Milet Bilingual Visual Dictionary: English-Bengali Review

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Milet Bilingual Visual Dictionary: English-Bengali ReviewI bought this book on the recommendation of a couple of language learning websites in order to build my Bengali vocabulary, so can't comment on its usefulness to Bangladeshi kids. However to me the English-speaking adult Bengali student, it was excellent value at $20, with 216 large full-colour pages and a simple clear layout of picture-arrow-english word-bengali word. Useful sections included: body parts, animal kingdom, house, personal articles, fruits & vegetables.
A couple of drawbacks however: first, in addition to genuinely useful beginner everyday vocabulary, there are extraneous sections which must be borderline useless to even the more advanced learner (for example phases of the moon, hydroelectric energy or gothic cathedral). And the level of detail is a little overwhelming (for the "communications" section we get words not only for video camera, but for "data display", "cassette compartment", "battery eject switch"). I suppose you can skip past all of this, but it's frustrating to have to page through to get to the good stuff and to have so much vocabulary in front of you and not feel the need to learn any of it.
Secondly, this is one of a series (there is also English-Turkish, English-French, etc.) so none of the vocabulary is specific to Bangladesh or even South Asia (no Bangladeshi foods, locations, seasons, etc). This also results in a lot of words simply being transcribed in the Bengali script (national park is translated as "nashnal paark" for example).
Overall, this is no substitute for a proper dictionary or Bengali textbook (apart from anything else, you need to know the script first), but as someone pointed out there aren't too many books available to students of Bengali. So as a cheap and attractive addition to a library for the Bengali learner, this is a good book to have.Milet Bilingual Visual Dictionary: English-Bengali Overview

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Romancing with Life Review

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Romancing with Life ReviewDev Anand, Dilip Kumar, and Raj Kapoor, were the first three superstars of Hindi cinema, before there were superstars. Each was born within a couple of years of each other (Dev Anand in 1923, Raj Kapoor in 1924, and Dilip Kumar in 1922), each started his career around the same time (Dev Anand in 1946, Raj Kapoor in 1943, Dilip Kumar in 1946), and while Raj Kapoor died in 1988, and Dilip Kumar has been in retirement for more than a decade, Dev Anand continues to go strong, acting in and directing a movie every few years for over six decades now, the latest one released in 2005. Dev Anand had the screen persona of a dashing, evergreen, ever youthful happy-go-lucky city chap, with a legion of a mostly female fan following. Even in real life he has carried himself with the same elan, and at 85 years is an inspiration for many people.
The book is a celebration of Dev Anand's (Dharam Dev Anand is his full name, as he informs us) life and times, and his romance with life. It proceeds in pretty much a chronological fashion, starting with his childhood and ending with the year 2007, when the last chapter was written. It is written in breezy and mostly frank and honest style. Whether it is his sexual education, first on the upper berth of a train, and later while shooting for his first movie, whether his struggles to find a footing in the Hindi movie industry, or his encounters with the censor authorities, or his crush for Zeenat Aman, or his first love with Suraiya, and the heartbreaking end to the affair, or his visit to communist Soviet Union, he comes across as refreshingly honest.
The book is divided into numbered chapters, each small. Sometimes only a couple of pages, but rarely more than 4-5 pages. Each chapter covers a specific episode. So you get one chapter each for Guru Dutt, Kisore Kumar, his brother Vijay Anand, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi... with a brief reminiscence by Dev.
The language is quite ok in the book, the prose is fairly engaging, perhaps a result of Dev Anand's Lahore Government College education (one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the country in then undivided India, pre-Aug 14/15 1947).
Surprisingly, and refreshingly so, the book has a fairly comprehensive 12 page index, something you would not expect from a movie star's autobio.
However...
While the book 400+ page book makes for quick and easy reading, it has shortcomings too.
You will learn nothing of the craft of film making from reading this book. You will learn nothing about the great movies that Dev Anand starred in. Whether Dev Anand's collaboration with the great director and actor and close friend Guru Dutt (Jaal and Baazi), nor the fantastic musical collaboration with SD Burman A Sa Re Ga Ma Tribute to Commemorate the Centenary Celebrationa, nor the immense contributions of Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand (both brothers of Dev Anand) in such movies as 'Tere Ghar Ke Samne', 'The Guide', 'Johny Mera Naam', 'Jewel Thief', 'Kala Bazar', 'Nau do gyarah'. You have to go through Dev Anand's filmography at the end of the book to realize that Raj Khosla had directed Dev Anand in some past greats like 'Bombai Ka Babu', 'Kala Pani', 'CID', and 'Solva Saal'. What made the great movies that Dev Anand starred in great? Why is it that Dev Anand did not have a single truly commercial or artistically acclaimed hit after he started directing his movies? Consider these truly unremarkable ventures like 'Ishq Ishq Ishq', 'Sau Crore ', 'Awwal Number', 'Gangster', 'Mr Prime Minister', 'Censor', 'Lootmaar' that Dev Anand directed and starred in? What were the lessons that Dev Anand learn from these disasters? Introspection? No. He acknowledges that 'Ishq Ishq Ishq' was one of the biggest disasters of his career. Why? You don't know.
Perhaps the style of his book can be summed up with a line from his movie, Hum Dono: "barbadiyon ka shog manana fizool tha, barbadiyon ka jashn manata chala gaya" (loosely and inarticulately translated as 'lamenting disasters was a waste, I celebrated disasters').Romancing with Life Overview

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Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India Review

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Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India ReviewI really enjoyed this book. Although its purpose was somewhat different, I found myself thinking: This is what Eat, Pray, Love could have been. I mean that Miranda Kennedy's new book is not self-absorbed, not overly packaged, and not glossily superficial in its conclusions. I also did not find it boring in the least (I believe another reviewer had that experience.)
Several things struck me very positively about Sideways on a Scooter. First of all, I now have insights into the Indian culture that I might never have had; and not big-stroke, world-stage, political/economic insights, as much as intricate and human insights. I really enjoyed getting to know the people, the neighborhoods, and the customs Ms. Kennedy encountered as a young foreign correspondent. One moment I was shocked, the next touched. I shook my head in dismay, and rooted whole-heartedly for the underdogs - the upwardly non-mobile, the jaded, the cats. I rooted for Ms. Kennedy too, the young woman desperately seeking independence and belonging at the same time.
There was a little ambiguity at moments in terms of past/present orientation, but I have to say that I much prefer that to slick and overly controlled. This book felt ever so slightly messy, and I easily became comfortable with the medium being the message. There were no tidy lives in Sideways on a Scooter.
The book ends rather quietly and perhaps with almost too little denouement. But there is an epilogue, which is pretty satisfying for those of us who want to know how things have gone since then. I felt a little like giving the book a hug at the end. In fact I think I may have.
Would I recommend this to a friend? Yes, especially if that friend were female and interested in other cultures, or in the bold and trembling adventures of youth.
Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India Overview

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