India, Nov. 30 -- At a dinner party a year ago, an American friend asked me to recommend one definitive book to learn about India. I murmured something about picking up a book by Shashi Tharoor. There really was no easy answer, no accessible treatment either for the novice, or the expert. Now there is. Another St. Stephen's alumnus, Prasenjit Basu (and like Tharoor, a stalwart of the college's Shakespeare Society, playing Thersites and Falstaff with aplomb), has done the deed. With "India Reborn", a follow up to his masterly "Asia Reborn", Basu has written a magisterial, provocative, deeply researched and inspirational guide to India-its history and its future. Buy it. And read it. Wherever you place yourself on the spectrum of knowledge ...