Cinema plays a powerful role in implicating the way in which an audience begins to think about the 'reality' that each film supposedly depicts. Ananda Mitra investigates the representation of Indians in Western films and locates this analysis within the context of the larger issue of the manner in which Indian immigrants are viewed in the West today. Mitra covers a large spectrum of films made over several decades and critiques the issue by identifying and analysing how those narrative and textual strategies uses to propagate an image of Indians that are common to these films, says Subir Ghosh

Published in 1960, the stories talk about the sense of betrayal that most characters feel. Both personal and political betrayal. 'Sita Betrayed' is about a modern woman in post-partition India, who is separated from her husband and is living with her lover. It describes her life before partition, her marriage and the separation. Sita is struggling to get the custody of her only son in a desperate bid to keep in touch with her past, writes Deepali Nandwani

It was clear from Pinki Virani's first book Aruna's Story (about a nurse raped in a Mumbai hospital and left semi-comatose, while the man roams free) that she does not believe in telling pretty stories. She wants her reader to look at ugliness in the face, feel angry, depressed, suffocated. For contentment doesn't bring change, if at all, rage does, says Deepa Gahlot

Why do we have problems in society such as date-rape, sexual promiscuity, teen pregnancy, and eating disorders? Wendy Shalit, in her no nonsense style, gives her opinion on this matter. She believes that it is a loss of modesty in modern society, writes Cynthia Arbuthnot

If you've recently made the leap from apartment dweller to clueless homeowner, buy Reader's Digest's Householder's Survival Manual and don't let it out of your sight. Take it to the cavernous home and garden store where you will now be spending the bulk of your weekends. See, along with the joy that comes with home ownership also comes new responsibility. You can't call the super, says Amazon.com