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Arindam Chaudhuri, Count Your Chickens before They Hatch. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 2001, xiii + 192 pp. Rs 225.

This book, with its catchy title and subtitle, recently hit the stalls with a bang, and if one were to go by the media reports, it has proved to be an instant success. An unenviable task before a reviewer of the book is how to make an honest and objective assessment of this work without being influenced by the media hype. First the anatomy of the book. The main text has five chapters, each one carrying an attractive title followed by a subtitle: