Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The trees on the premises of Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal are still covered with spring flowers. The searing sun has heralded the advent of summer, though. Against this backdrop, the three-day Bhopal Literature and Art Festival concluded on Sunday.
As part of the festival, there was a book fair at the venue of the festival. Small as it was, a few tomes on sale attracted many readers.
Those who were managing the exhibition-cum-sale centre set up by a publisher at the venue said one of the volumes that the readers fell in love with was ‘From Sarees to Stripes, True Stories of Commercial Pilots of India’.
A former pilot, Captain Manisha M Puri, has written the volume that portrays the life of many illustrious commercial pilots in the country and the challenges they came across on flights.
Puri worked for Indian Airlines (Air India from 2008). The first chapter of the book – Flight to Freedom – is the yarn of Captain Puri about how passionate she was about becoming a pilot and how she achieved it with the help of a scholarship of 60 hours of flying given by the Bhopal Flying Club. Her story is no maze of history. No legends. It limns bare facts in an interesting way that kindles a reader’s longing for it. The most fascinating part of her story is how she felt while she was flyinThe trees on the premises of Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal are still covered with bloom. The searing sun has heralded the advent of summer, though. Against this backdrop, the three-day Bhopal Literature and Art Festival concluded on Sunday.
As part of the festival, there was a book fair at the venue. Small as it was, a few tomes on sale attracted many readers. One of the volumes that the readers fell in love with was From Sarees to Stripes, True Stories of Commercial Pilots of India.
A former captain of Indian Airlines (Air India from 2006) Manisha M Puri has written the volume that portrays the life of many illustrious commercial pilots in the country and the challenges they came across on flights.
The first chapter of the book – Flight to Freedom – is the yarn of Captain Puri about how passionate she was about becoming a pilot and how she achieved it with the help of a scholarship of 60 hours of flying given by the Bhopal Flying Club. Her story is no maze of history. No legend. It limns facts.
Every chapter has been written in such an interesting way that gives off the reader's interests.
The most interesting part of her story is how Captain Puri felt while she was flying at an elevation of 10, 682 feet. It was in Leh, one of the highest altitude airfields in the world. It is precarious too.
The book also relates the story of Captain Durba Bannerji. She was the first woman pilot in the country to join a commercial airline in 1966.
Another book that the readers laid their hands on was Surviving Men by Shobhaa De. Fearless she is always. De speaks about Indian men. She writes: The fact of the matter is, men don’t really like women all that much. In word-association game, men are likely to come up with the following: ‘whores’, ‘harlots’; ‘ingrates’; ‘treacherous two-timing bitches….’
A man reading this book needs a big heart. About women’s reaction she says, “Women don’t get this carried away when asked to return the compliment. They have one word that covers it all: ‘farts.’
De is known for using crisp and sharp expressions to share her feelings with readers and for blending other tongues with ‘phoren’.
She is one of those writers who have brought Indian writing in English from clutches of the colonial past.
Another book that whets a reader’s appetite is the Population Myth of former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi. Many students, preparing for competitive examinations, may find it useful. There was nothing for the children, nevertheless, besides the number of books should have been more than what it was, a reader said.
