Shipping Note: This item usually arrives at your doorstep in 10-15 daysAuthor: M J AkbarPublisher: Chronicle BooksYear: 2003Language: EnglishPages: 404ISBN/UPC (if available): 8180280039 DescriptionByline anthologizes MJ Akbar’s finest writing over the last decade, bringing together essays that reflect the author’s versatility and range. The book is divided into six seamless sections, each with its own identity, woven together by MJ Akbar’s delectably informal prose.Travel is the first section in which the author shares his passion for history and the occasional fable, the obscure detail, the glorious and the ludicrous. This is followed by Politics and History in which the reader is provided a view of some events and people in the recent past with all the quirks and whimsy that characterize the great as well as the mundane. Cricket Chirping deals with the game that MJ Akbar loves to watch but only obliquely. How else could a piece on the 2001 Indian Cricket tour of South Africa close with a reference to Gandhi’s concern with sexual abstinence? As the author says in an essay in the next section Sidelines (those delightfully off centre pieces): That train of thought has moved…But that is the way with trains. They must travel.Memories is the most personal and the most autobiographical part of the entire selection, mixing regret, nostalgia and deeply felt sorrow for the friends and times gone forever.The book ends with a short section entitled On a Personal Note in which James Bond must live to die another day, The Telegraph has to learn to live beyond the age of 20 and Dev Anand remains forever young. COMMENTJournalism is the only profession that permits you to travel without making you a traveling salesman. You become, in a way, a traveling purchaser…Words are the currency of this transaction: you buy images with words, and then you pass them on with words as well.-MJ AkbarContentsTRAVEL9/11The HowAllah ConspiracyAll the Views that’s Fit to PrintA 9/11 DiaryTurkish DelightsA Turkey DiaryAtta TurksAn Arab ArcThe Holy Trial: A Jordan DiaryHistory’s Dice Game: An Israel DiaryA Moor’s DiaryOne Ear for the MatadorWild West, Mild WestA California DiaryA Puff of Smoke in CaliforniaHungry in AmericaThe Fall and Rise of Erectile DysfunctioningMy Fair LadyA Traveller’s NotebookLight AfricaKenya Diary: Was Bob a Spelling Mistake?A Bihari in Mauritius Finds Life without LalooSouth by South East: Some FTs in South AfricaNeighbours: Mostly FriendlyTo Nepal: Exhilaration with a Pensive TouchThe War of Blood Money: Dhaka NotebookYour Breathly: A Lahore DiaryV & 7 Up: A Dhaka DiaryA CEO in Olives: An Islamabad DiaryLiberty had a Close Shave in KabulThe Lord of Wars: A Herat DiaryBreakfast with Ismail, Lunch with DostumEurope: Plus ca ChangeA Foreigner’s DictionaryPrince au Port: A Portugal DiaryA Paris DiaryBritain: English Spoken HereTraveller’s NotesPagan Christmas: A London DiarySongs of HistoryA Season of Mist and Mellow FruitfulnessA Picture Postcard, Slightly DampAre Bengalis a Martial Race?Dubliner: An Anglo-Irish DiaryWar, Peace and Something in BetweenA Kochi Diary: How Green is may SeacoastDal Life: A Kashmir DiaryKargil: A Madness in their MethodPOLITICS AND HISTORYThe Revenge of the PoorBetween Foot and Mouth: A Heart Disease from HistoryStalin’s Smile and Churchill’s PassionBose Preferred Indian Unity to Congress DuplicityRole Modes: Look Who is Acting NowFrom Awara to Yes Boss: A History of IndiaA Gap of Imagination in the Last 1,000 YearsWas Jawaharlal Nehru a Hindu?Is Atal Behari Vajpayee a Hindu?A Mahatma’s EarthquakeA Summit GlossaryBreakfast at Pervez’s How Do You Rule India?Politics of the Lynch MobWhy Modi Deserves Nishan-e-PakistanFawlty GlobalizationThe British Empire is Dead, FinallyA Word or Two About the CongressCRICKET, CHIRPINGAustralian Chicken and Lanka CurryCaptain Outrageous: Mix Sport with Politics!The Scandal of the Indian BookieIs Television a Turn On for Cricket?Take Your PickPraying for a MiracleSIDELINESThe Where-Hair SyndromeHome Is Where the Heart IsGive Pakistani Humour a ChanceTheopompus: The First JournalistA Train of ThoughtDead Woman’s TalesAnd That Will Be Quite EnoughHand-recounts at Calcutta AirportA Horror StoryPoetry’s Love LostWords on a Foolish TombThere Was a Young Man With a BeardSome of My Best Friends are Fruit FliesWhy is that Humbug Tony Greig on TV?Handle With Care, She’s From CalcuttaRevenge of the BihariA Trend in the RiverGood AdviceMEMORIESGoodbye, My Friend, and Sleep WellShould Calcutta be Reborn?The Seventies Set and the First GoodbyeThe Last Memory of a Young ManFrom the Middle AgesThe Laughter Died YoungThe Pinprick was Mightier than the SwordUdayan SharmaPhoolanQuestion to God: Why? Why? Why?ONE A PERSONAL NOTEThe Man Who Could Never be WrongA Toast to the TelegraphSome Thoughts in a Heavy Cold
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