Apanda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eat its, then draws his gun and fires two shots in the air. “Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

 “I am a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”

The waiter runs to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

“Panda: Larger black-and-white bear like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.” I hope some of you at least got the joke because it is hilarious. That is how the book 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' introduces itself to you. Written by Lynne Truss, it gives a funny and vivid account of the plummeting standards of our punctuation. The book relates many real-life incidents where people have murdered apostrophes, forgotten commas-those true heroes and added full stops where none were required.

Books on punctuation are expected to be preachy and boring. They are used to put your good-self to sleep. But this

is where 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' scores. Not only is it informative but also entertaining. You will laugh for hours at some of the examples and incidents quoted by our Ghenghis Khan of Grammar- Lynne truss.

You will not believe some of the mistakes that some people have made. Some examples: XMA'S TREES It need'nt be a pane, Apple,s Ladie's hairdressers Your 21 today These are some of the many that will bring a smile upon your face. Lynne Truss is punctuation vigilant and goes about her business of adding and correcting punctuation marks with her red marker. Lest you take her lightly, she has been the sub-editor and editor of many newspapers and now she edits books. The language is witty and satirical. The ideas are wonderful. The rules have been explained clearly and succinctly. The book is priced at Rs.150. so it doesn't create a huge dent in your pocket. It makes for a healthy, good light reading. After finishing it instead of minding my p's and q's, I have decided to pay more attention to my colons and full stops.

Pulkit Singh

BA (Journo, Psy & Eng)

The book relates many reallife incidents where people have murdered apostrophes,

forgotten commas-those true heroes and added full stops where none were required.

Books on punctuation are expected to be preachy and boring. They are used to put

your good-self to sleep. But this is where 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' scores. Not only

is it informative but also entertaining.