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How to be Ordinary- A Handbook for the Savvy Survivor

Posted on by Penguin India

Are you the shallow, insular self contained wallflower that Naomi Dutta waxes eloquent about in her book, of how-to’s and whatnot, How to be a Likeable Bigot? Jokes aside, Dutta’s book very smoothly sails through a myriad of scenarios that should either have you in splits or, leave you feeling offended.

Either way, if you’re on a quest to achieve the ordinary, blend in and be largely forgettable, you may find the following excerpts almost relatable!

 

 

  • Put it on email

 

 

Please note that this is the only time you will show initiative, but for a larger cause: initiative to bring about inertia. It isn’t rocket science, but it could be physics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. By proactively setting off an email chain, you are bringing about inactivity. It looks like a lot of activity but its marginal productivity is zero. They have a term for this in high school economics: disguised unemployment. 

 

 

  • The Art of managing WhatsApp groups at work

 

 

Send messages at unearthly hours. Make sure to send messages to the group at odd hours to appear ever alert and wakeful. The messages don’t have to be of any import, but will shame the rest of the group as they try to sleep, eat or do anything apart from Top Priority 101. 

 

 

  • You are a mass of inertia, but your career will always be on a steady ascendant

 

 

Our key objective to stay in one organization for as long as possible – stay the course, survive management changes, blend in, be seen as a company loyalist and inveigle yourself into some mid-senior managerial post. That is ideal. You are the person who throws the rule book at new employees and resists all change by saying that it is against the brand values of the company. 

 

 

  • Words that should definitely find their way into your resume:

 

 

Ideas curator/ aggregator: You have never actually had an original idea in your life but are really good at filching ideas. Which means that you have the elusive ability to detect a good idea and then pass it off as your own. You were made for senior management. Go ahead and describe yourself as an ideas curator.

 

Digital Evangelist: You can use ‘evangelist’ on its own as well, but attaching digital to anything automatically makes it sound modern and cutting-edge. An evangelist is a passionate advocate for something, so if you are the most passionate setter-up of work WhatsApp groups, you are a digital evangelist. 

 

 

  • No productive person values their lunch hour 

 

This could be potentially the biggest sacrifice this book entails. Do not tell people on social media what you eat everyday – no daily lunch hour updates. A truly productive person is one who strategically schedules meetings that eat into lunch hour or one who proposes a working lunch. If you have the time to post photos online of your lunch, you have the time to eat lunch, which can only mean that you are shirking something that could potentially alter the course of humanity – such as working on an Excel sheet with details of how many cups of coffee team members have in a day and correlating it to performance.  

 

 

  • How not to look idle on social media

 

 

Be Well- Referenced: You don’t need to be well-read. The key is to be well-referenced. Post links to articles on a wide variety of topics, preferably from international publications on things that are of little or peripheral interest to the catchment. Like Brazil going right wing or the repercussions of Brexit on Lebanese eateries in London. Do not add your agreements or disagreements with any of these posts. Merely say, ‘interesting perspective’ or ‘an off-centre take on something that has been preoccupying me for a bit’ or ‘this does raise some interesting points’. 

 

 

  • Active participation has nothing to do with the intensity of involvement

 

Treat Social Media like a spectator sport. Part of the reason why we love being on social media is because there is always a high probability of a fight going on somewhere. Divergent opinions clash, people get snarky and all of this can get the adrenaline going. But here’s the thing: you don’t need to be an active participant because: i.) that gives you visibility which we don’t want; and ii.) it is finally work, which we absolutely don’t want. 

 

 

  • Instagram is a great platform to give you the fame of non-achievement

 

 

Photograph everything. Invest in a good camera phone and shoot everything. If you are a woman, most of your followers will be quite happy if you post a ‘Good Morning’ selfie everyday. But don’t do this as a vanity exercise. Be sure to write a few words of inspiration…

You don’t have to be penning your own motivational quotes. Luckily for us, Rumi, Gibran and many other great writers, have left us a handy bank of quotes that can be used for anything. 

We both know that this has the potential to become long winded but we’d love for you to check out the outrageously witty satire How To Be A Likeable Bigot by Naomi Dutta and tell us what you thought of it!

 

On Building a Secular Democracy: Excerpt from ‘Vision for a Nation’

Posted on by Penguin India

What is the nation? What is the idea of India? And whose India is it?

These are highly relevant and pressing questions for our country today. The first in a fourteen-volume series titled Rethinking India, Vision for a Nation: Paths and Perspectives, edited by Aakash Singh Rathore and Ashish Nandy, aims  to champion a plural, inclusive and prosperous India that is committed to unity and individual dignity.

Here is an insightful excerpt from ‘Secularism: Central to a Democratic Nation’, contributed by Neera Chandhoke, a former professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi:

**

The results of the 2019 general elections in India confirmed the lurking fear that has hovered like a dark cloud over our political horizon since 2014. India is a multireligious country, but we now see the consolidation of the Hindu vote across caste and across class. This consolidation has brought the religious right back into power with an improved majority. Election rhetoric had ridiculed political leaders who stood from minority-dominated constituencies; appealed to a narrow, religion-based nationalism; evoked fear that Pakistan threatened the body politic; and raised aloft the banner of national security over other concerns. None of the planks that garnered rich dividends had anything to do with what are often called ‘real facts’, but fiery rhetoric won over mundane issues of a declining economy and increasing unemployment. A victorious prime minister told his national constituency: ‘Secularism was a tax that used to be paid till today. Fake secularism and its leaders who were calling for the secular forces to unite have been exposed.’ Exposed, one may ask, as what? As Indians committed to the dignity of all and discrimination against none? Or as citizens who want passionately to defend the plural character of Indian society?

The prime minister is not politically naive; he surely knows that political commitments that run against ruling ideologies do not fade into the twilight with the coming into power of a new government. These commitments might not be palatable to the new ruling class, but they continue to inhabit democratic imaginations, continue to act as signposts to a road that leads to a good life for all, and continue to act as a watchdog of ruling dispensations. Criticism of the government and its policies lies at the heart of democratic society, at the heart of the political project to hold elected power elites accountable for their acts of omission and commission.

In any case, democracy is not reducible to election results. Elections are one—albeit significant and decisive—moment of democracy. Democracy establishes and maintains a conversation between the citizens and their representatives. Elections decide who these representatives will be. The process of holding these representatives accountable does not cease with the results of an election. It holds good, no matter who holds power, or with what majority. For that reason, it is democracy, not just elections, of which we should speak, and it is the democratic spirit which we should, and will, uphold.

**

Vision for a Nation provides a positive counter-narrative to reclaim the centrality of a progressive, deeply plural and forward-looking India.

New Books To Add to Your Christmas Wishlist

Posted on by Penguin India

Christmas is right around the corner and we’re all scrambling to find some good reads before the year ends! Take a look at some of our recommendations for December below:

How to Be a Likeable Bigot

In this collection of satirical essays in her deft, inimitable style, Naomi Datta tells you how to survive various situations-from how to befriend tiger moms to how not to get a pink slip- simply by being ‘ordinary’.

How to be a Likeable Bigot celebrates conformity and tells you how to be perfectly regular, to blend in and be largely forgettable.

New Rules of Business 

How did Apple teach its employees to become sales consultants?
How did Tanishq pivot to unlock growth?

Businesses are reinventing themselves and how they deal with employees, customers and other stakeholders. The New Rules of Business unfolds the mysteries of these new ways of doing business which most companies try to keep as secret. Compellingly written with several anecdotes, this is a gripping book full of incredible insights.

In Service of the Republic

This authoritative book is like nothing you have read before on the state of public policy in India.

In Service of the Republic is a meticulously researched work that stands at the intersection of economics, political philosophy and public administration. This highly readable book lays out the art and the science of the policy making that we need, from the high ideas to the gritty practicalities that go into building the Republic.

I’ve Never Been (Un)Happier

Alia Bhatt’s older sister, screenwriter and fame-child, Shaheen Bhatt, now invites you into her head.

Shaheen was diagnosed with depression at eighteen, after five years of already living with it. In this emotionally arresting memoir, she reveals both the daily experiences and big picture of one of the most debilitating and critically misinterpreted mental illnesses in the twenty-first century.

Commentaries on Living

 

Challenge the limits of ordinary thought with J. Krishnamurti’s Commentaries On Living series, a three-volume series, which records J Krishnamurti’s meetings with individual seekers of truth from all walks of life.

The series invites readers to take a ‘voyage on an unchartered sea’ with Krishnamurti in his exploration of the conditioning of the mind and its freedom.

 

The Power of Opportunity: Your Roadmap to Success

They all started with nothing, and leveraged the power of opportunity to achieve success.

And now so can you.

In this book, Richard Rothman shows you why opportunity is the most important and indispensable element necessary to achieve business and career success.

So All is Peace

When twin sisters Layla and Tanya are found starving in their upmarket apartment, there is frenzy in the media. How often does one find two striking, twenty-something women, one half-dead, the other not speaking, living in a state of disrepair and chaos, for no apparent reason?

A richly atmospheric, deeply claustrophobic story with a stunning denouement, of two women confronting the everyday realities of their city and country, So All is Peace provides an unflinching insight into love, lust, fear, grief, and the decisions we make, through a cast of sharply drawn characters brought together by an unspoken wrong.

Uparwali Chai

The ultimate teatime cookbook, with an Indian twist!

From Saffron and Chocolate Macarons to Apricot and Jaggery Upside Down Cake to a Rooh Afza Layer Cake, Uparwali Chai is an original mix of classic and contemporary desserts and savouries, reinvented and infused throughout with an utterly Indian flavour. A beautifully curated set of recipes full of nostalgic flavours and stories, this is a book every home cook will be referring to for generations to come.

Vision For A Nation

What is the nation? What is the idea of India? Whose India is it, anyway?

This inaugural volume in the series titled Rethinking India aims to kickstart a national dialogue on the key questions of our times.

The essays in the book are meaningful to anyone with an interest in contemporary Indian politics, South Asian studies, modern Indian history, law, sociology, media and journalism.


1971

Navigating the widely varied terrain that is 1971 across Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, Anam Zakaria sifts through three distinct state narratives, and studies the institutionalization of the memory of the year and its events.

Using intergenerational interviews, textbook analyses, visits to schools and travels to museums and sites commemorating 1971, Zakaria explores the ways in which 1971 is remembered and forgotten across countries, generations and communities.

A Good Wife

At fifteen, Samra Zafar had big dreams for herself. Then with almost no warning, those dreams were pulled away from her when she was suddenly married to a stranger at seventeen and had to leave behind her family in Pakistan to move to Canada.

In the years that followed she suffered her husband’s emotional and physical abuse that left her feeling isolated, humiliated and assaulted. Desperate to get out, she hatched an escape plan for herself and her two daughters.

A Good Wife tells her inspiring story.

Breath of Gold

Fights, action, music, romance, secret trysts-renowned classical musician Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s life reads almost like a film script. Wrestler in the morning, student during the daytime and flute player in secret, he lived more than a double life through his early years, till he broke away from his father’s watchful eye to join All India Radio as a flautist.

Hariprasad Chaurasia and his Breath of Gold will inspire and amaze everyone who reads the life story of this much-loved flautist.

A Chequered Brilliance 

A portrait of Krishna Menon, one of the most controversial figures in India’s recent history.

Menon continues to command our attention not just because he was Jawaharlal Nehru’s confidant and soulmate but also for many of his own political and literary accomplishments.

Meticulously researched, this book reveals all his capabilities and contradictions.

Chhotu

The year is 1947. The British are slowly marking their departure from the country. And while Partition looms large over India, Chhotu, a student-cum-paranthe-cook in the dusty gullies of Chandni Chowk, has other things on his mind-like feeling the first flushes of love of his crush, Heer, the new girl at school.

Set against the backdrop of Partition and the horrors that followed, Chhotu is a heartwarming coming-of-age graphic novel set against the backdrop of India’s Partition.

Mapping The Great Game

Ever wondered if there’s a story behind maps? When was the first definitive image of the subcontinent created and by whom? Would you believe that there’s a correlation between espionage and cartography?

Find out the answer to these and more in Mapping The Great Game

The Ramcharitmanas (Vol 1, 2 and 3)

The most popular retelling of the legend of Ram is now fully translated!

Rohini Chowdhury’s exquisite translation brings Tulsidas’s magnum opus vividly to life, and her detailed introduction sheds crucial light on the poet and his work, placing them both in the wider context of Hindi literature.

Roses Are Blood Red

A gripping coming-of-age thriller!

Aarisha Shergill’s life is about to get ripped apart because she should have known some things should be left alone.

Novoneel Chakraborty is back with Roses Are Blood Red, a chilling story of love, deception and passion.

Sridevi

Hailed as the first pan-Indian female superstar in an era which literally offered actresses crumbs, Sridevi tamed Hindi cinema like no other.

Charting five decades of her larger-than-life magic, Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess celebrates both the phenomenon and the person Sridevi was. This is her journey from child star to one of our greatest movie luminaries who forever changed the narrative of Indian cinema.

Unleashing the Vajra

A must-read for anyone who wants to understand Nepal’s position in the global economy.

 Nepal’s great advantage is its location between India and China, particularly now as these two Asian giants are set to be the world’s leading economies in 2050.

Sujeev Shakya argues that it is imperative to understand history and learn from it to shape events for a better future. Unleashing the Vajra outlines the factors that will determine Nepal’s destiny in the years to come.

 

Krishna Udayasankar on Her Writing & Advice to New Authors

Posted on by Penguin India

Krishna Udayasankar is the author of the bestselling Aryavarta Chronicles (Govinda, Kaurava, Kurukshetra) based on the Mahabharata.

She has also written a book based on the founding legend of the island of Singapore titled 3 and the fantastical Immortal.

Read to know more about the prolific author and her writing process:

 

  • What inspires you to start writing?

My ideas usually come to me as a scene, an interaction between characters. Most of the time, there’s dialogue involved, and they’re talking about something that connects with me – an issue that bothers me, something that makes me feel very sad or something that makes me extremely glad and excited. It’s almost like these amazing characters turn up at my doorstep and ask me to join them on a quest, and then nothing is the same again. Writing is truly an epic adventure!

 

  • Were any of your characters inspired by people in your life?

 

Characters ARE people in my life – in their own right. But no; rarely are characters inspired by people in my life. Of course, when it comes to little details – particularly behaviors and gestures or ways of speaking, I sometimes look to things I see or notice – especially in strangers – to add colour to a character.

 

The exception to the above, however, are the lions in Beast. A lot of their attitude and behavior – from their moods and sulking to their playing and their fights – have been modeled on my canine-fur children, Boozo, Zana and Maya. Actually, now that I think of it, they do inspire my characters – the human ones – too, across all my books: All that is good in characters – their love, loyalty, resilience, etc – comes from the Huskyteers.

 

  • What is it about writing that you like the most and why?

 

To live a thousand lives, to meet beings from across time and space, to do things that I’ve never had the chance to do – writing is like having imaginary friends and living in imaginary worlds and still being (more or less) socially-acceptable. But I also love the craft of writing; the putting words together to paint pictures, I love being able to work with language and communicate. Last but not least, I love how, over the years, writing has led me to connect with thousands of readers – many of whom become friends. What’s there not to love?

 

  • Who is your favourite author?

 

Isaac Asimov, Rudyard Kipling, Bill Watterson, Kalki Krishnamurthy and many, many more. Why? Because they brought alternate universe to life.

 

  • What advice do you give to new authors?

 

I’ve realized that the “advice” I give changes over time – usually because, as the saying goes, we teach best what we need to learn. Right now, the advice I need to give and hear both is to remember why you began writing. We start with dreams, with stars in our eyes and visions of changing the world through our words, but time takes its toll on us all, regardless of how much we have written or published. The process can feel frustrating, the outcomes pointless. At those moments, more than ever, it is important to remind yourself of why you began writing in the first place.

 

  • Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

 

I don’t. I’m not good at long-term planning or even projecting! Besides, five years ago, I hadn’t thought I would be where I am today. Indeed, for many years in my life, I’d given up on my childhood dream of being a writer. That I am here today putting down this answer in words is completely unexpected. So, five years hence – only time shall tell.

Check out the fantastic backlist of Krishna Udayasankar featuring titles like Govinda, Kaurava, Kurukshetra, 3 and Immortal.

Eggnog with Alicia: A Conversation on the Festive Season, Family Time and her Upcoming Book

Posted on by Penguin India

What’s your favorite thing about Christmas?

Oh that’s a hard one! What’s NOT my favourite thing about Christmas!

I think probably the fact that the house looks AND smells different from the rest of the year. That’s something that I appreciate every single day of December.

How big are you on decorating for Christmas? Is a Christmas tree part of it?

I’m more on the obsessed side. I plan my date in November mostly because I have to have it on a weekend when my husband and I are both in town, which towards the end of the year can be a bit strategic. He does the lights in the house and also the taking down of things which he calls ‘excessive’. I, on the other hand, feel like it’s not decorated till even the sand in the plant pots are red.

Decorating the tree is a biggie! I’ve been collecting ornaments on every trip of mine (especially abroad because in the west they have all-year Christmas shops, which are like mini heavens). Also I have little rituals like making an ornament every year.

What would you want Santa to bring you this year?

Can I say ‘Peace on Earth’ without sounding Christmas-y cliche?

Also, a great metabolism forever won’t hurt 😛

You have your book coming out very soon, would you like to give your readers a sneak peek into what it’ll be about?

It’s basically about the quirks of living with your significant(ly messy) other. The joys, the annoyance and general happy life of being in everyday love.

**

“And then, when I was five years old life changed in an instant, dramatically and forever.” An excerpt from ‘I’ve Never Been (Un)Happier’

Posted on by Penguin India

Despite all this time spent in close proximity to the film-making process and the odd ‘film-child’ (heh) friend I had, I was shielded from the Bollywood world. The fuzzy memories I have of early childhood are all happy ones. I began my education at a small Montessori school not far from home, and once my mother and I made it through a harrowing first week involving a lot of tears, broken promises and her having to sit around directly in Baby Shaheen’s eyeline for hours at a time—it was smooth-sailing. Well, for the most part. There was one hysterical temper-tantrum (tiny balled up fists being beaten on the ground, screaming, sobbing, hiccups, the works) thrown in the aisles of a busy supermarket because I was denied a box of crackers, but my mother assures me that that was a one off and not a regular occurrence or some sort of dramatic foreshadowing of things to come.

And then, when I was five years old life changed in an instant, dramatically and forever. So far, I’d spent my entire life with the undivided, uncontested attention of my mother and those around me, but suddenly there was a tiny new person to share my world with. My sister Alia came into the world during the turbulent 1993 Bombay riots and from the first second I saw her pink, mousey face, life was never the same.

I had desperately wanted a little sister and I was giddy with excitement when Alia was born. She was my pride and joy. Every spare second I had was spent watching over her and playing with her—I soon became so possessive of her that I refused to let anyone else touch her.

Still, adjusting to life with a new sibling is challenging for any young child. As a five-year-old I thrived on being the centre of attention—a stark contrast to the shy and reclusive adult I am now—but the attention that once came solely my way was slowly redirected towards Alia. She was disturbingly cute as a child, and even then she had an effortless knack of drawing people to her. Always the natural performer, most evenings at home involved a spirited performance by Alia to her favourite song of the week, irrespective of whether anyone was watching or not.

My own powers of magnetism, on the other hand, relied more on a carefully crafted combination of jumping, violent arm-waving and incessant demands for people to witness my majesty than effortless charm—and I disliked having to vie for the spotlight.

**

 

 

The People that Work Behind-the-Scenes in Cinema

Posted on by Penguin India

With Directors’ Diaries 2, Rakesh Anand Bakshi adds yet another volume to his ongoing series of conversations with Hindi cinema’s most iconic voices. This time he shares with us his conversations with some of the industry’s most eminent film-makers as well as significant but often overlooked behind-the-scenes crew such as spot boy Salim Shaikh, make-up artist Vikram Gaikwad and sound designer Rakesh Ranjan.

Read on to get a look at the workings of the behind-the-scenes crew of a movie:

 

  • Spot boys have feelings too!

    Few people address us [spot boys] by our names. We like it when they [film crew] address as a Spot Dada, but it feels great when we know that they know our names. We spot boys do many odd jobs in the long chain of film-making and are largely unnoticed and sometimes appreciated by the crew. People who watch films are unaware of our work and our significance on the film set. Even the people who handle lights and the settings department have greater visibility than us. 

 

  • Spot boys are the foundation of film-making

    According to me [Spot Boy Salim Shaikh], spot boys, light men and the settings department lay the foundation every day in film-making. These three departments together help the unit set up a shoot every day and clear things post pack-up, when all the technicians, actors, cinematographer, producer, director, have gone home. We stay around for at least two more hours after everyone has left and arrive an hour or two before the others. Yet, we are paid only for the duration of our fixed shifts and never for overtime.

     

  • Make-up Artists Know Best!

    The job of a make-up artist is not only to apply make-up but to also tell directors when it is required and when it is not. Unfortunately, many actors, especially females, and directors do not understand or appreciate this. They force us to apply make-up even when it is not required. For example, if you want a young girl to look like a mature woman, simply apply a lot of make-up. But, if the aim of the story is to retain the innocence and youth of the character, by forcing me [Make-up Designer Vikram Gaikwad] to apply too much make-up, the actor or director is going against the essence of the character.

 

  • If you’re working with prosthetics, too much heat is a problem!

    The craft of prosthetic make-up is a nightmare in India because of the heat and humidity. Prosthetics are usually created by the application of foam pieces or silicon rubber pieces over the skin. For the foam or skin-safe silicone rubber to stick to the skin, we use a ‘medical’ gum—a paste that is skin-safe. The problem that arises is that the sweat from the heat or humidity dissolves the medical gum, thus weakening the bond between the skin and the moulding.

 

  • The sound designer is a very effective storyteller

    Yes! The sound man is a very effective storyteller. He has to his disposal the various elements of the narrative—such as the dialogue, location ambiences, foleys, BGM and most importantly, silences—all of which constantly manipulate the audience’s perception of the story along with the visuals and the visual edits. I [Sound Designer Rakesh Ranjan] consider the sound textures as themes, because the tonal quality of all the sounds plays a very important part in the narrative, and this varies from subject to subject. I create sound texture by working on the tonal quality of the actor’s voice, their footsteps, and other foley sounds.

Aspiring directors, book lovers and cinema fans should grab their copies Directors’ Diaries 2 today!

When a Battle with Destiny Turns Deadly-An Excerpt from ‘Roses Are Blood Red’

Posted on by Penguin India

           ‘I’ll gift you a love story that every girl desires, but few get to live.’

Ensnared in the gossamer web of a dreamlike romance, Aarisha is blinded by a passion she can feel in her soul. She is head over heels in love with a man who seems too good to be true. But there are questions about her past that her beating heart cannot silence. Will she ever find the answers?

     ‘I’ll fight. I promise I’ll fight all the beasts that come our way’

Vanav is a man in love. His very life breath is a testament to his resolve to be one with Aarisha.  For this, he can move mountains. For her, he can make the impossible possible. She has promised she would fight all the beasts that come their way. But in this battle with destiny, what if the lover becomes the beast?

Here is an excerpt from this riveting saga of love-

————————————————————

The Thakur family was ushered outside along with the rest of the ladkiwale (the bride’s side), to await the stately procession of the groom’s family and friends. Vanav remained behind alone, watching the pomp and splendour as the groom and his family marched in. After much ado, both Aarisha and Shubh were made to sit on decorated chairs on a small stage as it was time for them to exchange the ceremonial garlands.

Vanav found himself a quiet place in one of the common restrooms and crouched. He could hear loud crackers and gun shots, and people making merry, but he knew that he couldn’t bear to witness the ceremony anymore. Hours later, his trance was broken by someone pushing open the door. He was surprised to see Aarisha.

‘Ranisa,’ he immediately stood up.

‘Thakur sahab, what on earth are you doing here?’

‘Nothing. I just . . .’

‘I have to use the loo.’

‘Oh, sorry. I’ll leave.’

As Vanav was about to step out, she stopped him. He turned around. She leaned over, her fragrance filling his senses, and whispered, ‘I know, Thakur sahab. I’ve always known. I always will. But know this, Thakur sahab, within this knowing of yours and mine, our story must live and die.’

Vanav, looked down at the floor, fighting back tears as each of her words resonated like a death knell in his heart.

‘I had to agree to this marriage now that my whole family has seen how appalling my choice of a husband was. Shubh is their choice, my father’s choice. As I agreed to the wedding, he is also my choice from now on. Shubh may not love me, not yet at least, but he has rights over me. Love doesn’t bestow any rights, Thakur sahab, but a relationship does; and a socially accepted relationship even more so. By choosing Daksh I fell so far down in everyone’s esteem, especially my father’s, that I can’t afford to refuse his choice. I’m sure that I too will eventually fall in love with Shubh over time . . . at least, I’ll try to. And if not, I’ll pretend, for marriage is a duty-bound exercise—and a woman is a slave to duty. Especially a married woman. You’re too young right now, Thakur sahab, to understand much of what I’m saying. But one day you’ll understand and then you’ll understand why sometimes loving someone with all your heart and soul is simply not enough to be with that person forever. It’s sad. It’s depressing. It’s soulsearing. But it’s the truth. I’m sure you’ll get over me.’

Vanav raised a woe-begone, tear-stained face, ‘Won’t we ever meet again, Ranisa?’

‘We didn’t know we would meet to begin with. It was destined. So, let the possibility of our meeting again be decided by destiny itself.’

‘Aarisha! Aarisha!’ she heard her friends calling out to her. ‘Be quick! Everyone is waiting!’

Vanav turned away slowly and left.

 

Will Vanav put together the pieces of his shattered heart to find love again?

Author of the hugely successful Forever series, Novoneel Chakraborty creates a spellbinding story of love, longing and loss in Roses Are Blood Red.

To find out whether destiny triumphs over a dangerous obsession, read Roses Are Blood Red!

 

Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess- An Excerpt

Posted on by Penguin India

Hailed as the first pan-Indian female superstar in an era which literally offered actresses crumbs, Sridevi tamed Hindi cinema like no other.

Sridevi-The Eternal Screen Goddess by Satyarth Nayak is the superstar’s journey from child star to one of our greatest movie luminaries who forever changed the narrative of Indian cinema.

Get a glimpse into the story of her life from the excerpt below:

The theatre had come alive. Halfway through the film—during the intermission—Tamil chartbusters were blaring from the speakers. A four-year-old girl had got up from her seat and was dancing in the aisle. Her face cherubic, eyes luminous and feet frolicking. Her parents gaped as the audience cheered her on. Oblivious to all this, the girl danced with abandon, casting a shadow on the blank cinema screen. Sharing this childhood memory with me (author) in our only meeting in 2012 at the Delhi premiere of English Vinglish, Sridevi had said, ‘I danced and danced until someone pulled me back.’

And yet, in a 1985 interview with Cine Blitz, Sridevi also described her younger self in these words: ‘I was a very shy and lonely child. Ihated crowds. The minute I saw more than three or four people in the room, I would run and hide behind my mother’s pallu.’

Reconciling these two childhood versions of Sridevi, so seemingly incompatible with each other, is difficult, but perhaps it was this fascinating dichotomy that spun the aura and mystique around her. People close to the actress vouch that she was not one or the other; she was both. Both the personas merging into one. That girl withdrawing behind her mother’s pallu could also streak through the silver screen like a bolt of lightning.

Sridevi was unquestionably to the movies born. The episode at the theatre ticked all the boxes for a star in the making—someone who is naturally drawn to the spotlight, and who can easily insulate oneself from the reality around, instead finding sanctuary in a world of her own. A being so truly dazzling that all those who watched were sucked into the fantasy she created on screen.

Sridevi was born on 13 August 1963. Her parents K. Ayyappan and Rajeshwari were residents of Meenampatti, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. Her younger sister Srilatha and stepbrother Satish, from Ayyappan’s first marriage, completed her family. Director Pankuj Parashar reveals how the actress got her name: ‘She once told me that when she was born, there was a bright red mark on her forehead, like a tika. Everyone started saying that a devi had taken birth and they named her Ayyappan Sridevi.

…Today, it is all the characters she has left behind who will keep flashing her magic. Some of us would be content with just those cinematic versions of her. But some of us might look beyond those avatars to seek out the real Sridevi, try to locate her in that twitch of the lips or that flutter of the eyes, in that laughter that never ended or that teardrop that never descended, in her every cadence and every silence, in her infinitesimal moments scattered throughout celluloid. We shall wonder whether the actress, who kept playing ‘others’ onscreen, ever got to be who she truly was. And having spent a lifetime creating ‘Sridevi’ for others, if the real person lived somewhere in her own fantasy.

In an interview with Cine Blitz in 1994, when asked what creature she would wish to be, Sridevi had replied: ‘A bird. I would love to fly free.’ Perhaps it is this unspoken longing in her eyes which a fan like Harish Iyer recognized that makes him say: ‘Many of her admirers keep tweeting “RIP—Return If Possible.” It is not easy for me to say this but I don’t want Sridevi to come back. I hope she is happy and at peace wherever she is. I just want her to rest.’

We can only thank her for those countless moments when she touched our very core with her art, we can only be awed by her immense legacy that generations will continue to discover, we can only be grateful to her for being that life on-screen who inspired lives everywhere. And we can only forever stare at the irony of her last words on celluloid. When walking away from all of us in that scene in Zero, Sridevi giggles and says: ‘Next time!’

Such was Sridevi’s megastardom that she emerged as the ‘hero’ at the box office, towering above her male co-actors. Challenging patriarchy in Bollywood like no other, she not only exalted the status of the Hindi film heroine but also empowered a whole generation of audiences.Find out more about her in Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess.

Is Policy Impeding India’s Tryst with Destiny? An Excerpt From In Service of The Republic

Posted on by Penguin India

Etched in India’s history as a period of remarkable growth, the decades spanning 1991 to 2011 saw a surge in wealth creation for the rich, considerable advancement in material comforts for the middle class and a noticeable decline in the number of people below the poverty line.

‘There was an optimism in this period of a kind that was perhaps last seen immediately after Independence. Finally, to many of us, India was getting on its feet,’ write economists and authors Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah.

Post 2011, the slump in the high growth performance of those two decades raises important questions about Indian economics and policymaking. In Service Of The Republic investigates policy and its impact on nations.

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In mature countries, one element of the privacy problem is well established: the need to restrict government access to information about individuals, i.e., to tie down surveillance by the government into rule-of-law procedures and limit the extent of surveillance. This has evolved in the UK and in Europe over centuries. The conflict between state access to personal information, and human freedom, is particularly seen in the authoritarian governments of the twentieth century. This is the prime problem in the field of privacy, and is a largely settled matter in mature democracies.

In recent years, there is fresh concern about the abuse of information about individuals by firms such as Facebook. European policymakers have pushed to the frontiers of the field with the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR) in the EU.

A simple reading of the contemporary literature on privacy in mature democracies is, then, quite misleading. Such a reader would see the bulk of the contemporary policy discourse as being the debates around GDPR and its enforcement. A reader of this literature would think that Facebook is a major problem in the field of privacy. Policy recommendations in India may flow from this study of the international experience that we have to block information access about Indians by Facebook using a legal instrument on the lines of GDPR. This position would be treated warmly by persons in India who are hostile to foreign companies.

Such transplantation of the international experience would, however, be incorrect for two reasons. First, access to personal information by the state is far more dangerous for individuals as compared with access to this information by private firms. Second, a law like GDPR makes assumptions about UK or EU state capacity. To favour creating a new privacy regulator that will coerce private firms on the question of privacy, without the checks and balances prevalent in the EU, would work out poorly in India.  In the Indian discourse, we have rapidly run ahead to proposing criminal sanctions, in the hands of the proposed ‘Data Protection Authority’.

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Having developed a nuanced perspective on economics, political philosophy and public administration in their careers as professional economists as well as former civil servants, Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah offer remarkable clarity on the art and  science of policymaking in the meticulously researched In Service of the Republic.

 

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