Book excerpt: Water: Culture, Politics and Management comprises essays highlighting the cause of conservation of water, illustrating how water has been treated in mythology, revealing the ecological messages underlying these myths, and describing the culture that developed around water. Also essays on maritime trade, the craft of boat- and ship-building, politics of water emerging out of issues like dam construction, pollution of rivers and the scope of social services in flood-ravaged areas, imagery of water in Indian cinema, poems, photographs are included.