March 2020: Thirty-six-year-old Mallika Rao is largely insulated from the struggles of the millions fighting for their existence all over India. Instead, her Delhi flat and her husband threaten to imprison her as she searches for the confidence that has always eluded her. A rescue dog in her care provides more fulfilment than her husband, who is consumed by work and self-obsession, and she must also confront the universal challenges of having a woman’s body.
Soft Animal unfolds in urgent present tense with illuminating flashbacks, whip-smart dialogue and conspiratorial footnotes. Bringing the deftness of deadpan humour and the precision of meticulous social observation to the self-delusions of India’s privileged urban middle class, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s latest channels an uncomfortably-and sometimes heartbreakingly-intimate experience of millennial marriage that is seldom portrayed but all too real.
‘I am lucky to be up here on this mountain, where the wind still hums in the deodars, the horse chestnuts fall in the autumn and the flycatchers flit among the ancient oaks.’
ALL-TIME FAVOURITE NATURE STORIES is a collection of twenty-five soulful and timeless tales about nature, featuring endearing characters and stunning illustrations.
From ‘The Cherry Tree’ to ‘Grandfather’s Feathered Foes’, each story is replete with a different sensorial experience-rustling leaves, still forests, burbling streams, chirping birds, picturesque landscapes and so much more!
Curated by Ruskin Bond, this book celebrates the magnificence of nature and his deep, abiding love for it.
Despite the dramatic developments in medical science, the health of the population worldwide has largely been on a decline and diseases have been found to be affecting people much earlier in life than before. This, in a large part, is affected by our dietary habits and patterns. My Food, My Health is an extremely accessible manual to healthy eating and healthful living through balanced nutrition, which compiles the wisdom of expert dieticians from the Apollo Group. Geared to cater to everyone-from toddlers and adolescents to mothers-to-be and senior citizens-this guide serves as a ready reckoner for healthcare professionals as well as the common man. It busts the myths and facts about various common diseases that pose serious public health challenges in India at the moment, such as obesity, diabetes, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. Abundant in practical lifestyle changes and easy recipes to help you cook healthy food at home, this book will aid you in understanding and confidently managing your health better, so you can live a happy, healthy life!
There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison:
1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.
But the staff at the prison doesn’t know that Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates.
And they certainly don’t know that Shane was Brooke’s high school sweetheart-the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke’s testimony was what put him there.
But Shane knows.
And he will never forget.
Prepare to embark on an intense psychological journey filled with unpredictable twists and turns in this thrilling novel. Brimming with heart-pumping action and captivating suspense, it is an ideal choice for those who enjoy fast-paced and captivating mysteries.
Whether seeking an escape during a long metro ride or seeking a thrilling weekend read that will keep one on the edge of their seat, this book is certain to satisfy the craving for an adrenaline rush.
Some doors are locked for a reason…
While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.
Until the day the police arrived at their front door.
Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.
Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.
Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.
As long as they don’t look in her basement.
Get ready to experience an exhilarating ride of maddening twists and turns with this intense psychological thriller. Packed with adrenaline-pumping action and gripping suspense, this novel is perfect for readers who love fast-paced and enthralling mysteries.
“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway.
Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like.
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how Andrew, her husband, seems more broken every day.
But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…
I try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon found out…and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
I reassure myself though: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of…
An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!
Haroon Khalid’s lifelong fascination with Guru Nanak was reignited when he came upon ‘Baburbani’, a poem written by the saint. This, and the discovery that Guru Nanak spent a large part of his life in Pakistan, inspired Khalid to undertake a journey that he hoped would help him learn more about the revered founder of Sikhism.
In this wonderful paean to Guru Nanak, Khalid describes his travels across the length and breadth of Pakistan as he visits the many gurdwaras and other locales associated with the saint, delving into their history and musing about their place and significance in a Muslim country. But this book is not merely a story about gurdwaras, it is also a re-telling of the story of Nanak the son, the poet, the wanderer, the father, the friend. Sifting through the stories of his miracles and poetry, we emerge with a picture of Nanak the man.
Also exploring the histories of all the subsequent Gurus after Nanak, the book traces the story of how an unorganized spiritual movement evolved into the institutionalized Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh. Through the journeys of all the Gurus, the book describes how Nanak the poet became Guru Nanak the saint.
In late August of 2011, Shahbaz Taseer was driving to his office in Lahore, Pakistan when he was dragged from his car at gunpoint and kidnapped by a group of Taliban-affiliated terrorists.
Just seven months earlier, his father, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, had been shot dead by his guard for speaking out against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
For almost five years Shahbaz was held captive, moved ever-deeper into the lawless Hindu Kush, frequently tortured and forced to endure extreme cruelty, his fate resting on his kidnappers’ impossible demands and the uneasy alliances between his captors, the Taliban and ISIS.
Lost to the World is the remarkable true story of Taseer’s time in captivity, and of his astonishing escape. It is a story of extraordinary faith, bravery and sorrow, with moments of kindness, humour and empathy, offering a hopeful light in the dark years of his imprisonment.
While deeply harrowing, this tale is also about resilience. Taseer countered his captors’ narrative of a holy war by immersing himself in the Quran in search of hope and a means to see his own humanity under even the most inhumane conditions, and ultimately to find a way back to his family.
There may be up to 10 million Indians living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias, and that number is expected to increase dramatically in the next few decades. What is it like to live with and amid this increasingly prevalent condition-an affliction that some fear more than death? In My Father’s Brain, the distinguished physician and author Sandeep Jauhar sets his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding this disease and how it might best be coped with, if not cured.
In an intimate memoir rich with humour and heartbreak, Jauhar relates how his immigrant father and extended family felt, quarrelled, and found their way through the dissolution of a cherished life. Along the way, he lucidly exposes what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters and explores everything from the history of ancient Greece to the most cutting-edge neurological-and bioethical-research. Throughout, My Father’s Brain confronts the moral and psychological concerns that arise when family members must become caregivers, when children’s and parents’ roles reverse, and when we must accept unforeseen turns in our closest relationships-and in our understanding of what it is to have a self. The result is a work of essential insight into dementia, and into how scientists, caregivers, and all of us in an aging society are reckoning with the fallout.
Triggered by the US-backed Pakistani junta’s brutal measures against the Bengalis, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proclaimed the independence of East Pakistan on 26 March 1971. They needed the world’s support, and India was their first ally.
The Border Security Force (BSF), an elite Indian force, was only five years old at the time and became central to India’s sustained military response in East Pakistan for nine months, until the alliance of Indian and Bangladeshi forces won Dacca. The BSF’s founding chief, K.F. Rustamji, and his men went beyond their charter of policing borders to respond to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises that was unfolding right next door to India. For nine months, till the 1971 India-Pakistan war, they covertly gave support to the forces of resistance, through clandestine missions and black ops deep in East Pakistan, while diplomats and politicians primed the world for the war. They welcomed democratically elected politicians and helped establish them as the government-in-exile, installed a clandestine radio station, triggered the defections of East Pakistani diplomats and foiled the Pakistan Army’s tactical trump card to damage the Indian Air Force bases.
With access to classified records and through exhaustive interviews with surviving veterans, award-winning investigative reporter Ushinor Majumdar has crafted this first comprehensive historical account of the BSF’s role in the Bangladesh liberation war, which changed the course of South Asian history.
