This is designed to be a Reviews and Reviewers Portal. The aim is to gather information from around the world relating to books, journals, software, etc.-- irrespective of genre, type, format and forum.
"I certainly never write a review about a book I don't think worth reviewing, a flat-out bad book, unless it's an enormously fashionable bad book." -- says, John Gardner in Conversations with John Gardner Quoted from 'Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations' Edited by Mohamed Taher & L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994) p.150. Available @ Amazon.com
Mapping Social Exclusion in India: Caste, Religion and Borderlands Paramjit S. Judge -- This book assesses the problem of defining exclusion, highlights the
need for its contextualisation and establishes a relationship between
social exclusion, deprivation and discrimination. It studies the complex
mosaic of Indian systems and society, marked with exclusionary
practices and structures on the basis of caste. (Cambridge U Press, March 2014)
Sex ratio, low registration reflect in voting figures Times of India --"The
skewed sex ratio in Gujarat not only has an impact on the state's social
fabric but also affects the overall voting percentage in elections.""A
recent survey of the voting pattern in Gujarat conducted by the Election
Commission (EC) has noted that there is considerable gap between men
and women not only in voter registration but also in turnout. The State
Gender Ratio according to the Census of 2011 is 918 while the State
Gender Ratio in Draft Rolls, 2014, is 909."
Political Accountability for Outbreaks of Communicable Diseases by Debabar Banerji
Impact of social media making politicians go online ABP News-Mar 20, 2014
India election: four more intriguing uses of social mediaFinancial Times by Robert Minto-Mar 18, 2014 -- 1. Mobile crowdsourcing, to harvest voter information; 2. WhatsApp, for campaign organisation; 3. Missed calls, for political organising; 4. Plain old SMS, for voter mobilisation.
Seminar: Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion in India: Lessons from Social Policy Seminar by Dr. Stefan Kuehner, senior lecturer in University of York, UK --Seminar due on 26 March 2014
Human Rights and Dalits in India: A Sociological Analysis, Senapati Tushar Kanti; Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India ( International Research Journal of Social Sciences 3(3), 36-40, March, 2014)
High income inequality, low social spending in India: OECD report Livemint-Mar 19, 2014 -- Society at a Glance 2014: OECD Social Indicators. Excerpts from the biennial OECD overview of social indicators.
'Sex selfie' enters bedroom, explodes on social media
At a time when "selfie" has become a new buzzword on various social
media platforms, a surprising number of men and women are increasingly
posting "sex selfies" while engaging in the real act. "Sex
selfies" — filming or photographing yourself having sex — are now a
widespread practice with Britain leading the chart, said a survey done
by AshleyMadison.com, the world's largest extra-marital dating site.
A Grim Statistical Picture of Married Indian Women. By Preetika Rana Wall St Journal Mar 20, 2014 -- "The National Council for Applied Economic Research, a New Delhi-based
think tank, based their findings on interviews with more than 30,000
married Indian women in 2011 and 2012. Women surveyed were between ages
16 and 49, living in over 1,500 Indian villages and 971 urban
neighborhoods."
“Many women have no say in marriage” by Rukmini S The Hindu March 19, 2014 -- "
Four out of ten women in India still have no say in their marriage,
eight out of ten need permission to visit a doctor, six out of ten
practise some form of head covering, and the average Indian household
gives over Rs. 30,000 in dowry. These are among the findings of a major
new large-scale sample survey shared exclusively with The Hindu.
The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) conducts the
India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the largest household survey in
India after the government's Nation Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)
surveys, and the NCAER is the only independent body that conducts such
large-sample panel surveys. The survey covers economic data on income
and expenditure, development data on education and health, and
sociological data on caste, gender and religion. For the next two weeks,
The Hindu will report exclusively on the key findings of NCAER's latest
round that covers 2011-12 data. This survey covered 42,000 households
across the country, weighted nationally, and 83% of them were also
interviewed for the 2004-5 round of the IHDS.
"Action is based on Intention." Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Hadith An-Nawawi, Number 1
Herein questions are many, including:
One Wants To Say ‘Love’ When in actually Means ‘Sex’? Or
One simply means to say I have a friend who is not a friend-indeed!!!
Is feminism, in the West (e.g., the US), same-as, feminism in the east (e.g., India)?
Socio-psychologically speaking, is dating considered the same, in the East (India for instance) as against the West (America for instance)?
In short, is it all about intentions, actions and the resultants? Are these role models imported, more so, from Bollywood (a.k.a. West) and Hollywood (a.k.a. East), just to compare and see the meeting or diverting trends!!! Or is it an extended social nexus, which is more cultural, spiritual and historical? What do you say???
Reading now:
'A Man. A Woman. Just Friends?' by William Deresiewicz, NYTimes.com
I cannot think of another area of our lives in which there is so great a gap between what we do and what our culture says we do. But may be things are beginning to change. Younger people, having grown up with the gay-rights movement and in many cases gone to colleges with co-ed dormitories, are open to a wider range of emotional possibility.
Friendship between the sexes may no longer be a political issue, but it is an issue of liberation: the freedom to love whom you want, in the way that you want. Maybe it’s time that we all took it out of the closet. Continue reading
Love and sex in India: Why some Indian men can't take a hint, Courting or harassment: What happens when Western women mix with the locals? by Hanna Ingber, GlobalPost
Australian journalist Virginia Moncrieff, who has worked across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, remembers being in India and having a long chat with a university student. She gave him her phone number, and he proceeded to call and text countless times a day.
“I still can't figure out why, when I was so obviously displeased and bothered by the endless, endless calls that my new ‘friend’ just could not, and would not, stop contacting me,” she wrote in an email.
According to cross-culture and gender specialists, this behavior in "new India" is a result of shifting social norms, a low level of interaction between opposite sexes, influences of pop culture and differing interpretations of power dynamics between men and women.
As Mumbai changes and modernizes, there is confusion over what type of behavior is acceptable in personal as well as work environments, says Jerry Pinto, author of "Surviving Women," a manual of gender politics in India. Continue reading
Real life couples don't sizzle onscreen ...
In more than a few instances in the past, Bollywood stars who have become increasingly public about their love life have disheartened viewers (and directors) with their lack of comfort and uneasiness when it comes to portraying love scenes onscreen...
Though Hindi films are no longer shy of intimacy, many Bollywood actors, especially those who are real-life couples, continue to look uncomfortable with such scenes. continue reading
Extract:
"To them, I offer this singular piece of advice: Suck it up. Be glad, if you're married, that you have a husband. Provided he's not a violent, gambling drunkard who just got off with your best friend, I'll bet that he's just fine. In any case, you made your bed, so lie in it. Better yet, roll over and make love to it. You may not think you're in the mood, but, trust me, you'll be happier if you do. ... I have come to these conclusions, among others, after speaking with American writer Lori Gottlieb, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough
After having a baby on her own with donor sperm in her late 30s, Gottlieb re-entered the dating market in her early 40s only to find that all the good guys had already been snapped up. Her book, which is a meditation on choice, disappointment and the importance of managing your expectations in the modern dating market, also chronicles Gottlieb's profound regret at having been too picky and hypercritical in her single youth. “It seems great to have all these choices,” she told me in a recent phone interview, “but the question is, can you pick wisely?”
Interestingly, Gottlieb points to cultures that favour arranged marriages as a guide on how to pick a mate based on practical criteria that will sustain marriage and children – a proposition she describes as not unlike “running a small, tedious, non-profit business” – rather than the modern notion that marriage should be based on everlasting, bodice-ripping passion.
“People expect their marriage is always going to be this thrilling, exciting thing, but that's not real life. I think that the great benefit of marriage is the safety and commitment and having a teammate and a home, just the love and the warmth. It's not that exciting, but it's what people crave at their deepest level.”
Leave it to a hard-up single mother to appreciate what so many unhappily married women cannot. Gottlieb's point about arranged marriages brought to mind another interesting observation, this one found in Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage.
In her follow-up to the mega-bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, divorcee Gilbert is sentenced to marry her exiled Brazilian boyfriend for immigration purposes. As they await their impending nuptials, she contemplates the history and cultural purpose of marriage from a point of view that is diametrically opposed to Gottlieb's – i.e., she doesn't want children and has no interest in tedious non-profit work.
Perhaps the most interesting observation in the book is that, historically speaking, a successful marriage has nothing to do with love. In the course of her research, Gilbert notices that, across cultures and history, the divorce rate spikes as soon as people start choosing their spouses for themselves. “By unnerving definition,” she writes, “anything that the heart has chosen for its own mysterious reason, it can always unchoose.” ... continue reading
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Tulika Jaiswal Routledge (Publication date: April 28, 2014)
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