Your Complete Summer List | Part I

Professors Gilles Verniers, Bikram Phookun and Rudrangshu Mukherjee curate the first list in the series.

Summer breaks at Ashoka are long and this is The Edict’s initiative to help curate a list of book, movie and TV shows recommended by Professors to read and binge on. This list hopes to put those without an internship out of misery, plane, train and bus rides less boring, and most importantly provide a comprehensive list of recommendations from all departments for Ashokans to have a varied choice to pick from over the break.

This is the first of such lists. It is created by recommendations from Professors Gilles Verniers, Bikram Phookun and Rudrangshu Mukherjee. We have also attached a link of the review of each of the book recommendations.

Dr. Verniers is the Head of Department for Political Science at Ashoka. He is also the Co-Director of the Trivedi Centre for Political Data. He is currently teaching courses on Indian Politics, South Asia, state formation and Research Methods to Undergraduates and YIFs.Professor Verniers’ list is an introduction into the world of Political Science, specially created for those who are not his students. Dr. Phookun is the Professor of Physics at Ashoka University, currently on a sabbatical from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. While designing the physics programme for undergraduate studies, he also teaches the Foundation Course in Mathematical Thinking. Dr. Mukherjee is the Chancellor of the University. He takes courses in European History, Indian History and intellectual history. He has also previously written for The Edict.

Books:

Professor Gilles Verniers’ book recommendations:

1. All the King’s Men (Robert Penn Warren): This book gives an undersanding on the rise of a populist outsider in Lousiana politics,

2. Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela): Mandela’s Autobiography

3. Country of my Skull (Amitje Krog): An account of the post-apartheid reconciliation process.

Professor Bikram Phookun’s recommendations:

1. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2. The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies

3. The Inner Game of Tennis, by W Timothy Gallwey

Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s recommendations:

1. The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene
2. The Spy who came in from the Cold, by John Lé Carre
3. The Light and the Dark, by C. P. Snow

Movies:

Professor Gilles Verniers’ movie recommendations:

1. In the Loop, (Director: Armando Iannucci)

2. Dr. Strangelove, (Director: Stanley Kubrick)

3. Z, (Dirctor: Costa-Gavras)

4. The Godfather (I), (Director: Francis Ford Coppola)

Professor Phookun’s recommendations:

1. Out of Africa, (Director: Sydney Pollack)
2. The English Patient, (Director: Anthony Minghella)
3. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, (Director: Philip Kaufman)

Professor Mukherjee’s recommendations:

1. The Seventh Seal, (Director: Ingbar Bergman)
2. King Lear, (Director: Grigori Kozintzev)
3. Fahrenheit 451, (Director: Francois Truffat)

TV Shows:

Professor Gilles Verniers’ recommendations:

1. The Sopranos (to understand UP politics),

2. The West Wing (all 7 seasons),

3. Yes Minister (Only entry to be recommended by 2 different Professors).

Professor Phookun’s recommendations:

1. The Mahabharata, of Peter Brook: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EENh1hxkD6E)
2. Français Authentique (for those learning French): (https://www.youtube.com/user/francaisauthentique?pbjreload=10)
3. The Durrells: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmsm5AXxsXk)

Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s recommendations:

1. Yes Minister,
2. Yes Prime Minister (This comes as the most highly recommended summer watch),
3. Blackadder.

The following lists in the series shall be having more Professors from other departments curate such a list. Do let us know if you would like us to ask a certain Professor(s) for their recommendations.