Bookwatch

Career choice made easy

TECHNOLOGY - in particular computers and the Internet - has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for an expanding job market. But the opening up of new avenues has not necessarily made it easier for those who have to choose a career. If anything, this world of immense possibilities has made the task all the more difficult because there is so much more one can do with the same set of qualifications.

There have been so many changes in the job market over the past couple of years that career counsellor and television personality Usha Albuquerque has found it necessary to revise her earlier guide to accommodate the new openings. Consequently, the chapter on design in her new book encompasses creativity in the field of hi-tech. And, market research has come out of the shadow of advertising to become a career option by itself.

Though she acknowledges that pay packets have touched an all-time high, the counsellor has stuck to conservative figures while detailing the remuneration for each profession. A fairly exhaustive career guide, 47 professions have been listed with the requisite professional and personal attributes, promotional avenues ... And as was the case with her first edition, there is a second volume dedicated exclusively to job opportunities for those with a science background.

The Penguin India Career Guide, Volume 1 - The Humanities, Usha Albuquerque, Penguin Books, Rs. 395.

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'Karmapa conundrum'

IF the Biblical theory of creation is anything to go by, man has had a seemingly uncontrollable attraction towards anything that is forbidden from day one. So it is only natural that the Forbidden Kingdom - Tibet - should have generated the kind of interest people the world over have in this land of the Dalai Lama.

With the Tibetan Government in exile, affairs of the Tibetan people are no longer their internal matter. Closely watched by the international media, anything to do with Tibet is world news. And, according to journalist Anil Maheshwari, the struggle for temporal leadership of the Tibetan people is no less murky than that among lesser mortals.

Using the access to information that he enjoys by virtue of being a journalist, Maheshwari has come out with what he prefers to call a "chronicle of rogues in robes". Though there are several books on the power-play within the monastic orders, his

is an update on the arrival of Ugyen Trinley Dorje - the 14-year- old claimant to the 17th reincarnation

of the Karmapa - in India in January this year and the consequent re-opening of the feud within the Tibetan clergy.

The Buddha Cries! Karmapa Conundrum, Anil Maheshwari, UBSPD, Rs. 200.

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Unveiling force

HERE is another addition to the growing corpus of literature on women in our society. In Women And The Wind Of Change, poet Vinita Kaul steps out of the world of creative meanderings to write about the transitional phase of Indian womanhood.

Though she has written about the plight of women in her poetry, this time round her approach is more academic; chronicling as she does the tentative steps taken towards empowerment by the hitherto marginalised half of Indian society. Beginning with the origins of the women's movement in India - complete with the prejudices they came up against - and its role in the freedom struggle, Kaul traces the emergence of the emancipated Indian woman in all walks of life.

Using case studies, she shows how even the Dalit woman - often referred to as the doubly oppressed - is battling the odds. And since Kaul's attempt has been to document the entry of the fairer sex into traditional male bastions, there is also a chapter on women in the defence forces - the frontier that has been penetrated only recently.

Women And The Wind Of Change, Vinita Kaul, Gyan Publishing House, Rs. 650.

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Your human rights

WITH all its clauses and sub-clauses, legalese can be daunting. And this is one of the reasons for the general ignorance among people about the rights granted to them by the law of the land. Even about the most basic of rights - human rights - the ignorance is appalling.

Aware that law books scare people away, retired district and sessions judge P. S. Varma has sought to make it a shade easier for those keen on learning about human rights in his Law Of Human Rights. What he has, in effect, done is extract the relevant laws scattered in fat law books and put them together in a book format.

Besides stating the laws and explaining them in layman's language, Varma has listed the avenues for redressal and also cited the rights enjoyed by those accused of breaking the law. Also, he has made out a case for tapping the resource that the country has in the form of people retired from the police and the Judiciary. He is of the view that such persons should be roped in to act as vigilantes for the government.

Law Of Human Rights, P. S. Varma, Law Publications, Rs. 220.

ANITA JOSHUA

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