Penguin Random House India is proud to announce the acquisition and publication of Jeet Thayil’s most intimate and accomplished work to date, These Errors Are Correct. Originally published in 2008, this book of poems was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 2012. Penguin is releasing a new edition on 18 July 2022 under the Hamish Hamilton imprint, currently available on pre-order at all major e-commerce websites.
These Errors Are Correct, which has been out of circulation for more than a decade, gets a brand new avatar in its 2022 edition. With a new preface and spectacular illustrations by the award-winning poet, for the first time ever, the book is both a gorgeous object and a bracing work of art. Readers will experience a range of fixed and invented forms––rhymed syllabics, terza rima, ghazals, sonnets, the sestina, the canzone, stealth rhymes––all part of this virtuosic, haunting collection.
Thayil says, “I’m so pleased These Errors Are Correct is back in print. It’s a special book for me, and it always will be. As I’ve said before, these poems came from somewhere mysterious and deep. It’s a collection I don’t expect to equal.”
Aparna Kumar, Editor at Penguin Random House India says, “The poems in These Errors Are Correct are exquisitely real, various, and brilliant. I truly believe this book is a masterpiece, and I am honoured to have played a role in publishing it.”
Meru Gokhale, Publisher, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India, says, “These Errors are Correct is a necessary part of the ongoing adventure that is Indian poetry in English. I am thrilled to bring back this exceptional book––in a beautiful new edition.”
About the author
Jeet Thayil was born into a Syrian Christian family in Kerala. As a boy, he travelled through much of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia with his father, TJS George, a writer and editor. He worked as a journalist for twenty-one years, in Bombay, Bangalore, Hong Kong and New York City. In 2005 he began to write fiction. The first instalment of his Bombay Trilogy, Narcopolis, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and became an unlikely bestseller. His book of poems These Errors Are Correct won the Sahitya Akademi Award (India’s National Academy of Letters), and his musical collaborations include the opera Babur in London. His essays, poetry and short fiction have appeared in the New York Review of Books, Granta, TLS, Esquire, The London Magazine, The Guardian and The Paris Review, among other venues. He is the editor of The Penguin Book of Indian Poets.
Many people would understand the nostalgia of a first crush. For filmmaker Onir, this rush of pure emotions happened twice. Throughout I Am Onir and I Am Gay, the author seamlessly entwines his sexual identity with his life, especially his childhood days of moving around and being boundless.
The following excerpt is the first chapter in its entirety.
I Am Onir & I Am Gay||Onir with Irene Dhar Malik
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First Crush
I met him in 1984, when I came to Calcutta (now Kolkata) for my higher secondary studies. There’s a lot about those two years that I try to forget—the disillusionment of the young boy coming from a Himalayan small town to a big city, whose excitement had quickly transformed to disappointment and anxiety—but I will always remember him. In this city that I used to visit every year during the winter vacation and that had seemed full of welcoming relatives, I now desperately searched for accommodation and ended up in many scary or awkward living arrangements.
We didn’t even have television in Bhutan at the time a fifteen-year-old me moved to Calcutta. The protectionist policies of the Bhutanese government ensured that it was the last country in the world to allow television, which was as late as 1999. Calcutta was overwhelming and, in many ways, I was the proverbial smalltown boy experiencing big-city blues. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to get admission in any of the well-known schools as my ICSE marks were abysmally low by Calcutta standards. Anything above 60 per cent was considered first division and therefore something to celebrate back home in Thimphu, but my marks were woefully inadequate here. Those were not yet the days when students scored 99.9 per cent, but a 90 per cent didn’t hurt anybody, as we found out the following year when my brother easily secured admission into La Martinière for Boys. As for me, I finally got admitted to St Augustine’s in the rather dingy Ripon Street neighbourhood of Calcutta. It was a tiny and somewhat cramped school at the time. The stairs were grimy, the classrooms small and windowless.
I think we were about ten or twelve students. Though they must have, like me, not been academically brilliant, my classmates were all very kind and generous, and that made all the difference. Of the teachers I don’t have many memories, except that I was so enamoured by my biology teacher Miss Mukherjee that biology quickly became my favourite subject. I still haven’t forgotten her gentle voice and kind smile.
I also remember my Bangla teacher, even though his name escapes me. I remember him because I was terrified of him. My Bangla was atrocious, having started learning the alphabet only when I was in Class 9, and it was by some miracle that I passed my ICSE Bangla paper. At St. Augustine’s, I used to hate my Bangla teacher and his classes. After I cleared my Class 12 Bangla paper, the man I had been so terrified of wore a broad grin as he patted me on the shoulder and said, ‘I never thought a gadha (donkey) like you would pass, I’m so relieved.’ I realized that he was perhaps actually fond of me and had been so severe with me only because he hadn’t wanted me to fail.
It was during those years that I had what I can call my first crush. He was tall and dusky, with thoughtful eyes and sensuous lips, and he had somehow decided to take me under his protective wing. He not only made sure no one bullied me, but also helped me cross roads and board buses. I couldn’t manage to cross the busy Calcutta streets on my own, nor board the crowded buses or trams before and after school. Very often, I used to walk long distances just to avoid getting into a crowded bus.
So yes, he was the one who would hold my hand or navigate me through the streets of Calcutta, his arm around my shoulder. I had no idea then what being gay meant. But unlike my Bhutan schooldays, I did not fall in love with any girl in my Calcutta school. There was an element of physical attraction with one of my classmates, but there was no emotional involvement at all with that boy. Stolen moments of touching and kissing in cinema halls, classrooms, deserted parks. There was no shame or sense of wrong in me, just the acknowledgement that sex was supposed to be something hush-hush; and we were discreet, like most boys and girls were those days.
I was aware that what I felt for my tall and dusky friend was different, but I didn’t give much thought to that difference. Life went on, and we sat for our ISC exams. We knew that we would soon go our diverse ways, our paths dictated by education and career choices.
One afternoon, it was just the two of us in his flat. We sat on the floor in his room, next to each other, our backs resting against the bed, talking about many, many things, as teenagers tend to do during languid Calcutta afternoons. I don’t really recall the exact flow of events, but I remember his white vest and the lungi he wore, and I can still remember his smell. At some point he put his arms around me, drawing me close to him, and asked me if I would like to touch him. This was not my first sexual experience, but I was nervous that afternoon, maybe because I had felt that unspoken and as yet unexplored feeling of love. This wasn’t the first time I had kissed someone, but whenever the reference to the ‘first kiss’ happens, it’s him that I think of. Of that sweaty afternoon and my limbs intertwined with his long limbs. When I walked back home that evening, everything had seemed pleasantly hazy. Yes, I know it sounds like a clich., but maybe that one time in my life, I did experience that cliché of being blissfully in love.
Much like in the falling-in-love sequences of the Hindi films that I’d grown up watching, his image was omnipresent for the rest of the day, superimposed over all details of my mundane existence.
At 7 a.m. the next morning, there was a knock on my door. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see him standing there. He didn’t want to come in but asked me to step out so that we could talk for five minutes.
Standing in the narrow lane outside the tiny Calcutta flat I then shared with my siblings, surrounded by the din of morning chores being executed in the surrounding middle-class households, I heard what he had to say. ‘Look, I thought about it, and whatever happened yesterday shouldn’t have happened. It was wrong, and what we did is a sin. I want you to erase that memory and so will I. And since that alone is not enough, I think it’s best that we don’t meet for the next ten years.’
He walked away. I was so numb that I didn’t utter a word as I watched him turn around and leave. No parting hug, not even a wave . . . he just walked away.
It was not then, but a couple of days later, when I was walking near Dhakuria Lake, that the truth suddenly hit me, and I could not stop the tears. The year was 1986, and I was seventeen. I realized for the first time that my love was not acceptable to the world I lived in and that something that was priceless to me was considered sinful by others. I didn’t understand why, but I was filled with a sense of emptiness, a great sadness, because I knew that this was not fair.
A couple of years later, I happened to pass by the building where he lived. Perhaps it was by design, but I don’t think so. After a lot of hesitation, I went up to the building watchman and asked about him. The entire family had emigrated to the US.
We never met again.
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I Am Onir and I Am Gay is available for pre-order.
When one thinks of Pride Month, we understandably visualize the rainbow. But symbolism is only the tip of the iceberg. Through stories both fiction and nonfiction, we are able to best empathise with and see the nuances that shade the seven colours of the flag.
Celebrate Pride with our list of recommendations. Keep scrolling to find your perfect queer read!
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I Am Onir and I Am Gay by Onir with Irene Dhar Malik
I Am Onir & I Am Gay||Onir with Irene Dhar Malik
The award-winning filmmaker Onir, whose directorial debut, My Brother Nikhil (2005), broke new ground in LGBT representation on the Indian silver screen, opens up fully for the first time. From his childhood days in Bhutan to when he was a young man with no connections in the Hindi film industry who dreamt big and fought to carve a niche for himself, Onir takes the reader through his struggles and triumphs to offer an intimate glimpse of his fascinating journey to success. I Am Onir and I Am Gay is a raw, eloquent and inspiring memoir about confronting and transcending frontiers. Written with his sister Irene Dhar Malik, this emotionally gritty and unabashedly honest personal story is a pathbreaking narrative of hope, love and the pursuit of dreams.
Hungry Humans by Karichan Kunju
Hungry Humans||Karichan Kunju
This translation of the groundbreaking Tamil novel Pasitha Manidam, first published in 1978, offers deep insight into the conservative and caste-conscious temple town of Kumbakonam, viewed here with dispassionately cold clarity as a society that utterly fails its own.
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. Sudha G. Tilak deftly builds upon Karichan Kunju’s prose to expose this world, raw, real, without frills or artifice.
Tell Me How To Be by Neel Patel
Tell Me How To Be||Neel Patel
Renu Amin always seemed perfect: doting husband, beautiful house, healthy sons. But as the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death approaches, Renu is binge-watching soap operas and simmering with old resentments. She can’t stop wondering if, thirty-five years ago, she chose the wrong life. In Los Angeles, her son, Akash, has everything he ever wanted, but as he tries to kickstart his songwriting career and commit to his boyfriend, he is haunted by the painful memories he fled a decade ago. When his mother tells him she is selling the family home, Akash returns to Illinois, hoping to finally say goodbye and move on.
By turns irreverent and tender, filled with the beats of ’90s R&B, Tell Me How to Be is about our earliest betrayals and the cost of reconciliation. But most of all, it is the love story of a mother and son each trying to figure out how to be in the world.
Eleven Ways To Love: Essays
Eleven Ways To Love: Essays
People have been telling their love stories for thousands of years. It is the greatest common human experience. And yet, love stories coach us to believe that love is selective, somehow, that it can be boxed in and easily defined. This is a collection of eleven remarkable essays that widen the frame of reference: transgender romance; body image issues; race relations; disability; polyamory; class differences; queer love; long distance; caste; loneliness; the single life; the bad boy syndrome . . . and so much more.
Pieced together with a dash of poetry and a whole lot of love, featuring a multiplicity of voices and a cast of unlikely heroes and heroines, this is a book of essays that show us, with empathy, humour and wisdom, that there is no such thing as the love that dare not speak its name.
Shikhandi, and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You by Devdutt Pattanaik
Shikhandi||Devdutt Pattanaik
Queerness isn’t only modern, Western or sexual, says mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik. From Shikhandi, who became a man to satisfy her wife; Mahadeva, who became a woman to deliver a devotee’s child; Chudala, who became a man to enlighten her husband; Samavan, who became the wife of his male friend and many more. Playful and touching—and sometimes disturbing—these stories when compared with tales of the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh, the Greek Ganymede, the biblical Sodom or the Chinese ‘cut sleeve’ Emperor reveal the unique Indian way of making sense of queerness. Devdutt Pattanaik’s new book builds on profound ideas that our ancestors shared but which we have rarely inherited.
Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life by Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
Red Lipstick||Laxmi
The first inklings and stirrings of lust that Laxmi remembers came from noticing big, strong arms, the hint of a guy’s moustache over his lips, billboards that advertised men’s underwear. Laxmi found this puzzling initially. Was there a woman inside him who couldn’t really express herself because of some last-minute mix-up that god did at the time of his birth? Struggling with such existential questions, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, eminent transgender activist, awakens to her true self: She is Laxmi, a hijra. In this fascinating narrative Laxmi unravels her heart to tell the stories of the men-creators, preservers, lovers, benefactors, and abusers-in her life. Racy, unapologetic, dark and exceptionally honest, these stories open a window to a brave new world.
Besharam by Priya Alika Elias
Besharam||Priya Alika Elias
Besharam is a book on young Indian women and how to be one, written from the author’s personal experience in several countries. It dissects the many things that were never explained to us and the immense expectations placed on us. It breaks down the taboos around sex and love and dating in a world that’s changing with extraordinary rapidity. Like an encyclopedia or a really good big sister, Besharam teaches young Indian women something that they almost never hear: it’s okay to put ourselves first and not feel guilty for it.
Part memoir, part manual, Besharam serves up ambitious feminism for the modern Indian woman.
A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi by Manobi Bandopadhyay
A GIft of Goddess Lakshmi||Manobi Bandopadhyay
When a boy was born in the Bandhopadhyay family, all rejoiced. A son had been born after two girls and finally, the conservative father could boast about having sired a son. However, it wasn’t long before the little boy began to feel inadequate in his own body and began questioning his own identity: Why did he constantly feel like he was a girl even when he had male parts? Why was he attracted to boys in a way that girls are? What could he do to stop feeling so incomplete?
With unflinching honesty and deep understanding, Manobi tells the moving story of her transformation from a man to a woman; how she did not just define her own identity, but also inspired her entire community.
An Unsuitable Boy by Karan Johar
An Unsuitable Boy||Karan Johar
Karan Johar is synonymous with success, panache, quick wit, and outspokenness, which sometimes inadvertently creates controversy and makes headlines. But who is the man behind the icon that we all know? Baring all for the first time in his autobiography, An Unsuitable Boy, KJo talks about the ever-changing face of Indian cinema, challenges and learnings, as well as friendships and rivalries in the industry. Honest, heart-warming and insightful, An Unsuitable Boy is both the story of the life of an exceptional filmmaker at the peak of his powers and of an equally extraordinary human being who shows you how to survive and succeed in life.
Love Bi The Way by Bhaavna Arora
Love Bi the Way||Bhaavna Arora
Rihana is a painter who is trying to find inspiration in love. Zara is a businesswoman trying to make a niche for her company in a male-dominated world. Rihana is fire, Zara is ice; Rihana is openly sensual, while Zara is more cautious with her heart-they are opposites that attract. They are different people bound together by their house, called Cupid, and their pet golden retriever, Tiger.
But Rihana finds herself a string of sexy men, while Zara emerges out of her shell and meets an actual prince who sweeps her off her feet. Can these relationships last? And what road will they take when love happens bi the way? As both of them navigate their fulfilling careers and try to leave behind troubled pasts, they find solace in each other.
There’s nothing like sipping a freshly made lemonade, sitting cross-legged on the floor during your summer holidays and exploring stories through freshly printed books. Add our June releases to the mix and you have a power-packed day – full of action, humour, colours and more! There’s something in this list for every kind of young reader out there. Just browse and take your pick!
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Gupshup Goes to Prison by Arefa Tehsin
Gupshup Goes To Prison||Arefa Tehsin
Khalid’s cat Gupshup has run away to a prison. An open prison, it is called, but everyone knows that prisons are full of horrible, evil people. Or are they? And how on earth will Khalid get Gupshup home?
For readers 7+
The Great Escape by Menaka Raman
The Great Escape||Menaka Raman
Sachit is not a fan of Wunderkind Academy. And it is a beautiful day outside. Aided by new friends Hari and Kris, can he escape to freedom?
For readers 7+
The Egghead Detective Agency by Pika Nani & Jemma Jose
The Egghead Detective Agency||Pika Nani
Has your pool turned pink recently? Are kidnappers after your pet chicken? Is an old forest in danger?
Sisters and little investigators, Tam and Ant cannot believe their eyes when they meet ‘Egghead’ right in their living room! The soon discover that he is, in fact, the ghost of a famous detective who was quite sought-after in his time. The girls now enlist his services for their detective agency-after all, the friendly ghost does come with great abilities.
Together they must solve the strange incidents that keep happening at their beloved Emerald Gardens-the quiet little residential complex.
What’s more, YOU can help the detectives crack the cases with Solve It Yourself clues (SIY), picture puzzles, secret codes and more in this 5-in-1 chapter book!
For readers 7+
Akbar-Birbal & The Haunted Gurukul by Apeksha Rao & Doodlenerve
Akbar-Birbal and The Haunted Gurukul||Apeksha Rao
Just into his tenth year, life’s all good for the future Mughal king, Akbar. But when his bestie, Nassie, the royal elephant goes on a rampage, a dangerous plot to harm the prince is uncovered. With things taking a sinister turn, Akbar is packed away (very far indeed) to the Vishwamitra Gurukul to live undercover.
Life in a gurukul hostel is nothing like his life in the palace! For starters, there’s no halwa for dessert after dinner! And then there’s that ghost who keeps knocking on doors, calling to be let into the room. But when the spirit attacks a student, the young prince must act. Thankfully, he’s just met one of the greatest minds of the future and also his new best friend – Birbal.
For readers 7+
Little Jagadish and The Great Experiment by Anjali Joshi & Debasmita Dasgupta
When young Jagadish realizes that the world is full of unanswered questions, he sets out to explore and discover the world around him using the scientific method. Inspired by the life and work of Indian physicist, botanist, and author Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, this story encourages young readers to embrace their curiosity and unleash their inner scientist.
For readers 7+
Visual Dictionary: My Body
Visual Dictionary: My Body
This colourful board book introduces your child to the human body: how muscles and bones work, what the brain and heart are responsible for, why different internal organs are needed and lots more.
Filled with short stories for little ones, interesting facts and large vibrant pictures, this book is a fun learning experience!
So get ready to seek and find, identify body parts and learn about them.
For readers 3+
Visual Dictionary: Animals
Visual Dictionary: Animals
This colourful board book introduces your child to the world of animals: herbivores and predators, birds and fishes, bugs and spiders, reptiles and lots more.
Filled with short stories for little ones, interesting facts and large vibrant pictures, this book is a fun learning experience!
So get ready to seek and find, identify animals and learn about them.
For readers 3+
Visual Dictionary: Vehicles
Visual Dictionary: Vehicles
This colourful board book introduces your child to different vehicles: rail, air and sea transport, as well as, special military and space equipment.
Filled with short stories for little ones, interesting facts and large vibrant pictures, this book is a fun learning experience!
So get ready to seek and find, identify vehicles and learn about them.
For readers 3+
The Big Book of ABCs
The Big Book of ABCs
Experience the alphabet like never before!
From apples, balloons and cats, to penguins, tulips and zoos, there are delightful, new words with every page turn!
Designed to make learning fun, The Big Book of ABCs introduces new words in vibrant settings that make each word even more memorable.
For readers 0-3 years
The Big Book of First Words
The Big Book of First Words
Get ready for a learning adventure!
In every home, at the park, at the beach, and even at the zoo, new words await.
Designed to make learning fun, The Big Book of First Words introduces new words in vibrant settings that make each word even more memorable.
For readers 0-3 years
The Big Book of Colours
The Big Book of Colours
The best adventures are colourful!
Are you ready to enter the big, beautiful world of colours? Explore places, things, animals, birds and more that bring colours to life.
Designed to make learning fun, The Big Book of Colours helps you decode the secrets of the colour wheel.
For readers 0-3 years
The Big Book of Counting to 100
The Big Book of Counting to 100
A counting adventure from 1 to 100!
Are you ready to explore the world through numbers? Down the lane, through the park and across the ocean, there’s so much to see and count!
Designed to make learning fun, The Big Book of Counting to 100 makes counting a truly exciting activity.
What makes organizations successful in the long run?
Is it money, projects, or growth?
According to Piyush Pandey, the advertising legend of India, emphasizes the importance of building an organization where every single member is aligned to the same extraordinary goal of creativity. Community building, an integrated audience, and an environment that fosters and promotes individual creativity without compromising on the essence and ideals of the company is crucial for success in the long run. Read this excerpt from Open House with Piyush Pandey to know more!
Open House||Piyush Pandey
“I must say that while Apple, indeed, is extraordinary, there are many other companies that have done reasonably well in building a company, products, brands and communities. Off the top of my head, I could name Nike, Coke, Burger King, Mondelez and, closer home, Pidilite and Asian Paints. Perhaps Google would be another.
In each of these instances, the principles are the same.
Apple’s employees, anecdotally, love going to the office. They seem free to express themselves, and seem unhampered by rules and structures.
And yet there is a system; it’s not that it’s free for all. They have created an environment of creativity seemingly freed from constraints to express oneself. In most companies, for example in network agencies and other communication companies, rules and procedures are created to prevent chaos or the unpredictable. Apple, from the time they began with the 1984 release of the Mac to the second journey under Steve Jobs, was unsatisfied with the normal or the staid – they wanted extraordinary products and took extraordinary punts in the quest for the extraordinary products.
The success with the iPod gave them the courage to invest more in experiments and risks and the products that followed ensured that success.
Companies such as Apple spend an extraordinary amount of time – and money – in creating the culture that fosters out-of-the-box thinking. We admire the company because of the successive successes that they’ve had. And we will continue to admire them till they continue to succeed.
The product basket, thanks to the near monopoly market that they enjoy in the early stages, sees them enjoying high margins – which in turn allows them to invest in the next big idea.
Such companies are almost like close-knit families. The rules exist but are unwritten and unsaid. However, the ‘ecosystem’, the family, is, as a collective, aware of problems and unhappiness and challenges that particular members of the family might be experiencing.
A critical party of the ecosystem is the partners of the business; they’re also family and need to be treated as such. The role that Lee Clow and TBWA Chiat Day played in the success of Apple has been described many times by Jobs himself. Apple has worked with Lee’s team literally since inception.
These are unusual, but visionaries like Jobs chase their dreams and not bow to the pressures of the stock market. That allows them to take a long-term view of their product portfolio and their brand – something very few have the courage to do.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with some brands for over 20, 30, 40 years. The ones that easily come to mind are Fevicol, Asian Paints, Cadbury Dairy Milk, many HUL brands. Other companies who have invested in their partners becoming long-term ‘family members’ include Amul.
The performance of these brands is there for all to see.
Can another Apple be born? Only if we see another Steve Jobs. Is Tim Cook the new Steve Jobs? That answer will help us understand if there is indeed an ecosystem that can win every time, or whether it was the vision of Steve Jobs. Apple’s performance post the passing of Steve Jobs suggests that there is, indeed, an ecosystem that works.”
As living, breathing, and thriving humans, we often believe a common pretense: we are the most superior form of life. Sometimes people refer to organisms, especially humans, as ‘perfectly designed’, but our aquatic ancestors had to twist and stretch and rework what they already had. You can’t get to the perfect solution for being a human from that fishy starting point!
Explaining Life Through Evolution||Prosanta Chakrabarty
“Your body is a disaster. I don’t care if you look like Padma Lakshmi or Michael Jordan. We are all hunks of water-logged flesh, hanging off of sticks of collagen and calcium, made up of teeming pockets of bacteria that are held together by strings of blood all covered in an oily skin bag. We are frail naked apes with giant lollipop heads with exposed and vulnerable dangly bits that are so ill-equipped for life that we get tired after standing up still for ten minutes.
Why? Again, we are literally fish out of water.
We are taught to think we humans are perfect: no less than the pinnacle of evolution. Hogwash. The only thing we got going for us are our big brains, and we use those brains just enough to think we are better than everything else and to build things to make us feel important but that will also destroy the planet and ultimately ourselves—time for some humility.
It isn’t all bad. We do have the advantage of getting more oxygen directly from the air than from water (which has a lot less oxygen), but gas exchange is more difficult through lungs than with gills. But we mess that up too by using the same tubing for breathing as for feeding, and we have just a little piece of flappy tissue (the epiglottis) to keep food from going down the wrong pipe. And that never fails— (choke, choke) right. I’d rather have the body of a crappie (the fish) than our crappy bodies.
We can see in our bodies the evolutionary connections we have with more recent ancestors too. We still have the remnants of a tail (which is just an extension of the spine) as the coccyx; and we get goosebumps to raise non-existent fur on our bodies (which we lost in becoming ‘naked’ apes). Yes, we had hairy ancestors with tails, but no, not from monkeys. Unlike a common popular myth, we did not evolve from monkeys. We share a common ancestor with monkeys that led to both tailed monkeys and to the tail-less great apes (of which we are one).”
Evolution isn’t as linear as we think it to be. If you’re keen to know about the complex history of evolution, and how we came to be, get your copy of Explaining Life Through Evolution now!
How does a Parsi lawyer, deeply influenced by the principles of Roman Catholicism, fall in love with a Bahá’í and go on to become the Attorney General of India for a Hindu nationalist BJP government? How does a boy with a broken leg, who studied in a Gujarati-medium school, and lost his father at the age of nineteen, go on to mount a heroic defense of the Janata government’s decision to dissolve Congress state legislatures (in 1977) in the Supreme Court? How does a lawyer with a humdrum customs and excise law practice, whose grandfather sold horsedrawn carriages in Bombay, become a U.N. human rights rapporteur, and repeatedly defend the fundamental right to free speech and expression in the Supreme Court of India?
Let’s read an excerpt from Abhinav Chandrachud’s latest book Soli Sorabjee, Life and Times: An Authorized Biography.
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Soli Sorabjee || Abhinav Chandrachud
A lawyer’s first brief is always considered to be very memorable. Sorabjee’s first brief was given to him by a Parsi attorney, Naval Vakil, a partner at Little & Company, a firm which used to heavily brief his senior, Kharshedji Bhabha. It was not a very serious brief. Sorabjee just had to ask Justice S.T. Desai for an adjournment in the case. Vakil sent Sorabjee the brief along with a thoughtful note. It said: ‘I hope it leads to more success.’ However, in this, his very first case at the Bombay High Court, Sorabjee failed. The judge refused Sorabjee his adjournment.
Even so, Sorabjee marked a fee of two ‘gold mohurs’ for his appearance in the case, equivalent to thirty rupees. Since the colonial period, Bombay advocates marked their fees in gold mohurs, where one gold mohur was worth fifteen rupees. Even today, it is common to see fees being marked in gold mohurs or ‘gms’ on the Original Side of the Bombay High Court.
Sorabjee’s practice started slowly. Between 1953 and 1955, in the first ten important cases that he appeared in (i.e., cases that were either reported in the law reports or written about in the Times of India), Sorabjee was led by a senior and did not offer any independent arguments in court. Naturally, the senior advocate he was ‘led by’ most often in his cases in the early days was his own senior, Kharshedji. By 1957, however, around 4 years into his practice, Sorabjee started arguing cases on his own in the Bombay High Court. Between 1953 and 1970, before Sorabjee became a senior, he argued 63 per cent of the important cases that he appeared in himself. In other words, even as a junior, the majority of the briefs that Sorabjee received were those in which he had to stand up in a packed courtroom, face the judge, make his arguments, and try to obtain a favourable outcome for his client. This number rose substantially after he became a senior advocate. Between 1971 and 1975, after Sorabjee became a senior and up to the eve of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, Sorabjee argued 81 per cent of the important cases that he appeared in himself. Like Kharshedji, Sorabjee appeared mostly on the Original Side of the Bombay High Court. Like him, Sorabjee appeared both before a single judge and division bench in equal proportions.
There is no doubt that Parsi connections helped Sorabjee. He grew up in a wealthy, well-connected Parsi family. He was privileged. He did not have to worry about earning money in the early days of his law practice, to pay rent or to support a family. He studied in schools that had a high proportion of Parsi pupils. He got into the chamber of a prominent Parsi advocate, Kharshedji, his cousin’s husband. He got his first brief from a Parsi attorney. However, that is as far as Parsi connections could take him. In order to succeed at the Bombay Bar Association, Sorabjee had to perform well as a lawyer, in the absence of which his benefactors would soon have abandoned him. Most of the judges and clients were non-Parsis. Between 1953 and 1975, for instance, in the 132 reported cases in which Sorabjee appeared, only 22 (16 per cent) had a Parsi judge on the bench.
Sorabjee started getting noticed by the judges of the Bombay High Court a few years into his practice. In 1957, Chief Justice M.C. Chagla, a non-Parsi judge, appointed Sorabjee as an ‘amicus curiae’ or ‘friend of the court’ to assist the court in a divorce case under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Chagla must have seen a spark in Sorabjee and tried to encourage him by appointing him as an amicus. Chagla concluded his short judgment in the case with the following line: ‘We are thankful to Mr Sorabjee who assisted this Court as amicus curiae.’ In many cases, Sorabjee did things that might have helped him gain the trust of the court. He cited judgments against himself—informing the court about cases that were decided against the point that he was making. Judges therefore knew that Sorabjee was not the kind of lawyer who would obtain favourable orders by hiding things from them. He made concessions in court, giving up legal points that he felt were not worth arguing. In a case in 1969, for instance, the additional judicial commissioner in Goa noted in his judgment: ‘Shri Sorabjee, appearing for the petitioner, candidly conceded, and I think very appropriately, that the petitioner had not been able to substantiate the allegation of mala fides.’ In important cases, he went to the court prepared to argue a series of well-articulated propositions. All this earned him praise from the bench. In one case in 1965, which he argued against the rising star of the Kharshedji chamber, Fali Nariman, Justice V.D. Tulzapurkar remarked: ‘[B]oth Mr Nariman and Mr Sorabjee submitted arguments with great ability’. Nariman and Sorabjee appeared against each other often, each one getting the better of the other in nearly equal proportions.
Between 1953 and 1975 Sorabjee had a large customs and excise practice (an ‘excise’ tax was a tax on goods produced or manufactured in India—it was replaced by the ‘goods and services tax’ or GST in 2017). About 26 per cent of his work at this time was in that branch of law. However, his other large practice areas included labour cases, company cases, landlord-tenant disputes, tax cases, commercial suits, cases involving evacuee property or land requisition and cases concerning foreigners or passports.
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Read this first authorized biography of Soli Sorabjee by getting your copy from your nearest bookstore or online.
June always feels like a vacation, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s all those years spent in school, but even as we grow older June always feels like a month for changing the routine and exploring different landscapes. From revisiting the seminal to being guided towards something new, this month’s releases lend a reflective gaze appropriate for the halfway point of the year. Keep scrolling, you may just find the book that will turn your life around.
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The Life And Times of George Fernandes by Rahul Ramagundam
The Life and Times of George Fernandes||Rahul Ramagundam
Chronicling the story of George, who rose from the streets of Bombay to straddle the power corridor, The Life and Times of George Fernandes: Many Peaks of a Political Life opens a window to the life of George Fernandes and traces the course of the Socialist Party in India from its inception in the 1930s to its dissolution into the Janata Party in the late 1970s. With 1980 as the dividing line, the book explores India’s post-independence politics.
Thought-provoking, comprehensive and absolutely unputdownable, this first definitive biography of George Fernandes is a tour de force.
Jezebel by K.R. Meera (tr. by Abhirami Girija Sriram and K.S. Bijukumar)
Jezebel||K.R. Meera
Jezebel, a young doctor in Kerala, struggles against the cruel realities of a patriarchal world-realities that not even her education, resolve or professional brilliance can shield her from. Her already contentious divorce proceedings go suddenly awry, and her unhappy marriage holds complex secrets. In K.R. Meera’s blistering new novel, which takes the form of a courtroom drama to show us the rich inner worlds of its characters, we see Jezebel reflect on her life and its pivotal points as she takes the stand. Through her memories, we see her grow from a reticent, serious young woman to a rebel who refuses to bend to the conventions of society.
In this elegant translation from Malayalam by Abhirami Girija Sriram and K.S. Bijukumar, K.R. Meera’s hypnotic prose makes resonant allusions to the Bible in powerful ways that elucidate the correlations between legend and the protagonist’s life while also exploring how sexuality and gender roles are manipulated by the dictates of society.
I Am Onir And I Am Gay by Onir with Irene Dhar Malik
I Am Onir & I Am Gay||Onir with Irene Dhar Malik
The award-winning filmmaker Onir, whose directorial debut, My Brother Nikhil (2005), broke new ground in LGBT representation on the Indian silver screen, and opens up fully for the first time. From his childhood days in Bhutan to when he was a young man with no connections in the Hindi film industry who dreamt big and fought to carve a niche for himself, Onir takes the reader through his struggles and triumphs to offer an intimate glimpse of his fascinating journey to success.
I Am Onir and I Am Gay is a raw, eloquent and inspiring memoir about confronting and transcending frontiers. Written with his sister Irene Dhar Malik, this emotionally gritty and unabashedly honest personal story is a pathbreaking narrative of hope, love and the pursuit of dreams.
A Thousand Kisses Deep by Novoneel Chakraborty
A Thousand Kisses Deep||Novoneel Chakraborty
Humiliatingly rejected by Haasil, even after she thought she had him, Pallavi sets forth on a self-destructive path, seeking one life thrill after the other. All she desires is to heal the wounds that haunt her every move, not allowing her to be herself. Neither can she forget Haasil nor can she reach him anymore. That is until she meets Palki, Haasil’s ex-wife who is presumed dead by the world.
A Thousand Kisses Deep is an emotional whirlwind depicting modern layered relationships, lost love and how, sometimes, destiny’s plans are quite contrary to what we have been coveting all our life.
Stop Weighting: A Guidebook to a Fitter, Healthier You by Ramya Subramanian
Stop Weighting||Ramya Subramanian
A film actor from the South and a household name as a television anchor, Ramya’s career spans over a decade. In recent years, she’s carved an increasingly popular presence in the health and fitness space and is a certified fitness and nutrition life coach. Her YouTube channel called ‘StayFitWithRamya’ has a wonderfully active audience.
During the 2020 lockdown, she began writing a fitness memoir in which she shares her roller coaster of a fitness journey and her encounters working in the media over many years-good, bad and ugly. The book digs deep into those stories, mistakes and life lessons; in short, an authentic story of how her mess became her message. Ramya also discusses the effects of mental health on one’s fitness journey, plus her book is extremely approachable and not at all intimidating.
Operation Sudarshan Chakra by Prabhakar Aloka
Operation Sudarshan Chakra||Prabhakar Aloka
The much-awaited sequel to Operation Haygreeva is here!
Haunted by Operation Haygreeva, Ravi Kumar and his team of young recruits come together to pick up from where they left off. Tabrez, the leader of Lashkar-e-Hind (LeH) has escaped to Pakistan and is expanding the scale of his operations against India for revenge. Despite having faced severe personal trauma, Ravi and his team come together to launch deft counterterror and counterintelligence manoeuvres, codenamed Operation Sudarshan Chakra, putting everything, including their individual safety, at risk.
Madam Sir: The Story of Bihar’s First Lady IPS Officer by Manjari Jaruhar
Madam Sir||Manjari Jaruhar
After an unexpected turn of events upended the homemaker role her parents had planned for her, Manjari Jaruhar overcame extraordinary odds to become the first woman from Bihar to join the country’s elite police cadre.
Set against the backdrop of significant events such as the Bhagalpur blindings, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and Lalu Prasad’s reign in Bihar, Madam Sir looks at the IPS from the inside, through a woman’s eyes. This is a story that will inspire you to pursue your dreams and infuse you with the spirit to reach impossible heights.
Sone Chandi Ke Buth: Writings on Cinema by K.A. Abbas
Sone Chandi Ke Buth||K.A. Abbas
Sone Chandi Ke Buth is a collection of writings on cinema that includes the observations, thoughts and reflections of one of the pioneering film directors and journalists in the country, K.A. Abbas. This book includes incisive profiles of personalities such as Prithviraj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, V. Shantaram and others; film reviews and essays that interrogate the line between art and stardom in the Hindi film industry; and short stories that lift the veneer of Bollywood’s glamorous world.
Vishnu Purana by Bibek Debroy (tr.)
Vishnu Purana||Bibek Debroy
The Vishnu Purana is part of a series of eighteen sacred Hindu texts known collectively as the Puranas. It occupies a prominent position among the ancient Vaishnava Puranas which recount tales of creation and the many incarnations of Lord Vishnu. It describes the four classes of society, the four stages of life, and key astronomical concepts related to Hinduism.
Having previously translated the Bhagavata Purana, the Markandeya Purana, and the Brahma Purana, this translation from Bibek Debroy presents readers with an opportunity to truly understand the classical Indian mythic texts.
Kundalini Yoga For All: Unlock the Power of Your Body and Brain by Kamini Bobde
Kundalini Yoga For All||Kamini Bobde
Kundalini, the primordial energy resides in all of us, lying dormant at the base of our spines. Very few know the secret of how to arouse it from its slumber.
Kundalini Yoga for All will take you through this journey with explanations of the various stations you will encounter. Starting with cleansing and tuning your body to the step-by-step guide of your daily Kundalini yoga practice, this book will empower you to experience your highest potential in brain, body and awareness to meet all challenges of life with equanimity and experience bliss which is every human’s birthright.
Take this exciting journey within to discover the divine energy, so you can enhance every sphere of your life-professional, personal and spiritual.
The Architect Of The New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party by Ajay Singh
The Architect of the New BJP||Ajay Singh
In less than forty years of its existence, the Bharatiya Janata Party has become the world’s largest political party and continues to go from strength to strength in Indian politics. Although its historic rise may seem organic to some, there is much internal deliberation and planning that has aided the growth of this 180-million-member organization.
Using in-depth research and concrete examples, The Architect of the New BJP examines the past of the party, including the vision of its founders, as well as its future. Based on extensive interviews with many party workers, leaders and observers, this is the story of how the veterans of this cadre-based party, appreciating its limitations, developed a unique Indian model that eventually transformed the BJP into the election-winning machine it is today.
Unsung: Poems by Arunoday Singh
Unsung||Arunoday Singh
Arunoday Singh’s first volume of poetry presents a collection of his most popular work alongside new material, where he delves inwards and probes questions of love, loss, longing everything that ails the human heart. He has amassed a large, involved following on Instagram, where he shares his poetry in handwritten calligraphy under the handle @sufisoul. The poems are deceptively simple and intensely piercing. They are divided into four sections that explore the themes of the self, the elements, breaking and healing, the search for divinity, and the light and darkness of the spirit.
Live Your Best Life: Understanding Menopause for a Wiser, Happier and Healthier You by Dr Amrinder Bajaj
Live Your Best Life||Dr. Amrinder Bajaj
One thing that bonded Mona, Meera and Sheila were their evening walks. This was the time they talked about their families and work, responsibilities and challenges. Then slowly things began to change, and it was not long before they began talking hot flashes, heavy bleeding, sudden weight gain and other scary symptoms. They thought these were issues that they need to live with as they aged.
Enter Doctor Dua, an experienced gynaecologist who takes all of them under her wing and helps them understand and deal with their individual symptoms and more. From physically taking care of oneself to mental adjustments, she changes their perception from the fear of Menopause to treating it as another phase in their lives.
Live Your Best Life is a gentle, friendly guide to negotiating Menopause and living a fulfilling life both in body and in mind.
The Many Lives of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna by Veejay Sai
Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, the internationally renowned Carnatic vocalist, was a child prodigy and proficient at a number of musical instruments. He was a school dropout, a teenage poet and composer, a restless mind, a versatile musician, a polyglot, wordsmith, a pioneer and an unparalleled musical genius, and this is the story of the many lives of the iconic maestro. With in-depth research into archival material, fortified by interviews with his family, disciples and peers, Veejay Sai’s definitive biography of Balamuralikrishna traces his journey in the world of music, a place of beauty as well as egos.
Equal, Yet Different: Career Catalysts for the Professional Woman by Anita Bhogle
Equal, Yet Different||Anita Bhogle
Equal, Yet Different is exactly how women want to be treated and need to be treated. We now have a large and growing pool of highly talented and professionally qualified women. This book talks about the catalysts that are required for women to reach peak potential conditions, people, or even mindsets at home, at work, and in the ecosystem. Anita Bhogle draws from the professional experiences and wisdom of a large number of women leaders and experts, and this book will benefit all those interested in women’s careers-women themselves, their spouses, bosses, and even HR folk.
Selling Anything Anywhere: Sindhis and Global Trade by M.A. Falzon
Examining the social and cultural infrastructure that sustains Sindhi business networks, Selling Anything Anywhere provides a rich historical context. By tracing the origin of Sindhi Trade to the annexation of Sindh in 1843, when it was incorporated into an expanding global economy, Falzon locates Sindhi business within the dynamics of the contemporary Indian diaspora and features several success stories both from India and outside.
Untangling Conflict: An Introspective Guide for Families in Business by Janmejaya Sinha, Carol Liao, Ryoji Kimura & Brittany Montgomery
Untangling Conflict||Janmejaya Sinha, Carol Liao, Ryoji Kimura & Brittany Montgomery
Drawing on decades of lessons learned from supporting families and the businesses they own, Untangling Conflicts untangles messy threads of conflict within family businesses by examining issues laden with emotion, those related to the rights, benefits, and restrictions of ownership, and issues of business strategy. By exploring these three threads of conflict, the authors help families understand, prevent, and respond to disagreements, without disrupting the family business. Lastly, the book offers tools to align expectations and reduce friction between families, non-family employees, and the partners of the family-owned businesses.
With a strong faith in the anecdotal as well as the scientific, Aparna Piramal Raje’s Chemical Khichdi is a unique entry to the Indian self-help canon. Mental health awareness still has a long way to go, but a greater scholarly understanding of bipolarity creates a stable foundation of destigmatization and support.
Below is an excerpt from the memoir.
Chemical Khichdi||Aparna Piramal Raje
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Summer 1997, Brasenose College, University of Oxford
‘Who would like to volunteer?’ asks the knife-thrower.
It is the annual end-of-year college ball, a night-long party that is as much part of university tradition as its historic libraries. This year the ball is circus-themed and Brasenose students are ready to celebrate. I have just finished a three-year undergraduate course in politics, philosophy and economics, and am looking forward to the ball. After all, the strenuous final examinations are over.
Now, in the middle of the night, I am taking a break from dancing and am seated in the college dining hall with friends when a professional knife-thrower asks for a volunteer to face his daggers. The daggers would put a set of kitchen knives to shame.
One of my friends raises my arm. ‘Aparna would like to do it!’
I turn to him and say, ‘Are you crazy?’
He says, ‘Go on, I know you can.’
The knife-thrower is a professional. All I need to do is stay still, I think to myself as I walk up to the target and position myself in the allotted spot. I am wearing a lime-green kurta, last worn at my cousin’s wedding six months ago. I wrap it tightly around me, making sure that none of the fabric is sticking out. I thank God for the UK’s National Health Service, hold my breath and wait. The spacious, wood-panelled dining hall, normally lined with dozens of chattering students, is equally silent.
A few seconds later, there is loud applause. The daggers were accurate and I was unflinching. My friends are very proud of me.
Crazy? Impulsive? Risky? I think this incident illustrates something more nuanced—my ability to stay calm and collected when needed, while pursuing ‘safe thrills’.
Oxford is known for its weekly ‘essay crises’, where students often stay up all night trying to complete their assignments. Final examinations at Oxford are known for their rigour. Despite these stressors, I was able to maintain my composure during the three-year undergraduate programme. A close circle of friends, a serious college relationship, lack of interpersonal conflict and a genuine interest in my chosen subjects were cornerstones of my emotional and mental equilibrium. The college relationship in particular was transformational on all counts; a wonderful way to grow and flourish as a young adult.
When it ended, a year after we left college, I could not sleep properly for days and I could not stop talking. It was obvious that I was not fully myself, with many racing and conflicting thoughts and emotions running through my head. Break-ups are significant life events for any young person. So perhaps it made sense to view my reaction, while out of character, as part of growing up and not a mental health issue. In other words, there was little to suggest then of the highs and lows to come—until the summer of 2000, before going to the Harvard Business School (HBS).
I was twenty-four then and had been working in sales and marketing with VIP luggage for three years. Midway through the year, I was accepted into HBS. The programme started in September. In the interim, I planned to take time off from the business to pursue a different sort of adventure: to intern with Randeep Sudan, a senior bureaucrat in the Andhra Pradesh government at the time. Mr Sudan worked closely with N. Chandrababu Naidu, then the chief minister of one of India’s most technologically progressive states. The internship was facilitated by a family friend and I was keen on learning about state-level governance, a completely unfamiliar subject.
Come July 2000, I found myself in Hyderabad, then the capital of Andhra Pradesh, staying as a paying guest in the home of Lakshmi Devi Raj. Over the next four weeks, I acquired two role models—my innovative and approachable boss, Mr Sudan, and my host, the sixty-eight-year-old joyful and independent Lakshmi Aunty. During the day, Mr Sudan ensured I worked on stimulating projects, such as how the state could attract more external investment.
At night, Lakshmi Aunty took me on a cultural and gastronomic tour of Hyderabad’s unique attraction: its larger-than-life parties. Musical evenings went on all night—I could not keep up with Lakshmi Aunty and her friends.
So it was a successful internship on all counts. My work was appreciated, so much so that Mr Sudan arranged for me to make a presentation to the chief minister and a large team at the end of my four-week internship. And two decades later, Lakshmi Aunty continues to remain a sprightly role model and a friend.
Yet inside, there was turmoil. I was consumed with anxiety and insecurity about my parents’ deteriorating marriage. By then it was clear there was a major estrangement, something that I had trouble accepting. I was also deeply unhappy about another relationship break-up; someone I had been seeing for nearly two years. And I was riveted by excitement about the success of my internship.
These emotions triggered the perfect storm.
My mounting excitement—the internship, Harvard—and my raw insecurities made me impetuous, restless and hypomanic. With all the idealism of a twenty-four-year-old, I was convinced I could change the world. Blurry as the past can be, I can still remember some of the half-baked thoughts and ideas that overtook my mind in the weeks before I was due to leave for Boston. I knew I could catalyse an omnipotent coalition of Indian companies and the government to rule global markets in the prevailing dot-com era, and started drawing up grandiose plans, scribbling away on bits of paper. Sleep disappeared as I felt invincible, restless and impetuous, going to bed late and rising early.
Kay Redfield Jamison, a renowned psychotherapist, bipolar patient and author of the classic An Unquiet Mind, says it best in her memoir. ‘My mind was beginning to have to scramble a bit to keep up with itself, as ideas were coming so fast that they intersected one another at every inconceivable angle. There was a neuronal pileup on the highways of my brain, and the more I tried to slow down my thinking the more I became aware that I couldn’t.’
My family was shocked at my behavioural change. ‘I know you so well. I’ve grown up with you. We shared a room for years. So to watch your face change, your eyes change, your mind change, in front of my eyes, was a terrifying experience. You behaved your whole life one way and then suddenly you started behaving another way, and you maintained that the new way is the real you, but Mom and I were saying, “No, something’s wrong, something’s different”. But you were holding on to your mood as the authentic truth. It created a friction like no other. Because we were saying something’s wrong. And you were saying nothing is wrong. That was the biggest clash. We didn’t know what it was, we were totally in the dark,’ recalls my sister Radhika.
Welcome to bipolarity.
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Chemical Khichdi is available at your nearest bookstore and Amazon. Get your copy here!
Children are imaginative and curious, which is what makes them so different from adults who almost always lead a mundane life. But what happens when a child’s brain is over-imaginative and borderline paranoid?Meet Avi, the protagonist of Help! My Aai Wants to Eat Me, who is convinced that is Aai is keen on gobbling him up, after watching a documentary that fills his mind with wild ideas. Read an excerpt from the book to find out what happened, below!
“All in all, not Avi’s favourite day.
Until it was time for environmental science a.k.a. EVS—a subject Avi LOVED.
Avi’s favourite subject, EVS
He loved it as much as figs love wasps (so much so that they let the wasp pollinate the fruit and die inside them—‘till death do us part’, just like in the movies that Baba and the Maushis watched and loved).
He loved it more than birdwatchers loved the forest owlet, which had been believed to be extinct for 113 years until it was rediscovered right here in Maharashtra—the same state that Avi lived in!
Avi loved it more than . . . well, it was his favourite subject. Unlike HJ who loved maths and art and always got 24 out of 25 marks in them. And today was EVS Film Day! Which meant they all got to watch a wildlife film instead of studying. Avi settled down next to HJ, his knees aching from having stood for thirty-four minutes outside the classroom. ‘Arre, how will I play cricket today?’
‘Yeah?’ asked HJ. ‘That bad?’ ‘Shhh . . .’ Kshama hissed like a snake and glared at the two boys. ‘Do you want to spend another class outside?’
Avi bit back a retort—Kshama was the class monitor and could easily report him and then he would have to miss EVS Film Day. He had already seen films about climate change, about a tigress called Machli, and one about ghost crabs!
Miss Mankad
Miss Mankad, who taught EVS, walked into class. Every time Avi looked at his favourite teacher, he was reminded of a meerkat—an upright spine, broad head and large, bright eyes. Except, unlike meerkats, she was six feet and one inch tall. Clearly, she did a great job of teaching, given that Avi knew more facts about the natural world than his herd of classmates put together.
Miss Mankad shut off all the lights and Avi and Kshama closed all the curtains, turning the room into a dark den, perfect for watching a film. Even more perfect, it was about bears! Avi watched open-mouthed as jamun-like bear cubs wrestled on the screen, a mama sloth bear battled with a tiger (and won) while defending her cubs, and then . . .
SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAPPENED.
SOMETHING TERRIBLE. HORRIBLE.
DISGUSTING. EEUCHY.
Even worse than the day Avi was having. Another mama bear ate up her second-born cub.
A terrified Avi
At first, Avi thought she was licking the bear cub. But no. She just gobbled the cub up. Slurp. The baby was gone. Back into her tummy. Where he had lived for so long. Avi’s eyes widened. He gripped his pencil box tightly. What just happened? Did she . . . Really? No, that could NOT have happened. He squinted in the dark to see his classmates’ expressions. He couldn’t make out much, but did Kshama also look horrified? Or was that just her usual expression?”
