Sunday Long Reads: Return of King Kohli, Umesh Kulkarni on showing gore, remembering Ela Bhatt, book reviews, and more

Still rising: The return of King Kohli Virat Kohli has never missed an opportunity to blow a raspberry at real and imagined critics. He has often positioned himself as a victim of the imagined detractors either to motivate himself or because it was his natural inclination. In Australia at the World T20, with the fault-finders sharpening their knives, Kohli showed that ‘The Virat Story’ was far from over. What wasn’t against him in the recent India-Pakistan World T20 game? He had lost the captaincy crown, he had dealt with sliding mental health, there was a burning feeling of victimisation, those fiery Pakistan pacers had to be dealt with, the fans at the 100k capacity MCG were screaming and the match was on a slippery eel. Worse, the intense game had infused self-doubts in him. READ MORE In ‘Not Just Cricket’, Pradeep Magazine weaves cricketing history with lived experiences to build up a fascinating portrait of contemporary India Not Just Cricket: A Reporter’s Journey Through Modern India by Pradeep Magazine; HarperCollins; Rs 599 (Source: amazon.in) Not Just Cricket: A Reporter’s Journey Through Modern India by Pradeep Magazine; HarperCollins; Rs 599 (Source: amazon.in) While growing up in small-town Mirzapur, sandwiched between Allahabad and Varanasi, I wanted to become a test cricketer. I had a book on the game by Geoffrey Boycott. As a child, I used to spend hours practising and the high point of my cricketing ability was praise by former test cricketer Mushtaq Ali, when I scored 34 runs against a very good bowling unit of Hindalco, whom he used to coach. But like all youngsters from lower middle-class families, my dream was shattered due to the pressures of education. But the passion for cricket remained. So, when I saw the book by Pradeep Magazine, I just had to read it. READ MORE Violence is in the mind…not in showing gore’: Umesh Kulkarni A still from the docu series Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom A still from the docu series Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom Writer-director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni’s gritty docu-drama Murder in a Courtroom is the recent addition to Netflix’s true crime series, Indian Predator. The three-episodes, which released on October 28, recounts the lynching of dreaded criminal Akku Yadav at a Nagpur court on August 13, 2004, by a mob, mainly comprising women of Nagpur’s Kasturba Nagar slum who came armed with chilli powder, knives and stones. Kulkarni puts the spotlight on these plucky women, who unflinchingly share details of Yadav’s criminal activities and the killing. It’s also a story of how the system failed them, even when they were terrorised and assaulted by Yadav for nearly a decade. READ MORE Advertisement Remarkable anthology of short stories, ‘A Case Of Indian Marvels’ marks diversity, range and depth of fiction in India In the anthology, stories from outside the metropolis, and by women, confront and explore desire head-on. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock) In the anthology, stories from outside the metropolis, and by women, confront and explore desire head-on. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock) There’s an old rule in show business, a compact that performers of comedy and variety shows have with the host or Master of Ceremonies: “Don’t oversell the act.” The MC should not, for example, call a comedian the “funniest man alive” or a performer a “once-in-a-generation talent”. Just with its title, A Case Of Indian Marvels: Dazzling Stories from the Country’s Finest New Writers breaks that rule. Yet, the anthology edited by David Davidar – one of India’s most well-respected editors and a writer in his own right – almost lives up to that boast. READ MORE From veteran journalist TJS George, a personal rather than objective account of the India story in The Dismantling of India in 35 Portraits Advertisement The Dismantling of India in 35 Portraits; TJS George; Simon and Schuster; 400 pages; Rs 899 (Photo: Amazon.in) The Dismantling of India in 35 Portraits; TJS George; Simon and Schuster; 400 pages; Rs 899 (Photo: Amazon.in) “The dismantling of India’’ is an eye catching title, suggestive of the major upheavals wrought in the country under the present regime, with a reputation for authoritarianism and communally divisive agenda. Unfortunately, the book does not live up to its provocative title. It attempts to tell the story of India through brief portraits of 35 Indians in a wide variety of fields who helped shape the country’s destiny for better or worse. The lacuna is that the calibre and content of the thumbnail sketches varies. At its best, the stylishly written prose offers insights, analysis and delightful anecdotes. On the other hand, some of the portrayals are one-sided and somewhat superficial as they seem culled from secondary sources — perhaps, taken from the writer’s columns without fresh input and thought. READ MORE How did different species come about in the animal kingdom? Plum-headed parakeet (Photo: Ranjit Lal) Plum-headed parakeet (Photo: Ranjit Lal) Birders often argue vociferously over the identity of certain birds – like those notorious ‘little brown jobs’ – the warblers, many species of which resemble each other so closely that frankly only a DNA analysis would accurately pinpoint their identity. What astonishes me, however, is how all these different species came about in the first place and this holds true not only for similar looking birds but of every living creature on the planet. READ MORE Moni Mohsin returns with another installment of Butterfly’s reflections on society and politics in Between You, Me and the Four Walls Between You, Me and the Four Walls; Moni Mohsin; Penguin; 232 pages; Rs 299; (Source: Amazon.in) Between You, Me and the Four Walls; Moni Mohsin; Penguin; 232 pages; Rs 299; (Source: Amazon.in) At one point in Moni Mohsin’s Between You, Me and the Four Walls, the fictional narrator Butterfly — who is on top of Pakistan’s social ladder with ancestral land, an “Oxen (Oxford)”-educated husband, and connections extending up to Dubai and London — is seen responding to a mob attack on a Pakistani Christian couple. Killed in a village near Lahore for allegedly disrespecting the Quran, the couple was part of the extended family of Martha, Butterfly’s “sweepress”, who seeks comfort from her mistress after the harrowing incident. READ MORE

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