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BOOK: Forgiveness Is a Choice

“Forgiveness allows me to keep my heart open so that I can continue to love the life I’m now living. This is how I choose to honour the memory of Alan and Naomi…writes Vishnu Makhijani

Understanding true forgiveness is a personal process that takes place within the heart, a process that takes time to assimilate.

“Numb with shock and disbelief”, the words that floated through the thoughts of Kia Scherr, whose husband and 13-year-old daughter were victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, as she watched the carnage unfold on her TV screen in Florida, were “Forgive them; they know not what they do” – though it took many years to truly experience “that forgiveness is the light that gets in through the cracks, seeping in through the pieces of my shattered heart”.

Forgiveness “does not mean pardon, nor does it mean condoning a despicable action, or not holding a person accountable for cold blooded murder…you are not forgiving a hateful act, you are forgiving that person for forgetting their own goodness and for being incapable of loving”, Scherr writes in “Forgiveness Is a Choice – Teachings About Peace and Love” (Penguin).

In 2009, she founded the One Life Alliance in 2009 in memory of her husband Alan and daughter Naomi and spent over a thousand days in Mumbai over a six year period, propagating its message of compassion, forgiveness and respect for life among communities, schools, businesses – and an enthusiastic police force.

https://twitter.com/OLAKia/status/1471499689337917443

“Forgiveness is a personal choice to accept what cannot be changed, however hurtful. Forgiveness has nothing to do with the terrorist (in this case Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the Mumbai attack whose visuals Scherr saw on TV). I have no personal relationship with that terrorist, other than we are both human beings. Do I want to hold on to anger, resentment, feelings of revenge and retaliation,” the author asks.

“Forgiveness allows me to keep my heart open so that I can continue to love the life I’m now living. This is how I choose to honour the memory of Alan and Naomi. I have chosen to create a living memorial that brings the possibility of peace, compassion and love to this world. This is what gives me purpose and allows me to keep living, to keep loving, and to open myself to a greater vision for humanity that could create an environment for positive change,” Scherr writes.

This would mean a society where life is valued above all else, she adds.

“This would mean a major transformation of priorities for most of the world. This is another kind of ‘climate change’. We could create a climate of mutual love and respect, which forms the foundation of another way to evaluate our conflicts and resolve our differences. It would mean collaborating in new ways and communicating truthfully with an intention to work things out with integrity” Scherr writes.

Admitting that this “sounds utopian” she firmly believes that “we can move in this direction to honour the sacredness of life we share, to live it, breathe it and celebrate it”.

“We can each be more loving in a thousand different ways. If I can be more loving by forgiving the terrorist who killed mu husband and my daughter. I can start living again. Now I can renew my life, a life that does not include Alan and Naomi. But it does include the love for them that will never die. Why else are we here if not to love? Without love, what’s the point? When Alan and Naomi were killed, love remained. When my mother died of lung cancer, love remained. A part of me died with each of their deaths, but love remained. Love is the core ingredient of this human life. Love is our greatest natural resource. There is no end to love unless we close the door to our hearts,” Scherr firmly maintains.

To this extent, the book outlines 30 practices that the author used to renew her life “after a major loss that turned everything upside down”.

“Forgiveness was the key that kept my heart open to love, but we don’t begin with forgiveness. We want to lead up to forgiveness after we have reached some understanding and acceptance of what has happened. The ultimate outcome is increasing your experience of love, so it’s worth taking this step day by day,” Scherr writes, adding that to gain the full benefit of these simple practices, it is best to focus on one practice at a time, day by day or even longer even though the book can be read at one stretch.

She terms this “30-day peace pledge book” a “tool to remind ourselves to honour the dignity of life in each and every moment. Not only is it helpful for one to read it individually, it is helpful to take the pledge with others in our lives and with our communities. When we start with this pledge, we begin to transform how we see ourselves and others. Used in classrooms, it can be an effective various curricula and disciplines to reduce and eliminate bullying, build student self-esteem and develop their focus in their work and at home”.

In all this, it would seem an irony that Alan and Naomi were winding down a fortnight-long pilgrimage to India with a group of 25 members of the Synchronicity Foundation, a spiritual community in Central Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains that the family had been a part of for 11 years. The father and daughter were dining at the Oberoi when the terrorists struck.

“I knew that Alan and Naomi would not have wanted me to spend the rest of my life feeling sad, but I had to allow the sadness to envelope me before I could say enough is enough. The sadness was my personal winter and India provided the sunshine that brought some joy back into my life,” Scherr writes.

“As you go forth into your life each day, may you remember that love is ready to flow in abundance. We each hold this treasure. When we share our love, it increases and only then we know the highest value of life,” Scherr concludes.

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Book on ‘racial relation between Indians and invaders’

When Indians tried to imitate the sahibs, they turned into caricatures; when they absorbed the best that the British brought with them, the confluence was positive and productive…reports Asian Lite News.

In July 1765, Robert Clive, in a letter to Sir Francis Sykes, compared Gomorrah favourably to Calcutta, then capital of British India. He wrote: “I will pronounce Calcutta to be one of the most wicked places in the Universe.”

Drawing upon the letters, memoirs and journals of traders, travellers, bureaucrats, officials, officers and the occasional bishop, M.J. Akbar’s ‘Doolally Sahib And The Black Zamindar — Racism and Revenge in the British Raj’ (Bloomsbury) is a chronicle of racial relations between Indians and their last foreign invaders, sometimes infuriating but always compelling.

A multitude of vignettes, combined with insight and analysis, reveal the deeply ingrained conviction of ‘white superiority’ that shaped this history. How deep this conviction was is best illustrated by the fact that the British abandoned a large community of their own children because they were born of Indian mothers.

The British took pride in being outsiders, even as their exploitative revenue policy turned periodic drought and famine into horrific catastrophes, killing impoverished Indians in millions.

There were also marvellous and heart-warming exceptions in this extraordinary panorama, people who transcended racial prejudice and served as a reminder of what might have been the British made India a second home and merged with its culture instead of treating it as a fortune-hunter’s turf.

The power was indisputable – the British had lost just one out of 18 wars between 1757 and 1857. Defeated repeatedly on the battlefield, Indians found innovative and amusing ways of giving expression to their resentment in household skirmishes, social mores and economic subversion.

When Indians tried to imitate the sahibs, they turned into caricatures; when they absorbed the best that the British brought with them, the confluence was positive and productive. But for the most part, subject and ruler lived parallel lives.

M.J. Akbar is a distinguished writer and Member of Parliament representing the BJP from Madhya Pradesh. During his long career in journalism, he launched, as editor, India’s first weekly political news magazine, Sunday, in 1976, and two daily newspapers, The Telegraph in 1982 and The Asian Age in 1994. He has also been editorial director of India Today and The Sunday Guardian.

He is also the author of several internationally acclaimed books, including ‘India: The Siege Within’; ‘Nehru: The Making of India’; ‘Kashmir: Behind the Vale’; ‘The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict between Islam and Christianity’; ‘Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan’; and ‘Blood Brothers’, a novel. In addition, there have been four collections of his columns, reportage and essays.

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‘Watershed’: An effort to correct ‘imbalance’

She also noted that “as the climate heats up, it is likely that swathes of land will be submerged, water-related extremes will re-shape industry and famine will revisit the country.” (The first signs of this, in fact, are already visible.)…writes Vishnu Makhijani.

Mridula Ramesh, a leading clean-tech angel investor with a portfolio of over 15 startups and who is involved in multiple initiatives to build climate entrepreneurship, ran out of water at her Madurai home in 2013.

In trying to find out why that happened and what could be done about it, her first book, “The Climate Solution” and entry into the world of climate happened — only to realise that people speaking about climate change speak almost exclusively of carbon, while the climate itself speaks in the language of water.

“For India, arguably one of the most vulnerable countries to the changing climate, water needs its share of the conversation,” and her new book, “Watershed” (Hachette India), “is an effort to correct that imbalance” because “we have crossed certain climate thresholds, and need to address water to lessen the pain that Indians are feeling in this changed climate”, Mridula told.

More worrisome, the changing climate and water cycle “is highlighting inequalities — such as those between rich and poor within a given city and between the developed and developing world. Storms, flooding and drought affect the poor more than the rich,” she added.

Moreover, looking at this through a climate justice angle, “we find that adaptation (a large part of which is managing water) is getting a far less conversation-share and lower share of financing than mitigation, even though developing countries have contributed far less to the cumulative GHG emissions that have caused this global warming. This lower priority only serves to increase existing inequalities,” Mridula explained.

She also noted that “as the climate heats up, it is likely that swathes of land will be submerged, water-related extremes will re-shape industry and famine will revisit the country.” (The first signs of this, in fact, are already visible.)

“Sea-level rise and stronger storms and stronger storm surges will result in parts of the country being underwater for at least some time each year in the future. Many industries came up in the belief that water is endless and cheap — climate change is challenging both of those beliefs. For example, sectors like thermal power plants in dry regions may find the going far less profitable, and may need to relocate or shutdown.

“On famine, we have gone from a nation of 220 million eating largely millets to a nation of 1.3 billion eating rice and wheat. The price for this transformation has been paid largely from the groundwater reserved of the dry northwest. In 2019, a state committee had opined that Punjab may run out of groundwater in 20-25 years. What will happen if an El Nino hits after that? That’s what the plausible fictional scenario in Chapter 24 tries to portray � what can happen if all these come to pass in the near future,” Mridula cautioned.

To this end, the book provides a five-point checklist of action:

Acknowledge water — don’t take it for granted and see how India’s water is special. Acknowledge that we are the best keepers of our water resilience. Act with data and act now — begin by preparing a water balance sheet — where is it coming from and where is it going. Version 1.0 of this may not be perfect, but try every day to go a little further. The same holds true for a person, a community, a factory, a city, a state or a country.

Protect the forces that soothe India’s volatile and variable waters — this includes forests, tanks and sewage treatment. In doing so, keep in mind the importance of cash flow — something may be very valuable and provide a great water-smoothening service, but if it does not generate cash flow, it becomes vulnerable in our economic world.

Customers should recognise that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Ask your favourite brands to be conscious of their carbon/waste/water footprint, and ensure their entire supply chain is fairly compensated for respecting the environment.

Let us recognise the power of decentralised policy — water pricing at the level of a city, mandating distributed farmgate storage in a district or sensitising bulk generators of waste/sewage, tank tourism — can generate a wave of innovation that can bring the jobs India needs while building climate resilience.

We really are close to the abyss, and yet, most of our voters appear not to vote on managing our shared resources. This needs to change if we want meaningful policy action.

Considerable research has gone into the book, with the studies conducted by the Madurai-based Sundaram Climate Institute forming one of its core pillars.

“We have spoken to over 2,000 households on their waste and water realities apart from studying the communities and impact of 100 tanks. Then there was the historical research — many of which involved interviews, site visits and perusal of primary sources such as letters or writings of colonial officials. Then there was the peer-reviewed literature from archaeologists, geologists, chemists, hydrologists, climatologists, medical doctors, and historians,” Mridula elaborated.

There were extensive interviews and conversations with a varied spectrum of people, from India’s ‘Water Man’ Rajendra Singh, to the many startups trying to build water resilience, to scientists, business people, activists, bureaucrats and politicians. And finally the investment process in startups.

How does India compare with the rest of the world � with the US, Africa, and Europe?

“In terms of climate and water vulnerabilities, India ranks high — very high — because of its population, its relative financial position, the large share of rainfed farms in agriculture and its long coastline. Also important to note is that the Indian Ocean has warmed faster than the other oceans in the world, leading to more powerful storms,” Mridula said.

Speaking about her experience with her net-zero-waste home and how this can be replicated at the micro and macro levels, she said: “Before we did anything we collected data, what we wasted, who, why, how. Over time, patterns emerged and we began seeing what the biggest areas of waste were — so we brought the amount of ‘generated waste’ down.”

“Second, we began to see how much of the ‘waste’ we could reuse — that is re-imagination, how to see ‘waste’ as a ‘resource’ — that was the killer step. We make compost and biogas, which keeps the garden healthy and the costs down. We also bring in waste from outside — flower waste and cow dung — to help with the compost and biogas.

“We have had our successes and failures, but what has kept us going is the focus on data, and emphasis on making any action as easy to follow as possible,” Mriduala concluded.

ALSO READ-‘A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’

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‘A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’

“I thought of giving readers facts and evidence. This is not only the story about me. It is about kids and adults who died, and about families who are waiting for justice.”…reports Asian Lite News.

Kafeel Khan, the doctor embroiled in the August 2017 Gorakhpur hospital incident controversy, has written a book on the subject.

Titled, “The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy, A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis”, the memoir presents Khan’s version of the incident and subsequent developments that have kept him on the firing line ever since.

“My book is an honest, heartfelt account of the terrible events of 10 Aug 2017 and after. I dedicate it to all the parents who lost their children in the tragedy. This book is dedicated to those 63 children and 18 adults,” says Khan.

“I thought of giving readers facts and evidence. This is not only the story about me. It is about kids and adults who died, and about families who are waiting for justice.”

The book, claims Khan, has stories that expose the system’s failures and exposes “real culprits”.

The Gorakhpur hospital tragedy took place on August 7, 2017 when oxygen disruption eld to the death of 63 children.

Khan relates the “gut-wrenching turmoil that followed – a suspension without end, an eight-month-long incarceration and a relentless fight for justice in the face of extreme apathy and persecution”.

When asked if the book is timed keeping in mind the Uttar Pradesh elections, Khan said that he has been writing the book for a long time.

“The most important point the book talks about is the broken health system. The system collapsed. It also talks about doctors’ struggle. The poor and the marginalised community depend on public hospitals. I have talked about the public health system.”

Born in Gorakhpur, Khan had completed his MBBS and MD from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, in Karnataka.

He was suspended from Baba Raghav Das Medical College’s Nehru Hospital after the August 2017 incident.

With jail terms in between and after a long legal battle, Khan was terminated from service in November this year.

There are still cases pending against him in various courts.

ALSO READ-UP Police arrest Gorakhpur doctor Khan for hate speech

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Portrait of an introvert as an actor

The actor’s book ‘My Experiments with Silence’ that hit the stands on November 27…reports Asian Lite News.

 Actor Samir Soni, who has turned an author with his ‘My Experiments with Silence’, which stems from diary entries, gives a glimpse of what goes in the mind of an introvert like him, in a world that is inherently outgoing given the social nature of human beings, and how he made his way through it.

The actor’s book ‘My Experiments with Silence’ hit the stands on November 27.

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Talking about the book, Samir said: “These diary entries are an introvert’s entries of how I look at the world, how I have gotten my way through showbiz despite being someone who is not very outgoing. I have put together my heart in this book. At a time where people seek validation, I chose to turn to my safe place, my diary, and that’s how I discovered my real self”.

Explaining how being an introvert had its share of disadvantages and benefits.

He added: “I haven’t been someone who is socially very active and that might have been a disadvantage on most instances, but as an actor, it was an advantage for me because it enabled me to connect with my character better”.

Through his diary, the actor provides an insight on how healing is never a linear process and hopes that the book will help the readers with answers to the questions that have long agitated the human mind.

Speaking about one instance where his diary bailed him out of the troubled waters of uneasy days, he concluded: “When I received my first award and my name was announced, it was rock silence, there was no one clapping for me but my diary helped me get through such days. I have put myself out there despite such lows, but in the end, I am also thankful for my highs, and my diary has truly helped me through all of it.”

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‘Cancer you picked the wrong girl’

Not Mukherjee, who was made of sterner stuff. She called her chemo doctor, who coolly informed her: “Yes, in most people, the chemo does stop her periods.”…writes Vishnu Makhijani

Not Mukherjee, who was made of sterner stuff. She called her chemo doctor, who coolly informed her: “Yes, in most people, the chemo does stop her periods.”…writes Vishnu Makhijani

When Shormistha Mukherjee, whose Linkedin profile describes her as a storyteller, creative strategist, problem solver, connection maker, team builder and entrepreneur, was diagnosed with cancer, she kept wondering why people were so awkward around her.

Then she realised it was because they didn’t know what to say because in India, “we don’t talk about cancer, we just neatly sidestep it like dog poo on a pavement”.

But Mukherjee was made of sterner stuff. Aided by a husband beyond compare, Anirban, a host of friends, principally Oindrilla (Oinx) and Ziba, three doctors at Kokilaben Hospital (among many other caregivers) and her parents, she not only survived breast cancer — and even sorted a midlife crisis — but emerged from the experience roaring to write a book about what she had gone through.

The outcome: “Cancer, You Picked The Wrong Girl” (HarperCollins).

“Not just the mastectomy, reconstruction, chemo, hair loss, but also the mental see-saw, the loss of dignity, the constipation, the hot flashes. To write about it, was to face up to it. It was the most life altering thing to happen to me, but it also had its moments of humour and lightness. And I want anyone, who god forbid, has to go through this, or a caregiver, or a friend or even a reader who is too scared to say the word cancer, I want them to find hope in this book, and of course snort out their tea in laughter,” she says.

Like, for instance, when during chemotherapy she felt she looked like “a baby hedgehog with a swollen face”.

Or, when she’s buying things at a fancy store “with my bald head and my mask, and a lady just keeps staring at me…So, finally, I walk up to her, lower my mask, and in a loud whisper announce ‘I have cancer’. She left the shop faster than you can say bhindi,” Mukherjee writes.

Or the 6 a.m. “magic hour” in hospitals.

“I don’t know what is with their fascination for doing everything at that unearthly hour. So, my IV was put in at 6 a.m. My catheter was taken out at 6 a.m. My first medicine was given at 6 a.m. Oh my god. Just stop. Let the patient sleep. All that’s needed is a roll call parade, so you feel like you’re in jail,” Mukherjee writes.

“When I look back,” she writes, “I realise the one person who saw me through everything was of course Anirban. But it wasn’t just seeing me through, it was like we both lived it. In the hospital, I’d be all happy and chirpy all day, and then before I slept something would trigger a meltdown. Some days I would be feeling scared, some days I would be wanting to just go home. And every night, Anirban would hold me and we’d both cry.”

The nine months from diagnosis, through the surgery, the chemotherapy and the radiation therapy “also released me”, Mukherjee writes.

“It was like a blank slate, we were starting all over again…It’s not easy being married. And we got married when we were kids. Twenty-two and twenty-three (Mukherjee was 45 at the time of surgery). But let me also tell you, that sometimes it takes cancer to tell you that this is the person you want to grow old with. This is the only person who truly gets you,” Mukherjee writes.

“It taught me how much I was loved. By my parents, who put their lives on hold so they could be there for me. They’d literally fly down (from Delhi to Mumbai) before every chemo, wait till I felt better and then go back, and then do this all over again. They lived out of suitcases for that entire period. Only so I could be looked after, and yet have my space. As my chemo progressed, they also learnt to deal with it. There were days when we’d laugh, they’d take me for long drives in the rain, they’d cook my favourite food. It was always going to be hard watching their daughter (their only child) go through this,” Mukherjee writes.

Then there were her friends, Oinx, “who cancelled her holiday abroad. Ziba, who can never wake up early, came for every early morning appointment. My friends and partners at work, Parag and Dixit, who for nine months did their share of work, and mine too. It was bloody hard for them, especially since one day I was at work and in their lives, and the next day I was gone. But they never said one thing to me except ‘All you have to do is beat this’,” Mukherjee writes.

There was also the realisation that as her physical struggle with the chemo reduced, “my fight with my mind became more serious. And I think in the end that’s what made me stronger. I was never in a fight with my body, it was always my mind that I had to control.”

“I was dealing with all this, when another bolt from the blue hit me. My periods stopped. Just after my second chemo, I kept waiting for my period to knock on my fallopian doors, and all I got was some stray spots of blood. Now, nobody tells you this stuff, Not your doctors, nurses, no one. Maybe they’re pretty sure people will Google this.”

Not Mukherjee, who was made of sterner stuff. She called her chemo doctor, who coolly informed her: “Yes, in most people, the chemo does stop her periods.”

Will they come back after the chemo is over, she asked.

“Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. There is no fixed time period. You are forty-five. They might not come back and you might have forced menopause,” the doctor said.

“Menopause. Now I also have menopause to deal with. Just like that, with no warning,” Mukherjee writes.

What a time for a midlife crisis to strike!

“Ooh boy. So much unbidden stuff rushed into my head. Menopause means I am now old. Off the shelf. In a dusty, dowdy little corner. How could that be? I was fit and slim and beautiful a couple of months back. And now you tell me I’m over the hill, and past my prime,” Mukherjee writes.

That too passed.

And today, “guess what, menopause is just fine. Sweaty suits me, adds a sheen to my face. For too long, this shit has been kept under wraps. I’m not past my prime or off the shelf or a ‘poor thing’. I’m just getting older, and that’s fine. I can still do everything I want, without some eggs getting in the way.

“Wait a minute. It took cancer to sort out a midlife crisis! Damn, next time, the universe, just deal me a sports car or something,” Mukherjee concludes on a jocular high.

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‘The Disruptor’ chronicles turbulent tenure of VP Singh

V.P. Singh ended up antagonising both the Congress and the BJP — perhaps one of the reasons he has not been given the posthumous attention he deserves…reports Asian Lite News.

Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Indias seventh Prime Minister, struck Indian politics with the force of a tornado.

Primarily remembered for implementing the recommendations of the Mandal Commission report, which provided reservations in Central government services for the first time to the Other Backward Classes, he deserves a place in history for much more — from conducting raids on the biggest business houses of his time when he was Finance Minister to investigating defence deals as Defence Minister (which cost him his job); from bringing together a divided Opposition to form an unlikely coalition government at the Centre comprising the BJP and the Communist parties to spearheading the biggest airlift evacuation in Indian history — of Indians stranded in the Middle East during the first Gulf War.

V.P. Singh weathered repeated crises during his eleven-month tenure: The rise of insurgency in Kashmir, starting with the kidnapping of his Home Minister’s daughter by terrorists; L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra in support of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, which led to communal riots; and, above all, the backlash that followed the Mandal Commission report’s implementation.

V.P. Singh ended up antagonising both the Congress and the BJP — perhaps one of the reasons he has not been given the posthumous attention he deserves. Debashish Mukerji’s “The Disruptor” (HarperCollins) is a richly detailed account of his extraordinarily eventful life, told in the context of his times.

Here’s a sneak peek into the book:

The rivalry with Amitabh Bachchan; as Finance Minister, V.P. Singh’s raid raj’ against corporate corruption; Taking on Reliance; the V.P. Singh Rajiv Gandhi fallout and his dramatic resignation as Defence Minister; Defamatory campaign against V.P. Singh by the Congress; V.P. Singh curtailing his own security cover, accused of reducing Rajiv Gandhi’s; India could have gone nuclear but V.P. Singh chose not to; Biggest airlift evacuation in world history; steps initiated by V.P. Singh’s government, but completed and claimed by later governments: RTI Act, Lok Pal Act, OROP, MNREGA; and, of course, implementing the Mandal Commission Report.

“By bringing together a divided Opposition to usher in an era of coalition governments at the Centre, as also by implementing the Mandal Commission report which provided job reservations for the Other Backward Classes, Vishwanath Pratap Singh permanently altered India’s political landscape,” says author Debashish Mukerji.

“A politician ambivalent about pursuing power, and obsessed with financial integrity, he was also an extremely complex human being. The main issues he confronted – caste disparities, communal tensions and corruption – continue to bedevil the country even today. All these reasons prompted me to attempt this biography, which sets V.P. Singh against the context of his turbulent times,” Mukerji adds.

Says Siddhesh Inamdar, Executive Editor, HarperCollins India: “V.P. Singh was Prime Minister of India for just about eleven months, and yet his short time in office proved immensely consequential in shaping the country. As a leader who took on a party with an overwhelming majority in Parliament, his career is also relevant in the context of the politics of today.”

“For all his achievements, V.P. Singh remains an understudied former Prime Minister. November marks the anniversary both of his death (in 2008) as well as of the fall of his government (in 1990), and this meticulously researched biography by a seasoned journalist will throw much-needed light on Singh’s extraordinary life and times,” Inamdar adds.

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Seema Malik unlocks ‘effective leadership’

In this context, she noted that an important step taken by the New Education Policy (NEP) is making school clusters which can go a long way in improving learning standards in schools in rural and remote areas…writes Vishnu Makhijani.

One of the primary factors determining the strong foundation of a nation is effective educational leadership and schools need to adapt to the changing environments “for which we need leaders who can guide and motivate the students and teachers to evolve intellectually, socially and emotionally — in a continuous process,” says Seema Malik, a school teacher for over three decades and author of the path-breaking book “Unlocking Leadership” (Konark).

“Every leader evolves her/his leadership pattern. What we all need to develop as leaders is the nuance that is required to lead everyone to a higher goal of education. When the schools are driven at all times to reach their vision and mission, both the students and the teachers rise to their highest potential,” Malik, who has studied at Cambridge University and has been associated with prestigious institutions like Delhi Public School, Salwan Public School and Cambridge School, told IANS in an interview.

How did the book come about?

“Having been a researcher in the field of education for more than a decade, I was intrigued by a lot of research done by the western countries, in particular, UK, Australia, New Zealand and USA. I noticed a lot of gap about educational research in India which I have addressed in this book. A huge body of research has been used for writing this academic work in a style that is more easily understandable, with due credit given to the authors and researchers,” Malik said.

The main fields of research that have gone into this book are leadership models practiced in schools and what impact they lead to, strategies for school improvement, and moral as well as ethical responsibilities of leaders.

“Most of this research is used in the western democracies, which has led to the higher standards of educational attainment in these countries, for example in OECD countries,” she said.

What are the five main take-aways from this book?

1. Leadership is the single most important factor affecting quality of education in schools.

2. Collaborative and distributed models of leadership builds teams in schools.

3. Teachers are leaders in their own right and it is the responsibility of the school head to give them decision-making powers.

4. Great leaders develop mutuality and reciprocity among various stakeholders in the school to take them all towards achieving the organisational vision.

5. One of the most salient features of any leadership is their sense of moral imperative.

The book is essentially aimed at schools in the private sector. What about schools in the government sector and in the semi-urban and rural areas? How are they to address this issue?

“Schools in the government sector as well as the rural and remote areas need to work on infrastructural development to provide at least the minimum required facilities for learning. The ‘twinning of schools’ has already started taking place where a few government schools are attached with the public schools to develop synergies of operations and develop better systems of assessments. Public schools are involving these less privileged schools in teacher training opportunities,” Malik explained.

In this context, she noted that an important step taken by the New Education Policy (NEP) is making school clusters which can go a long way in improving learning standards in schools in rural and remote areas.

The NEP, she pointed out, also “lays a great emphasis on teacher empowerment through continuous professional development opportunities. It also aims to create national professional standards for teachers. School leaders and teachers are being encouraged now to undertake research in emerging pedagogies for improved learning outcomes. It is time that school education becomes an integral part of public conversation and it should get the focus that it deserves,” Malik elaborated.

What next? What’s her next project?

“I am writing my memoirs of studying in Cambridge University. Life was very different there and every student experiences difficulties in the beginning which slowly ease away. However, as an older and mature student, besides being observant and reflective, my experiences were very different. I learnt a lot there but also saw traces of racism in the society.”

“A University, like any other part of the society is like a reflection of its ethos. There were many positives as well as some negatives that I noticed that left an indelible impression on my mind. However, what I have taken away from there as a student is the rich and intellectual very stimulating culture of learning provided to each student.”

“Cambridge changed my life forever and there are reasons for that, which I am currently writing for my next book. It was sad that such a reputed university of the world could treat a meritorious student so shabbily. Not disclosing much right now, the book would be thought provoking as well as shocking, once read by the people,” Malik concluded.

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‘The Blind Matriarch’: Insight into dynamics of Indian joint family

Gokhale says “The Blind Matriarch”, which she began just before the pandemic set in, “followed through on thoughts and themes from many of my previous novels…reports Asian Lite News.

One of Indias most respected and well-known literary figures, Namita Gokhale, has written a family saga that is both contemporary and timeless. Set against the backdrop of the pandemic, it explores the traditional bonds of the Indian joint family in the face of upheaval.

“The Blind Matriarch” has already earned praise from the likes of writer Chigozie Obioma and India’s best-loved poet Gulzar.

The sprawling novel follows the life of the eponymous blind matriarch who lives on the topmost floor of an old house with many stories. Ebbing and flowing like the waves of a pandemic, the novel is a clear-eyed chronicle of the tragedies of India’s encounter with the coronavirus, the cynicism and despair that accompanied it, and the resilience and strength of the human spirit.

The design of this book comes with its own story. Penguin Random House India art director Ahlawat Gunjan read the novel and commissioned a stunning embroidered panel for the cover which interlaces intricately with the many threads of the tale. Gokhale then wove elements of the panel itself into the rich tapestry of the book. The imagery on the cover reflects the narrative of the protagonist, Matangi, worked lovingly upon, even as her eyesight began abandoning her. Most jackets are the beginning of a book’s journey in the reader’s hands, but here it is also the very fabric of the book.

Gokhale says “The Blind Matriarch”, which she began just before the pandemic set in, “followed through on thoughts and themes from many of my previous novels. It is a quiet book, paced in a real-time narrative of lock-down days, which examines the dynamics of the Indian joint family. The central character, the blind matriarch Matangi Ma, has remained in my heart and mind long after I finished the book”.

Manasi Subramaniam, Executive Editor and Head of Literary Rights at Penguin Random House India says: “The Namita Gokhale bookshelf is an unexpected and unpredictable mix. Her range seems almost limitless, right from ‘Paro’ in 1984, a groundbreaking tale of female sexuality, to ‘Jaipur Journals’ in 2020, a charming romp across the greatest literary show on earth. She has done it yet again, with ‘The Blind Matriarch’, and we are especially proud to publish her twentieth book.”

Gokhale is an award-winning writer and festival director. She is the author of eleven works of fiction and has written extensively on myth as well as the Himalayan region. Her acclaimed debut novel, “Paro: Dreams of Passion”, was published in 1984. Her recent novel “Jaipur Journals”, published in January 2020, was set against the backdrop of the vibrant Jaipur Literature Festival. “Betrayed By Hope”, a play on the life of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, was also published in 2020.

A co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Gokhale is committed to supporting translations and curating literary dialogues across languages and cultures. She was conferred the Centenary National Award for Literature by the Asam Sahitya Sabha in Guwahati in 2017. She won the Sushila Devi Literature Award for her novel “Things to Leave Behind”, which also received the Best Fiction Jury Award at the Valley of Words Literature Festival 2017, and was on the longlist for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.

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‘From Nazneen to Naina’ depicts 20 years of Kareena’s life

It looks deeply into the challenges before her for being a flag bearer of secularism which is despised by the religious bigots…reports Asian Lite News.

‘From Nazneen to Naina’, a book on 20 years of actress Kareena Kapoor Khan in Bollywood, was officially launched here.

Authored by Canadian journalist Gurpreet Singh, the book is based on her film career.

Kareena has been under constant backlash for marrying a Muslim man, adopting Khan as her last name, and naming two of her sons — Taimur and Jeh, which have been interpreted as an affront by the self-styled defenders of religion.

“This is a reflection of the growing intolerance in a toxic political environment created by those in power both within and outside the Indian film industry,” said the author virtually in the book launch on Tuesday.

The book talks about Kareena’s work and goes into the details of her performance as an actor, and as an activist and philanthropist, trying to make connections between the present political situation and its impact on the cinema.

It looks deeply into the challenges before her for being a flag bearer of secularism which is despised by the religious bigots.

Her significant screen roles, as someone who stands up against hate, have been underlined in the book, which also attempts to make a critical assessment of her position on issues, such as racism, feminism, environment and state violence.

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