Notes from the hinterland

Veteran journalist Mrinal Pande’s book is a mix of hard reportage and interpretative writing peppered with anecdotes. She chronicles small towns and villages hurtling towards the neon-lit expanse of a westernised economy. She traces the fast widening gap between the ‘shining India’ and the Bharat that stays in the shadows.

Divided into four sections – Mother Tongues and The Media, Women Today, Surviving the Odds and Musing and Profiles, the essays are a collection of articles/columns she wrote during the last four years for leading publications of the country. However, the essays throw still-fresh light on the real India.

The book brings together a wide ranging selection of essays, describing everything from the great language divide between Hindi and English to the anti-outsider movement in Mumbai. They dwell at great length on linguistic racism. Even though some of the essays may not interest general readers, Pande, who became the first woman editor of the multi-edition Hindi daily of the Hindustan Times Group in 2001, raises many pertinent questions.

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