The Race of My Life: An Autobiography – Milkha Singh – Sonia Sanwalka (Rupa, Rs. 250)

Watching the recently released film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag with my 8-year-old proved to be a rather unique experience. After the film, my little one was very curious to ‘see the real’ Milkha Singh. Thankfully, Google and Wikipedia came in handy, and he was fascinated to ‘see’ how the ‘real’ Milkha Singh looked and ran.

Thanks to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s bio-pic, a new generation of people has got an opportunity to ‘meet’ and understand a legend whose success story is not just about him but also about the time he lived in.

Did Milkha Singh run all the time? Yes, running in his case, like many of that time, was not just about winning; it was a metaphor for escape… from hunger, despair, helplessness and, most importantly, the only option if he wanted to live.

For a boy who narrowly escaped death during Partition, when most of his family was hacked to death, winning a race just for a glass of milk was motivation enough. Milkha stole, fought, and survived to become a young Army recruit who ran his very first race to ensure he got a daily glass of milk. After that first race, he became an athlete by default. In fact, as of 2013, he is the only Indian male athlete to win an individual athletics gold medal at a Commonwealth Games (in 1958).

In this candid autobiography, co-written with his daughter Sonia, Milkha Singh shares many significant moments of his life… the amazing highs of winning the gold in athletics at the Commonwealth Games, the unbridled joy of being hailed as the Flying Sikh in Pakistan, as well as the shattering low of failure at the Olympics.

Simple, yet ambitious; famous, yet grounded; temptations all around him, yet remaining celibate so that he could focus on running… that’s what makes Milkha Singh a league of his own. Yes, there are plenty of nuggets about his personal life which are beautifully intertwined with his love for sport. Especially his wooing and marrying his lady love, Nimmi, against all odds. In fact, he reserves high praise for his wife who has “stood by me” at every turn of life. Yet, for a man whose life was dominated by sports, he remains disillusioned with the way sports events are run today.

A touching foreword by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who was inspired by this book to make the film, as well as a moving tribute by way of introduction to his father by international golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, adds plenty of emotional quotient.

As a reader, you join in his anguish, you laugh with him, you cry for him and cheer when he needs it. That’s what makes this book a compelling read.

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Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography – Sanjeev Sanyal (Penguin, Rs. 399)

When this book was suggested to me, I was initially reluctant to read it. But once I began to read, I could not put it down. For the simple reason that though Sanyal’s work is all about history and geography, all right, it’s the way he has put down facts and figures (and plenty of speculation, of course) that makes this a fascinating read.

The history of any country begins with its geography. From the raw and basic Stone Age to present-day multiplex and skyscraper-infested India, Sanyal’s is a riveting journey. He begins at the beginning with the theory about how one huge land mass, following various geographical occurrences such as earthquakes and volcanoes, split and continents took shape. Did you know that the San tribe in Africa is perhaps the oldest in the world! Man migrated from there to other parts, including India.

Sanyal takes on questions such as: Where did the river Saraswathi originate and how did it disappear? Did the Great Flood of Indian legend actually happen? Why did the Buddha walk to Sarnath to give his first sermon? How did the Europeans map India? With sparkling wit and intelligence, he explores various theories and facts to try and understand the India we inhabit today.

Traversing remote mountain passes, visiting archaeological sites, crossing rivers in shaky boats and delving deep into old records and manuscripts, Sanyal tries to paint a picture of India that is Bharat. But why was it called Bharat? And why was the world’s highest mountain named after George Everest? Pick up the book to discover some interesting stories that provide answers.

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Jest in Time: A Cavalcade of Cartoons Over 175 Years Jug Suraiya, Neelabh Banerjee, Ajit Ninan (Times Group Books, Rs. 699)

Nobody has captured India in all her glory and grime, horror and glamour, like The Common Man, that little guy created by R.K. Laxman, who brought a smile on people’s faces every morning when they picked up The Times of India. Similar is every cartoon that occupies a pride of place in newspapers across the world. In fact, if India did not exist, cartoonists may have had to invent it.

True, for there’s no other country in the world, perhaps, which presents such rich and varied material for the depition of humour as we do here. Humour is the harmonious reconciliation of opposites and India abounds in opposites: the corrupt and overweight VVIP vs. the skinny and honest aam admi, the pompous politico vs. the skeptical voter, and so on.

This book is a pageant of cartoons culled out of The Times of India archives which portrays colours, the emotions, the trials and the travails, the triumphs and the zest for life that make up the never say die spirit of India. Take a peek and laugh out loud!

-Savitha Gautam