book excerptise: a book unexamined is a waste of trees

book excerptise : snatches of conversation with books

How this project started

i find it difficult to read a book without a pencil - or increasingly - without a text editor where i can take notes... over the years, thousands of extracts and quotations and reviews have accumulated in a huge file. after every book, there would be lots of excerpts...

then one day, i discovered i had more than one copy of several books. it was a time for lists. that list swelled with keywords linking them to the shelf. and then one day I wanted to share some of my favourite excerpts from several books (one of them was Jared Diamond's The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, 1991). i ended up writing a fairly elaborate script on my favourite editor, emacs, that converted my raw text file into a webpage. thus was born book excerptise. This was around 2004. Since then more than two thousand books have been added to this site...





Recently added

2015 aug

2015 Jul

June 17, 2015

2015 may

2015 apr

2015 mar

Medieval Mysticism Of India by Kshitimohan Sen (1930)

the present lecturer has seen in pushkar, ajmer, a class of people who call themselves husaini brAhmaNs. they are neither orthodox hindus nor orthodox mahomedans. they have hindu beliefs, customs and rituals, together with mahomedan ideas and practices. ...

by Kshitimohan Sen (1930) The Cognitive Neurosciences IV by Michael S. Gazzaniga (2009)

All scientifically oriented accounts should agree that consciousness is in some sense based in the brain; once this fact is accepted, the problem arises of why the brain basis of this experience is the basis of this one rather than another one or none, and it becomes obvious that nothing now known gives a hint of an explanation. ...

by Michael S. Gazzaniga (2009) An Introduction to Mathematics by Alfred North Whitehead (1911)

Equations are of great importance in mathematics, and it seems as though "For what numbers x is x+2 > 3" exemplified a much more thorough-going and fundamental idea than the statement "For some number x, x+2 > 3" (defining the set). This, however, is a complete mistake. ...

by Alfred North Whitehead (1911) Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language by Robin Dunbar (1997)

To be groomed by a monkey is to experience primordial enotions: The initial frisson of uncertainty in an untested relationship, the gradual surrender to another's avid fingers flickering expertly across bare skin, the light pinching and picking and nibbling of flesh as hands of discovery move in surprise from one freckle to another newly discovered mole. ...

by Robin Dunbar (1997) Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas by Cornelia Dimmitt and Johannes Adrianus Bernardus Buitenen (1978)

so while you get a riveting narrative, it also serves as a scholarly text... ...

2014 jul

2014 may

Adhunik bAM_lA byAkaraN আধুনিক বাংলা ব্যাকরণ by jagadIsh chandra ghosh and anil chandra ghosh and [জগদীশ চন্দ্র ঘোষ and অনিল চন্দ্র ঘোষ (1985)

15 shAnach_ শানচ ["An"] : shI + shAnach_ = shaYAn [he who lies]; শী + শানচ = শয়ান ; বৃত + শানচ = বর্তমান; বৃধ = বর্ধমান ; মৃ = ম্রিয়মাণ ...

by jagadIsh chandra ghosh and anil chandra ghosh and [জগদীশ চন্দ্র ঘোষ and অনিল চন্দ্র ঘোষ (1985) History of Bengali Literature by Sukumar Sen (1960)

The Portuguese traders and adventurers brought many new commodities in India, and these commodities with their Portuguese names came to stay permanently. ...

by Sukumar Sen (1960) sharadindu amnibas v1 by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and Pratulchandra Gupta (ed) (1966)

ব্যোমকেশের মুণ্ডের দিকে দৃষ্টি নিবদ্ধ রাখিয়া স্যর দিগিন্দ্র: "তোমার করোটির গঠন থেকে বুঝতে পারছি তোমার মাথায় বুদ্ধি আছে।... খুলির মধ্যে অন্তত পঞ্চান্ন আউন্স ব্রেন ম্যাটার আছে।

sir digendra held byomkesh's head in a fixed glare: "looking at the structure of your skull one can say you are intelligent. cranial volume - 55 ounce of brainmatter or more. ...

by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and Pratulchandra Gupta (ed) (1966) The Art of Poetry: How to Read a Poem by Shira Wolosky (2008)

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,

We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,

We shall have what to do after firing. But today, ...

by Shira Wolosky (2008) We didn't stand a chance: Forced evictions in Bangladesh by COHRE (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions) (publ) and ACHR (2000)

Next morning at 7:00 am the settlement would be surrounded by police and the demolition bulldozers. ... announcements would be made to gather all belongings and vacate their homes. Usually, the men and women would try to plead with the police. [Meanwhile, the bulldozers would start demolitions.] ...

2014 mar 11

2014 jan 9

sep 4 2013

aug 29 2013

aug 16 2013

july 2013

june 4, 2013

may, 2013

march, 2013

december, 2012

november, 2012

sep 24, 2012

sep 15, 2012

Multinational Enterprises in India: Industrial Distribution, Characteristics, and Performance by Nagesh Kumar (1990)

The policies of the Indian government were more often reactions to events and crises, rather than a proactive policy. Crises seem to have come up at gaps of about a decade starting at independence, ...

by Nagesh Kumar (1990) Elite Forces of India and Pakistan by Kenneth Conboy and Paul Hannon (ill.) (2012)

In 1986, the Indian Navy started planning for a special missions force. Two Navy officers, Lt Arvind Singh and Lt Shamsher Singh Deopa attended an US Navy commando SEALS course at Coronado, California. ...

by Kenneth Conboy and Paul Hannon (ill.) (2012) Eighteen fifty-seven by Surendra Nath Sen (1957)

If Nana meditated treachery from the first, one wonders why so much money and labour were wasted on the boats, for once out of the entrenchment, the English would be as helpless in the midst of a hostile crowd on land, as they were on the river. ...

aug 28, 2012

Cawnpore by George Otto Trevelyan (1865)

It was to our shame as a military nation that, during such a crisis, the fortunes of England too often depended on the ability of invalids who should have been comfortably telling their stories of the Mahratta war in the pump-rooms of Cheltenham and Buxton. ...

by George Otto Trevelyan (1865) Employment and Structural Change in Indian Industries: A Trade Union View-point by International Labour Organisation ILO (1989)



aug 20, 2012

The State at War in South Asia by Pradeep P. Barua (2005)

most Indian casualties on the glacier have come about due to natural causes. Many soldiers succumb to high altitude pulmonary edema, which fills the victim’s lungs with fluid. Others are lost to ...

by Pradeep P. Barua (2005) Memories of the mutiny, Volume 1 by Francis Cornwallis Maude and John Walter Sherer (1894)

Reading [the reports] carefully and without bias to-day, one must doubt whether the Nana Sahib was as guilty of complicity in the murders of our women and children as he is generally believed to have been. ...

by Francis Cornwallis Maude and John Walter Sherer (1894) Shamsur Rahman: A witness of his times by Shamsur Rahman and Cour, Ajeet (ed) and Pankaj Bhan (ed) and Kabir Chowdhury (tr) and Kaiser Haq (tr) (2003)

Record my confession here and now:

I have hidden in my breast a rare treasure,

the face of my beloved. ...

by Shamsur Rahman and Cour, Ajeet (ed) and Pankaj Bhan (ed) and Kabir Chowdhury (tr) and Kaiser Haq (tr) (2003) Fictions connected with the Indian outbreak of 1857 exposed by Edward Leckey (1859)



aug 10, 2012

Indian Monuments by N.S. Ramaswami (1971)

In these days of discussion on Ilbert Bills... the question is whether the natives of India are to be treated as equal to Europeans in all respects. Under the present circumstances, it cannot fail to interest ...

by N.S. Ramaswami (1971) Semantic Structures by Ray S. Jackendoff (1992)

* Problem of Meaning : characterize the phenomena that a theory of meaning is to account for, and to develop a formal treatment of semantic intuitions. [?formal = based on logic?] ...

by Ray S. Jackendoff (1992) An Anthology of commonwealth poetry by C. D. Narasimhaiah (1990)

no i don't want to be

a hotchpotch of culture

a confusion of language

a nullity of imagination ...

by C. D. Narasimhaiah (1990) 60 Classic Australian Poems by Geoff Page (2010)



by Geoff Page (2010) The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien (1985)

Gandalf to Bilbo: "You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? ...

June 6, 2012

may 16, 2012

may 10, 2012

apr 16, 2012

mar 9, 2012

mar 1, 2012

feb 18, 2012

jan 22, 2012

a mermaid in a stream of moonlight by Namita Chaudhuri (2011)

I left one of my hands

at Rahul's home

and one of my eyes at Monimoy's

in the streets some people enquired

about my hand

and some others about my eye ...

by Namita Chaudhuri (2011) Northern India according to the Shui-ching-chu by Luciano Petech and Daoyuan Li (1950)



by Luciano Petech and Daoyuan Li (1950) Indian food: A Historical Companion by K. T. Achaya (1998)

Some things seem to have remain unchanged from the days of Akbar: The delicious cold kulfi was made at court by freezing a mixture of khoa, pista nuts and zafran essence in a metal cone after sealing the open top with dough. ...

dec 5, 2011

Dashti Upanyas by sirShendu mukhopAdhyAy (2000)



by sirShendu mukhopAdhyAy (2000) The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work by Jon Gordon (2008)

[w:John Wooden] - the legendary UCLA basketball coach - never focused on winning. He focused on developing his players - improving their fundamentals, skills, character [...] and as a result he won ... a lot. ...

nov 17, 2011

oct 31, 2011

oct 7, 2011

august 20, 2011

july 28, 2011

july 4, 2011

june 22, 2011

june 15, 2011

june 9, 2011

june 2, 2011

Ganga Observed: Foreign Accounts of the River by Jagmohan Mahajan (ed.) (1994)

Mark Twain: Following the Equator , 1897 Experiments on Ganges water: Mr. Henkin, govt scientist at Agra, went to Benares and got water out of the mouths of the sewers : a cubic cm of it contained millions of germs; at the end of six hours they were all dead . ...

by Jagmohan Mahajan (ed.) (1994) The character of logic in India by Bimal Krishna Matilal and Jonardon Ganeri (ed) and Heeraman Tiwari(ed) (2000)

to me what is exciting in this discussion is how right from the start, the main question is related to induction - what are the valid mechanisms for arriving at the major premise - the inductive relation or the universal. ...

by Bimal Krishna Matilal and Jonardon Ganeri (ed) and Heeraman Tiwari(ed) (2000) Jayadeva by Suniti Kumar Chatterji (1996)

particular emphasis on poems outside the gIta-govinda - a collection of 26 poems anthologized in sadukti-karNAmr^ta [saduktikarnamrita], as well as ...

by Suniti Kumar Chatterji (1996) The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts by Arthur Miller (1968)

Miller's scripts are very detailed. ...

by Arthur Miller (1968) Can Pakistan Survive?: The Death of a State by Tariq Ali (1983)

In theory, Islam was an egalitarian religion which tolerated no caste distinction. All muslims were equal before God. In one of [Sir Syed Ahmed's] speeches opposing the elective principle, however, he revealed his prejudices extremely clearly: ... The men of good family would never like to trust their lives and property to people of low ranks. ...

by Tariq Ali (1983) World's Last Mysteries by Robert Davreau (1976)



by Robert Davreau (1976) Umhu by Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay (2009)



may 27, 2011

Dakater Bhaipo by sirShendu mukhopAdhyAy (2007)

sakaler nAk ek rakam DAke nA. kAr-o bAgher garjan to kAr-o shyAm-er bnAshI, kAr-o bomA fATAr AoyAj to kAr-o gaRAgaRAr guRuk guRuk shabda. 89 ...

by sirShendu mukhopAdhyAy (2007) The Imperial Achievement: The Rise and Transformation of the British Empire by John Bowle (1977)

A sustained defence of imperial myths; the last gasp of an imperial tradition going back to JS Mill's History of British India... what is fascinating about this work is that it was written in the late 20th century, and not in ...

by John Bowle (1977) An anthology of modern Hindi poetry by Kailash Vajpeyi (ed.) (2000)

Empty gunnysacks being darned... They

are the voids of my eyes. - Shamsher B Singh

[...]

may 2, 2011

april 27, 2011

april 16, 2011

The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India by Eric Stokes (1980)

No contrast could be more absolute than that between the ferocity of Jat rebellion in western Meerut (which later spread north into Muzaffarnagar) and the conspicuous 'loyalty' displayed by the Jats of eastern Meerut and Bulandshahr. The only sufficient explanation, [was better bhaichara organization] ...

by Eric Stokes (1980) kAkAbAbu banAm chorAshikArI (কাকাবাবু বনাম চোরাশিকারি) by Sunil Gangopadhyaya (1995)

kAkAbAbu, jojo and santu are in kaziranga, where they run into a gang of desperate rhino poachers, headed by a enigmatic bandit who announces his ...

by Sunil Gangopadhyaya (1995) How languages are learned by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada (1993)

At birthday party:

Father (raises stemmed glass w juice): I'd like to propose a toast.

After [some time], David (5,1) raises his glass and says: I'd like to propose a piece of bread. ...

march 23, 2011

The sound of the kiss, or the story that must never be told by Pingali Surana and Velcheru Narayana Rao [Vēlcēru NārāyaNarāvu] (tr.) and David Dean Shulman (tr.) (2002)

Writing poetry is like milking a cow.

You have to pause at the right moment.

You have to feel your way, gently, with a good heart,

[if you fail] you get kicked...

by Pingali Surana and Velcheru Narayana Rao [Vēlcēru NārāyaNarāvu] (tr.) and David Dean Shulman (tr.) (2002) Beer by Michael Jackson (2007)

IBU Acronym for International Bitterness Units, a standard scale of measurement for determining the bitterness of beers. ...

by Michael Jackson (2007) The Sacred Wood and Major Early Essays by T.S. Eliot (1997)

Another essay, "Poets on poetry", is mentioned in the blurb at the back but seems to have lost its way during production; it's certainly not there in the edition I have. ...

by T.S. Eliot (1997) Literary theory: an introduction by Terry Eagleton (1996)

Nobody will penalize me heavily if I dislike a particular Donne poem, but if I argue that Donne is not literature at all then in certain circumstances I might risk losing my job.

[AM: a great example; but this still means "Donne = literature" is a shared subjectivity rather than an objective fact.] ...

by Terry Eagleton (1996) Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction by Benjamin W. Fortson (2004)

[the picture of PIE has been in constant change over more than two centuries of study, hence] The account of linguistic history given in this book is not an immutable truth. ...

march 7, 2011

manojder adbhut bARi {bn মনোজদের অদ্ভুত বাড়ি} [manoj's strange family] by Sirshendu Mukherjee (2004)

an utterly gyAnjAkhuRi tale of swashbuckling adventure that keeps turning pages like a cross between treasure island and a marquez novel. ...

[manoj's strange family] by Sirshendu Mukherjee (2004) Child's talk: learning to use language by Jerome Seymour Bruner and Rita Watson (ed) (1983)



march 1, 2011

Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories by Gao Xingjian and Mabel Lee (tr.) (2004)

I ask everywhere and search street after street and lane after lane. I feel as if I'm rummaging through my pockets; I've taken out everything, but still can't find what i want. In despair I drag along my weary legs, uncertain whether they still belong to me. 73 ...

february 25, 2011

Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world by Haruki Murakami and Alfred Birnbaum (tr.) (2003)

The autumn sky was as clear as if it had been made that very morning. Perfect Duke Ellington weather. ...

by Haruki Murakami and Alfred Birnbaum (tr.) (2003) The mammoth book of literary anecdotes by Philip Gooden (2002)

Many of the stories are prefaced by notes that indicate that they are unreliable. Interesting-ness prevails over truth; but aren't there enough truly interesting situations as well? ...

by Philip Gooden (2002) Mental floss presents Instant Knowledge by Will (eds) Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur, Elizabeth Hunt and Mental Floss (pub) (2005)

Reno’s first escalator was installed at Coney Island, and 75,000 people rode Reno’s “inclined elevator” during a two-week exhibition in 1896. Let’s be clear: The escalator was not the means by which one traveled to a ride. It was the ride itself... ...

by Will (eds) Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur, Elizabeth Hunt and Mental Floss (pub) (2005) Mental floss Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History's Naughtiest Bits by Will (eds) Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur, Elizabeth Hunt and Mental Floss (pub) (2005)

During the 13 years he spent on the [Cook County] bench, from 1977 to 1990, Maloney “fixed” as many as six murder trials, taking bribes from $10,000 to $100,000 from gangs to convict members of other gangs of murder ...

february 17, 2011

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (1999)

I suppose it wasn't often that the boys of Market Snodsbury Grammar School came across a man public-spirited enough to call their head master a silly ass, and they showed their appreciation in no uncertain manner. Gussie ...

by P. G. Wodehouse (1999) jhiler dhAre bARi (ঝিলের ধারে বাড়ি) by shIrShendu mukhopAdhyAy (1988)

sripati thinks a while and says: "these are village ghosts, you know - may be they don't have the guts to scare those city honchos." - p.23...

Despite the enid-blyton-esque plot, the background and characters are far more intimately portrayed, and the stories of the bengal countryside makes it a much more compelling read. ...

by shIrShendu mukhopAdhyAy (1988) Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism, and the Colonial Context by Tejaswini Niranjana (1992)

translation depends on the Western philosophical notions of reality, representation, and knowledge. Reality is seen as something unproblematic, "out there"; knowledge involves a representation of this reality; and representation provides direct, unmediated access to a transparent reality. ...

by Tejaswini Niranjana (1992) Semantics by Frank Robert Palmer (1981)

It is, or should be, clear that the study of semantics is not advanced by being 'reduced' to logic. 113 ...

by Frank Robert Palmer (1981) Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle-period Bengal by Ronald B. Inden (1976)

[Eurocentric distinctions] of clan rank, "modified" to take into account Hindu concerns for purity and ritual status, looked more and more like Ptolemy's attempt to account for the motion of the heavenly bodies by adding epicycles. - p. 8 ...

february 7, 2011

The anti-Chomsky reader by Peter (eds) Collier and David Horowitz (2004)

Chomsky’s work manifests a deep disregard and contempt for the truth [1], a monumental disdain for standards of inquiry, a relentless strain of self-promotion, remarkable descents into incoherence[2] and a penchant for verbally abusing those who disagree with him [3]. ...

by Peter (eds) Collier and David Horowitz (2004) Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie (2010)

When Haroun had been Luka's age he had travelled to the earth's second moon, befriended fishes who spoke in rhyme and a gardener made of lotus roots, and helped to overthrow the evil Cultmaster Khattam-Shud who was ...

by Salman Rushdie (2010) The stuff of thought: language as a window into human nature by Steven Pinker (2007)

Spam is not, as some people believe, an acronym for Short, Pointless, and Annoying Messages. The word is related to the name of the luncheon meat sold ...

by Steven Pinker (2007) Encyclopedia of Perception, v.1 and v.2 by E. Bruce Goldstein (2009)



january 2, 2011

december 7

november 9, 2010

Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart & Rekindle the Spirit by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (1993)

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

I was given poverty, that I might be wise. ...

by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (1993) The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran and Esther Tyldesley (tr) (2006)

The Chinese revolution sloganeered about the equality of women and men. In the work units, they are assigned equal work and there were no marks of rank. Yet, somehow, the leaders who emerge are almost all male. ...

october 20

The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (2003)

It is far more useful to view computational science as part of the problem, rarher than the solution. The problem is understanding how humans can have invented explicit, algorithmically driven machines when our brains do not operate in this way. The solution, if it ever ...

by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (2003) Moin and the Monster by Anushka Ravishankar and Anitha Balachandran (ill.) (2006)

"_Owowowowow! What have you done? What have you done?" wailed the monster.

"Why? What's the matter?"

"This is not how I should look," wept the monster. "I'm fearsome . You've made me look funny!"

...

by Anushka Ravishankar and Anitha Balachandran (ill.) (2006) The Poetry of Men's Lives: An International Anthology by Fred (ed.) Moramarco and Al Zolynas (ed.) (2004)

the uncollected man in converse with himself, ...

by Fred (ed.) Moramarco and Al Zolynas (ed.) (2004) Three Chinese Poets by Vikram (tr.) Seth and Wei Wang and Po Li and Fu Du (1997)

Empty hills, no man in sight

Just echoes of the voice of men.

...

september 26

Thousand cranes by Yasunari Kawabata and Edward G. Seidensticker (tr) (1959)

He gazed at it for a time. In a gourd that had been handed down for three centuries, a flower that would fade in the morning. 88 ...

september 22

The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (2001)

"What do you have there?" Sheetal said, pointing at his nakedness and laughing. ...

by Manil Suri (2001) Indian literature, 227, May-June 2005 by Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee and Sahitya Akademi (2006)

You should write when you can still laugh at yourself and the world, before you give yourself up to despair. ...

september 14

september 1

august 24

august 8

July 26

Vision and the emergence of meaning: blind and sighted children's early language by Anne Dunlea (1989)

echolocation - bright blind children spontaneously learn to clap and echolocate around age 1.5-2... 10

congenitally blind, if vision is restored as adult by surgery, have difficulty recognizing objects visually - need training. [Molyneux problem] 11 ...

by Anne Dunlea (1989) Mr. Tompkins in Paperback by George Gamow (1940)

Mr Tompkins lifts a bike and starts to pedal, he doesn't become shorter, but the world becomes narrower in his direction of motion ...

july 21

The shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Lucia Graves (tr.) (2004)

In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. ...

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Lucia Graves (tr.) (2004) The Old Playhouse And Other Poems by Kamala Das (2004)

The language I speak... is half English, half

Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,

It is as human as I am human ...

by Kamala Das (2004) Postcolonial poetry in English by Rajeev Shridhar Patke (2006)



by Rajeev Shridhar Patke (2006) Subhashitavali: An Anthology of Comic, Erotic and Other Verse by A. N. D. Haksar (tr.) and Vallabhadeva (ed.) (2007)

"What fault can I find?"

With this thought in mind

does a villain always start

to scrutinize the poet's art. [141] ...

july 4

june 26, 2010

I can, but why should I go by Sakti Chattopadhyay and Jayanta Mahapatra (tr) (1994)

এখন গঙ্গার তীরে ঘুমন্ত দাঁড়ালে Now, when I stand, drowsy on the Ganga's bank

চিতা কাঠ ডাকে আয়, আয়, আয়। The wood of the pyre calls: Come!

...

by Sakti Chattopadhyay and Jayanta Mahapatra (tr) (1994) padyasamagra 1 by Shakti Chattopadhyay (1989)



by Shakti Chattopadhyay (1989) Recipes worth their lack of salt by Michael E. deBakey and Antonio M. Gotto, Lynne W. Scott and John P. Foreyt (1984)



june 22

may 15

Last week I took some time out while at Delhi and visited the cavernous warehouse cum bookshop called Swati which is the only place where Sahitya Akademi books are available. Although the place is touted by all Akademi people as their main bookshop, it is really a sad, musty, bureaucratic place, difficult to find (on the backside of what seems like a women's hostel on Mandir Marg), and a far cry from the canons of bookshop-hood. Nonetheless, since the Akademi is by far the leading publisher of works related to Indian literature, this vault is worth a visit by lovers of Indian lit. Got some 14 books, all at ridiculously low prices - total bill was 1000 Rs. The sky of words and other poems by Sitakant Mahapatra (1996)

On the hill's sloping ground

I asked you to give me love, dreams,

A touch, tobacco leaves.

...

by Sitakant Mahapatra (1996) When poetry comes: a selection of poems by contemporary Bengali women poets in English translation by Marian Maddern (tr.) (1999)

This too is the night of danger

covered with lotus leaves or washed by tears ...

by Marian Maddern (tr.) (1999) Modern Indian drama: an anthology by G.P. Deshpande (ed.) (2004)

Leader: What is the purpose of staging the play?

Sutradhar: The purpose is to earn my bread, Sir.

L: Tchi! Tchi! What a petty concern! ...

by G.P. Deshpande (ed.) (2004) Contemporary Indian short stories v.II by Bhabani Bhattacharya (2006)



by Bhabani Bhattacharya (2006) A Certain Sense by Jibananda Das and Sukanta Chaudhuri (ed) and Sumita Chakrabarti (ed) (2006)



may 10

Climbing on the Himalaya and other mountain ranges by Norman Collie (1902)

A sport like mountaineering needs no apology. 51 ...

by Norman Collie (1902) Indira: the life of Indira Nehru Gandhi by Katherine Frank (2002)

Indira's affair with Nehru secretary M.O. Mathai-- Mathai boasted openly of his liaison with Nehru's daughter, both at the time and for many years after. There is no q that Indira and M were very ...

by Katherine Frank (2002) When God Is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others by Ksetrayya and Ramanujan, A.K. (tr.) and Velcheru Narayana Rao (tr.) and David Shulman (tr.) (1994)

What's there

to be jealous about?

When youth passes,

nothing will go your way,



so grab the cash

...

may 2, 2010

Thunder Gods: The Kamikaze Pilots Tell Their Story by Hatsuho Naito (1989)

I shall fall, smiling and singing songs. Please visit and worship at Yasukuni Shrine this spring. There I shall be a cherry blossom ...

by Hatsuho Naito (1989) Kalidaser granthAbalI, v.2 by Kalidasa and Rajendranath Vidyabhushan (ed.) (1929)

वर्णप्रकर्षे सति कर्णिकारं दुनोति निर्गन्धतया स्म चेतः ।

प्रायेण सामग्र्यविधौ गुणानां पराङ्मुखी विश्वसृजः प्रवृत्तिः॥३.२८ ...

by Kalidasa and Rajendranath Vidyabhushan (ed.) (1929) Celebrating the best of Urdu Poetry by Khushwant (tr. ed.) Singh and Kamna Prasad (ed.) (2007)

When my beloved raised her arms to gather up her tresses A million desires gathered in my heart and got tied up in a tangle ...

by Khushwant (tr. ed.) Singh and Kamna Prasad (ed.) (2007) The blacksmith and the carpenter by Sun Li and Sidney Shapiro (tr) and Gladys Yang (tr) and Yu Fanqin (tr) (1982)



by Sun Li and Sidney Shapiro (tr) and Gladys Yang (tr) and Yu Fanqin (tr) (1982) Ritusamhara by Kalidasa and Rajendra Tandon (tr.) (2008)

na bhabati kimidAnIM yoShitAM manmathAya

is there anything [about women] that does not excite amour? (6.33) ...

by Kalidasa and Rajendra Tandon (tr.) (2008) Ideologies of the Raj, New Cambridge history of India III.4 by Thomas R. Metcalf (1995)

Curzon, 1905: remember that the Almighty has placed your hand on the greatest of his ploughs ... to drive the blade a little forward in your time, and to feel that somewhere among these millions you have left a little justice or happiness or prosperity, a sense of manliness or moral dignity, a spring of patriotism, a dawn of intellectual enlightenment, or a stirring of duty, where it did not before exist. That is enough, that is the Englishman's justification in India. ...

April 25

April 23

nATak samagra by Bratya Basu (2004)



April 15

Buddha v. 1: Kapilavastu by Osamu Tezuka (2006)



March 5

Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru by Jawaharlal Nehru (1951)

What amazed me ... was our total ignorance in the cities of this great agrarian movement. No newspaper had contained a line about it; they were not ...

March 2, 2010

The veiled suite: the collected poems by Agha Shahid Ali (2009)

India always exists

off the turnpikes

of America ...

by Agha Shahid Ali (2009) Memoirs by Pablo Neruda and Hardie St. Martin (tr.) (1976)

Veinte poemas is my love affair with Santiago, with its student-crowded streets, the university, and the honeysuckle fragrance of requited love. ...

by Pablo Neruda and Hardie St. Martin (tr.) (1976) Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography and Ritual by Serinity Young (2004)



February 17

Contact linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes by Carol Myers-Scotton (2002)

Singly-occurring nouns are the most commonly switched elements in code-switching corpora. ...

by Carol Myers-Scotton (2002) The story of our food by K. T. Achaya (2000)

The fine varieties of mangoes which the Portuguese had developed by grafting techniques [e.g. Alfonso] were also avidly pursued by the Mughals. ...

by K. T. Achaya (2000) Hindu Soul Recipes by Pushpesh Pant (2007)

the discussion is airy and insubstantial. Despairingly, one searches for answers, but none are to be found, e.g. the doshas relate to the three elements - water, air, and fire - but the "relation" is never elaborated. ...

by Pushpesh Pant (2007) Making Space: The Development Of Spatial Representation And Reasoning by Nora S. Newcombe and Janellen Huttenlocher (2000)



February 5

The rebel's silhouette: selected poems by Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Agha Shahid Ali (tr.) (1995)

Each star a rung,

night comes down the spiral

staircase of the evening. ...

by Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Agha Shahid Ali (tr.) (1995) The bedbug and selected poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky and George Reave (tr.) and Max Hayward (tr.) (1960)



by Vladimir Mayakovsky and George Reave (tr.) and Max Hayward (tr.) (1960) The Penguin Book of Modern Urdu Poetry by Mahmood Jamal (tr.) (1986)

Last night your lost memory came to me as spring comes quietly upon a wilderness ...

by Mahmood Jamal (tr.) (1986) Kala Ghoda Poems by Arun Kolatkar (2004)

a palpitating hill

of naked idlis ...

February 1

How do you withstand, body by Gieve Patel (1976)

-- And the professors! O professors,

Stale, malodorous, with yesterday's coats ...

by Gieve Patel (1976) bhojanshilpI bAMAlI by buddhadeb basu (2004)

There is nothing called "Indian literature," - as I have been saying in so many forums - similarly, there is nothing called "Indian food". It would be ...

by buddhadeb basu (2004) A Matter of Taste: The Penguin Book of Indian Writing on Food by Nilanjana S. Roy (2004)

her breasts were like used tea bags. As the weight loss progressed, the sachets deflated gradually, becoming little more than flaps of skin. ...

by Nilanjana S. Roy (2004) Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-minded Man by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson (1997)

Bela was married when she was 15 and Renuka at 10... although Rabindranath was strongly opposed to child marriage.] ...

January 25

In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali by Edward C. (trans.) Dimock and Denise Levertov and Anju Chaudhuri (ill) (1967)

The marks of fingernails are on your breast and my heart burns. ...

January 13, 2010

Bicycle design: Towards the Perfect Machine by Mike Burrows and Tony Hadland (ed.) (2000)

Mike Burrows is among the best known bicycle designers today, with a wide range of credits from the recumbent Windcheetah and Ratcatcher to the ...

January 7, 2010

December 5, 2009

Traffic: why we drive the way we do by Tom Vanderbilt (2008)

Deaths by automobile were already, according to the New York Times [1903], "every-day occurrences" with little "news value" unless they involved persons of "exceptional social or business prominence." ...

by Tom Vanderbilt (2008) chhoToder AbrittikoSh by nIradbaraN hAjrA (2007)

bAbA Ar mA : sunIl gangopAdhyAy 80

bAbAo nAki chhoTTo chhilen, mA chhilen ek-ratti ...

by nIradbaraN hAjrA (2007) Ploughshares Spring 2008 by B.H. Fairchild (ed.) (2008)



November 15

The foundations of mind: Origins of conceptual thought by Jean Mandler (2004)

Infants are interpreters of the world around them from an early age. We don't know how early, but Werner and Kaplan's (1963) estimate of 3 months as the onset of contemplation of the world cannot be much more ...

September 29

Longman anthology of world literature by women, 1875-1975 by Marian (ed.) Arkin and Barbara Shollar (ed.) (1989)

Europeans called [Kanhoji Angray a] "pirate", and such in truth he was; but ... what chief, or ruler, or founder of a dynasty was not a robber or a pirate? ...

by Marian (ed.) Arkin and Barbara Shollar (ed.) (1989) A Tower for the Summer Heat by Li Yu and Patrick Hanan (trans.) (1992)

This story from China of the 17th c., is about the potential of the telescope. It is among the earliest science fiction in the world, well ...

September 9

Technology and global industry: companies and nations in the world economy by Bruce R. (ed) Guile and Harvey Brooks (ed) (1987)

Within a decade, all the domestic competitors of B&D - Stanley, Skil, McGraw Edison, GE, etc, had withdrawn from the power-tool segment, and B&D ...

by Bruce R. (ed) Guile and Harvey Brooks (ed) (1987) Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem by Amir D. Aczel (1996)

It was Diophantus' Problem 8 in Volume II, asking for a way of dividing a given square into the sum of two squares -- that inspired Fermat to write his famous Last theorem on the margin. ...

August 24

August 17

August 14

The courtesan's arts: cross-cultural perspectives by Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon (2006)

In the Persian literature, early tawa'if are often assigned a regional origin from Kashmir or other NW locations associated w fair-skinned beauty ...

by Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon (2006) The Great Masters: Profiles in Hindustani Classical Vocal Music by Mohan Nadkarni (1999)

At age 16, her aunt threw Siddheshwari out after she turned out to be more talented musically than her own daughter.

by Mohan Nadkarni (1999) Love stories from the Mahabharata by Subodh Ghosh and Pradip Bhattacharya (tr.) (2005)

Manduka princess Sushobhana has many secret lovers, whom she meets without revealing her identity, and then fends them off from permanence by feigning ...

by Subodh Ghosh and Pradip Bhattacharya (tr.) (2005) The Pigman by Paul Zindel (1983)

"You're not a pretty girl, Lorraine," [mother] has been nice enough to inform me on a few occasions, "but you don't have to walk about stoop-shouldered and hunched." 9 ...

August 3

The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, v.2 Contemporary Poetry by Jahan Ramazani and Richard Ellman and Robert O'Clair (2003)

my husband rejects the old type.

He is in love with a modern woman,

Who speaks English. - Okot p'Bitek (Uganda)

by Jahan Ramazani and Richard Ellman and Robert O'Clair (2003) Vice: An Anthology by Richard Davenport-Hines (1993)

The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious ancestors is like a potato -- the only good belonging to him is underground. - Thomas Overbury

by Richard Davenport-Hines (1993) Trigonometric Delights by Eli Maor ()

did you know that the word "sine" is etymologically derived from Sanskrit ardha-jya, the term used by Aryabhata for sine, meaning "half-chord"?

July 31

July 26

Origins of human communication by Michael Tomasello (2008)

while chimpanzees have pointing gestures, they do not understand that pointing is intended as an helpful signal. Thus, a chimp who is hungry and searching for food may have a human caretaker point towards a box, and it may even go to that box, but instead of turning over that box, it may try some other one. ...

July 23

India After Gandhi: The history of the world's largest democracy by Ramachandra Guha (2007)

On 19 October 1952, a man named Potti Sriramulu began a fast-unto-death in AP ... 15 Dec: fifty-eight days into his fast, Potti Sriramulu died...

by Ramachandra Guha (2007)

The game in reverse: poems by Taslima Nasrin and Carolyne Wright (tr) with Farida Sarkar (tr) and Mohammad Nurul Huda (tr) and Subharanjan Dasgupta (tr) (1995) This body of mine, known so long,

at times even I can't recognize it.



may 18

Mathematics and the divine: a historical study by T. Koetsier and Luc Bergmans (2005)

Wilkinson felt that religious and scientific worldviews in Indian thought were more or less natural enemies, and that adherents of the former had caused, by their “superior address,” the “oblivion” of the latter. ...

by T. Koetsier and Luc Bergmans (2005) The palimpsest of Exile by Dipika Mukherjee (2009)

These words once knew the power of insousicance.

These words once danced in red jooties.

may 5

Indian astronomy: an introduction by S. Balachandra Rao (2000)

Sometimes, the sun may remain in the same rAshi for more than a lunar month; in such situations, one has an extra month ( adhikamAsa , chapters 5 & 6) ...

by S. Balachandra Rao (2000) bAMlA kabitA : sriShTi o sraShTA by subal sAmanta (ed.) (1999)

madhyadin pIchgalA. janashUnya saRake hAm~Tchhe ekTi kumArI meye, dui chokhe udvigna pratyay ...

by subal sAmanta (ed.) (1999) Violent Volcanoes by Anita Ganeri and Mike Phillips (ill.) (1999)

Toba, Sumatra, 75,000 BC - 8 - 2,800 km^3 ash spread all over the world and caused frozen weather for years. ...

by Anita Ganeri and Mike Phillips (ill.) (1999) Manto: Selected Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto and Aatish Taseer (tr.) (2009)

‘Your grandfather was MD Taseer, the poet, and you don’t know Urdu?’ ...

may 2

April 18

March 24

March 21

Way of Tibetan Buddhism by Jampa Thaye (2001) The simple, lucid story of Mahayana, and its Tibetan practice.

Poems from the Sanskrit by John (trans.) Brough (1977) Excerpts include 53 Poems like this:

If a professor thinks what matters most

Is to have gained an academic post...



March 17

Added March 9, 2009

sukAnta samagra সুকান্ত সমগ্র by sukAnta bhaTTachArya and subhASh mukhopAdhyAy (1967) Despite his nephew being the Chief Minister of Bengal, Sukanta Bhattacharya's image has eroded a lot. Are his poems too overwrought with emotion?

Added on March 6, 2009

Sruti Smrti by K.G. Subramanyan (2001) A very brief reminiscence of KGS' days at Shantiniketan, particularly valuable for his insights on the process by which innovation dies out as a result of institutionalization. I found this particularly interesting from the perspectives of an IIT Professor in the 2000s, watching the process of this institution being increasingly bureaucratized with a resulting ingress of mediocrity.

Other recent additions not in index