* India— A Journey Through a Healing Civilisation; Shashank Mani (HarperCollins, 2007, pp 213, Rs 295) In 1997, on the 50th Anniversary of India’s Independence, the author organised a train journey across India to find out how much the country had changed. This story is a fitting reminder as the team plans one more ambitious journey across the country.

* Without Fear— The Life and Trial of Bhagat Singh; Kuldip Nayar (HarperCollins, 2007, pp 244, Rs 395) The author takes a close look at the man behind the martyr, his beliefs, his intellectual leanings, his dreams and his despair.

* The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone— Reflections on India in the Twenty-First Century; Shashi Tharoor (Viking/ Penguin, 2007, pp 387, Rs 495) Artfully combining hard facts and statistics with personal opinions and observations, Tharoor offers a fresh, insightful look at this timeless and fast-changing society.

* The Book of Demons; Nanditha Krishna (Penguin Books, 2007, pp 268, Rs 325) This book presents a perceptive overview of the various types of demonic beings and concepts that exist in Hindu Literature.

*God Explained in a Taxi Ride; Paul Arden (Penguin, 2007, pp 98, Rs 195) Since the beginning of mankind, more thought has gone into the understanding of God than any other subject and nobody is the wiser. In the length of a taxi ride, this book tries to explain...

* A Frank Friendship— Gandhi and Bengal, a Descriptive Chronology; Edited by Gopalkrishna Gandhi (Seagull Books, 2007, pp 594, Price not mentioned) This volume is sure to enable a better understanding of the Mahatma whose life was sited on an almost oxymoronic overlap of the empirical and the deeply spiritual.