From Zafar Anjum’s Tabla! Books Column
Recently, a journalist friend asked me to list my favourite books of the year, and what I was going to read in 2016! I read and graze through scores of books in a year but I would list some that are worth mentioning (you may take them as my recommendations, if you will): A Doctor In The House by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, No Place To Hide by Glenn Greenwald, Intercession by Isa Kamari, Dream With Your Eyes Open by Ronnie Screwvala and Mecca – The Sacred City by Ziauddin Sardar.
In 2016, I am especially looking forward to reading Escape From Baghdad by Saad Z. Hussain, Tweet by Isa Kamari, Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schilender and Rick Tetzeli, Kalkatta by Kunal Basu and Submission by Michel Houellebecq.
First, I would like to talk about Basu’s Kalkatta, a novel set in the famous capital of West Bengal about a gigolo named Jami (Jamshed Alam), a Bihari Muslim smuggled into India from Bangladesh with his family comprising his parents and younger sister Miriam. Thanks to the regular Facebook updates of the author, I have followed the development of this novel over the last two years while Basu worked on it, researching the material in the ancient and dusty lanes and bylanes of Kolkata.
