Skip to main content

Listening To Grasshoppers - Arundhati Roy

Listening to Grasshoppers is the latest book by Arundhati Roy. In this book she combines brilliant political insight and razor sharp prose. The book is collection of essays. In these, she takes a hard look at the underbelly of the world's largest democracy, and shows how the journey that Hindu nationalism and neo-liberal economic reforms began together in the early 1990s is unravelling in dangerous ways. Starting from 2001 attack on Parliament, 2002 Gujrat genocide till the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai. Her book gives us a look into these incidents with a different perspective. She shows us how the poorest of us are denied justice by Indian establishment. 'The Briefing', included as an appendix, is a fictional text that brings together many of the issue central to the collection. As it tracks the fault line that threatens to destroy India's precarious future, Listening to Grasshoppers asks fundamental questions about democracy itself, a political system that has, by virtue of being considered 'The best available option', been put beyond doubt and correction.
Unlike other non-fiction books on India. Which are either India-bashing or India-praising. This is none of them but at the same time both. It shows us what was our strength and what are our weaknesses.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Destination Moon - Pallava Bagla, Subhadra Menon

In 2008 Indian Flag was planted on lunar soil. But how did Indian reached their? What started with sending sounding rockets for the benefit of the newly formed developing country ended up being the leading space programme in the world? It gives all the details on how the Indian Space Programme evolved. Starting literally from scratch, and fight foreign embargoes and technology denial regimes it evolved in to country’s if not world finest institution. It shows how it started under the visionaries like Vikram Sarbai, Homi Bhaba, and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and was subsequently supported by different governments. The space programme it self shows that if given in the right hands and in down in the best way possible it can not only be India’s best but also world’s best. It is surely inspiration for all the crumbling government institutions. In the later chapters it also gives us an insight into the future of ISRO. It also have the interview Dr G.Madhavan Nairof ISRO, Dr....

Negative Vote

This year I won’t be able to vote because I will turn 18 on 12th of May. So I have decided to ask as many people as I could to vote this year in this LS election. But who ever I told to vote said that whom we should vote for no one is good. In reality also all the member hardly differ from each other. Every on speaks in the same voice. No says something good for which we should vote for. And today’s youth is not that fool who will be misled by there false rhetoric. So the best way to not to vote for those people is not to go for votes. But in this way a whole generation will be created who will have no belief in this democratic system. Previously when there was the paper voting system negative votes can be caste in many ways but nowadays the with EVMs this is not possible. But what if a voter doesn’t like any of the candidates. His only option as I said above could be not to vote. But is that fair. Election Commission must start the Negative Voting system. At least then we could in rea...

Thank god it’s over!

2008 what a damn year this was. From start to the end this can’t get any worse than this. Nothing good has happened this year except that Manish have called me. This is just horrible year right out of some horror movie. Thank god it’s over now or perhaps I am going to die. I just hope that next year turns out to be much better. We will surely see how Obama is going to work in his oval office. Then we have a major task ahead of us. This is really a colossus task isn’t. I don’t know whether I am going to be able to give vote. Most of my friends will be able to but it is very sad. And I am really going to miss school days. I don’t know how the college is going to be. So get good cakes and make this year really great. Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.