HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s pick of interesting reads includes a well-researched account of Americans who made India their home, beginning in the 1700s, a book on artist Subodh Kerkar whose home state of Goa is his canvas, and a novel, translated from the Korean, about a group of young office workers who rebel against the status quo
Apples, Alters and more
In 1833, Frederic Tudor, an American businessman, made history when he shipped 180 pounds of ice harvested from Walden Pond in Boston, to Calcutta — this luxury item being much in demand amongst the elites of British India. Tudor was deservedly christened the ‘Ice King’, and soon built a flourishing trade exporting American ice to India.
Others were drawn to the country by less materialistic goals. Like the ‘medical missionaries’ who were deeply concerned with the ‘women’s condition’ in India. Ida Scudder’s efforts in the 1900s resulted in the setting up of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, which continues to save lives till this day; in 1873, ‘Doctor Miss Sahiba’ Clara Swain set up the first hospital for women and children in Asia, in Bareilly, on land donated by the Nawab of Rampur.
There were also those who came to stay. Twenty-two-year-old Samuel Evans Stokes came to Kotgarh in the Himalayan foothills in 1904, embraced Hinduism and became Satyanand Stokes. He revolutionized apple cultivation in the area, now in Himachal Pradesh, by introducing the ‘Red Delicious’ apples of Missouri; today, his descendants still live and work in the region. Likewise, the Alter family. Martha and David Emmet Alter arrived in Mussoorie in 1917, to spend the summer studying at the Landour Language School; in 1941, Emmet became principal of Woodstock School, just around the hillside. Twenty-five years later, his son Robert occupied the same position. Robert’s son Stephen continues to live in Mussoorie, pursuing a successful writing career; his cousin Tom Alter was a much-loved actor in Indian films until he passed away in 2017.
These are just some of the ‘first Americans in India’ who came here, beginning in the 1700s, with different motives and dreams — as adventurers, traders, reformers, writers and artists. All of them, without exception, were fascinated, astonished, moved and, in the end, profoundly changed by their ‘Indian experience’.
Anuradha Kumar’s skilful and well-researched account of these early visitors makes this an important and engrossing book that informs, surprises and amuses in equal measure.*
Integrating art and the environment
Subodh Kerkar’s canvas of Goa combines the state’s people, its waters, and their intertwined history in a visual tour de force. From resplendent paintings of Goan houses to larger-than-life beach installations, Subodh’s artwork exists at the confluence of aesthetics and social consciousness. It engages intimately with both the historical events and the daily nitty gritty of the collective life of Goa. Much of the art records grim events such as the brutality of the Inquisition and the slave trade introduced by the Portuguese; yet, it is not without lightness of touch, as exemplified in works such as a marigold beach installation, or ‘Vascofruit’, where several food items are shown growing on Vasco da Gama’s head.
The artist’s eye misses nothing — the ocean’s imprint on boats, sea shells, the lives of fisherfolk, Goan cuisine. Subodh’s daring and experimental works include 500 terracotta heads planted on the beach, expansive sand-and-light installations, oysters growing on plates immersed in the ocean, fisherfolk depicted in ink, crochet, laterite sculptures, and much more. Goa: Subodh Kerkar’s Canvas integrates art and environment in a work of enduring beauty and resistance.*
The extraordinary power of unity against adversity
From the bestselling author of Almond, The Devil Wears Prada meets The Office in this witty, humane, and ultimately transformative story of a group of young workers who rebel against the status quo.
Jihye is an ordinary woman who has never been extraordinary. In her administrative job at the Academy, she silently tolerates office politics and the absurdities of Korean bureaucracy. Forever only one misplaced email away from career catastrophe, she effectively becomes a master of the silent eye-roll and the tactical coffee run. But all her efforts to endure her superiors and the semi-hostile work environment they create are upended when a new intern, Gyuok Lee, arrives.
Like a pacifist version of V in V for Vendetta, Gyuok recruits a trio of office allies to carry out plans for minor revenge. Together, these four “rebels” commit tiny protests against those in more powerful positions through spraying graffiti, throwing eggs, and writing anonymous exposés. But as their attacks increase, the initial joy they felt at the release becomes something more and Jihye and the others will discover the beauty of friendship and the extraordinary power of unity against adversity.*
*All copy from book flap.
