Bharati Mukherjee's new novel, “The Tree Bride” is critiqued by Michiko Kakutani in today's New York Times.

“Ms. Mukherjee's efforts to widen her canvas from the personal to the political, from the private to the historical, result in her most maladroit novel yet.”

Don't hold back Michiko!

Legendary photographer Carl Mydans is dead.

“Mydans travelled the world with his cameras, witnessing and recording landmarks of history – from the gaunt faces of 1930s dust-bowl farmers to General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore on his return to the Philippines in 1944.”

First Bresson, now Mydans. Are the lights dimming?

Prashant Kothari laments about the decisive photographer's demise (curiously bunching HCB with Marlon Brando who also passed away this summer).

Henri Cartier-Bresson may have left us, but what a legacy he has left behind!

Via Peter Marshall I came to know of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation. Anyone going to France?

Via Jasmeen Patheja

“For decades comics in India have been synonymous with children's playthings. They are popular educational aides for myths & fables, but little more. Comics can change societies, archive societies, create and enforce new archetypes for heroism, and still be fun to read.”

That's from Rohit Gupta's introduction to The Doppler Effect. You will find the original story written by Gupta at Tatlin's Tower, an online literary magazine. Illustrator Gabriel Greenberg massaged the story into a comic book. A successful symbiotic relationship, wouldn't you say?