Two Winners And A Photo Finish
According to the INDIA TODAY-ORG-MARG opinion poll, there will be clear winners in two states, but a tight finish in a third.

The Last Rampage
To offset
J. Jayalalitha's slight edge, a pugnacious M. Karunanidhi gives it his all in what is his final electoral campaign.

The Sixth Sense
A mercurial Mamata Banerjee vs a dependable Buddhadev Bhattacharya. The mismatch leaves the Left Front with a premonition of victory.

Secular Stake
Even as the Church makes a blatant move to play a more political role in the state, the CPI(M) nominates a priest to woo minorities.

One Man Barmy
India's apex social sciences facilitating body is rocked by civil war: the chairman says he is being opposed by both RSS ideologues and leftist academics.

Changing Order
An ageing profile and a frustrated officer corps leads the force to consider VRS and restructuring.

Liquid Asset
The Rs 700-crore industry has attracted many players. Now, purity will decide who stays in business.

Board Of No Control
Tax authorities say the BCCI spends more money on meetings than on matches.

BOOKS

Meet The Parents

Kureishi comes out with a novel of forgiveness

By Anita Nair

In 1986, Jonathan Cape published a stupendous book titled Gabriel's Lament by Paul Bailey. And what was Kureishi going to offer in comparison, I wondered. At first the book stumbles along and you begin to wonder if this to be a combo of Adrian Mole and Harry Potter, what with teen angst, confused parents, magical gifts and the guiding spirit of a twin thrown in for good measure.

But by Chapter 2, you are willing to forgive Kureishi just about anything, including the fact that he has yet to come up with a screenplay to match the sheer poetry of My Beautiful Laundrette.

The book and its characters pick themselves from the floor and stride ahead. Gabriel's mother Christine finds a job as a waitress. Gabriel's father Rex, living in squalor with only the memories of his past as a bass guitarist in a paisley glitter suit and silver shoes with hearts, receives a phone call from an old friend, Lester Jones-now a pop icon with hair dyed ruby red. Rex takes Gabriel along for the meeting and Lester gifts a drawing to Gabriel.

Rex wants the drawing to sell to Speedy, owner of a restaurant with a whole wall of rock memorabilia. And Christine wants to keep it as a future investment and perhaps as negotiation tool for a job in Splitz. Gabriel, who has a gift for copying, makes two copies to give to his parents and keeps the original for himself. Thereafter Gabriel takes control of his parents' lives and his, helping his father find a new career as a "cool dude" music teacher and weeding out his mother's unsuitable boyfriends and finally engineering their getting back together.

Perhaps this is Gabriel's gift-to make the best of what is available, and it is with this gift that Kureishi redeems the book from being a sweet but very ordinary story to a truly magnificent one that is tender, funny and wry.

Gabriel's Gift is a book that I would recommend parents buy for their grown-up children. So that if the time ever comes, their children will take a cue from Gabriel and show them the same unconditional love and sensitivity when it comes to forgiving parents their trespasses.

MetroScape

Bond Free
The Savoy in Mussoorie must be the only hotel, apart from the Raffles in Singapore, to have a thing about writers. So, it was quite kismet when publisher Pramod Kapoor of Roli Books and author Namita Gokhale, who has an imprint with him, hosted the Ruskin Bond Festschrift—a Writers' Retreat in honour of that gentle Indian Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond.
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Looking Glass

Delhi Cinema:
Canadian film festival

Delhi Art Fest:
Documenta

Bangalore Play:
Little Theatre