Pt. Ved Lal Kaul Raz (1912–2010) lived for ninety-eight years—a life quietly marked by dignity, grace, and the brilliance of poetry. A universe of words, his verses glided with lyrical ease while bearing metaphors that touched the soul. This selection of his Urdu poetry navigates the delicate terrain of human emotion, blending subtlety with philosophical depth—exploring longing, regret, impermanence, and the transformative power of fleeting moments. Drawn from Kulyat-e-Raz, Gulgusht, and other compilations, the anthology reflects the unity and vision that define his enduring place in Urdu and Kashmiri literary tradition.
Archives: Books
India’s Urban Expansion | Urban Planning, Infrastructure, and the Future Growth of Indian Cities
The city is breathing, but it is not alive.
India’s metropolitan dream is turning into a suffocating reality—choked skies, endless traffic, mounting waste, and infrastructure that promises relief but delivers more chaos. What looks like growth from afar feels like collapse from within. At the heart of this crisis lies the unending urban expansion paradox: every new flyover brings more cars, every expansion multiplies the density it was meant to ease. Our cities are not expanding to serve us—they are expanding to consume us.
But this is not a story of despair. It is a bold roadmap for change.
India’s Urban Expansion introduces the concept of the global readiness perimeter, offering a new framework to understand how Indian cities can move beyond reactive expansion toward deliberate, future-ready planning.
The Story Map
How well you tell a story decides how far your ideas travel and how well they are received. But most good ideas stay stuck inside the people who have them, because most of us believe that storytelling is a gift you’re born with—a natural talent you either have or you don’t.
The Story Map dispels that myth. Sandeep Nair spent fifteen years building brands worth hundreds of millions of dollars across India, the UK and Southeast Asia, where he learnt that storytelling is a system.
In this book, he distils that system into a simple framework: Soul, Body and Spirit. Soul tells you what to say. Body shows you how to organize it. Spirit tunes it to your audience and the moment.
For the professional who has something to say and needs to say it well, this book turns storytelling from talent into technique.
The Wisdom of Indian Saints
Through beautifully told tales, the book traces the personal journeys and selfless acts of saints from diverse traditions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Sufism.
Spanning centuries and regions, these stories feature saints whose lives were shaped by devotion, humility, and a deep commitment to serving others. Though rooted in different paths and practices, their experiences echo a shared truth—at the heart of every spiritual tradition lies the same call to love, kindness, and inner transformation.
Thoughtfully retold for modern readers, The Wisdom of Indian Saints invites us to look beyond differences and discover the universal principles that connect us all.
The Flipping Adventures of Ninja Nani (Flipbook 1)
WHO’S YO’ GRANNY?
What if your grumpy granny got zapped with superpowers and turned into . . . Ninja Nani?
Deepu is about to find out!
From chasing burglars in the dead of night to figuring out why his friends are turning into zombies, Deepu has one outrageous adventure after another—thanks to his unstoppable Ninja Nani.
Will they save the day? Will they catch some baddies? Will they make it home again?
Packed with action, mischief and madcap humour, this flipbook brings together two Ninja Nani adventures in one double dose of ninja madness!
HIYAAA!
Dara Shukoh
This expansive text on Dara Shukoh (1615-1659), crown prince and eldest son of Shah Jahan, addresses a vacuum in our history. While the great Mughals from Babur to Aurangzeb, have received constant attention, the poet-prince has largely been excised out of public memory and discourse.
A scholar, philosopher, and a patron of the arts, Dara Shukoh was known for his deep interest in mysticism and his efforts to bridge the gap between Hinduism and Islam. However, despite his intellectual prowess and progressive vision, Dara’s life was marked by political turmoil, culminating in his tragic defeat and execution by his brother Aurangzeb.
In this compelling re-examination, Amit Ranjan resurrects Dara’s enduring legacy of syncretism and cosmopolitanism, offering a nuanced portrait of the prince. By exploring the depths of his philosophy and the drama of his downfall, the book ponders a tantalizing counterfactual: What might have been—had Dara, not Aurangzeb, steered the course of history?
Watching Tigers
A View From the Machan
Is natural history a science? Are there scientific ways in which we can give wild animals a better chance of survival? How does conservation actually work? Ullas Karanth has been evolving practical, science-based conservation solutions for over a quarter of a century. He has developed camera-trap sampling techniques that are now employed to monitor predators such as tigers, jaguars, cheetahs, and leopards across the world. His book provides a unique insight into wildlife conservation from the perspective of an internationally renowned tiger biologist.
The Way of the Tiger
The seemingly solitary life of the tiger, and the ferocious intensity of its attacks, are legendary. But sadly, the existence of this massive cat is threatened by human encroachment.
The Way of the Tiger, written by India’s foremost tiger specialist, presents scientific insights and information on the world’s tiger species in a readable text that will appeal to a popular audience.
Women-O-Pause
In Women-O-Pause, Lenaa Kumar invites you into a year of profound transformation. In 2024, she received a sudden wave of social media attention just as her life shifted dramatically through marriage, relocation and an unexpected initiation: perimenopause. Rather than viewing it as a decline, she reframed this transition as ‘Womenescence’—a powerful awakening into the next phase of womanhood.
Amid the whirlwind of public visibility and private change, she refused to accept confusion, discomfort and pharmaceutical dependence. Instead, she turned to extensive research, lifestyle changes and natural healing practices rooted in holistic wellness and ancient traditions.
The result is both a memoir and a guide—a practical yet deeply reflective blueprint for women to help them navigate perimenopause and menopause with greater awareness, agency and vitality. Through personal insight and actionable tools, Women-O-Pause challenges conventional narratives while encouraging women to reconnect with the cyclical intelligence of their bodies.
Featuring insights from professional doctors who offer medical insight and clinical perspectives, this book bridges lived experience with modern science. It ultimately reframes menopause not as a problem to be solved but as a powerful rite of passage.
Penguin Select Classics: The Idiot
Prince Myshkin returns to Russia after years in a Swiss sanatorium, carrying with him a heart untouched by cynicism and a soul defined by compassion. In a society driven by vanity, greed, and quiet cruelty, his innocence appears almost absurd—and dangerously out of place.
Myshkin gets caught in an intense love triangle between the passionate Nastasya Filippovna and the innocent Aglaia marked by obsession, pride, and wounded desire. But Myshkin’s unwavering kindness exposes the duality and layered egos of those around him. In a world that mistakes goodness for weakness, can his purity survive without being destroyed?
The Idiot is a tender exploration of innocence in a broken society; whether true goodness is possible in a flawed world and is empathy a gift or a burden. The novel leaves one reflecting on the cost of compassion and the quiet strength of beauty in a hardened world.
Penguin Select Classics: The Trial
“You do not need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary.”
Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one morning.
Thus begins a haunting descent into a world where logic dissolves and authority remains faceless. Josef K. finds himself accused of a crime that is never explained, trapped within a labyrinthine legal system that offers no clarity, only endless corridors of doubt and humiliation.
As he struggles to defend himself, the question shifts from innocence to identity. What does it mean to be guilty in a world where the rules are unknown? Is the true prison external—or does it lie within the quiet fears and compromises we carry inside?
The Trial is a chilling portrayal of veiled structure of society, it reflects on the alienation and the silent anxiety of existence; especially today. Lingering like a shadow, this novel compels the reader to confront the absurdities of bureaucracy—a reminder of how control over our own lives is an illusion gifted by the modern world.