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The Science of Ahimsa- An Excerpt from ‘The Power of Nonviolent Resistance’

Posted on by Penguin India

‘Where there is love there is life.’ – Gandhi

With the new year round the corner, take the time to read The Power of Nonviolent Resistance: Selected Writings , a specially curated collection of Gandhi’s writings on nonviolent resistance and activism.

Read an excerpt from the book below:

—

Toward the end of his life, Gandhi was asked by a friend to resume writing his autobiography and write a “treatise on the science of ahimsa.” What the friend wanted were accounts of Gandhi’s striving for truth and his quest for nonviolence, and since these were the two most significant forces that moved Gandhi, the friend wanted Gandhi’s exposition on the practice of truth and love and his philosophical understanding of both. Gandhi was not averse to writing about himself or his quest. He had written—moved by what he called Antaryami, the dweller within, his autobiography, An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth. Even in February 1946 when this exchange occurred he was not philosophically opposed to writing about the self. However, he left the possibility of the actual act of writing to the will of God.

On the request for the treatise on the “science of ahimsa” he was categorical in his refusal. His unwillingness stemmed from two different grounds: one of inability and the other of impossibility.

He argued that as a person whose domain of work was action, it was beyond his powers to do so. “To write a treatise on the science of ahimsa is beyond my powers. I am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain, and what I understand, according to my lights, to be my duty, and what comes my way, I do. All my action is actuated by the spirit of service.” He suggested that anyone who had the capacity to systematize ahimsa into a science should do so, but added a proviso “if it lends itself to such treatment.” Gandhi went on to argue that a cohesive account of even his own striving for nonviolence, his numerous experiments with ahimsa both within the realms of the spiritual and the political, the personal and the collective, could be attempted only after his death, as anything done before that would be necessarily incomplete. Gandhi was prescient. He was to conduct the most vital and most moving experiment with ahimsa after this and he was to experience the deepest doubts about both the nature of nonviolence and its efficacy after this. With the violence in large parts of the Indian subcontinent from 1946 onward, Gandhi began to think deeply about the commitment of people and political parties to collective nonviolence. In December 1946 Gandhi made the riot-ravaged village of Sreerampore his home and then began a barefoot march through the villages of East Bengal.

This was not the impossibility that he alluded to. He believed that just as it was impossible for a human being to get a full grasp of truth (and of truth as God), it was equally impossible for humans to get a vision of ahimsa that was complete. He said: “If at all, it could only be written after my death. And even so let me give the warning that it would fail to give a complete exposition of ahimsa. No man has been able to describe God fully. The same hold true of ahimsa.”

Gandhi believed that just as it was given to him only to strive to have a glimpse of truth, he could only endeavor to soak his being in ahimsa and translate it in action.

The Power of Nonviolent Resistance: Selected Writings by Gandhi  gives context to the time of Gandhi’s writings while placing them firmly into the present-day political climate, inspiring a new generation of activists to follow the civil rights hero’s teachings and practices. The book is available now!

Meet Munir Khan and Mohini Singh from ‘A Delhi Obsession’

Posted on by Penguin India

Two-time Giller Prize winner M.G. Vassanji returns with a powerful new novel, A Delhi Obsession about grief and second chances, tradition and rebellion, set in vibrant present-day Delhi.

Munir Khan, a recent widower from Toronto, meets the charming and witty Mohini Singh, a married liberal newspaper columnist, and what follows is a passionate love affair–uncontrollable yet impossible.

Read on to meet these two characters.

 

Munir Khan

Munir Khan was a puzzle. Such a floater. Without an anchor. But likeable… perhaps because of that?

Munir is a westernized agnostic of Muslim origin. He was born in Kenya and now, lives in Toronto. But he actually is an Indian (in a sort of way) who in reality, is ignorant about India. He lost his wife of many years in a car accident. A ‘mediocre’ writer by profession who had seen literary fame, he also has a daughter named Razia. He believes in a simple philosophy of living, in right and in wrong and respects all faiths. He likes history and enjoys finding out about the past. On a whim, to restore his family connections, he decides to visit India where he ends up meeting Mohini.

~

Mohini Singh

Smart, witty and liberal, that was her style.

Mohini is a modern Hindu woman. Utterly attractive and charming, she’s traditional and religious, but also a provocative newspaper columnist. She writes a weekly column for the daily paper the Express Times and teaches a course in English at a college twice a week. Her family were refugees from Sargodha, which became a part of Pakistan after the Partition. She had married early and has two daughters. She believes in prayer and turns to God for guidance. She usually look stunning in a saree and has a twinkle in her eye.

~

These two are from different worlds. To know more about them and their story, grab your copy of A Delhi Obsession today.

6 Very Delhi Things You Find in ‘A Delhi Obsession’

Posted on by Penguin India

Set in contemporary times and effectively M.G. Vassanji’s most urgent novel yet, A Delhi Obsession follows the inexplicable attraction between recent widower Munir Khan and Mohini Singh, a married liberal newspaper columnist. Delhi’s streets, monuments and ruins become the setting of their passionate affair.

With the sights serving as an essential part of Vassanji’s storytelling, we list 6 very Delhi things you can expect to find in the book:

 

“[Munir and Mohini] had gone to see the fortress city of Tughlaqabad. Bahadur dropped her off at DRC. Mohini watched him drive off, out of sight, then she and Munir called for a taxi, which they hired for the day. Tughlaqabad was the most isolated and private it could get, but it was far from romantic. It was forbidding, haunted by its history.”

~

“At Siri the place was flooded with lights. Dust, cars hooting, the crowds. The bheed. The night air was thick and moist, a full moon was out. And hundreds of devoted fans filling the seats. The Mishra brothers began with a lovely thumri, a single-line love song to Krishna, repeated over and over in variations. Kya karun sajani, aaye na baalam . . . What to do, beloved, he doesn’t come . . . Then a couple of khayals. A bhajan by Meera. Paga ghungaru bandh . . . She wished he were there to share the music, for her to explain it to him.”

~

“A Narrative of the Last Days of Delhi

One terrible day bled into another following the death of our Sultan Alauddin by poison, and the three princes’ gory murders in Gwalior Fort. There was no end in sight to the naib’s evil machinations; now a Hindu was installed Sultan of Delhi and the descendants of maharajas strutted about its streets, energized by their polished new idols and charms. The future of Hindustan lay exposed and our own lives hung in the balance from day to day.

Such dark thoughts had returned to play upon my mind as I walked home one evening from a visit to my master Nizamuddin . . .”

~

“This time [Munir and Mohini] met at Khan Market. They did a casual round of the shops first. He bought a notebook, for which she paid, and he picked up the reading glasses he had ordered. Alphonso mangoes were just in season, displayed in fragrant heaps, and she bought a couple for him to eat that evening.”

~

“[Munir] visited by taxi the Qutub Minar, a lean and elegant tower of red sandstone in the south of the city, from where the first Turkish sultans had ruled, having defeated the local Rajput kings in the tenth century; and the Purana Qila, which was the site of the earliest city of Delhi, called Indraprastha, from the time of the epic Mahabharata.”

~

“Karim’s was one of a cluster of eating places nearby that all offered the same cuisine, kebabs and biryani occupying pride of place, releasing enticing aromas into the street. Of them, Karim’s had the distinction of having its entrance leading inside through a passageway to a counter.”

Written with trademark sensitivity and a sharp, affecting vision, A Delhi Obsession cuts close to the bone, and compels you to confront your profoundest dilemmas.

 

 

The Importance of Teaching your Child to be Grateful

Posted on by Penguin India

Running out of bedtime stories to read to your kids?

Then worry not! Because Trishla Jain is here to save the night.

Research shows that narrating bedtime stories can be instrumental in building a child’s personality. These stories can help your kids understand important things in life and that too in an easy and consumable way.
Then why not use this bed time practice to teach your kids good values that will guide them throughout their lives? Why not use this practice to teach your kids how to say Merci, Arigato, Dhanyawaad so that they learn how to count their blessings and find reasons to be thankful?

Tankful of Thankful by Trishla Jain toots the magic of thanking each other in different languages-for the small things, for the grand things, for all things.

With adorable illustrations and verses, your young ones will start a beautiful conversation about living gratefully with you today!

Excerpt from book below:

 

Read Tankful of Thankful out loud to your children tonight!

Cuddle Up with These Books this Winter

Posted on by Penguin India

This winter, set some time aside to read with your child. Feel Sai Baba’s all-pervasive presence, blessings and grace  and discover the wonders of wildlife in India. Take the time to solve puzzles that delve into the history, culture, food, festivals, wildlife and monuments of India as well!

Here is a list of all the books you can cuddle up with, this month:

Discover India: Wildlife of India

Mishki and Pushka can’t wait to get going. Daadu Dolma is taking them on a safari to see some of India’s famed wildlife.They’re about see rare animals like the Gangetic dolphin, meet endangered species like the Bengal tigers and one-horned rhinoceros!

With so many mountains, forests, water bodies, swamps and deserts, it’s no surprise that India has such amazing wildlife. So get set to join your favourite happy campers and their good old friend, Daadu Dolma and learn all about India’s incredible wildlife.

Discover India: India Activity Book

Mishki and Pushka have learned a lot about India. And now they’re ready to solve the puzzles, riddles and activities that Daadu Dolma has created specially for them.

Join them and take on the challenge of completing these activities on India’s history, its kings and queens, its festivals and monuments, its art and culture. There’s sure to be lots of fun along the way!

Amma, Take me to Shirdi

Join Amma and her boys as they travel to Shirdi, home to one of India’s most celebrated saints-Sai Baba. Hear the story of one of the most loved and revered mystics. Walk around the neem tree that gave him shelter. Relish a few moments in Dwarka Mai, the dilapidated mosque that became his home. Visit Dhuni Mai, the ever-burning fire Sai Baba had lit, and receive his blessings. Hear stories of the countless miracles he performed as you pay respects at the Shri Samadhi Temple, where he rests.

The Golden Eagle (Feather Tales)

Darkless

The Mindfulness Picture (Box Set)

Start a beautiful conversation on living purposefully with your young ones through four picture books that bring to life modern spirituality through simple words. While Tankful of Thankful will teach your child to understand the power of gratitude, Listen to the Whispers will let them reach for the stars with confidence and feel at one with the universe. Use Om the Gnome and the Chanting Comb to make them feel light and free and use Sunrise, Moonrise to understand the purpose of praying.

Puffin Classic: Tales from the Kathasaritsagara

Do you know the story of Phalabhuti, who narrowly escaped a grisly fate? Or of the kind-hearted Jimutavahana, who gave his life to save a snake from death? Or of young Shringabhuja, who married a rakshasa s daughter? These are just some of the many stories that make up Somadeva’s Kathasaritasagara. Abridged and wonderfully retold by Rohini Chowdhury, this is a great introduction for young readers to a fascinating work of classical Indian literature.

The Impact of the Panama Papers in India

Posted on by Penguin India

The Panama Papers leak, which involved the leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records of ‘global’ law firm Mossack Fonseca based in Panama City, exposed corruption and tax evasion by politicians, celebrities and the elite who had stashed away wealth in secretive tax havens.

The leak not only shook the world but also made a case for a more equal society in an age of a widening rich–poor divide. The response from readers of the case and the government to the expose was overwhelming, and the agencies swung into action immediately.

Read on to know more about the untold India story of the trailblazing investigation.

The mother of all collaborations

The Panama Papers investigation was code-named ‘Project Prometheus’ after the character from Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to human beings. Perhaps it was named so with the expectation that a huge fire would be kindled.

Prometheus would be the largest-ever leak in journalism history with 2.6 terabytes of data; the dump came from an anonymous source to reporters of Süddeutsche Zeitung, the secondlargest German daily; the leaked data was from a Panamanian law firm named Mossack Fonseca; there were many heads of state and corporate leaders in the leaked data that spanned four decades and was ‘live’ till early 2015.

 

Following the leads to discoveries and dead ends

Even as Ritu, Jay and Vaidy began digging into the India files, what actually helped them navigate the intriguing world of offshore business was access to the millions of files that were not necessarily related to India. Reading the internal mails revealed the level of compliance, rather the lack of it, observed by giant incorporators like Mossack Fonseca, the veils of secrecy they built and their eagerness to find a way out to cater to every demand put forth by a client, all for a fee.

Having accessed the leaked data, the three reporters had embarked on the search in the spirit of ‘feeling lucky’ and entered, wishfully, names from a list of public figures in business and politics. To their surprise, some of these searches immediately returned positive. Soon enough, though, dawned the first of many sobering realizations. It turned out that most of these hits were inconsequential.

Quite early in the deep dive, the reporters realized that the ICIJ’s secure servers were struggling to cope with the traffic generated by hundreds of diligent reporters logging in from all corners of the world. While the consortium had invested a lot of resources, the global collaboration was the first of its kind and in no way could one have anticipated the load till it became apparent.

To physically verify hundreds of addresses, the three reporters needed to utilize the reach of the formidable state network of the Indian Express. They broke down the address list state-wise. Typically, the client concentration was high in and around the metros and state capitals. Both Mumbai and Delhi checklists, for example, had over sixty addresses each. But there was enough fieldwork also to be done in the hinterland. Unfortunately, many addresses with only a name against a village or a PO (post office) returned nothing. Not surprisingly, most Indian villages have multiple individuals who respond to the same name, and it was impossible to pin down a client in the absence of additional details such as father’s name and so on.

 

The aftermath of the leak

The flutter was also evident among celebrity company owners who had figured in the list of 500-odd Indians named and also therefore in the India coverage. There were those who immediately wanted to wash their hands of the Mossack firms, others who rejigged their holdings and, surprisingly, even company owners who dug in their heels and increased their holdings despite their confidential offshore secrets having been outed.

The only persons to deny outright evidence of their offshore involvement found in the Panama Papers documents were Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai. While Rai’s media adviser tried to dismiss Ritu’s request for comments, Bachchan did not even bother to respond to repeated queries.

One measure of the impact of the Panama Papers was the excitement the investigation generated in the conference and seminar circuit. The ICIJ staffers as well as project members became sought-after speakers at events hosted across the world and this was true for the Indian team too. The model of collaborative journalism exhibited by the Panama Papers team and what the story meant for the future of journalism sans borders was the favourite topic of plenary sessions at several journalism talk shops.

The promptness with which the Indian government reacted resulted in the country joining others in formulating a global taxation response to the Panama Papers. It was a good signal and statement of intent that on 13 April—just a week after the exposé—when tax administrators from around thirty countries held a brainstorming meeting in Paris on the impact of the Panama Papers, a director-level officer from India’s CBDT was in attendance.

 

A month after the Panama Papers hit the stands and sent the global who’s who scrambling for cover, John Doe, the unnamed source of the leak, sent a stirring note to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper. The short essay underlined why it is, now, time for real action and how that starts with asking questions.

Read The Panama Papers to know more about the untold Indian side of the story!

5 Interesting Facts About Explorers, Spies & Maps from the Nineteenth-Century

Posted on by Penguin India

The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India was founded in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the country. Under George Everest’s leadership, the Survey mapped the Great Arc, which was then lauded as ‘one of the greatest works in the whole history of science,’ though it cost more in monetary terms and human lives than many contemporary Indian wars.

Much of the work of the Survey was undertaken by explorers and native Indians known as Pundits, who were trained to spy out and map Central Asia and Tibet. They did this at great personal risk and with meagre resources, while traveling entirely on foot. Mapping the Great Game tells the story of these extraordinary pioneers-their exploits, their adventurous spirit and their tenacity in the face of great adversity

Read on to discover some interesting facts from the book:

 

Fact 1: A territory could only be acquired and governed when it was known

‘Maps would transform newly won territories- and finally the whole continent- from the unknown to the known. It was essential for British rule to acquire this knowledge for both military and administrative purposes, including the all- important task of collecting revenue.’ 

Fact 2: Afghanistan was the Door into India

‘From the time of Alexander, the Great, Afghanistan has been a staging post for invaders into India, crossing the Hindu Kush and swooping on to the hot plains of the Punjab. These mountains pose a formidable barrier. One interpretation of its name is ”Hindu killer”, as explained by the famous fourteenth- century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta, who wrote: ”Many of the slaves brought to us from India perish while crossing the high passes on account of the severe cold and great quantities of snow.” ‘ 

Fact 3: William Lambton and George Everest were the first and foremost cartographers that made mapping of India their life’s work

‘At the turn of the nineteenth century, an unusual proposal was put forward to the British authorities in India…The proposal set out to measure the shape of the earth, while intricately mapping India- a scientific project on a scale not previously attempted anywhere on the planet. The idea’s originator was William Lambton, and the venture he began would be completed one day by his successor George Everest.’ 

Fact 4: Under William Lambton’s leadership, the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) had surveyed an area extending 165,000 square miles, his efforts formed the bedrock of the Survey of India

‘Author Showell Styles has pointed out how there was an element of ”greatness” about [William] Lambton, reflected by how others referred to the things he worked on: the Great Theodolite, the Great Arc and the Great Trigonometrical Survey. Yet today his name is largely forgotten, both in Britain and India. his efforts and accomplishments, though, which formed the bedrock of the GTS, live on through the work of the Survey of India. For many years, his name even appeared on its logo, and a commemorative bust sits today on St Thomas Mount, Chennai, looking out from where he launched his grand project. 

Fact 5: George Everest-a cantankerous old sahib-ensured that the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) was as accurate as possible

‘With him [George Everest] at its helm, the GTS had surveyed 57,000 square miles of territory, at a final cost of nearly 90,000 pounds. Although this area was only a third of the total achieved under [William] Lambton’s stewardship, Everest’s survey is considered unsurpassed because of its superior quality. For example, to ensure the highest levels of accuracy, Everest made his triangles as symmetrical as possible. he achieved this by instituting a strict rule that internal angles be kept between 30 and 90 degrees, and preferably closer to 60 degrees. Furthermore, as much as Everest appreciated the size of Lambton’s large triangles, as a general rule, again in pursuit of accuracy, he favoured limiting each side to between 20 and 30 miles, even though this restriction would slow down the rate of advance of his survey.’

 

To know more about this thrilling story of espionage and cartography, grab your copy Mapping The Great Game today!

 

Meet Homi- 7 Unique Characteristics of Sangeeta Bandhopadhyay’s Heroine

Posted on by Penguin India

Homi is a modern young woman who has her days split between a passionate marriage and a high-octane television studio job. Life, for her, goes on as usual until one day she is approached by a yogi on the street. This mysterious figure, visible only to her, begins to follow her everywhere and Homi finds him both frightening and inexplicably arousing.

In the book The Yogini, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay tells the story of Homi as she embarks on a journey with this mysterious figure stalking her constantly.

Read to know more about the protagonist of this book: She is intelligent and interesting to talk to

“Can you tell me the difference between literature and news?” the CEO of the media company had asked

Homi when interviewing her three years ago.

“If news is the rain, literature is the water that gathers underground,” she’d replied. “The rainwater falls on the earth and seeps slowly through each of the layers underground before eventually becoming pure. News is what happened a moment ago – it has to pass through layers of time before it can become literature. When time and philosophy are added to news, what you get is literature.”

Housework is not her cup of tea

Homi and Lalit didn’t go shopping regularly. And when they did, they ended up with precisely what they didn’t need. Instead of detergent, Homi bought gardening tools. Or other things she liked: clothes, perfume, jewellery. Every time Lalit bought mushrooms, they had to be thrown away, because no one had remembered to cook them.

She likes her own company

Homi had no real friends of her own. She was on good terms with everyone, but couldn’t progress beyond a certain level of intimacy. She knew that people became demanding when friendship turned into a relationship, and she didn’t care for commitments. But then how did she manage her job? She did manage it, and she could, by projecting an image of herself as a creative type, so that no one interfered with her work.

 She doesn’t let anyone sway her

”As I said, the influence that most people exert is missing from your life, madam. You consider no one close or distant, good or evil. You love no one, but nor do you respect or hate them. You simply don’t acknowledge the existence of others. You are the only person in your world.” (page 76)

 She is followed by a hermit, visible only to her

Again, she retreated as he approached her, holding out a hand with tongs in it. A hermit’s usual paraphernalia. It was obvious no one else could see him, since it was impossible for such a frightening man to advance towards a lone woman, especially at this hour of the night, without anyone intervening.

The hermit is a manifestation of her fate

”You don’t recognise me, Empress,” he said after a brief silence. ”I am your fate,” he continued – and disappeared at once.

Is he my fate? Homi asked herself. Suddenly she wanted to vomit. Her body felt violated, desiring numbness, as though it had assumed all this time that she could never have been subject to fate. Never, it was impossible! 

 

To find out how Homi’s battle with the yogi plays out, grab your copy of The Yogini today

A Narrative of Three Nations- An Excerpt from ‘1971’

Posted on by Penguin India

The year 1971 is etched into the minds of the billions that call the subcontinent their home. Post partition, the third Indo-Pak war cleaved through the land to make way for another nation to come into its own. For East Pakistani’s, it was a battle that led to liberation and the birth of Bangladesh. For Pakistan, it was the dismemberment that left behind a sense of loss. For India, 1971 was the war that established it as a nation of humanitarian sensibility and military power.

But what does 1971 mean for the victims and survivors of the war?

Anam Zakaria writes, ‘The war is not just a historical event or a story of gallantry or loss, the war is personal and intimate, the trauma as haunting even forty-eight years later.’   Turning the spotlight away from the state orchestrated narratives of victory and defeat, In 1971: A People’s History from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, Zakaria draws attention to the festering wounds that victims of the bloodbath bear even today, giving those tormented by terrible memories of heartrending violence a space to voice their experiences.

Read on for a glimpse-

 

Three men, an officer and two sepoys barged in from the back door, pushing our maid to the side, demanding: “Professor Sahib kahan hai? (Where is the professor)?” When my mother asked why, the officer said, “Unko le jayega (We have come to take him).” My mother asked, “Kahan le jayega (Where will you take him?).” He repeated, “Bus le jayega (We will take him).”’

It was the night of 25 March, when Meghna, then only fifteen years old, had been woken up by her father, a provost at Jagannath Hall, a non-Muslim residence hall at Dhaka University. It was the night Operation Searchlight was launched, the Pakistan Army’s action to crush the secessionist movement in East Pakistan. Dhaka University, whose students were actively engaged in the resistance movement against Pakistan, would be one of the primary targets. The operation would unfold into a long, bloody war, first between East and West Pakistan and then between India and Pakistan, finally culminating in Pakistan’s surrender on 16 December 1971, and the birth of Bangladesh.

‘There was a lot of firing that night, but we assumed that it was the Dhaka University students, excited and eager to show their spirit to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was in town. By then, the firing had become a regular occurrence,’ Meghna told me. ‘Our flat was opposite Jagannath Hall, overlooking the Shahid Minar, the monument for the martyrs of the language movement of 1952. In fact, we were at the centre of all the things that were going on,’ she said, referring to how Dhaka University was one of the major centres of political activity, right from when the language movement started to the 1970s. ‘We even went to see Bangabandhu’s speech of 7 March (held at Ramna Race Course, now called Suhrawardy Udyan) and I remember, my father kept saying, “I don’t see any mediation. I don’t know what will happen.” He feared that the army would clamp down because there was no way they would let things continue as they were . . . The radios were broadcasting their own programmes in Bangla, there were marches happening, there was an active civil disobedience movement. But even then, my father thought the army clampdown would just involve forcing students to stop protesting and return to university, or at most translate into the arrest of teachers (who, the state thought, were instigating trouble). We could never have imagined what happened.’

On 7 March 1971, at the speech that Meghna attended with her father, Sheikh Mujib addressed lakhs of people. By now, Yahya Khan had postponed the opening session of the new parliament. As a result, ‘widespread violence erupted in East Pakistan . . . Mujib was under intense pressure from two sides. Leftist politicians and activists in East Pakistan demanded that he declare independence right away, while Pakistan’s military leaders flew in troops to make sure he would abstain from such a pronouncement.’ Against this backdrop, on 7 March, Sheikh Mujib delivered a historic speech, trying to steer a ‘strategic middle ground’ by emphasizing that until the regime met his conditions, all offices, courts and schools would be closed, and there would no cooperation with the government. Before ending the speech, he also declared, ‘This struggle is for emancipation! This struggle is for independence.’

In her third book 1971, winner of the 2017 KLF German Peace Prize Anam Zakaria takes a closer look at the conflicting narratives on the war of 1971 through the oral histories of various Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Indians.

 

A Tale of Courage: Reasons You Need to Read ‘The Golden Eagle’ Now!

Posted on by Penguin India

This is a story that needs to be told.

A long time ago, there was a buzz in the bird-world. Fearful eyes scanned the horizon for messengers of woe. Birds huddled as they spoke in hushed tones, of trouble brewing in bird-land. Away from the Flamingo Lake, the skies above Stork-pur- a mysterious bird commune- had darkened as wings of evil flapped and fluttered, drowning out the misery of imprisoned birds. Stork-pur was ruled by a villainous iron-winged stork who dreamt of absolute power over all birds on earth.

What went on in Stork-pur had never happened before!

Chosen for a secret mission they felt ready to take on, scout doves Lovey and Dovey commit a mistake that plunges them in deep danger. Their feather-raising adventure ends finally in ‘the story of all stories’!

Do you want to know what makes The Golden Eagle a story to read and remember? Find out below!

This story is powerful

Stories have the power to take you on a journey where you learn character building lessons! Shikar, the amiable white-haired squirrel, tells the doves Lovey and Dovey about all that stories can do-

‘Longtail says that we learn from stories,’ went on Shikar. ‘They teach us right from wrong. They give us a sense of wonder, of awe. Stories make us laugh. They make us weep. Sometimes they turn our hearts cold and fill them with dread. But mostly they fill us with warmth and happiness.’

~

This story sets an example

Despite the pain of injury and the threat of death, Kabul-the courageous bulbul- chooses honour over life. Kabul’s refusal to bow down to the enemy for personal gain sets an example of bravery-

‘She knows perfectly well that she will die. But she spoke of an honour code that she lives by. I tried to persuade her, but her mind is as unbending as a tree. She would rather die, she says. Execution is acceptable. Breaking the honour code isn’t.’

~

This story puts freedom above all else

Times may change but the laws that govern nature must never be forgotten. The doves Lovey and Dovey are aghast at the master bird’s complete disregard for their right to freedom.

‘How can that be? How can your commune make such rules? Birds have absolute freedom to fly. That is the most basic of all bird laws. These worker birds are being held here against their will. They aren’t free. They are slave birds instead.’

~

This story teaches us to be responsible

Our failure to act responsibly at crucial moments can set off a chain reaction that can upset the balance of things and take us away from our end goal. The doves learn this lesson and manage to live through the consequences of their actions but the guilt weighs them down-

‘Our guilt weighed upon us. Kabul had instructed us to fly to the skyhole. We had disobeyed her and followed her here instead. We had let her down. Her execution—if it came to that—would be the result of our failure to obey her.’

~

This story is about dignity

The age old battle between good and evil teaches us that good must fight for its place in this world. The doves see Stork-pur trampling over the dignity of birds and assertively remind the captive green pigeon Teen to not celebrate trivial advantages when faced with the larger evil of slavery-

‘It’s not about working your feathers to the bone,’ said Dovey. ‘It’s about being forced to work. That is evil. It doesn’t matter how good or bad your job is.’

‘Being forced to work is slavery,’ I said. ‘There’s nothing to celebrate in that.’

In his fourth book in the Feather Tales series, Deepak Dalal creates an action-packed tale which leaves you inspired with the courage and empathy shown by the birds when they find themselves entangled in a web of lies and injustice.

To know how unity becomes strength and bravery begets triumph, read The Golden Eagle with your children!

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