TITLE : The Best of the THE WEEK - 1982 to 2002
EDITOR : Mammen Mathew
PUBLISHER : Penguin Enterprise
YEAR : 2002
ISBN : 0-6700-4934-4
GENRE : Current Affairs
PAGES : x + 211 pages, b/w photos
FORMAT : Scanned PDF with OCR, bookmarks & cover.
ABOUT THE BOOK : The Week is a weekly Indian magazine of current affairs.
It started publication in1982. On the occasion of its 20th
anniversary, they published this book containing some
of the top stories of those 20 years.The Best of The Week, a celebratory volume
capturing twenty years of themagazine's existence, brings together some of the
most fascinating stories inIndian journalism. A judicious mix of hard news and features,
the bookcontains twenty-five stories, culled from the period between 1982 and 2002.
The news articles documenting events like the assassination of Mrs Indira
Gandhi and the Bhopal gas tragedy,brilliantly recreate incidents that shook
the nation. An interview with Pakistan's President Zia-ul-Haq reveals the canny
General at his best, while a psychiatrist's in-depth analysis shows how Sachin
Tendulkar's brain works. Far removed from the world of the top brass is the
poignant love story of a French girl who marries an Indian beggar afflicted
with leprosy. While some stories are bizarre, like the one about the Aghora
swamis who eat human flesh from burning pyres and mate with the dead,
some are intriguing, like the one about the mysterious Peter Bleach who
dropped a cache of guns in West Bengal. The th en»s ot the stories included
here—ranging from militancy to the agony of women married and then
deserted by NRIs—remain relevant even today, lending this collection a
timeless quality.The hard-hitting reportage, the meticulous research, the
sheer diversity of the subject matter and the distinct styles add to the
reading pleasure.
"What you read in these pages is only a fraction of the many
outstanding stories we have done. There have been more than a
thousand issues of The Week since its inception, and every
fourth issue carried at least one memorable story worthy of
inclusion in this volume. Among these were a large number of
endearing and ennobling stories of human drama, suffering,
courage, fortitude, triumph and magnanimity, but only a couple
of them could make the shortlist of fifty, which was then pared
down to twenty-five.
Every story featured here is special in some way. Some were
exclusive at the time of their publication; in others our
correspondents found something unusual in the ordinary, though
the subject was covered by other publications too. But the final
selection reflects the magazine's emphasis on current events and
stories that touch the heart and stimulate the mind, and our
widening definition of what constitutes news. And, of course,
our focus on people.
I hope you enjoy reading this selection as much as we
enjoyed doing them."
CONTENTS :
Introduction vii
1. AU REVOIR, ANNE MARIE 1
2. INDIRA GANDHI'S ASSASSINATION 9
3. THE BHOPAL TRAGEDY 17
4. FIRST INDIAN WITH A NEW HEART 29
5. ISLAMIC BOMB? 37
6. FORESTS WHERE NAXALITES RULE 48
7. V. ANAND—JUNIOR CHESS CHAMPION 59
8. BETTER ARMED, BETTER PREPARED 63
9. THE WORLD'S YOUNGEST MD 71
10. A GENIUS VANISHES 78
11. MAN WHO MOVED A MOUNTAIN 83
12. TRACKING THE TIGERS 89
13. CARELESS DOCTORS, GREEDY HOSPITALS 99
14. ANGER IN AYODHYA 113
15. BOMBAY BLASTS 119
16. GERM WAR 129
17. SAVAGE SWAMIS 137
18. THE MYSTERIOUS MR BLEACH 147
19. VALLEY OF WHITE HUSBANDS 159
20. SACHIN'S PSYCHE 167
21. IN SEARCH OF ORGASM 173
22. THE MOST WANTED WOMAN 181
23. LIFE IN CHAINS 189
24. HOLIDAY WIVES 197
25. GODHRA CARNAGE 205