September is here and the summer heat is slowly coming to a halt and the pleasant breeze is soon going to make your kids’ days even more cheerful! After the little ones have studied at school and played in the park, let them spend time reading amazing stories.
Check out our September releases and introduce your kids to diverse topics that they’d thoroughly enjoy reading.
Roshan’s Road to Music
Roshan’s Road to Music || Mamta Nainy
For ages: 5+ years
A unique biography that explores and celebrates the life of a musician as a passionate little girl. Right from her childhood, Annapurna Devi, also known as Roshan, had an ear for music. She found rhythm and melody in the most mundane sounds. She listened with wonder to the koel cooing and her grandmother snoring. But when her father gave sarod lessons to her brother, Roshan was moved to make music of her own. How did Roshan embark on her musical journey?
A Chera Adventure
A Chera Adventure || Preetha Leela Chockalingam
For ages: 9+ years
Curious and spirited, Sharadha loves living life in her ancestral tharavadu. The grand ol’ house, Vishwasam, is right in the heart of her beloved Marayur, in the Chera kingdom. The house is also the centre of activities as Devaki Amma, her grandmother, is a healer for the King no less! Life is good in the sleepy village!
But her inquisitiveness takes Sharadha on an unintended adventure. Trying to investigate a secret, she chances upon a mysterious trader and ends up in the bustling city of Mahodayapuram. And it’s not just any city but the busy multicultural melting pot of the Cheraman Perumal Empire!
As she traverses the metropolis, Sharadha gets pulled into the magical colours, languages, religions, and the vibrancy of the city. She now realizes how complex the Capital is from her small village life-full of intrigue and political scandals. But as a sudden war with the ambitious and powerful Chola Dynasty looms on the horizon, Sharadha pines to get back to her old quiet life in Marayur.
Peek into an account of what life was like during the final years of the Chera Dynasty of the eleventh century Kerala!
Dhiren is completely absorbed by how animatedly she is laying out her theory. Not just with her words, but also her eyes, her hands, her body, like she’s doing a puppet show with characters, voices, songs. She becomes a sabre-toothed tiger by flashing her canines and a giant sloth by lumbering on the table menacingly. When she mentions wars, she swings her hand around and grunts as if she’s a medieval warrior, and looks around scared when she’s on the Silk Route.
She can go on the entire night and he will be right here, listening, bewitched by this gorgeous storytelling gypsy who knows everything.
‘You’re suggesting genocide. But if that’s so obvious, why didn’t it happen till now?’
‘Men are clever. They realised their need would be limited in the future. So, the ancient ones—kings, nobles, religious men, traders—all the powerful men came together, worried, scared, and in a moment of brilliance, they invented the rules of monogamy. One man, one woman. Suddenly, all men were needed. Every single man was important. Legends of love were told, romantic books were written, movies were made, Hallmark cards were printed, weddings were celebrated, pregnancies were made important, and women were told that they should want these things—love, wedding, romance, families. But it’s the men who need these. If you’re genetically ungifted, the only way to survive is romance. Without romance, only the strong, the disease-resistant, the tall will survive.’
Her storytelling is wizardry. She can move her large pupils around and put a man into a hypnotic trance. Dhiren hangs on to every word of hers. He feels he has to agree with what she’s saying. How can her eyes lie? Dhiren wonders if this is how a religion comes into being—a ravishing person with a great story.
‘Romance is a conspiracy?’ asks Dhiren.
‘Romance, once strictly optional, was now mandatory. Romantic love didn’t make women whole, it saved men from oblivion and extinction. Children were now meant to be god’s gift, brought into the world after the blissful union of a man and a woman. But it’s all a lie concocted by ancient rishis, priests and prophets—all men! Think about it, why not get children off the assembly line? Why not make sure they get the best of genes from a man and mix them up with a little bit of the woman who carries them and raises them as truly their own?’
‘I mean . . .’ Dhiren can’t finish the sentence.
She continues. ‘Think climate-wise too. We waste precious food in sustaining bigger bodies of men, with higher metabolism rates for the same contribution to society. How much can we save by not having so many men? We already do that with cattle, thirty cows to one bull. We only keep the best bull.’ The three whistles and two minutes on low flame are up.
‘Wow,’ mumbles Dhiren.
She breaks out of her own train of thought. ‘Sorry, I’m talking too much, no?’
‘I mean . . . you did call me a bull and most men useless cattle, worthy of slaughter, and keeping the good ones in a cage.’
Aishwarya giggles. Dhiren unlocks the pressure cooker. He serves them on two plates with raita and pickle. They move to the sofa.
‘When did you make the raita?’ asks Aishwarya.
‘You were talking at length. I had time.’
Aishwarya lifts the plate to her nose, takes in a deep breath like a coke addict and asks, ‘Do you want a review?’
‘I’m sure it’s great, MasterChef Aishwarya.’
Aishwarya takes a bite and closes her eyes. ‘Your overconfidence is not misplaced. It’s like my tongue’s wrapped in flavours. It’s amazing. Let’s be quiet and eat this.
Will Dhiren and Aishwarya, recognise the love for each other. Get your copy of When I Am With You by Durjoy Datta today!
The widespread popularity of Krishna Consciousness can be traced back to the very man himself. While a memoir about an Indian guru is commonplace today, Hindol Sengupta’s Sing, Dance and Pray creates a narrative framework that is at once meta-cultural and biographical. This is in part made up of the diverse lives that Srila Prabhupada encountered—and embraced—during his unique lifetime.
The following is an excerpt from the chapter titled ‘Downtown Monk’, marking the American chapter of Srila Prabhupada and the Hare Krishna Movement.
Sing Dance and Pray||Hindol Sengupta
*
The conflict in Vietnam had already dragged on for about a decade since the mid-1950s by the time Bhaktivedanta arrived at Boston Harbour. In the early 1960s, American President John F. Kennedy pushed more resources into battle in Vietnam, and the failure of a breakthrough victory only meant greater angst and protest at home. With the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis, chances of a third world war or at least conflict using nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union had become a real possibility. ‘The risks to world peace seemed so significant at this time, that an extensive peace movement developed throughout the 1960s, particularly through the intervention of young people and students. Young people wanted autonomy and self-determination. They did not want to live in a world involved in major armed conflict.’
Within America, the response to this war-addicted climate was the rise of subcultures which would experiment with everything from Eastern mysticism to psychedelic drugs, poetry, music and—importantly—massive protest rallies for peace, and against war.
If you distil the messages of the movement that came to be known through many varying names over the years from ‘Beat’ to ‘hippie’, a few are immediately apparent. There is the desire for a different way of life, a different way of thinking, of freedom from the oppression of society and government and even the economic system. There is the determined refusal to authorize state-sanctioned violence (though ironically some of the protesters clashed with the police and became quite violent), there is the attempt to create building blocks of a ‘non-commercial world’ in everything from the focus on handmade things, like tie-and-dye clothing (another element borrowed from India), vegetarianism and natural birth, the focus on meditation and non-Abrahamic forms of spirituality, and importantly, music.
When you look at all these elements carefully, you understand something that is rarely ever said about A.C. Bhaktivedanta, that like Vivekananda, he was in many ways the right person, at the right place, at the right time. Vivekananda gained from the flowering of interest in Eastern philosophies led by scholars like Max Mueller and others in the late nineteenth century, and therefore his message found a certain influential, academically elite, audience that helped it spread across the English-speaking world. His key early benefactors were the educated wealthy, including a Harvard professor who introduced him to the Parliament of Religions. In A.C. Bhaktivedanta’s case, his earliest followers were unemployed hippies attracted to the sonorous sannyasi to find a refuge from the tumult all around them, and in their head.
Bhaktivedanta’s early life in the United States is usually described in terms of the difficulties he had in finding appropriate shelter, often having to share space with people who did not quite understand his calling or his message. But the way to really think about the story is that he appeared to give the right message to the right people at the right time.
His first days were spent with Gopal Aggarwal and his wife Sally, an American, at Butler County, Pennsylvania, where the famous four-wheel drive, the Jeep, had been invented in 1940 as a vehicle for tough-haul jobs of the US Army. It was a time when A.C. Bhaktivedanta was under the impression that he would remain in America maybe, at most, for about a month. Even though he was clear about his mission in the West—propagating the good word of Krishna—several of his early hosts imagined that he had merely come to raise funds for his publishing and would soon return.
But it is here, at Butler, Pennsylvania, that A.C. Bhaktivedanta found his first audience. It is here that one of the most written-about spiritual figures in modern times, first appeared in the American local press. The Indian ‘swami’ who had come to America to preach ‘bhakti yoga’, said the Butler Eagle. Even in that very first article, there were clear signs of why A.C. Bhaktivedanta would start to attract followers in America.
*
Sing, Dance and Pray is available at your nearest bookstore. You can also order a copy from Amazon.
Here is our list of 16 must-read books in translation, from the length and breadth of the country.
As a reader, you are bound to be a little more inquisitive than the general population. So, your incredible brain must not be limited to the understanding of the diverse nation that we know India to be with the variety of languages, food, clothes and spices grown its separate regions. You must delve deeper! And nothing can tell you more about a land and its people than their stories. Let this specially-curated list act as your binoculars for taking a good look at India!
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell
Tomb of Sand
WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2022
In northern India, an eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband, and then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a transgender person – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more ‘modern’ of the two.
To her family’s consternation, Ma insists on travelling to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
The poems of the fourteenth-century Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded, popularly known as Lalla, strike us like brief and blinding bursts of light. Emotionally rich yet philosophically precise, sumptuously enigmatic yet crisply structured, these poems are as sensuously evocative as they are charged with an ecstatic devotion. Stripping away a century of Victorian-inflected translations and paraphrases, and restoring the jagged, colloquial power of Lalla’s voice, in Ranjit Hoskote’s new translation these poems are glorious manifestos of illumination.
Anthology of Humorous Sanskrit Verses by A.N.D. Haksar
Anthology of Humorous Sanskrit Verses
In recent times, whenever ancient Sanskrit works are discussed or translated into English, the focus is usually on the lofty, religious and dramatic works. Due to the interest created by Western audiences, the Kama Sutra and love poetry has also been in the limelight. But, even though the Hasya Rasa or the humorous sentiment has always been an integral part of our ancient Sanskrit literature, it is little known today. Anthology of Humorous Sanskrit Verses is a collection of about 200 verse translations drawn from various Sanskrit works or anthologies compiled more than 500 years ago. Several such anthologies are well-known although none of them focus exclusively on humor. A.N.D. Haksar’s translation of these verses is full of wit, earthy humor and cynical satire, and an excellent addition of the canon of Sanskrit literature.
Temple Lamp: Verses on Banaras by Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan
The poem ‘Chirag-e-Dair’ or Temple Lamp is an eloquent and vibrant Persian masnavi by Mirza Ghalib. While we quote liberally from his Urdu poetry, we know little of his writings in Persian, and while we read of his love for the city of Delhi, we discover in temple Lamp, his rapture over the spiritual and sensual city of Banaras.
Chiragh-e-dair is being translated directly from Persian into English in its entirety for the first time, with a critical Introduction by Maaz Bin Bilal. It is Mirza Ghalib’s pean to Kashi, which he calls Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India.
Rajinder Singh Bedi by Rajinder Singh Bedi, Gopi Chand Narang and Surinder Deol
Selected Stories: Rajinder Singh Bedi
Rajinder Singh Bedi: Selected Short Stories curates some of the best work by the Urdu writer, whose contribution to Urdu fiction makes him a pivotal force within modern Indian literature. Born in Sialkot, Punjab, Rajinder Singh Bedi (1915-1984) lived many lives-as a student and postmaster in Lahore, a venerated screenwriter for popular Hindi films and a winner of both the Sahitya Akademi as well as the Filmfare awards. Considered one of the prominent progressive writers of modern Urdu fiction, Bedi was an architect of contemporary Urdu writing along with leading lights such as Munshi Premchand and Saadat Hasan Manto.
Jagadish Mohanty’s Battles of Our Own is a rare work of modern Odia and Indian fiction. It seeks to delineate a world that is off the grid. Its action unfolds in the remote and non-descript Tarbahar Colliery-a fictional name for the over hundred-year-old open-cast Himgiri Rampur coal mine in the hinterland of western Odisha. A work of gritty realism in its portrayal of a dark and dangerous underworld where coal is extracted, the novel poignantly reveals the primeval struggle between man and brute nature.
Four Chapters by Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Radha Chakravarty
Four Chapters
Char Adhyay (1934) was Rabindranath Tagore’s last novel, and perhaps the most controversial. Passion and politics intertwine in this narrative, set in the context of nationalist politics in pre-Independent India.
This new translation, intended for twenty-first-century readers, will bring Tagore’s text to life in a contemporary idiom, while evoking the flavour of the story’s historical setting.
Hungry Humans || Karichan Kunju and Sudha G. Tilak
Hungry Humans
Ganesan returns, after four decades, to the town of his childhood, filled with memories of love and loneliness, of youthful beauty and the ravages of age and misfortune, of the promise of talent and its slow destruction. Seeking treatment for leprosy, he must also come to terms with his past: his exploitation at the hands of older men, his growing consciousness of desire and his own sexual identity, his steady disavowal of Brahminical morality and his slowly degenerating body. He longs for liberation-sexual, social and spiritual-but finally finds peace only in self-acceptance.
Based on the blood-curdling murder of a Dalit boy by Rajput landlords in Kodaram village in 1964, Vultures portrays a feudal society structured around caste-based relations and social segregation, in which Dalit lives and livelihoods are torn to pieces by upper-caste vultures. The deft use of dialect, graphic descriptions and translator Hemang Ashwinkumar’s lucid telling throw sharp focus on the fragmented world of a mofussil village in Gujarat, much of which remains unchanged even today.
A paying guest seems like a win-win proposition to the Joshi family. He’s ready with the rent, he’s willing to lend a hand when he can and he’s happy to listen to Mrs Joshi on the imminent collapse of our culture.
But he’s also a man of mystery. He has no last name. He has no family, no friends, no history and no plans for the future.
The siblings Tanay and Anuja are smitten by him. He overturns their lives. And when he vanishes, he breaks their hearts.
The Prince and the Political Agent byb Binodini Devi, L. Somi Roy
The Prince and the Political Agent
The Manipuri writer Binodini’s Sahitya Akademi Award-winning historical novel The Princess and the Political Agent tells the love story of her aunt Princess Sanatombi and Lt. Col. Henry P. Maxwell, the British representative in the subjugated Tibeto-Burman kingdom of Manipur. A poignant story of love and fealty, treachery and valour, it is set in the midst of the imperialist intrigues of the British Raj, the glory of kings, warring princes, clever queens and loyal retainers.
The Grddha Mullick family takes pride in the ancient lineage they trace from four hundred years before Christ. They burst with marvelous tales of hangmen and hangings in which the Grddha Mullicks figure as eyewitnesses to the momentous events that have shaped the history of the subcontinent.
In the present day, the youngest member of the family, twenty-two-year-old Chetna, is appointed the first woman executioner in India, assistant and successor to her father Phanibhushan. Thrust suddenly into the public eye, even starring in her own reality show, Chetna’s life explodes under the harsh lights of television cameras. As the day of her first execution approaches, she breaks out of the shadow of a domineering father and the thrall of a brutally manipulative lover, and transforms into a charismatic performer in her own right.
Ha Ha Hu Hu by Velcheru Narayana Rao, V. Satyanarayana
Ha Ha Hu Hu: A Horse-Headed God in Trafalgar Square
Ha Ha Hu Hu tells the delightful tale of an extraordinary horse-headed creature that mysteriously appears in London one fine morning, causing considerable excitement and consternation among the city’s denizens. Dressed in silks and jewels, it has the head of a horse but the body of a human and speaks in an unknown tongue. What is it? And more importantly, why is it here?
In the hilarious satire Vishnu Sharma Learns English, a Telugu lecturer is visited in a dream by the medieval poet Tikanna and the ancient scholar Vishnu Sharma with an unusual request: they want him to teach them English!
Tejo Tungabhadra by Vasudhendra, Maithreyi Karnoor
Tejo Tungabhadra: Tributaries of Time
Tejo Tungabhadra tells the story of two rivers on different continents whose souls are bound together by history. The two stories converge in Goa with all the thunder and gush of meeting rivers. Set in the late 15th and early 16th century, this is a grand saga of love, ambition, greed, and a deep zest for life through the tossing waves of history.
The first ever translation of a Bhojpuri novel into English, Phoolsunghi transports readers to a forgotten world filled with mujras and mehfils, court cases and counterfeit currency, and the crashing waves of the River Saryu.
Lilavati by Govardhanram Tripathi, translated by Tridip Suhrud
Lilavati: A Life
In a moment of rare passion Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, author of Sarasvatichandra, exclaimed ‘I only want their souls’. He was referring to the souls of his countrymen and women, which he sought to cultivate through his literary writings. Lilavati was his and Lalitagauri’s eldest daughter. Her education and the writing of Sarasvaticandra were intertwined. She was raised to be the perfect embodiment of virtue, and died at the age of twenty-one, consumed by tuberculosis. In moments of ‘lucidity’ , she spoke of her suffering and that challenged the very foundations of Govardhanram’s life. In 1905 he wrote her biography, Lilavati Jivankala. This is a rare work in biographical literature, a father writing about the life of a deceased daughter. Despite Govardhanram’s attempts to contain Lilavati as a unidimensional figure of his imagination, she goes beyond that, sometimes by questioning the fundamental tenets of Brahminical beliefs, and at others by being so utterly selfless as to be unreal even to him.
The long weekend for the 75th Independence Day is here and there’s nothing better than plugging your earphones in and tuning in to the audiobooks that take you on a memorable and remarkable journey of India’s freedom. Check out our exclusive audiobooks curated for the occasion of India@75 and get immersed in the stories that will leave you with a sea of emotions.
Partitions of the Heart
Partitions of the Heart | Harsh Mander
There was one partition of the land in 1947. Harsh Mander believes that another partition is underway in our hearts and minds.
How much of this culpability lies with ordinary people? What are the responsibilities of a secular government, of a civil society, and of a progressive majority? In Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India, human rights and peace worker Harsh Mander takes stock of whether the republic has upheld the values it set out to achieve and offers painful, unsparing insight into the contours of hate violence. Through vivid stories from his own work, Mander shows that hate speech, communal propaganda and vigilante violence are mounting a fearsome climate of dread, that targeted crime is systematically fracturing our community, and that the damage to the country’s social fabric may be irreparable. At the same time, he argues that hate can indeed be fought, but only with solidarity, reconciliation and love, and when all of these are founded on fairness.
Ultimately, this meticulously researched social critique is a rallying cry for public compassion, conscience and justice, and a paean to the resilience of humanity.
India’s Most Fearless
India’s Most Fearless | Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh
The Army major who led the legendary September 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the LoC; a soldier who killed 11 terrorists in 10 days; a Navy officer who sailed into a treacherous port to rescue hundreds from an exploding war; a bleeding Air Force pilot who found himself flying a jet that had become a screaming fireball . . .
Their own accounts, or of those who were with them in their final moments. India’s Most Fearless covers fourteen true stories of extraordinary courage and fearlessness, providing a glimpse into the kind of heroism our soldiers display in unthinkably hostile conditions and under grave provocation.
India’s Most Fearless 2
India’s Most Fearless 2 | Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh
Untold accounts of the biggest recent anti-terror operations
First-hand reports of the most riveting anti-terror encounters in the wake of the 2016 surgical strikes, the men who hunted terrorists in a magical Kashmir forest where day turns to night, a pair of young Navy men who gave their all to save their entire submarine crew, the Air Force commando who wouldn’t sleep until he had avenged his buddies, the tax babu who found his soul in a terrifying Special Forces assault on Pakistani terrorists, and many more.
Their own stories, in their own words. Or of those who were with them in their final moments.
The highly anticipated sequel to India’s Most Fearless brings you fourteen more stories of astonishing fearlessness and gets you closer than ever before to the personal bravery that Indian military men display in the line of duty.
Emergency Chronicles
Emergency Chronicles | Gyan Prakash
As the world once again confronts an eruption of authoritarianism, Gyan Prakash’s Emergency Chronicles takes us back to the moment of India’s independence to offer a comprehensive historical account of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency of 1975-77. Stripping away the myth that this was a sudden event brought on solely by the Prime Minister’s desire to cling to power, it argues that the Emergency was as much Indira’s doing as it was the product of Indian democracy’s troubled relationship with popular politics, and a turning point in its history.
Prakash delves into the chronicles of the preceding years to reveal how the fine balance between state power and civil rights was upset by the unfulfilled promise of democratic transformation. He explains how growing popular unrest disturbed Indira’s regime, prompting her to take recourse to the law to suspend lawful rights, wounding the political system further and opening the door for caste politics and Hindu nationalism.
The Brave
The Brave | Rachna Bisht Rawat
21 riveting stories from the battlefield about how India’s highest military honour was won
The Brave takes you to the hearts and minds of India’s bravest soldiers, all of whom won the Param Vir Chakra, India’s greatest military honour. With access to the Army, families and comrades-in-arms of the soldiers, Rachna Bisht Rawat paints the most vivid portrait of these men and their extraordinary deeds.
How hard is it to fight at 20,000 feet in sub-zero temperatures? Why did Captain Vikram Batra say ‘Yeh dil maange more’? How do wives and girlfriends of soldiers who don’t return cope? What happens when the enemy is someone that you have trained? How did the Charlie Company push back the marauding Chinese? How did a villager from Uttar Pradesh become a specialist in destroying tanks?
Both gripping and inspiring, The Brave is the ultimate book on the Param Vir Chakra.
Operation Khukri
Operation Khukri | Major General Rajpal Punia, Damini Punia
The year was 2000. Sierra Leone, in West Africa, had been ravaged by years of civil strife. With the intervention of the United Nations, two companies of the Indian Army were deployed in Kailahun as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
Soon, the peaceful mission turned into a war-like standoff between Major Punia’s company and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Kailahun, with the Indian peacekeepers cordoned off for seventy-five days without supplies. The only way home was by laying down their weapons.
Operation Khukri was one of Indian Army’s most successful international missions, and this book is a first-hand account by Major Rajpal Punia, who, after three months of impasse and failed diplomacy, orchestrated the operation, surviving the ambush of the RUF in prolonged jungle warfare twice, and returning with all 233 soldiers standing tall.
We have published amazing books in August for you and our young readers. So, spend the holidays and long weekends with your little ones reading them stories of courageous people and helping them understand India’s history.
The Train to Tanjore
The Train to Tanjore || Devika Rangachari
Tanjore, 1942
There are few excitements in Thambi’s quiet life. There is the new hotel, disapproved of by elders, which lures him with the aroma of sambar with onions. There are visits to the library to read the newspaper, and once in a while, a new movie at the Rajaram Electric Theatre. More disagreeably, there are fortnightly visits from his uncle to lay down the law.
When Gandhiji announces the Quit India movement, Tanjore is torn apart by protests. The train station-the lifeline of the town-is vandalized. Mysterious leaflets are circulated, containing news that newspapers do not publish. And inspired by the idea of a free India and his own dreams of being an engineer, Thambi must find the courage to do what he believes is right, even when it endangers all he holds dear.
The Songs of Freedom series explores the lives of children across India during the struggle for independence.
A Conspiracy in Calcutta
A Conspiracy in Calcutta || Lesley D. Biswas
Calcutta, 1928
As the student protests gather momentum all across Calcutta, and police atrocities grow, ten-year-old Bithi wants to join in the struggle for freedom.
But living in a society where her best friend is to be married and just the fact that she is going to school is regarded with disapproval, how can Bithi play a substantial part? How can she fight those who are dearest to her? Discouraged but not daunted, Bithi schemes and plots and lies and is drawn into unexpected danger-all for the sake of fighting injustice in all its forms.
The Songs of Freedom series explores the lives of children across India during the struggle for independence.
After Midnight
After Midnight || Meghaa Gupta
At the time of independence, few believed that a country made up of over 500 princely states and British provinces could survive as a nation, even for a few years. That a land stripped of its riches, wracked by disease and famine and divided along tense communal lines, could thrive in its ambition and aspirations. Yet, in 75 years since independence, India has grown beyond anyone’s expectation. Today it’s an Asian powerhouse, poised to become the third largest economy in the world. In many ways, this is one of the greatest underdog-beating-the-odds stories in world history.
How did India get this far? What were the sweeping social, cultural, scientific, political, military, environmental and economic developments it witnessed along the way? Interspersed with personal anecdotes, illustrations, infographics, informative timelines and pull quotes, After Midnight gives a powerful context to the present and revels in the diverse and remarkable ideas that have come to shape this great nation. It attempts to provide young readers with perspective, meaning, and food for thought as they try to comprehend the many facets of this fascinating country. This well-researched, accessible and definitive handbook tells the story of India like never before.
The Vanguards of Azad Hind
The Vanguards of Azad Hind || Gayathri Ponvannan
The year is 1943 in British India . . .
Kayal is a 16-year-old freedom fighter who takes part in marches, burns British goods and sabotages trains-all without the knowledge of her law-abiding family. So, it comes as quite a surprise when Kayal discovers that her aunt Uma is a soldier in the Azad Hind Fauj, the all-volunteer Indian National Army from Southeast Asia led by Subhash Chandra Bose, which aims to free India!
By what Kayal considers a huge stroke of luck, Uma agrees to take her along to a recruitment camp in Burma. Suddenly, the war, which had once seemed a distant thrill, now becomes a horrific reality.
Packed with adventures of teenagers as they join military boot camps, and set off on the most exciting journey of their lives, The Vanguards of Azad Hind is an ode to the Azad Hind Fauj and its women’s unit, the Rani of Jhansi regiment, whose soldiers proved to be trailblazers with their feisty passion to fight for India’s freedom.
Misfit Madhu
Misfit Madhu || Divya Anand
Madhu is a shy middle-grade developer who spends her holidays creating her dream app, ‘School Santhe’. Soon, the app goes viral…and so does she! And why not? After all, an app where everyone at school can trade stuff is the app they’ve all been waiting for! Madhu now sets her sights on winning the GoTek young developers contest.
But when School Santhe is used to selling leaked test papers, she’s faced with the hardest decision of her life:
a) Shut down the app that made her popular?
b) Or stay silent and become part of something…criminal?
As her dreams begin to crumble – with the entire school now blaming her for the mess her app has caused – Madhu realizes that sometimes, it’s far easier to debug an app than it is to debug your life!
Get your copies of these books from your nearest bookstore or via Amazon.
With a slight drop in temperatures peeking around the corner, take it easy with the seasonal change by going through our new releases for August. From a ghost hotel to a quirky love story, there’s something for every kind of mood wave you’re riding.
*
The Bellboy by Anees Salim
The Bellboy||Anees Salim
Latif’s life changes when he is appointed bellboy at the Paradise Lodge – a hotel where people come to die.
After his father’s death, drowned in the waters surrounding their small Island, it is 17-year-old Latif’s turn to become the man of the house and provide for his ailing mother and sisters. Despite discovering a dead body on his first day of duty, Latif finds entertainment spying on guests and regaling the hotel’s janitor, Stella, with made-up stories. However, when Latif finds the corpse of a small-time actor in Room 555 and becomes a mute witness to a crime that happens there, the course of Latif’s life is irretrievably altered. The Bellboy is as much a commentary on how society treats and victimizes the intellectually vulnerable as it is about the quiet resentment against religious minorities in India today.
The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
The Last White Man||Mohsin Hamid
One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first, he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of the established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders’s father and Oona’s mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.
Challenges To A Liberal Polity by M Hamid Ansari
Challenges To A Liberal Polity||M Hamid Ansari
From Nehru’s vision for India as a major world power to the issues of citizenship, religion, democracy, the idea of plurality and Muslim identity in Indian society, inclusion/exclusion of Indian Muslims, the ‘mainstream’ decision-making process in India, the role of women in order to build a compassionate society, the implication for dissent, Muslims’ role and contribution to Indian culture, civilization and nation-building in the post-Independent India, among others, the book thrashes some of the burning issues of Indian polity and society.
Comprehensive, argumentative and evocative, this title will interest not only a broad spectrum of readers but also politicians, policymakers and students and scholars of Indian politics, history and sociology.
Chorashastra by V.J. James
Chorashastra trans. Morley J. Nair ||V.J. James
Hoping to break out of his coconut-robbing father’s petty legacy and strike it big, a small-time thief breaks into the house of an eccentric professor. A strong believer in the theory that early Indian civilisations were scientifically advanced, the professor spends his days salvaging ancient texts, long forgotten or overlooked by scholars of present times. On the night of the break-in, he is immersed in Chorashastra, a manuscript rendered brittle and yellow by centuries, that holds within its pages mindboggling tips and tricks for thieves- most incredibly, the ability to open a lock by just looking at it. He hails the arrival of the thief as a sign and decides to test its theories on him.
Known for his subversive plots and narrative devices that mark a clear departure from contemporary Malayalam storytelling, V.J. James’s Chorashastra tells a gripping story of untethered ambition and the inevitable chase between crime and justice.
When I Am With You by Durjoy Datta
When I Am With You||Durjoy Datta
You can plan everything, but you can’t plan with whom and when you’ll fall in love, isn’t it?
Aishwarya, at twenty-eight years, would rather be a single mother than trust the ‘normal’ family structure. On her mind is the ambitious and good-looking Akshay, perfect genetic material, but he’s not ready to be part of her plans. Yet.
In comes Dhiren, who has made and lost his money in cryptocurrency. He takes up the first floor of Aishwarya’s nursery building and, by a queer coincidence, begins to work for her. Her friends Smriti and Vinny, as protective as mother hens, warn her against Dhiren. There is something that he’s hiding along with his friend Neeraj—they just don’t know what.
Crazy, quirky and so utterly romantic, this book is the ultimate relationship roller coaster!
India’s Most Fearless 3 by Shiv Aroor & Rahul Singh
India’s Most Fearless 3||Shiv Aroor & Rahul Singh
An army medic who went beyond the call of duty amid a frenzy of treacherous bloodletting in Ladakh’s Galwan while his fellow soldiers fought the Chinese to death; the crew of an Indian Navy destroyer that put everything on the line to rescue hundreds from Cyclone Tauktae in the Arabian Sea; an Indian Air Force pilot who ejected from his doomed fighter less than two seconds before it hit the ground, only to find he was missing a leg. This book presents their accounts, or of those who were with them in their final moments. India’s Most Fearless 3 features ten true stories of extraordinary courage and fearlessness, providing glimpses of the heroism Indian soldiers have displayed in unthinkably hostile conditions and under grave provocation.
The Hidden Hindu Book 2 by Akshat Gupta
The Hidden Hindu 2||Akshat Gupta
The first battle is lost. The book of Mritsanjeevani is in the wrong hands but Nagendra’s plans are not limited only to immortality. What seemed to be the end of all wars was just the beginning of an incredible journey in search of a hidden verse. Om is still incomplete without the knowledge of his past, but he is not alone anymore. Two of the mightiest warriors of all time stand by his side. Two mysterious warriors stand unconditionally with Nagendra too or is there a hidden agendas behind all the allies? Who are LSD and Parimal in real and who is Om? Tighten your seat belts for an adventure in search of words that hold a bigger purpose than even immortality for Divinities and Demons.
Reading Sri Aurobindo by Gautam Chikermane & Devdip Ganguli
Reading Sri Aurobindo||Gautam Chikermane & Devdip Ganguli
Sri Aurobindo dedicated his life to the transformation of humanity. His journey saw him traverse many paths, including that of poet, journalist, jailed revolutionary, philosopher, and radical mystic. Essays, translations, literary criticism, political articles, philosophical treatises, poetry, epics, plays and short stories-his writings encompass the depth and range of his extraordinary life. The modern sage commented on spiritual texts such as the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita, authored an epic poem, Savitri, presented his integral vision in The Life Divine, wrote on contemporary issues, all the while writing thousands of letters to guide his disciples, and even documenting his inner life in meticulous detail.
Stories and Sutras by Virat Chirania
Stories & Sutras||Virat Chirania
India is the birthplace of legends, the mother of culture and tradition, and as Indians, we love our stories. This book contains ten powerful stories of the original superheroes-stories that will leave a permanent impression on your consciousness and spill over in your conversations, stories of passion and patriotism, of valour and wit, of devotion and sacrifice, and of intelligence and faith.
When decoded, the accounts in this book are not merely stories-they are a treasure trove of wisdom, life hacks, leadership and management sutras. Did you know that Lord Hanuman can teach us communication skills, that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj can teach us how to run a startup and that Chanakya shows us how to use emotional intelligence in business strategy? Have you ever imagined Arjuna, Narada Muni, Kabir and Adi Shankaracharya as leaders and influencers and do you know about Rani Abbakka, one of the unsung battle queens of India? Stories and Sutras is a journey of these incredible tales and priceless sutras-an edutainment experience that is uniquely Indian and utterly global.
Heavens And Earth by Garima Garg
Heavens and Earth||Garima Garg
The ancient astrologer turned the impulse to answer this question into something meaningful by mapping the night skies and attempting to see in the movement of planets and stars an impact on human lives. But did all astrologers see the same night sky? Did the observations of the Hindu astrologer match those of the Greek? How did the Egyptians and the Chinese understand the influence of the Sun and the Moon on our lives?
Heavens and Earth examines the history of astrology, its many different systems and its development as a modern cultural phenomenon. Deeply researched and expertly narrated, the book contextualises the role of astrology in the ever-evolving human perspective of the cosmos and in understanding our place in it.
Temple Lamp by Mirza Ghalib
Temple Lamp trans. Maaz Bin Bilal||Mirza Ghalib
The poem ‘Chirag-e-Dair’ or Temple Lamp is an eloquent and vibrant Persian masnavi by Mirza Ghalib. While we quote liberally from his Urdu poetry, we know little of his writings in Persian, and while we read of his love for the city of Delhi, we discover in temple Lamp, his rapture over the spiritual and sensual city of Banaras.
Chiragh-e-dair is being translated directly from Persian into English in its entirety for the first time, with a critical Introduction by Maaz Bin Bilal. It is Mirza Ghalib’s pean to Kashi, which he calls Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India.
The Many Lives Of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna: An Authorized Biography by Veejay Sai
The Many Lives of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna||Veejay Sai
This is a story of the many lives of Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna.
Veejay Sai’s in-depth research into his life and work led him deep into unseen archival material and across the Carnatic musical landscape of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Fortified by interviews with his family members, disciples and peers, The Many Lives of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, a definitive biography of the musical genius, is not only a revealing account of the personal traits and facets of an unparallelled genius, but is also a portrait of India’s classical music world, a place as much of beauty as of untrammelled egos.
Essential Reader: Sarojini Naidu
Essential Reader: Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu was a prolific writer and speaker, publishing three collections of poetry during her life and delivered many rousing speeches throughout the freedom struggle and after India gained Independence. This book compiles her best-known work, as well as letters she wrote throughout her life to Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore and others, to provide a glimpse into the kind of person she was and the ideas she believed in.
Through these pages, we can witness her innermost thoughts and feelings, and the important role she played in shaping the country’s freedom struggle and its ideas as a young nation, particularly through rousing speeches on the Education of Indian Women and the Battle of Freedom is Over, which were broadcast over the All India Radio on 15 August 1947.
How To Raise A Plant Baby by Vinayak Garg
How to Raise a Plant Baby||Vinayak Garg
Written for all plant parents trying to raise their plant babies in an urban setting, this book is built on basic principles that keep plants healthy and covers all topics that any plant parent need to know-how to prepare their space, how to choose the right plants for their home, how to care for the plants and keep them happy and how to get family and friends started with plants of their own.
With stories from the Lazy Gardener community, supplemented with chapter-end summaries, explanatory illustrations and plant lists, the book will equip the reader to ask the right questions as they continue to garden and cultivate their knowledge of gardening. Useful for both new and experienced plant parents, Vinayak Garg’s How to Raise a Plant Baby guides them and explains everything they need to know.
Sojourn by Amit Chaudhuri
Sojourn||Amit Chaudhuri
An unnamed man arrives in Berlin as a visiting professor. It is a place fused with Western history and cultural fracture lines. He moves along its streets and pavements; through its department stores, museums and restaurants. He befriends Faqrul, an enigmatic exiled poet, and Birgit, a woman with whom he shares the vagaries of attraction. He tries to understand his white-haired cleaner. Berlin is a riddle-he becomes lost not only in the city but in its legacy. Sealed off in his own solitude, and as his visiting professorship passes, the narrator awaits transformation and meaning. Ultimately, he starts to understand that the less sure he becomes of his place in the moment, the more he knows his way.
The Dolphin And The Shark by Namita Thapar
The Dolphin and the Shark||Namita Thapar
The Dolphin and the Shark is born out of Namita Thapar’s experiences of being a judge on Shark Tank India and running the India business of the pharma company Emcure as well as her own entrepreneurship academy. The book emphasizes how leaders of today need to strike a balance between being a shark (aggressive leader) and a dolphin (empathetic leader).
Divided into fifteen chapters, the book focuses on various business mantras. The author shares personal stories, anecdotes about Emcure’s evolution over the years as well as learnings from entrepreneurs who have inspired her. The Dolphin and the Shark also include references to pitches from Shark Tank India‘s Season 1. Straight from the heart, candid and authentic, this book will inspire and motivate every reader to push their limits.
Leaders In The Making by Arvind N Agrawal & T V Rao
Leaders In The Making||Arvind Agrawal & T.V. Rao
Leaders in the Making provides in-depth interviews of thirty HR leaders (drawn from public as well as private sectors), including stalwarts like Santrupt Misra, Rajeev Dubey, Aquil Busrai, Anil Sachdev, N.S. Rajan and Anil Khandelwal. These life stories provide highlights of early childhood, education and career over the years. They include the points of inflexion, major influencers and lessons learnt to become who they became. The authors provide an analysis of these thirty stories to establish a pattern of the life journeys, competencies and values these leaders displayed.
The DREAM Founder by Dhruv Nath
The DREAM Founder||Dhruv Nath
The DREAM Founder is an essential entrepreneurship guide for early-stage Indian start-ups. It also has interviews with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world of start-ups, such as Sanjeev Bikhchandani of Naukri.com, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Meena Ganesh of Portea Medical and Dr Annurag Batra of Businessworld.
Including start-ups that have succeeded and also those who have failed, Dhruv Nath shares how you can become a DREAM Founder with these simple steps:
· Dream big
· Right team
· Execution
· Attitude
· Make opportunities out of crises
The IT Story Of India by S. ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan, N. Dayasindhu & Krishnan Narayanan
The IT Story Of India||S. ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan, N. Dayasindhu & Krishnan Narayanan
The story of Indian IT is the story of trials and triumphs, persistence and resilience, and luck, foresight and planning. This book chronicles the history of Indian IT over the past six decades. It includes interviews with over fifty pioneers who built and shaped the Indian IT sector. Conceived as a book on business history, this book analyses the evolution of India’s IT sector and helps readers understand the importance of collective efforts in building world-class sustainable institutions.
The Cave: An Internet Entrepreneur’s Spiritual Journey by Alok Kejriwal
The Cave||Alok Kejriwal
By the time he was thirteen, Alok Kejriwal had begun to have profound spiritual experiences. Separated from his parents at birth, he was raised under the loving care of his Nana and Nani. During the course of these life-altering events, Alok realized that his life was not going to be a usual one. Over the next few years, Alok met unusual and blessed holy men who uplifted him. He visited temples and sacred places where he had transformative experiences. In November 2011, Alok visited a remote cave near Ranikhet in Uttarakhand that changed him forever. The Cave is an insightful, honest and deeply personal account of Alok’s spiritual journey. With characteristic candour, he shares intimate aspects of his life that bring meaning and balance to his journey as a successful digital entrepreneur.
Your Complete Guide To Wellness Box Set
Your Complete Guide to Wellness Boxset
In the ten-year anniversary edition of the classic that revolutionized the way Indians think about food and their eating habits, Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight teaches you simple steps you can take towards maintaining a healthy and proper diet and understanding your body and its nutritional requirements.
In FROM XL TO XS, Bollywood’s celebrated yoga instructor Payal Gidwani Tewari teaches you simple and easy to follow principles and exercise routines to lose (or gain) weight, stay fit, and transform your body structure. With photographs, celeb workouts, and useful tips by stars, From XL to XS is the best gift you can give yourself.
In Skin Rules, Dr Jaishree Sharad, one of India’s top cosmetic dermatologists, gives you a revolutionary six-week plan to healthy, blemish-free skin. From the basics-identifying your skin type, acquainting yourself with the fine print on labels-to home remedies, choosing the right make-up and the latest advancements in skincare treatments, this book has the answers to all your skin woes.
Wealth Creation Made Easy Boxset by Saurabh Mukherjea
Wealth Creation Made Easy Boxset||Saurabh Mukherjea
Written by India’s most loved fund manager, this box set is the ultimate toolkit for being financially free. Diamonds in the Dust offers Indian savers a simple, yet highly effective, investment technique to identify clean, well-managed Indian companies that have consistently generated outsized returns for investors. Based on in-depth research conducted by the award-winning team at Marcellus Investment Managers, it uses case studies and charts to help readers learn the art and science of investing in the US$3 trillion Indian stock market. The book also debunks many notions of investing that have emerged from the misguided application of Western investment theories in the Indian context. Vital and indispensable, this book will serve as the ultimate manual on investing and provide practical counsel to readers to achieve their financial goals. Coffee Can Investing offers a simple strategy to make not 10 not 15 but 20 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) on your investments. Using this strategy one can easily grow their money four to five times whilst taking half the risk compared to the overall market. The book decodes the secret to identifying low-risk investments that generate great returns.
What if we tell you that it’s one of the keys to help you achieve any goal you set your mind to?
Manthan Shah’s Unstoppable, a book full of interviews and analysis of young achievers of India, explores the growth mindset and also tells us how we can help build one too! Here is an excerpt from the book showcasing some of the incredible information on the same:
A growth mindset is basically about believing that your abilities can be developed.
It is not simply about being open-minded and flexible in accepting your mistakes. It is about being dedicated to growing your talents. It is not just about efforts but also about trying new strategies (and discarding the ones that are not working).
You can build a growth mindset by following these self-directed exercises as adapted from the interview with Stefanie Faye, an award-winning neuroscience specialist and educator. This exercise entails four steps – goal setting, learning about neuroplasticity, celebrating mistakes, and exposing yourself to micro experiences, while highlighting micro progress. This will lower your fear of failure and increase your willingness to go out of your comfort zone and grow as a person.
1. Have an other-ish goal. In his landmark book Give and Take, Adam Grant uses the term otherish as a person who is a giver, you will also see this in our Giving Back chapter.
In terms of goals, these are the opposite of selfish goals, and a bit different than the selfless goals, other-ish goals are the ones where you have your own interests in mind, while having a high concern for others too. As defined in the chapter on grit, you must have a higher-order goal. This goal should be motivated by your personal benefits and by a desire to help the world around you.
For example, at the time of writing this book, my personal long-term goal is to become an expert in the field of sustainable finance and help India achieve its net-zero carbon emission targets by 2070. This goal is at the intersection of my interests and qualifications in finance, and my desire to do something for my country.
2. Talk about neuroplasticity. Learn it, understand it and
reflect on how it plays a role in your life.
3. Celebrate mistakes.
4. Expose yourself to micro experiences and highlight micro progress.
Unstoppable || Manthan Shah
To learn more about these last three steps of efficiently building a ‘growth mindset’, get your copy of Manthan Shah’s Unstoppable. Out now!
When we think of the picture-perfect family, it’s impossible to leave pets out of the picture. Especially, the human-dog relationship which is not new. It’s so traditional to society, that there’s archaeological evidence for it!
Taking in a pet, no matter how normal today, may seem overwhelming. Thinking about its effects can be a great way of getting started. How will having a furry friend in the family help the house? This is where ‘adopt don’t shop’ becomes more than just a call for animal rights. By adopting pets, we open the doors to life lessons unteachable in school.
Read on to find out how something as straightforward as pet adoption could be more fulfilling than imagined!
Teaching Boundaries
As kids, one of the first difficult things we learn is that we won’t always get what we want. Something as simple as ‘no, you cannot have ice-cream at 9 a.m.’ could be difficult to process. When a puppy is in the house, there will be times when the furry friend won’t be in the mood to play. The child might be upset by this, but over time it will understand that the puppy has its own wants and needs. This also contributes to better Emotional Intelligence, as discovered and confirmed by studies.
Routine and Structure
Having to teach a puppy to not go potty in the house, making sure it obeys orders shows the child examples of how routine and structure are for the better. By establishing a daily timeline for their furry friend(s), kids also land up following a similarly organized structure.
Inni & Bobo Find Each Other||Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu
Compassion and empathy
Perhaps the winning argument for adoption is that it gives a second life to a stray. By downplaying on the breed of a dog, taking a puppy from a shelter helps kids learn about empathy and compassion. The words aren’t abstract terms but real experiences that they will always refer to when thinking about kindness and helping others.
Self-Esteem and Independence
When kids participate in taking care of pets, they unknowingly give themselves examples of performing tasks. Kids are less likely to be underconfident about their abilities when they already know they can take care of another living being!
We hope these pointers helped you visualize a pet-friendly life with your children. Remember, adopt don’t shop!
*
Inni and Bobo Find Each Other is available at your nearest bookstore as well as on Amazon.
Sudha Murty’s latest release is a fun celebration of the national fruit, the juicy and scrumptious mango!
The following excerpt is the first chapter of How The Mango Got Its Magic. Get your copy now from bookstores or head to Amazon to order!
How the Mango Got its Magic||Sudha Murty
*
Chapter One
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful mango grove on the outskirts of a village. Dinkar was the owner of the grove and Shyam was his hardworking son.
Back in those days, mangoes were ornamental fruits with beautiful colours and shapes, but they were not very tasty—they were more sour than sweet.
One day, it began to rain heavily and there was a knock on the door of Dinkar’s house.
When Dinkar opened the door, he saw an old man standing at his doorstep. The old man said, ‘Hello. I got caught in the rain. Will you let me in? I will leave once it stops raining.’
Dinkar generously welcomed him in. ‘It looks like the rain will not stop today, but it may cease tomorrow. Please come in. You can take shelter here.’
The old man entered the house. Shyam made him a hot meal and gave him some water to drink. The old man gulped the water down and devoured the food quickly, within minutes.
After a loud burp of satisfaction, he smiled at Shyam and Dinkar and said, ‘That was a wholesome meal.’
He took out a mango from his bag and gave it to Dinkar. ‘This is for both of you,’ he said. ‘Please cut it and eat it immediately.’
Dinkar looked at the mango. It looked like it was one of the very sour ones. He did not want to insult his guest, so he cut the mango and bit into it. His eyes popped in wonder and he turned to his son, ‘Shyam, all the mangoes I have eaten in my life have been sour—like the taste of lemon. Though we have a mango grove, we never eat the mangoes that grow here. But this mango is fantastic and unusually sweet. It’s absolutely delicious! Go on, try it.’
Shyam took his first bite and nodded his head vigorously in agreement. This mango was indeed sweet and tasty. Shyam had never even heard of sweet mangoes!
‘Plant this mango seed. The tree will grow quickly and produce more mangoes like the one you ate just now,’ the old man smiled and said.
The next morning it stopped raining. The old man thanked Dinkar and Shyam for their timely hospitality and left.
