I read this book way back in the early 90s. And I still find it to be one of the comprehensive coverages, in the entire literature of women's studies in India. This is an edited book or rather a collective endeavour of leading women scholars and activists. It has chapters on culture, society, education, economy, politics, etc. Each of the chapters are well written, with solid research. Overall it is an interesting book, written keeping lay readers in mind. But it is no compromise on the academic rigour, perspicacity, and the rootedness in women's movement.

The editors or collective writers, Neera Desai and Maitreyi Krishnaraj are the pillars of women's studies and women's movement in India.

I have had the privilege of meeting both of them in India. Infact, Neera Desai was my M.Phil Dissertation examiner. And when I met her after she had examined my thesis, in the World Congress of Sociology in New Delhi; she had an interesting thing to tell me. She told me that she tried to enquire from some of her friends at my University (JNU) whether I was a man or a woman.For she felt a woman writing this thesis of mine. And she was happy that a man had such an affinity with women's issues.

It is blessings and encouragement of such people which made me write four books on women in India

Swami Rajarshi Muni is an advanced practicing yogi who has written numerous books. His latest, Yoga: The Ultimate Spiritual Path, is "a remarkable synthesis of yoga psychology and metaphysics."

In it, he traces the history of yogic philosophy and its development over time, emphasizing its role in spiritual unfolding. He does not include any yoga postures, leaving that up to individual instructors. "Yoga is neither a religion by itself nor part of any other religious system," he says, adding that "yoga is universal and a yogi is not necessarily bound to any particular religious faith." He defines it as "the union between the individual self and the universal self." Yoga is available to anyone who wishes to accept its discipline.

Muni discusses yoga practices relating to a variety of areas, such as rebirth, karma, the purpose of life, bliss, human consciousness, and suffering. Although yoga is an ancient practice, its underlying philosophy is timeless and still relevant to those wishing to transform their lives. Classical yoga focuses on spiritual development and the attainment of higher levels of consciousness, and this is what Muni concentrates on throughout his writing.

"Yoga: The Ultimate Spiritual Path provides a comprehensive overview of traditional yoga philosophy for the Western reader and at the same time creates a context that helps us place ourselves on the spiritual pathway, so that we may understand the deeper purpose for our existence." It's essential reading for all those interested in philosophy. It will also satisfy those who've practiced yoga as a physical or mental exercise, but sense that there's more to it than simple exercise.

When I first glanced at the summary of this amazing book, I thought that it was going to be another sappy teen romance with a twist of culture talk. A few short pages into the book, I was both surprised and hooked. The book focuses on the story of Dimple Lala, American born but with deep Indian roots. Her best friend is the "Marilyn Monroe for this generation" and each has something that the other finds irresistable. When Dimple's parents decide to find her a suitable Indian boy, it all goes downhill- not only is the boy suitable for Dimple, but her best friend sets her sights on him also. What is surprising about the book is that it is more about Dimple realizing that it is wonderful for her to be photo-taking self, expressing herself through her insightful photography. The story is as much about cross gender issues, cross-generational issues, how to deal with family and friends that seem both to close and to far away. It also exposes the insatiable american craving for the cultural traditions of other countries. While some parents might find certain elements unattractive, its difficult issues are presented with care and truth. I certainly would encourage both those who have difficulty fitting in, whatever culture they may hail from, as well as those who seem to find their place so easily because it truly is a book for everyone.

Tanuja Desai Hidier has written an incandescent coming-of-age novel about a young Indian (as in South Asian)woman who learns to connect with her culture, her family, and most extraordinarily, herself. At the beginning of the story, Dimple is not all that different from many teens. She finds her parents frighteningly clueless and alien at times and her best friend Gwyn is a personality-plus beauty who is everything that Dimple thinks she isn't. Dimple wears her ethnicity barely skin-deep to the point that she doesn't even identify herself as Indian when she is surrounded by other Indians in a nightclub with Gwynn. Her parents "set her up" with a nice Indian boy at informal chai-drinking visit and it's dislike-at-first-sight for Dimple. But then Dimple runs into the suitable boy again as a DJ in a nightclub and she is smitten deep down. They have a heart-to-heart conversation but then trouble develops when Gwynn, her best friend, falls in love with him too. This book is so well-written that I was sorry when it ended. This is a writer who has the ability to make her characters so real that you feel that you know them. I hope that she writes many more novels as wonderful as this one is.

I read this book for a big literature project, and I absolutely LOVED it. It was written in a manner that was easy for me to understand, and one that was appealing to readers of my age (12-15). I really liked how the characters seemed to come to life before my eyes. Often, as I was reading this, I found myself grieving over the troubled characters! Being of Indian descent, and living in America, there were many situations that I could relate to. I would recommend this book to ANYONE looking for an EXCELLENT book to read. It might be difficult to understand for non-Indians at some times, but for the most part, I feel that every reader will benefit from reading this book! Great Book once again! Congrats to Tanuja Desai Hidier for an OUTSTANDING piece of literature!

Michael Chacon, et al give a good attempt to easy your studying for the 70-218, Managing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Environment. However, this edition is riddled with obvious errors. Nearly half of these errors are contributed to poor wording (i.e. When you boot a DHCP client for the first time... listens for a lease offer , and chooses one it likes." page 98 -- DHCP clients cannot choose anything. They accept the first address that they receive. The other half are just errors (i.e. "Even though IIS is built into Windows 2000 Server, it is not installed by default." page 712 -- oh yes it is, and you should be aware of that with all the IIS hacks lately. However, the authors are quick to respond to these errors when brought to their attention and Sybex does a great job of making the corrections available on their website. Overall, the book makes a fine attempt to get you skilled in Windows 2000 network management. My only suggestion would be is not to use this book as your only source.

THere are a few things I would change with this book, but, like the other Sybex/Chellis/Donald certification books, these are the standard. This MCSA exam covers a wide swath of topics, so take it last. You'll see a lot of overlap. Know group policies. I even saw and active directory question on the exam, and was a bit surprised. The book did a good job preparing me in general.

This book cover everything you should know before attempting to pass the 70-218 exam assuming that you already study and passed the 70-215 exam. It goes beyond the scope of the exam in the area of intra and inter-site active directory replication (at least for the exam that I passed) but it helped me to understand the overall concept. The explanations are simple but effective (not lile the microsoft book).I also used the sybex tcp/ip jumpstart book who is very good at explaining the concept of subnetting.

I think Ms. Desai would capture the heart of any woman of Indian origin. The book does start of very slowly but nevertheless beckons your patience. Bimla, Tara, Raj and Mira Masi are not the most admirable characters, yet they touch you so. Despite the underlying depression, I could not help but smile!

This was a book that kept my interest from the beginning, in large part because of the expert characterization of the central characters. It is both depressing and optimistic; the characters mostly are constrained by their personality and history, yet at the end are able to transcend themselves. It seems that in returning to what they are attempting to escape from - the family - they are finally able to become whole. Their flashes of insight and the author's analysis may seem contrived at times, but it's difficult to imagine how it could be expressed better.

The main character is a manic depressive woman who is very annoyed with life because it is unfair, and she ended up in the wrong side of the table. So she resents everyone that happened to be lucky enough to avoid life traps and despises those who fell on them. Eventhough the book is beautifully written, the dark mood that the author impress on its main character, permeates to the reader and you become up caught in an atmosphere whereby reading is an effort, so each page develops slow, very slow.

I couldn't help but compare Kiran Desai with Mr. Dickens, the renowned master of characterization. She evokes the same gift of painting a character and breathing life into it. The situations wherein she puts these characters make for a very entertaining, hilarious reading. I have never been to India but after reading her book I can picture the old post office where Sampath worked and the marketplace where people can buy ready-made dentures! Her writing style can best be described as lyrical. I initially borrowed this book from the library but decided to have my very own copy - from Amazon.com of course. It is hard to believe that this is her first novel! I hope she's working on a sequel because not only do I miss the characters but a talent like Desai deserves to be read by more people.

It has been some time since I read this delightful book, so all of its details aren't crystal clear to me now. But I feel like I must respond to those (both here and in a few periodicals) who claim Desai wrote this book for a "Western" audience. I don't think Desai wrote this book for any other reason than the sheer joy of putting together a fun, sharp story. This is no Oprah's book of the month marketing hogwash here, and it is preposterous to claim that Desai was "targeting" an audience at all, except, perhaps, the audience that simply enjoys a story for the story's sake. When I checked her biography on the book's jacket, I didn't see anything referring to her obtaining a degree in marketing. I think this is a stimulating and beautifully written first novel by a young writer who probably had no alterior motives in writing it except to tell a story. One recent reviewer here stated that Desai was trying "to show how the East really is ... whether it is like that or not" and used a sentence - a single sentence mind you! - as proof of that point. C'mon. Lighten up. This is a nice piece of fiction and it should be enjoyed for what it is, not for what hypersensitive, politically charged minds think it is trying to be. I do understand the criticism of the ending. But I would suggest that those who didn't "get it" go back and read the last few pages again. I love the way the events leading up to the last sentence begins crescendoing a few pages before. It was almost (cliche alert) like a jazz composition in its thought and rhythm. Read it out loud (that is how I enjoyed it fully) and you'll see what I mean. And it does come to a Bang! stop. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Going back to the jazz metaphor, it snapped me back to the reality of self and forced me to think about what it was that I had just read, like a composition that ends on a beautifully punctuated note. No cushy fadeaway scenes here - which are, by the way, the preferred ending for those "targeting" the "Western" audience.

Excellent fiction. Anita Desai is a born story teller. All the minute details of ordinary life described extra-ordinarily. Presently residing in US, this book took me back to India mentally. Very easy to identify with each of the characters. You have people like Mr. Chawla, very efficient, systematic and money-minded.You also have people like Sampath, who are fed-up with the mundane,time-bound and commercial life. Though the book makes you laugh aloud in the beginning, slowly it explores the human nature. The need for space. There's a little drag towards the end. (The book could have been a long 'short story'). But again the last chapter was very good and I think that's the best way to end the book. The 'Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard' lingers in your mind long after reading.

Were it not for the inevitable dampening effect of translation from Urdu to English, this book deserves at least 5 stars. Ismat Chugtai was a brilliant writer, expressing her views with candor, vivid imagery, and a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor. She dares to address and expose seriously taboo topics at a time when the role of women in society was so suppressed and inhibited it makes the present day seem utopian. Like a true iconoclast, she probes questionable societal norms that most followed blindly, and still do. The only disappointment in this book is that it reads like someone's paraphrasing of Chugtai's stories; the translation, although mostly accurate, erodes the true flavor of her writing and really misses the mark sometimes.

The book takes a look at the society of her times and provides a witty, inciteful look at it

Gandhiji was a person who believed in the dignity of man and left us all a legacy of ahimsa, love and tolerance. His life was guided by a search for truth. In the 'My Experiments of the Truth', Gandhiji stressed that truth was god and his aim in life was to achieve truthfulness in thought, word and deed. Ahimsa, to him was the highest virtue. By non violence, Gandhi meant not merely the absence of violence but also loving concern for all life. He believed that truth could be known only through tolerance and concern for others and that find a truthful way to solutions required constant testing. He taught that to be non-violent required great courage. He adopted Satyagraha based on principles of courage, non-violence and truth. This method was used to fight for India's independence and to bring about social change. The book has exceptional revelations of Gandhiji's own life, his experiences, his beliefs and the stepping stone of his career. A widely read and an inspiring collection, Gandhiji's Autobiography gives a glimpse into the Indian culture and living on path towards Truth & Non violence. A pick for every one who believes in peace n calm.

This seminal son of Asia needs no introduction in any part of the world. Popularity, adulation, controversy and patience followed him wherever he went. Till this day, both friends and foes continue to pay him his due. He is another 'Profile-In-Courage'.
Mr Mohandas Ghandi proved that non-violent protests can achieve what machine-guns and bombs could not. He was a great man: the giant on whose shoulders icons like Martin luther King (Jr.) and Nelson Mandela stood in order to see farther.
His well-knitted autobiography made a captivating read.

In many ways, this is a somewhat unusual autobiography. It is as remarkable for what Gandhi decides to leave out as for what he includes. He obviously didn't intend to deal with every major event, and delve into every area. It is less a comprehensive narrative than it is a series of reflections on his life. Some have criticized the book because he often deals more intensely with questions about what kind of diet he would follow than many of the great historical achievements of his life. But Gandhi was who he was as an international figure because of who he was as an ethical individual. The moral seriousness with which he broods over his diet reveals a great deal about who he is as a person. As a side note, I should add that when I read this book, I had been thinking about becoming a vegetarian, and while I found no new arguments for doing so in this book, his moral example gave me the courage to do so.

The greatest quality about this book is one it shares with most of Gandhi's writing: when he writes you get the sense that he is giving us his unedited thoughts. During even the greatest crises in his struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi's writings have the quality of a transcription of what he is thinking. More than any figure I can think of, Gandhi revealed precisely what he was thinking. The almost complete lack of artifice in his writing is one of the most impressive aspects of his writing as a whole and of his autobiography in particular. One is struck by his honesty, by his humility, and by his intense, almost overwhelming, moral passion.

This is not a literary masterpiece. If one goes into it expecting it to rival such other autobiographies as Rousseau's CONFESSIONS or Nabokov's SPEAK, MEMORY or even Franklin's AUTOBIOGRAPHY, one will be disappointed. Although he was a prolific writer, Gandhi was not a great writer. He was unquestionably one of the towering figures of the 20th century, but it was because of what he did, not because of what he wrote. But for some of us, encountering so directly on the printed page such a fundamentally great soul can be close to overpowering.

This would be a challenging read for readers not familiar with the Indian history. Readers who want to read about life of Gandhi will also find this book incomplete since it was published in 1927 and he continued to live for over two decades after that. Most of his more important work was done after 1927. Nonetheless, this is a good insight into Gandhi, the man rather than Gandhi, the public figure.

Gandhi speaks of his evolution into a public figure and his personal experiments. Reader will find contradicting aspects in his personality as he tries to be modest yet appears to be self-glorifying; he ends up compromising the quality of writing. Much of the book is about his experiments with his diet and thus becomes a bit repetitive (and some of the information is quite unnecessary). It can also be a bit confusing since it does not conform to the chronologic pattern as he seems to be jumping time with some of his chapters. He does not give dates at most places making the read more inconvenient. The reader is expected to be familiar with some of his major works and movements thus are not provided a background.

This autobiography reads more like a personal journal than a text. For people who want a broad picture of his life I suggest that you consider a biography by a different author.

This book gives you a greater insight into the life passage of a greatest man of the century. Gandhi has written in an uninhibited style and flavour. He has never shyed away from letting the user know his entire life history describing each and every minute happenings in his life. A great read for anyone

A book which influenced the way I think and view life. There is no other book of its kind. An autobiography of a man who defeated an empire with his non-vilence and without a blood shed. Great reading and very moving for all those who love truth and humanity

Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" appears to be an allegory, spiced with satirical commentary, on the political course of modern India and the in-fighting of its various social and religious factions. It is an endlessly inventive book with a cheeky sense of humor and wild, exotic imagery, but it does not eschew somber moments. Rushdie presents this novel as the autobiography of Saleem Sinai, writing from his current residence at a Bombay pickle factory under the critical eye of his frequently interruptive lover/fiance Padma.

Saleem was born on the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the precise moment of India's independence from Great Britain and Pakistan's formation. He and one thousand other babies (the Midnight's Children) born in India throughout the hour each has some supernatural power such as witchcraft, time travel, gender alteration, etc., or otherwise is simply a mutant. Kind of like the X-Men, except they're too self-serving to band together and fight crime (and too bad, as there is a lot of narrative potential in this idea).

Saleem routinely hides in a washing-chest in his house to find inner peace away from neighborhood kids who taunt him for his large misshapen nose and other odd facial features. One day in the chest, he has a strange accident -- he sniffs a pajama cord up his nose, triggering an effect which causes him to hear voices in his head and realize he has telepathic powers. By telepathy, he establishes communication with the (heretofore unknown to him) other Midnight's Children, but they prove unwilling to unite. An operation performed on his nose to stop his severe dripping snot problem clears his nasal passages to reveal an uncanny olfactory ability, enabling him to sniff out emotions and ideas as well as smells.

Saleem also gives an extensive background on his family, beginning with how his maternal grandparents met, up to his pyromaniac-turned-singing-star younger sister. After his (Muslim) family relocates to Pakistan, almost all of them are killed in the 1965 India-Pakistan war, and in the 1971 war for the independence of Bangladesh, Saleem is conscripted in the Pakistani Army as a human bloodhound.

Eventually, Saleem marries Parvati, one of the Midnight's Children, the witch, who bears a child fathered by his arch enemy Shiva, another of the Midnight's Children, whose special attribute is his ability to crush people with his overdeveloped knees. Shiva works as an agent for the government of India, who demand to know the indentities and whereabouts of all the Midnight's Children, and Saleem is the only one who can tell them...

Like E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," "Midnight's Children" blurs the line between historical fact and fiction, weaving fantastic events against a realistic backdrop of a land in turmoil. Saleem is an extraordinary character, not a hero in the traditional sense but a deformed symbol, a vessel for carrying and displaying the problems and hopes of the people of India.

Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" has been honoured by book critics as the "Booker of Bookers" and no wonder ! It's one of the most original, brilliant and stunning novels I have read in years. How apt too that Rushdie's technique or genre of writing should be described as "magical realism", for MC dresses the telling of post-war Indian history with so much fun, humour and imagination from references drawn from such a deep ancient well, your senses reel from the rush and cultural overload. Granted, Rushdie's method with language doesn't make for easy or casual reading. Words meticulously chosen, assembled and invested with meaning tumble helter skelter onto the pages in dazzling and colourful rapid fire prose - "stream of consciousness" style - you really need to concentrate to understand and savour its riches. Its huge cast of characters evoke the sense of a grand pantheon of gods overlooking the lives of its divided people. Not surprisingly, these same gods (or God) - depending on whether you're Hindu or Muslim - connive to coincide births, deaths and marriages and the mercurial fate of these "midnight's children" who come from disparate social and religious backgrounds with the making of history. The use of the "switched-at-birth good Saleem/bad Shiva" as a central motif in the novel is also a masterful stroke conveying both irony and plurality that characterises India. "Midnight's Children" is one of those important novels that just has to be read by everyone who loves serious fiction. I'd be willing to bet that it'll get on the reading list of every literature student, if it hasn't already done so. A rare and genuine masterpiece. Make time to read it. You will be richly rewarded.

I am biased, and there is no two ways about that. I believe Rushdie is the greatest mordern writer in history, hence if he wrote the eqivalent of 'Amsterdam' I would probably rave about. If I had to name a favourite of Rushdie's written work, I would always name 'Satanic Verses' as my perfered, due to it's sheer brilliance and busyness, however it is closely followed by 'Midnight's Children.' I read it a couple of months ago, and my message remained unposted, hence my recollection is a bit blurry, however I remember raving in that review immediately after reading it. I think that Salman Rushdie, along with the 1997 Booker prize winner and the likes of Rohiston Mistry and the novel 'Flower Boy' have created a standard of writing that the rest of the world should to aim to match. I absolutely love Indian literature, much of it being as many have mentioned, being in the little known, but highly interesting genre of magic realism, along with the fabulous Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Love in Times of Chlorea. I plead for people to give this style of writing, and 'Midnight's Children' a chance. The later is an interesting, consistant and busy novel, which I enjoyed from every aspect, and will remember for much of my reading life.