TY - BOOK AU - Ashok Mitra TI - The starkness of it SN - 9788174365996 U1 - 320.954 PY - 2008/// CY - New Delhi PB - Lotus Collection KW - India KW - social conditions N2 - The Starkness of It is a selection culled out from the essays which formed the corpus of the now defunct fortnightly 'Calcutta Diary' column in the Economic and Political Weekly; these were written in the corridor of time between February 1986, when the author had just vacated one political position, and August 1993, when he took up another. None of the issues reflected upon in the essays have suddenly been sprung upon us; they have been there all along, in various forms and shades, echoing the tussle between faith and cynicism. Several of the essays in The Starkness of It betray a pre-occupation with the generic problem. Does it then follow that the more it changes, the more it remains the same? It is best to confess: one hardly knows the answer ER -