Tomorrow' s India - Another Tryst with Destiny

Tomorrow’s India - Another Tryst with Destiny

Penguin India

Edited by: BG Verghese

Rs 595/-

Tomorrow’s India is a well-put together book of essays. Yes, it is a big deal because all 24 essays are by ex-Stephanians. No, not just old boys, but a couple of (not so old) girls as well. But that's not the only talking point for this book.

It is funny, yet fitting somehow, that when ex-Stephanians get together they either write a book of nostalgia (like the last one) or well, they write on nothing less momentous than the future of our country.

They write well, they make sense, there might even be a common thread running through. But I didn’t find it. What I did find were a number of interesting pieces. You would want to dip into this book and pick up some interesting facts and then maybe leave it for a while, pick it up again, browse...you get the picture.

I thought Mukul Kesavan’s essay on Bollywood movies was really funny, but readers will have their own favourites. For alumni, there’s something larger than life about the fact that College was a hotbed of politics back in the day, nothing like what it is today, but then times have changed.

Yes, we’ve all heard the stories of students who were hanged for conspiracy or treason, but that we had revolutionaries, people full of passion - that too in the 60s and 70s, a pulse that beat along with the rest of the country - well, that’s something else altogether.

That passion comes across particularly poignantly in former revolutionary Dilip Simeon’s piece Revolution and Reconciliation. CNN-IBN’s own Sagarika Ghose writes lucidly on media in the country, giving it a pat on the back and a little waggle of the finger at the same time.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s take on Mahatma Gandhi is also really nice. It is reassuring to know that one of the clan is also tired of the same old clichés surrounding the Father of the Nation. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Natwar Singh, Kapil Sibal - there are enough biggies here, writing on topics close to their hearts, and pivotal to India’s future.

And I’m glad I couldn’t find a streak of condescension or extra-clever wit anywhere, thank you very much. (After all, Stephanians are always laying themselves open to the charge of patronizing snottiness, so it’s nice to see that’s missing!)

Mature pieces by mature writers, with humour and life and everything in between. Pick this up for a bit of arm-chair intellectualism (academics, scoff away, but anything remotely erudite these days counts as smart, in my book) and a take on life in India and how far we have to go.

Nothing flashy, just for the most part well-informed and well-written pieces. Edited by the redoubtable George Verghese (former big-shot journalist, old boy and associated with the Centre for Policy Research and other NGOs), this is one for the collection.