve to be known more widely. And they need to be made more easily available.

The CBT books, like the NBT titles, are a great bargain. But that, of course, is not enough to see that they are more widely used. Low budgets has meant that they are, regrettably, of uneven quality, but the same can be said of many other publishing houses. Some of the titles, especially those for very early readers are an absolute joy, though-

Given the nature of the books, most of these do not find their way onto the Scholars website. But we are open to suggestions from you- tell us if you feel that they should be included in the For Children category in our Books lists... We'll be happy to put some in.

Some Indian Birds by N. N. Majumdar with illustrations by S. Basu Roy Choudhury and Pranab Chakravarti being a case in point. Its meant for the younger reader, and at Rs 32 for 56 pages, its the ideal beginning book to get. And its available, in English (ISBN 81-7011-067-X), Hindi, Kannada and Punjabi. Need one say more?

Write in to us- we'll be happy to send any of the CBT books to you....

Winners, all.

In a rare  move, a few years ago the Sahitya Akademi presented its Golden Jubilee Life Time Achievement Award to Namdeo Dhasal.

Dhasal, a Dalit Marathi poet- founder of the Dalit Panthers and a flamboyant and controversial political figure- symbolises the essence of Dalit protest poetry. His first works, made famous in translation by Dilip Chitre, were published in Golpitha which Chitre feels "occupies a position equal to that of T.S.Eliot's The Waste Land not only in Marathi but in pan-Indian poetry and it could have been written only by a Dalit. " .....


Rain driving down in sheets, a dying cigarette,
A dehydrated dancing girl,
Contrasting colour harmony
I too have poverty as my own piece of land...

"Namdeo's Golpitha has no literary foregrounding because it springs from an 'untouchable' source in every sense of the term. It reveals whatever others would strive to shove under the carpet of poetry. This is my considered opinion more than twenty-five years after its publication and I had no hesitation in writing that Namdeo's poetry, from that outstanding start, is Nobel Laureate material. He has published six more collections of poetry since, and each has the stamp of his unique genius." (Chitre)

One collection of his, the recently published Namdeo Dhasal: Poet of the Underworld has both made Dhasal's work more accessible, and has also brought international recognition to Navayana, the small, independent publishers who "exclusively focus on the issue of caste. Navayana literally means new vehicle, a term given to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s socially and morally concerned, rationalistic, anti-metaphysical interpretation of Buddhism." Navayana was given British Council's prestigious International Publisher of the Year Award earlier this year, and this was one of the books for which the BC chose Navayana out of a field that included small-to-medium-sized publishers from Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa and Syria.

One of the other books that Navayana showed in London was Kancha Ilaiah's Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land, a wonderful book with illustrations by Durgabai Vyam, subtitled  "Dignity of labour in our times". This should be made compulsory reading not just for children for whom it was ostensibly written, but for all Indians. A third Navayana title is Dilip Menon's The Blindness of Insight, a most readable account of caste, secularism and communalism by one of our leading modern historians.

Books to make you think and wonder, about our society and our selves. All these Navayana books (and more) can be obtained from the Scholars site.

A Ramkinkar Vaij double-header

This week, a major new exhibition has been curated by Naman Ahuja in the School of Arts and Aesthetics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. "Ramkinkar in Focus, through the eyes of Devi Prasad" marks the centenary of Ramkinkar's birth. Devi Prasad- variously photographer, writer, potter, pacifist- met Ramkinkar at the Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan between 1933 and 1944. In 1978, Devi Prasad, as Visiting Professor at Santiniketan, made a critically acclaimed study of Ramkinkar's sculptures. Nearly thirty years later, this exhibition- superbly executed at the JNU- brings together as much of Ramkinkar as is possible outside the Santiniketan to which he is inexorably tied.

Delhi has some of Ramkinkar's most famous public sculptures- the Yaksha and Yakshi that guard our national wealth at the Reserve Bank of India, for example. The offering at the exhibition is modest, but surprisingly delicate. The items on display are from Devi Prasad's extensive collection of Ramkinkar's smaller sculptures, watercolours, drawings and paintings.

And of course, there are the photographs. These form the bulk of the new book that Tulika will also release this evening, Ramkinkar Vaij: Sculptures by Devi Prasad. Listed at Rs 1995, the superb production is available at a special introductory price.

Like everything from Tulika, available through Scholars. Write to us- we'll be glad to reserve a copy for you....

Hardcover, ISBN: 978-81-89487-29-4, Rs 1500.

Art, seriously...

As many of you have noticed, not all the books that are listed on our website are strictly academic... The Scholars list is eclectic, and we include books that we feel would be of interest to a wider audience, and which are marked by a seriousness (at least in the manner in which they are written).

A case in point is Close to Events, a biography of the painter Bikash Bhattacharjee written by Manasij Majumder. Like many of the the books published by Niyogi, this title is a serious enquiry into the artist and his work.

Launching his creative career in the late 1950's, Bikash Bhattacharjee stood out among his contemporaries by making hard-edged chiseled realism the core appeal of his canvases when realism or naturalism of every shade was considered a retrograde trend. Bikash's strengths were his exceptional technical mastery and his power to charge the tangible appearance of the surface with the reality of the depth beneath. He was admired not merely for the near-illusionist evocation of realistic details, but for the obvious or subtle distortions in his imagery as a key to their complex multi-layered meanings. His realistic idiom is fascinatingly robust and compulsive, laced with rich irony, strong-veined allegory and lush visual metaphors. His portrait-based images enact the artist's own experience of our time with all its dark social and moral tones and textures.

All in all, a book to enjoy, and much to learn from.

Rs 2000. 250 pages, 235 photos. Niyogi Books, ISBN 978-81-89738-24-2.

We have designs on you!

Our big news of the month is that Scholars now offers Design! We're pleased to announce the launch of our Design section. Keeping our interests in mind, this service is targeted towards books- cover design, layouts and so forth... And, of course, we will do posters and any other related material... One example of our work is the accompanying poster (which some of you might have seen elsewhere- we hear it was sighted in Sao Paulo, Brazil and in Trieste, Italy).

Drop in at the Designs webpage to see more of what we have done, and to get an idea of what we can do... and write in to us at design@scholarswithoutborders.in

There, are, of course, several books on design on our website, and several of them from Phaidon. These are special imports, so they are not that inexpensive, but they are such a treat and a joy to behold. Produced in great style, may of them are classics. Gombrich's The Story of Art, Fletcher's The art of looking sideways, Vidya Dehejia's Indian Art and Herbert Ypma's India Modern are just some of the titles listed already on the Scholars site. All the Phaidon titles can be sourced, of course. Just write in to us!

Gandhi, essentially....

October 2. Gandhi Jayanti. This year has seen a number of books on or around Gandhi, and a number of films and plays as well. The book that prompts this blog is the forthcoming Oxford India Gandhi: Essential Writings; compiled and edited by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, from OUP. This promises to be charming, not least because the author is Gandhi's grandson, and has written it from this perspective. In his words, it is "the story of his life as Gandhi might himself have narrated it, to a restless grandson. Narrated in time snatched between visitors, meetings, marches, mud packs, bursts of temper, explosions of love. A story as expressed in speeches and articles, but also in diary entries, letters and, most importantly, in conversations."

Earlier this year saw another view of the man emerge in "Mohandas- A True Story Of A Man, His People And An Empire" by Rajmohan Gandhi from Penguin, India, described as "a candid recreation of one the most influential lives of recent times, Mohandas finally answers questions long asked about the timid youth from India’s west coast who became a century’s conscience and led his nation to liberty: What was Gandhi like in his daily life and in his closest relationships? "

I'm not sure that that the man was simple enough for anyone to "finally" answer questions about, not least because yet another of the grandsons, Tushar Gandhi also brought out (from Rupa) the strangely titled "Let's Kill Gandhi: Chronicle of his Last Days, the Conspiracy, Murder, Investigation and Trial."

And then, "Harilal Gandhi: A life" by C B Dalal (Orient Longman) as yet another way of trying to understand Gandhi- what he might have been as a son's father, not just as father of the nation... Turned into a movie this year as well, as "Gandhi, my father" which was surprisingly well received.

The books are (or will be soon) in our Gandhi Studies section, variously priced. Very readable, and always relevant.