Books from My Shelves
By Dr VK Bahuguna
Books are our intellectual fodder and reading books as a hobby is a must for evolving into a complete personality as books provide nourishment for our mind. I have been always been buying books during travel from the airport book shops and now order from Amazon or book fairs. One of my numerous books which I admire most is one by Chaturvedi Badrinath titled “Swami Vivekananda: The living Vedanta” published by Penguin Books in the year 2014. Swami Vivekananda based his teaching on the Vedanta and was a true interpreter of the Indian civilisational ethos. He criticised the tendency of divisive forces among the people and was a strong votary of educating the poor and complete equality in society. He also criticized the inferiority complex that had seeped into Indian psyche and reminded people of the strength of true Hinduism and Hindu civilization and culture which was truly reflected in his epoch-making Chicago address at the Parliament of Religions on September 11, 1893.
I read with great interest the book by Journalist Neerja Chaudhury on “How Prime Ministers Decide” published by Aleph Book company in the year 2023. She has been dealing with most of the Prime Ministers and in this book has very lucidly analysed the styles of work of different Prime Ministers. She described how Indira Gandhi followed a strategy to bounce back to power in 1980; and how a wrong decision by Rajiv Gandhi undid the Supreme Court order on Shah Bano case proved a historical mistake that changed the course of Indian politics. She describes how VP Singh decided about Mandal Commission implementation; and how the masterful indecision of PV Narsimha Rao resulted in the demolition of Babri Masjid. She also describes how Atal Behari Vajpayee went for a nuclear weapon test.
The Book by Jairam Ramesh on Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature published by Simon & Schuster India in 2017 is quite an interesting narration of Indira Gandhi’s dedication for nature. He wrote this book after meticulous research and gives a captivating account of Mrs Gandhi’s lesser-known personality. He writes about her deep-rooted love for nature and wildlife conservation in the country and portrays her key pioneering environmental works. She ensured that the final decision was taken for reviving the Indian Forest Service in 1966 and had saved the rampant diversion of forestlands by states by creating the Indian Forest Act 1980 when she bounced back to power in 1980. She also enacted the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
\Power Within – Narendra Modi’ published by Vintage books (Penguin Random House) in June 2024 gives details of his style of leadership. This book is on the leadership legacy of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Dr R Balasubramanium who worked with Niti Aayog. The core theme of this book is on the decision making and governing style of Modi seeing through the Indian and western style of leadership. Subramanium relies on a lot of anecdotes and expert views and describes the fascinating grassroots impact of Prime Minister’s decision-making style. In one such anecdote he describes how right in the very first Cabinet meeting when the Covid Virus started making news, the Prime Minister predicted the massive scale of the impending Covid breakout and immediately ordered proactive and aggressive planning strategy.
The book ‘Many Lives, Many Masters’ by Dr Brian Weiss published by Simon & Schuster in 1988 is a very fascinating book to read. More than 15 lakh copies were sold of this book by 2010. This book primarily focusses on the fact that a group of souls moves together from one life to another life. The book was presented to me by an IFS officer, Mr Chopra, the then DFO, Chitrakoot, in the year 2010 at Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh when I had visited Bundelkhand area to prepare for the Prime Minister’s Rs 3500 crore package assigned to the National Rainfed Area Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. It is a captivating account of a sceptical psychiatrist whose patient is treated by regressing her to her past life. This book blends science with spirituality and thus challenges the conventional medical therapy and explores the eternal nature of the soul. Though the author never mentions Hinduism in the book but what he says corroborates our Indian philosophy. His other book, ‘Same Soul Many Bodies’ is an equally enchanting read on this topic.
‘Whispers from the Wild’ by Vinod Rishi published by White Falcon in 2026 details the author’s field experience in Wildlife Management in West Bengal. Vinod Rishi was from the 1969 batch of West Bengal Cadre of Indian Forest Service (IFS) who died a few months ago. He served in various senior positions in the field of forest and wildlife management. He has given a first-hand inside account of his observations in the field about the issues in the management of wildlife, specially Tigers in Sundarbans, Elephants and Rhinoceros and other wildlife. He writes vividly how a Dehradun trip in the forests prompted him to write the forest service exam though his father wanted him to join the private sector as Engineer after his BTech from IIT Delhi. It is an essentially captivating book on learning human-wildlife interaction, understanding forest ecology and the practical difficulties faced by field foresters and the local people.
Sonali Kumar, an IAS officer of 1979 batch from the Jammu and Kashmir Cadre, and Prasenjeet Kumar published Sonali Kumar’s memoir, titled ‘The Outsiders Curse’ – a memoir of the first “outsider” lady IAS officer of Jammu & Kashmir, published by Prasen Publishers LLP in 2017. It is an eye-opening account of the dirty work environment of Jammu and Kashmir’s administrative ecosystem and how the All-India Services officers were treated by the politicians, local staff and local people with disdain. She narrated her story of how she and her batchmate husband had to struggle all through their careers at the hands of a deeply entrenched corrupt system, systemic bias and bureaucratic inertia. Her cadre was changed only when the then Chief Minister, Sheikh Abdullah, intervened. One interesting aspect I would like to quote here is her damning criticism of many Chief Secretaries who troubled this couple all through their career but specially at the hands of one who rose from being a stenographer to occupy the post of Chief Secretary for long enough through manipulation by getting into, first, the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) and then IAS. It is also a commentary on how the Government of India surrendered to expediency dominated forces all through in Kashmir.
The book by present Attorney-General of India R Venkatramani’s book ‘Roses without Thorn: Reflections of an Immaterial Wanderer’ published by Think Minds Media in 2024 is quite an interesting read. The Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud, released this book in January 2024. I wrote its review also in a national paper. The book is a compilation of his poems written as lawyer and his desire about a world free of hostile and negative forces that divide the people. His poems explore how life, relationship and human actions can make this world like roses but without thorns and a much nicer place to live.
The book, ‘The Origin of Human Past- Children of Immoral Bliss’, by internationally well-known Professor of Mathematics at the Florida Institute Technology USA Dr V Lakshmikantam was published in 1999 by Bhartiya Vidhya Bhawan. This book in 18 chapters forcefully deals with, both, the Indian civilisational ethos and western culture, and the ‘Aryan invasion’. With cogent arguments it dismisses this western theory of Aryan invasion in India as people in India are a vibrant Vedic civilisation since the very beginning of human existence. A must-read book for understanding the Indian culture and civilisation.
I would like to end this article with the book by Nandita Krishna on ‘Sacred Animals of India’ published by Penguin Books India in 2010. Animals in India are worshipped in myriad ways as deities. It draws from Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism in order to explore our customs and practices that led to worship and protection of the animals. The book is an excellent read when the world today is violently divided on contentious debates and wars and reminds us of how we are treating our environment. The books’ choice is not graded but just as I remembered.
(The writer is a former IFS officer of the 1979 batch Tripura Cadre. He served as Director-General of ICFRE and Chancellor of FRI deemed University and superannuated from Government of Tripura in 2015 as Principal Secretary. He is presently Chairman of the non-profit Trust Centre for Resource Management and Environment and a columnist. He is MSc in Zoology (1975) and PhD in Ecology (1990) and also MSc Resource Management from University of Edinburgh (1988). He was Awarded Queen’s Prize for Forestry in the year 2000 by the Commonwealth Forestry Association for bringing policy changes that impacted the participatory forest management policy in the Commonwealth.)
