Raja Mohanty

Tara Books specializes in books made entirely by hand, and The Circle of Fate is a beautiful example of a book from this publishing company. The Circle of Fate is an illustrated Hindu parable of destiny and love. This slim book is filled with intricate illustrations, screen-printed in bright, stunning colors on thick, handmade paper. The parable finishes with this "truth":
"The world is a never-ending cycle, where everything has a time and place. Even a thing of exquisite beauty must come to an end and be re-born as something else. There is a pattern. If you want to change it, you must act in the way your heart dictates. But in the end, it is you who belong in the pattern. It does not belong to you."… (meer)

This is a gem of a book, published in 2004 in association with the Museum of London. Bhajju Shyam is an artist from the Gond tribal community in central India who was invited to London to paint a mural in an Indian restaurant. It was his first time out of India (first time on a plane) and he records his impressions of London in paintings which combine images of his native Gond culture and modern British culture. His first-person commentary on his paintings is also precious.

For example, he pictures airplanes as a huge bird of prey that swallows up the humans "who line up to be let inside like insects outside a termite hill". The next image of the plane is of an elephant leaping into the sky -- and it's labeled "the miracle of flight".

Other headings are "There is Another World Below Us" (the Underground), "The Comfort of the Familiar" (the red number 30 bus is like a dog to him, a faithful and loyal friend who helps him get between work and "home"), "Everything Happens in Restaurants" (because the English don't tend to invite people into their homes), "Pubs Set English People Free" (hilarious observation that English people are like bats -- they wear black and they come alive at night (in pubs!)), A Cow in a Gallery (his impressions of Damien Hirst's cut-up cow in the Tate), etc. The book ends with him going back to his village and becoming a storyteller, a bard.… (meer)