A prolific Bengalese writer, Tagore structured this novel such that three main characters represent the turbulence of the Partition that was yet to come to India in 1947. Nikhil is married to Bimala, living in the traditional domestic manner; for herself, Bimala has no expectation of her life ever deviating from her wifely path. The concept of "Swadeshi", a renewed appreciation of everything Indian, and a denial of everything British, particularly British imported goods and grains, rages throughout the country. The egocentric Sandip, a guest in Nikhil's home, is a fierce proponant of Swadeshi. Sandip finds himself passionately attracted to Bimala; he idealizes her as the epitome of "Mother" India, and pursues Bimala without reservation. Flattered by Sandip's attention, Bimala begins to question the nature of her marriage, and the three embark upon an emotional journey that will forever alter their lives, just as India begins a lengthy period of upheaval and unrest. Of the three, Sandip is transparantly shallow, while Nikhil thoughtfully considers every aspect before embarking on a course of action. Both men indulge in lengthy discourses, but the introduction by Anita Desai does much to frame this novel in the appropriate perspective. The allegorical nature of this tale is evident as the characters plunge headlong into the future.

This book is largely a parable about the conflicts in Bengal in the early twentieth century. Tagore uses a triangle of husband and wife and outside suitor. Bimala, the wife is a sort of central figure as the novel largely revolves around her conflicting feelings towards both her husband Nikhil and Sandip. She feels excited by Sandip's passion but also has a bond with her husband. Nikhil is the reserved and dignified religious man who is not swayed by the mob mentality that was sweeping through the Bengal state. Sandip is the passionate, xenophobic leader pushing for the immediate gain. The narrative is written threefold. All three characters take turns telling the story from their own point of view. This is an interesting effect that adds dimension to the tale. Tagore obviously feels empathy towards Nikhil but he refrains from being too judgmental toward Sandip. Bimala becomes the most sympathetic character simply because she faces the most ambivalence in the book. There are many blatant political overtures in this book but I find that it works well as human drama as well. You needn't be knowledgeable about the conflicts in India to appreciate the moral dilemmas presented in this tale. Reading this book made it easy to understand why Tagore was awarded a Nobel Prize.

One aspect that non-Indian readers will completely fail to realise is the boldness with which Tagore used to weave his imagination based on stark solid reality. Tagore was socially ostracised for his depiction of the passion (always cloaked and shrouded in the garbs of the civilsation, norms of the society) of an honourable aristrocatic married lady, which acts as the metaphor for the passions the society was undergoing in those turbulent days of political upheaval against the British Empire. A brilliant picture of the torment of the human character caught in the web of desire of ecstacy and quest for contentment, peace and bliss, this narrative draws a beautiful parallel to the miopic frenzy of the mob in its quest for subversion with the destructive consequences of unbridled passion, and an individual's attempt to bring harmony and order in the chaos, attaining salvation. Technically brilliant, this disturbingly beautiful tale is another of Tagore's timeless creation.

Baumgartner, a German Jew, gets to India as a teenager, "escaping" the Holocaust. He makes a living there until his Indian patron dies, then retires at an early age into poverty. He never gets over the death of his mother, who refused to emigrate. He is a totally passive personality whose one joy is caring for stray cats in his small apartment. Not only is he a dull protagonist, but Desai withholds the few interesting parts of his life until toward the end. Is Desai investigating bigger themes, by looking at the world and Indian society through the eyes of such a character? Is she trying to prove that even such a person is worth exploring? More likely the former, since this is not really an in depth character study. The events pallidly reflected are interesting, Desai is a good writer, Baumgartner arouses some feelings of empathy, so book is readable.

Baumgartner's Bombay is a memorable and haunting tale of the holocaust and the resulting new wave of the dispossessed and grieving let loose on the world--in this case cast adrift in India. Baumgartner neither understands nor feels at home in the East--an incomprehension that is amply reciprocated by his new colleagues and acquaintances. The ending is a bit disappointing but the novel as a whole reverberates in the mind long after you put it down...

This is the first book I have read by Anita Desai. It was memorable and thoroughly satisfying. One could not say that it was enjoyable as that would betray the emotions experienced on reading the book. I came away enthralled, though disenchanted with the world and its occupants, to say nothing of being more than a little depressed.

The eponymous character is a kindly, benevolent old man, a foreigner in India, who is totally out of kilter with the world in which he lives. His fondness for cats betrays his need for relationships, given the evident absence of personal contact in his everyday experiences. In many ways, the only satisfying aspect of his life is the past, where he spends much of his time reflecting. His sole relationship with any meaning is with another extremely unhappy, demoralised expatiate who hates everyting about the circumstances in which she now finds herself.

Together, they make a sorry pair. He is kind, mild-mannered, gentle, unassuming and much put upon. She is much more aggressive, though an anchronism, living very much in the better days of yesteryear. The world in which they now live is extremely unfogiving and unkind to them. The past they left behind, however, was equally unattractive.

The ending was in many ways a blessing. The misery of the surroundings and the leading characters will live in my mind for a long time, as will the conduct of the self-absorbed young foreigner who brought this tale to a climax. In many ways, he is the epitome of all that is unacceptable today. The small kindnesses he experienced are disregarded and his selfish demands take precedence over anyone else's needs.

If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller full of action, you have come to the wrong place. If, however, you want to enjoy a real story which challenges all of the emotions as well as having a beginning, a middle and an end then this book will deeply move you.

All in all, a very sad story, made all the sadder by some of the most beautiful, compact writing you will ever encounter.

This author is really good. She is a highly skilled narrator with a keen sensitivity to detail. It is, in fact, that detail which makes warrants the 4-star rating. It must be said, however, that this is not Ms. Desai's best work. The character development in this book is not up to par. Of the two characters in this book, Maya and Gautama, only that of Maya has been adequately developed. While it is true that the book is a study of Maya, - her self-absorption, her weakness, her narrow perspectives, her dependence on her husband and her father, her delusions about her love of life - Gautama's character needs to be better defined if only as a point of juxtaposition, to better describe Maya as it were. Desai does other things in the book very well though. It is a good trip through Maya's life and her mind, however shallow her character, because Desai alternately draws the reader into a complicity with Maya and also a distance from her.

A good, poetic book which evokes feminine fancy and reality with a blend of silky smoothness and coarse roughness. Maya is smooth and silky whereas Gautam is rough and coarse. This book makes you feel, perceive and then act. Anita Desai has a tragic vision of woman's life, and she has combined an intricate and sensitive style of her own with the quintessence of reality. The book explores the turbulent and emotional life of Maya, the character, and 'Maya' the illusion itself. Maya the character bends and breaks whereas illusion stays.

I really liked this course. The course work and examples went by quickly and painlessly. The tests made you think and apply more than just the basic materials presented. I especially liked the unbiased explantions and insight into the Microsoft product objectives.

The ebook is good but the interface seems a bit odd when you want to return to the place where youa had left reading. This is quite bad and one can waste a lot of time searching where he was ?

I found this book to be an excellent source for engineering students and practitioners. The distinguishing feature of the book is the way in which it introduces reader to complex modelling concepts in an easy to understand manner, covering both ordinary and partial differential equations. The book is rich in practical examples, and useful tables and graphs. Earlier prints suffer from typographical errors that are found to be corrected in the latest print of the book.

The book presents the disturbed state concept, or the concept of correction functions, as it applies to the modeling of engineering materials. The book is well written, simple to understand, and full of new ideas.

I take great pride in stating that my thesis under the author, Professor C.S. Desai, at Virginia Tech in 1979 was the beginning of what the author has named "The Disturbed State Concept." The thesis was subsequently published as a book:

"Fundamental Aspects of the Normality Rule and Their Role in Deriving Constitutive Laws of Soils," EP, 1980.

At that time a flier for the book read, "This book which establishes a link between theoretical mechanics and engineering is the only one available of its kind." The same can be said of the book by Professor Desai.

In essence, the Disturbed State Concept (DSC) says that for some materials, well founded equations of theoretical mechanics apply only when a material has attained some characteristic state called the fully adjusted state (FA) by the author. For other states, we must incorporate suitably chosen correction functions in order to model the OBSERVED material behavior. The correction functions attain a value of unity at the the characteristic state.

A typical example of the characteristic state is the critical state attained by a class of geomaterials at some unique combination of stress, strain, and internal structure.

The author asserts that with the help of DSC, we are able to apply some standard concepts of theoretical mechanics, e.g. the Drucker-Prager associative plasticity to a nonstandard material behavior such as nonassociative plasticity.

The beauty of the concept lies in its simplicity -- to an extent that the concept appears childish at times -- yet the concept gives us a powerful tool for making some abstract notions of mechanics work for engineering.

In the beginning chapter on introduction, the author sounds like a professor of Budhists Philosophy. Here is an excerpt.

"For a given material, the fully adjusted state can be described as the critical state at which the material approaches the state of invariant properties......The critical state is like the state Buddhist call NIRVANA, in which all biases, pushes, and pulls, due to KARMIC action (like nonsymmetric forces on materials, say, causing shear stresses), disappear, leading to the equilibrium or isotropic state."

An interesting chapter on DSC has recently appeared in the following book.

"Modeling in Geomechanics," Eds. M. Zaman, G. Gioda and J. Booker, Wiley, 2000.

"Germs of War: is a fast action book that will appeal to those who like international intrigue with a biological twist.

Author Ketan Desai is obviously very well-informed about the destructive capabilities of biological weapons, and uses his knowledge to construct a plausible, unique and fast-paced thriller that is at once absorbing and unsettling.

The premise of the book is that there are forces in the world able and eager to wreak havoc on humankind--and superior expertise and eternal vigilance are necessary to defeat them. The author uses the names of actual medical and political institutions to make his point. For example, some of the action takes place at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. There an American doctor with an inflated ego (not on the staff)is easy prey to flattery and consequent cooperation he later has serious cause to regret. The doctor's female assistant is a counterfoil whose quick thinking and equally fast action keep the international terrorists off balance. Desai makes evident the threat posed to humanity when superior scientific knowledge is coupled with mad fanaticism. In the end the reader is very glad "Germs of War" is fiction and not today's news release!

Many Leftists, myself included, have spoken against the negative effects that globalization has had on the working classes in both the United States and the Third World. However, if Marx were alive today, what would his position be?

In "Marx's Revenge," Meghnad Desai proposes the startling thesis that Marx would support the current phenomenon of globalization. According to Desai, a truly socialist society can develop only when capitalism exhausts itself as a creative and progressive force. As recent events have shown, this has not yet happened. Capitalism is still a productive and vital force for better or worse.

Desai supports his thesis by discussing three variants of socialism that arose in the 20th Century: Socialism outside Capitalism (SoC), Socialism within Capitalism (SwC), and Socialism beyond Capitalism (SbC).

SoC represents the socialist society that was attempted within the Soviet Union. This version represents the Stalinist "socialism in one country" model which held that socialism and capitalism were destined to compete against each other. The system that was able to produce the most economic benefit to its citizens was to be declared the "winner." However, the corruption endemic in the Soviet system and its inability to produce the surplus capital necessary for economic growth and development led to the demise of this system with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

SwC represents the attempt by the developed capitalist nations to develop a "humanized" capitalism with a generous welfare state. This system largely worked from 1945 through the end of the 1960s. However, SwC was made possible only through the widespread Keynesian consensus held by the West after World War II that allowed contries to manipulate domestic financial markets for the funding of domestic programs. With the advent of globalization and the resulting liquidity of international capital, this project was dealt a severe blow beginning in the late 1970s.

SbC represents the only true alternative to capitalism. According to Desai, SbC represents a "self-conscious society" that develops when capitalism reaches its limit and can no longer act as a progressive force for the economic betterment of society. What will SbC look like?

This leads me to the central criticism of Desai's book. Desai offers an excellent historical overview of the development of the various competing forms of socialism as well as an intricate discussion of Marx's theories of profit and growth as put forth in Das Kapital. However, he has little to say regarding the pragmatic considerations involving what a true socialist society will look like. In fact, the last sentence in "Marx's Revenge" states: "Will there ever be Socialism beyond Capitalism?" (p. 315). This question remains unanswered.

To get an idea of what such a society would look like, I recommend reading David Schweickart's book "After Capitalism." Both books are important in that they offer hope that the current late, decadent stage of capitalism will be the final one and that a more just and humane order can be built in its place.

Awesome book! with the e-trainer cd, you will find that all the exams are quite easy

This is a story of a poor Indian family who are being torn apart by illness and alcohol. The children of the family work and fight to keep there family together. On the way they have to deal with change and tragedy. This book had a typical ending which is very easy to predict, and had no real surprises. However the characters in the book where strong and determined, they keep the reader reading by the way they got through life on so little. The book shows that if you want something bad enough it is possible to get it.

This book is a vivid story, about how happiness can flourish even among the poorest of people. The children in this family are not only struggling to survive, they are trying to be happy at the same time by adapting to the new things that come into their lives. Life is truly a rollercoaster - it has its ups and downs but this novel shows that there is always some way out of misery. The contrasts between city- and countrylife is also very vividly described by the author, she has captured the spirit of Bombay, India, in captivating words.

Village By The Sea Is A Touching Story Of A Poor Indian Family, Living In Bombay India. The Main Characters are the 2 oldest Children Lila and Hari, and how they raise the whole family and live through the hard times. At times you really feel Indian climate. One of my favorite parts is Desai's description of butterflys. It's beautiful.

You can have this book an introduction to SQL 7 if you are new to version 7. Its coverage cannot lead you even to a bare pass. You DEFINITELY need other resources for your exam. Finished this book and conducted a Transcender test, wow... poor, I know how much did I get from this book.

If you are familiar with database administration for SQL 6.5, then this book hits the facts hard and fast for passing the Exam for SQL 7.0 Administration. This is an extremely hard exam...even for Microsoft. This exam is not for the "faint of heart".

The SQL 7.0 Administration exam is designed for individuals that have a lot of industry experience and a good working knowledge of the product. The book does an excellent job at preparing one for the exam.

Some of the supposed errors that other people have "found" are in fact really not errors. One of the errors about hardware requirements was actually an oversight on Microsoft's part. I believe if you check their site, you will find that the requirements match up pretty well. Some of the other comments indicate that the readers are not overly familiar with SQL.

Great book, two thumbs up for the authors for concisely presenting useful information for experienced users. New Riders has always been a favorite publisher of mine and I will continue to use them.

Bob Collier MCSE + I, MCT, A+

Working with SQL 7.0 and this made the test easiest enough to pass, but make sure you know how to use the product.