Two reviews from Mahbub Husain Khan
Peregrinations of a diplomat . . .
Since the liberation of Bangladesh there have been three critical periods in the history of our country. These were 1975, when the Father of the Nation was assassinated in August and then General Ziaur Rahman took over power in November, 19891991 , when General Ershad's army backed government was toppled and democracy was 'born again' with general elections held in 1991, and 2007-2008 when the army and some countries backed a caretaker government into power. Krishnan Srinivasan, who was India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh from 1989 to 1992 , wrote his memoirs , which was published in 2008 , which covers the 1989-1991 era. The Indian subcontinent is an elusive quarry. Few pens can adequately convey the Indian subcontinent's magnificent diversity. Many historians become bogged down in dreary lists of feuding dynasties, ancient and modern or its fanciful cultural and political adaptations . But Srinivasan is aware of the potential pitfalls . He shows his experience in not being over-ambitious and his astute commentary on the developments during his tenure in Bangladesh is a delight to read. For over 400 pages , Srinivasan leads an accurate marshalling of facts , in the format of a diary , without losing sight of the political and social aspects during his stay in Bangladesh. His book gains from his personal meetings with the politicians , civil servants and leaders of civil society , into bringing to light the whys and the wherefores of the crucial three years into the readers' grasp. This is the first book to be published of an Indian envoy's diaries during a diplomatic posting , and the first book I have read by any envoy of any country , posted in Bangladesh . His consultations in India during his stay in Bangladesh and the outcome of his diplomatic efforts in Bangladesh stand out to be mature and instructive. That Bangladesh entered a new age in history after 1991 with its own socio-political scenario is brought into sharp focus in this book . The title of the book, Jamdani Revolution, underlines the unique experience of two women leaders who have been governing Bangladesh for the past twenty years, and we can appreciate much about what followed 1992 ,after Srinivasan left Dhaka . After his arrival in Bangladesh in March 1989, and the presentation of his credentials to General Ershad , the first minister he met was Anwar Hussain Manju , my contemporary at Dhaka University ( he was a student of geography and I was in physics ) , both of us being students of Fazlul Haq Hall. And the first senior civil servant he met (apart from the Foreign Secretary ) was Syed Shamim Ahsan, who was my Deputy Commissioner at Rangpur, when I was SDO of Gaibandha in late 1971 and was a proud officer who ushered in the victorious Bangladesh Liberation Forces into the subdivision (which is now a district). Srinivasan's accounts of people -to-people contact and two-track diplomacy will entertain readers in Bangladesh and be an eye-opener for those Bangladeshis who have left Bangladsesh to live abroad before 1989 . This is a book I would recommend for professionals , diplomats and the lay reader. The good news for potential readers is that this book is available at Omni Books at Dhanmondi. Before I finish the review , let me quote a few lines s from his diary entry for December 7th , 1990 : "… A momentous week , which saw the abrupt collapse of the Ershad government , and events described as a 'revolution' by some and as a second coming by others, especially in India … " His book describes such history-making episodes with factual details, which occurred during his tenure in Bangladesh. . . . . . . . Silence of old churches I have confessed before in my writings and reviews about literary topics and books that nowadays in my spare time I read books, and that too mostly thrillers and travel books. The first book by Kathy Reichs that I read was during my visit to Canada in 1998 . This was Deja Dead , a murder mystery set in the summer of 1994 in Montreal. Incidentally this was the first book written by Kathy Reichs. Since then I have read and reviewed other books by Kathy Reichs , but it was only the other day that I found the second murder thriller by Kathy Reichs, Death Du Jour , at Omni Books, the bookshop of my friend Neo Mendez . Appropriately enough , the title of the English novel , is in English and French as the locale is Montreal, the bilingual city of Canada. . The novel is set in the mould of the well-worn forensic thrillers of Patricia Cornwell. Kathy Reichs' detective heroine, Dr. Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist with a gift for sticking her nose in and a refusal to take no for an answer .The mystery does not break much new ground , but as in many mystery stories, particularly those by Agatha Christie , the ending is a surprise. The science of forensic anthropology is detailed in description and easy to follow, if the reader has the stomach for descriptions of wounds and mutilated body parts.The genuineness of the setting and the technicalities have been possible because Reichs herself is a forensic anthropologist who works part of the year at Montreal. It is a terribly cold night in March at Montreal , where Dr Temperance Brennan digs carefully in the eerie silence of an old church. She is there to exhume the remains of Sister Elizabeth Nicolet, a nun who died in 1888 and is now proposed for possible sainthood . Then, just hours after she returned home , she is called to the scene of a horrific arson, where a young family has perished in mysterious circumstances . Tempe gathers evidence from the arson, a sinister cult activity in the Carolinas , an ice storm in Montreal , and confronts a killer out of control whose motto seems to be 'Another day. Another death. Death du Jour'. The serial killer is finally apprehended with the help of Dr Temperance Brennan's expertise , and teamwork by the Montreal City Police. Here again the book's success (it has been on the bestseller list for quite some time) is because it offers a vivid look at Montreal seen from the perspectives of some one who wasn't born there and stays in the city by choice. Her description of the city is enthralling with its two dominant and often warring cultures . It is the setting and also the story for which the book is worth reading . I do not want to spoil the readers' engrossed reading of the book by revealing the ending or the procedures leading to the solution.
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