When Brahma the creator, fed up with humans, wants to undo this mistake and erase them, Hemanga the swan is horrified and pleads with Brahma to give him a chance to prove true love exists among mankind. The little bird, however, is sent to the kingdom of Vidarbha by Narada. That celestial troublemaker says Hemanga should unite Nala, the king of Nishadas, with Damayanti, the princess of Vidharbha.
Damayanti is a feisty beauty who has a mind of her own. She is no damsel in distress and has no need for a prince to rescue her. Nor has Nala any interest in finding love, for he is building a city for his tribe. Besides, he is a tribal king and thinks Damayanti is too above his position.
Hemanga almost succeeds in making them fall in love with each other when Kali hears of his plan. Trapped on earth as he is not the creator of Brahma, he can’t be free unless humans cease to exist. When he learns about Hemanga’s mission to save humans, he seizes his chance. If Damayanti gives up Nala, he can prove that no true love exists in a woman’s heart. Brahma will erase the human race and Kali will be free.
All that stands between the future of humans and the mighty Kali is a little bird and the determination of Damayanti.
Archives: Books
How Business Storytelling Works
Why are you alive today and reading this book?
How will you, a corporate professional, be relevant in the future?
The #1 answer to both is storytelling.
Business storytelling is the #1 skill you need to succeed in your professional lives amidst all the noise, competition and massive technological disruption. In this book, Sandeep looks at human evolution, behavioural psychology and the world of movies to identify the golden principles of storytelling.
Whether you are a corporate professional, an entrepreneur, a tech guru, a marketer, a strategy consultant, a social media influencer or a student, the book tells you how to succeed in the REAL world. Sandeep brings in nuggets from his numerous storytelling workshops at leading corporates and business schools, and intersperses it with illustrations and hordes of popular culture references, making the book
as engaging as a good story. So, what are you waiting for? Head to the checkout counter.
Work 3.0
What will the worker, workplace and work itself look like in the future?
Work 3.0 tackles this and some of the other most pressing and complex questions of the present age, head-on. Avik Chanda and Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay employ rigorous research supplemented with industry reports, business case studies, expert interviews, anecdotes, their personal expertise and insights, to present a rich multi-disciplinary brew that spans economics, statistics, public policy, history, sociology, psychology, law, political science, literature and philosophy. Highly ambitious in scope, astonishingly rich in analytical detail and far-reaching in its conclusions, the book will change the way you think about the future and how the past and present still shape it.
Conceived as the ultimate future of work preparation guide, this book is essential reading for our tenuous and unpredictable times.
The Big Bull of Dalal Street
‘Respect the market. Have an open mind. Know what to stake. Know when to take a loss. Be responsible,’ this is what Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, India’s iconic stock market investor, often used to say.
This book looks at the life of India’s big bull, as Rakesh was famously known, both as a person and as a professional. Providing a fascinating account of his journey, it analyses the records of Jhunjhunwala’s investments and interviews he has given over the years. More than just a biography, a large section of the book is devoted to understanding the stocks that made him rich and the mistakes he made. Looking at the journey of the legendary investor, the book offers retail investors some useful insights—-benefits of long-term investing, mistakes one should avoid in the stock market, risk associated with leveraged trades, among others.
Fruits of the Barren Tree (Phoolange, Shortlisted for Madan Puraskar 2021)
Darjeeling, late 1980s. The demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland has taken a violent turn. The Green Party is at war with the Red Party-and with the state’s security forces. Murder, loot, terror and arson beset the Himalayan foothills.
Fruits of the Barren Tree is a story of that time, and of Relling, a small village near Darjeeling. In Relling there’s Basnet, the village shaman, and his wife; there’s Jhuppay, their son-incorrigible thief, truant and amateur drunk; and also Nimma, Jhuppay’s great love, whose only desire in life is that he take the path of virtue. There’s Chyaatar too, former army man, now a militia commander in the Green Party, who rules the village with an iron hand. Ever the miscreant, nothing Jhuppay does can win Nimma’s heart. But when the Red Party hires his loudspeaker for a meeting-the first innocent, honest job of his life-it sets Jhuppay, Nimma and Chyaatar on a murderous course that fate itself cannot derail.
Originally published in Nepali as Phoolange, this sharp, evocative novel is the story of a failed movement and a cautionary tale of how easily the contagion of violence can infect a community. Intensely visual and imbued with a strong sense of place, it is equally a compelling portrait of Darjeeling away from the brochures and the postcards.
The 99 Day Diversity Challenge
Is it really possible for an individual or an organization to develop an inclusion and diversity mindset within the
proverbial 99 days?
Award-winning social entrepreneur Dr Saundarya Rajesh, one of India’s most prominent diversity strategists who is credited with having ushered in the ‘second-career’ revolution for women professionals, believes it is.
In an engaging, gentle, often light-hearted way, Dr Rajesh demystifies this vast subject of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) for the business leader, the diversity enthusiast and even the young professional who is interested in this topic. Over a set of 99 stories, anecdotes and thought blogs, this book sequentially uncovers the meaning of D&I and how this can be absorbed by just about everyone.
At the core of the 99 Day Diversity Challenge is the belief that the organizational practice of inclusion actually results in us becoming better human beings. For when we break down differences and create greater connectedness between people, we are building a better world.
Girl to Goddess
Girl to Goddess is a book of poetry written by popular Instagram poet Nishi. The poems in the book are deeply personal, touching on universal themes of struggle, pain and healing. Nishi writes candidly about her own struggles with finding happiness, dealing with relationships and the challenges she faced on her journey towards self-acceptance and self-love. She explores the idea of finding the inner divinity, or the goddess within, and how listening to this voice helped her find a sense of peace and purpose. She shares her personal journey of self-discovery and growth.
Through this collection of insightful poems, Nishi takes the reader on a journey of mistakes, failures, fears, lessons, perspectives and realizations about life, love and everything in between. She shares her vulnerabilities and opens up about her deepest emotions. Her words inspire readers to look inwards and embrace their own inner divinity, encouraging them to find their own path towards healing and self-love.
Girl to Goddess is a powerful and moving book of poetry that speaks to the struggles of the human experience and how one surmounts them. Nishi’s writing is a testament to the power of self-reflection and the importance of finding the goddess within, and her words will resonate with readers long after they’ve turned the final page.
Filmi Stories
The eight stories of this collection are about unforeseen terrors and adventures, surreal comedies, the apocalypses and the sublime poetry of everyday life. A disgruntled trucker sets out to kill his rival, ending up as the saviour of migrant workers trapped by a pandemic. A novice jailor breaks the law only to learn that nothing in this world is beyond pardon. A corpse dressed immaculately in a suit is discovered on a beach, the trail of the suspects stretching across continents in casinos and cruise ships. The nude paintings of a dead artist set the stage for a murder in a gallery. Hunt for a terrorist leads to a dangerous game of luring a prey out of its lair using a human bait. A man finds himself as the sole passenger of an airplane flying from one deserted airport to another. An innocent shopkeeper learns the wisdom of the Mahabharata on the verge of losing his innocence.
Written with words and marked by light and shadow, sounds and silence, these tales stalk a bunch of unruly actors performing roles that take on lives of their own.
Dr Mathai’s ABC to Health
How often have you put off eating healthy food, starting those morning walks, hitting the gym or practising yoga because you are feeling well anyway?
The refrain often is-will stop junk food from next week, will begin fitness from the new year or next month, will ensure adequate sleep from tomorrow. Almost always, starting wellness or staying fit is post-dated.
Dr Mathai’s ABC to Good Health tells you why you must not postpone all those good habits of staying healthy and what could happen to you if you ignore your fitness quotient. It tells you why you must not press the panic button only when you fall sick but practise wellness every single day to build a solid immunity and stay away from the common cold, fever and many everyday ailments.
The book gives you simple tips to practise daily wellness by way of eating right, sleeping enough and staying positive at all times. It gives you the health benefits of practising wellness from A to Z, ranging from fruits and nuts to vegetables and even activities that can make you feel like a rock star every single morning when you wake up. It is wellness today and every single day.
Rooh
When Rooh tells Manav in a bar in New York that he ought to go to back home to the hills in Kashmir, he’s suddenly thrown into the loop of his past-a blue door, white walls and a house at the end of a lane. Soon, the seemingly small worlds in which his memories reside coalesce into a giant mass and envelop both his past and present, like dark clouds covering a brilliant blue sky.
Two young boys on the cusp of growing up, the cruelty of being a refugee in their own country, a father who is unable to come to terms with this confusing reality-an undercurrent of pain sweeps through his life. In this stream-of-consciousness novel, the protagonist, Manav, makes a physical and metaphorical journey back to Kashmir and relives the past as a part of the present. Rooh emerges as a deeply touching story of tender but broken people he meets along this journey.