The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History by Manu S. PillaiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hooter: A collection of 61 essays on historical figures of India - some famous, some not so famous and their interesting backgrounds or anecdotes.
If you have been following Shashi Tharoor's former Chief of Staff Manu S. Pillai in MINT or his blog, you aren't going to find anything new here but I haven't, so it was an interesting collection of his essays on lesser known figures of Indian history divided into 3 sections - Before the Raj, During the Raj and Afterwards. Personally, before the Raj was the most interesting for me as I didn't even know a lot of the folks like Abbaka Rani of Ullal who repelled the Portuguese , Roberto De Nobili - the Italian Brahmin of Madurai. He also mixes in a few what if scenarios like if Gandhi had been alive. Being a few pages each, it is just enough to make you curious but not quench your thirst. Ended up on wikipedia to read more about these hidden gems that our NCERT textbooks conveniently ignored (Saved me a few hundred pages of mugging up on the positive side). I'd say a great read for cocktail conversations on Indian history. I'd wish there were lesser essays and more deep dives on each of the topics.
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