Have you been trying to grow plants at home?
Do you want to be able to eat fresh, organic produce and herbs grown in your balcony?
Do you want beautiful plants around your home to add that extra love and warmth to your space?
YouTube sensation Ekta Chaudhary has been teaching gardening to her millions of followers, and for the first time, she is putting it all down in an easy-to-use, fun and simple beginner’s guide to growing plants at home. Rich in information on the amount of light plants need, the kind of soil to use and plants that can thrive indoors and outdoors, with answers to all ‘silly’ questions, Garden Up will gift anyone a green thumb.
Tech entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal has been a lifelong student of human performance optimisation. He has studied the science behind it, and worked closely with high performers across business, sports and entertainment, to understand what it takes to transcend apparent limitations and achieve true potential.
Through his entrepreneurial experience and studying the field of health and fitness, Bansal came to understand the enormous power of plasticity: the ability of the human brain to rewire itself at will as we develop new skills. He also realised that high performers across domains rely on common tools that were embraced by ancient wisdom and are validated by modern science. Knowing that high performance is not a matter of genetics or luck is highly empowering.
No Limits distils Bansal’s findings on talent, deliberate practice, mindset, habit, willpower and learning. It is a guide to maximising one’s potential with well-defined strategies. So, no matter what you do, you can be a superior version of yourself, performing at increasingly better levels, constantly reaching higher.
Out of the box thinking, ruthless pragmatism and an innate ability to understand, define and then redefine the game of cricket are probably the hallmarks of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s cricket. From hitting countless sixes in his school ground in the sleepy town of Ranchi to finishing a run chase with another towering six in a World Cup final against Sri Lanka, Dhoni’s journey is undoubtedly one of the most iconic of our times. Many have tried to decode his mystique, and yet, every account seems to have fallen frustratingly short of capturing the essence of the man.
Instead, in Do Different, we offer diverse perspectives on the man: from a fellow wicketkeeper and competitor reminiscing on Dhoni’s early years; to MSD’s first agent with his perspective on the journey of brand Dhoni; to an international fast bowler who played with MSD since his first-class days and then starred for him in the Indian Premier League.
From the matches and moments that defined Dhoni in the IPL, in international cricket and even off the field, to his life beyond the game of cricket, this is your ultimate MSD book.
Jawaharlal Nehru was Plato’s philosopher king, who ‘discovered’ an India that remains an undiscovered possibility. Nehru and the Spirit of India is a critical and nuanced perusal of his intellectual and political legacy.
From the ‘politics of friendship’ between Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, Nehru’s defense of secularism in the Constituent Assembly Debates, to what propelled Nehru to curb free speech in the First Amendment, Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee draws from political history to illuminate fierce debates in India today: Kashmir, the CAA, and hate speech. Be it contemporary events like the miracle of Ganesha drinking milk and the use of Vedic astrology in Chandrayaan-2, or the agonising suicide of a doctor, the author examines the fractured nature of Indian modernity, which Nehru had suggestively called a ‘garb’. Bhattacharjee bolsters Nehru’s view that India is enriched by the encounter of cultures and that we must not discard the past, but engage with it.
As a second-generation refugee, Bhattacharjee argues for a ‘minoritarian’ approach to national politics. Breaking ideological and disciplinary protocols, he compels us to learn from the insights of poets and thinkers. Lucidly written, this provocative book offers an original perspective on Nehru and Indian history.
He appears out of nowhere in a sleepy little neighbourhood in suburban Kerala. He calls himself Shunya, the zero. Who is he? A lunatic? A dark magician? A fraud? Or an avadhuta, an enlightened soul? Saami-as they call him-settles into a small cottage in the backyard of the local toddy shop. Here he spins parables, blesses, curses, drinks endless glasses of black tea and lives in total freedom. On rare occasions, he plays soul-stirring melodies on his old, bamboo-reed flute. Then, just as mysteriously as he arrived, Shunya vanishes, setting the path for a new avadhuta, a new era. This first novel by Sri M is a meditation on the void which collapses the wall between reality and make-believe, the limited and the infinite. With its spare storytelling and profound wisdom, it leads us into the realm of ‘shunya’, the nothingness of profound and lasting peace, the beginning and end of all things.
Is there a fundamental new catalyst that can significantly enhance access, affordability and quality of products and services to hundreds of millions of Indians? This catalyst is in the form of a new generation of start-up founders who are leveraging technology platforms, smartphone access, and rapid digitization of the Indian consumer. These young founders don’t carry the baggage of the past and are attracted to the opportunity of breaking open the massive market of Middle India-the next 400-500M Indians just below the top of the pyramid. This book is about this new and powerful force of change blowing across India-what it takes to harness this and reshape the destiny of this country.
Ravi Kumar, head of the Central Counterterrorism Command (C3) of the Intelligence Bureau, is haunted by the partial success of Operation Haygreeva. He and his team of young recruits-Mihir, Cyrus and Jose-exposed designs of a hitherto-unknown terrorist outfit, the Lashkar-e-Hind (LeH), responsible for the Mumbai train blasts. But the mission they had staked their lives on remains significantly unfinished.
The LeH’s leader, Tabrez, had managed to escape to Pakistan. Looking to expand the scale of his operations and strike back at India in previously inconceivable ways, Tabraz becomes the lynchpin of a sinister K2 plan of the Pak ISI to leverage different socio-political anxieties and create a vast network of radicalized minds penetrating deep into Indian society, to destabilize the delicate fabric that holds the nation together.
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.
The path to spiritual understanding can be a confusing one. The manic pace of the present age has loosened the threads that tied our ancestors to prayer and faith. But role models could still help us find our way back. In Icons of Grace, respected ISKCON monk Nityanand Charan Das introduces readers to the lives of twenty-one extraordinary people who served as spiritual guides, through their teachings and through personal example.
At one level, the lives of these great souls-from Mirabai and Ramanujacharya to Sant Tukaram and Adi Shankaracharya-are a practical demonstration of the most essential spiritual principles. In relating them, though, Nityanand Charan Das aims not just to record the richness of their cultural and spiritual legacies but also to convey to readers the lessons one can learn through one’s daily actions and choices. Icons of Grace is inspiring. It also offers hope: however imperfect our journey has been thus far, spiritual redemption is accessible to us all.
This gift edition features the greatest mythological stories retold by India’ favourite author Sudha Murty. Filled with innumerable unusual legends of powerful gods and demons, alluring creatures and feisty women, the books in this collection are packed with arresting illustrations, captivating characters and magical worlds to keep every reader hooked. Read these enchanting narratives that will transport you to another time and fill you with a sense of wonder.
- The Serpent’s Revenge: Unusual Tales from the Mahabharata
Extraordinary stories that reintroduce the fascinating world of India’s greatest epic, the Mahabharata.
- The Man from the Egg: Unusual Tales about the Trinity
Unknown myths about the three most powerful gods from the ancient world-Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
- The Upside-Down King: Unusual Tales about Rama and Krishna
Fascinating stories that surround the two most popular avatars of Lord Vishnu-Rama and Krishna-and their lineage.
- The Daughter from a Wishing Tree: Unusual Tales about Women in Mythology
From Parvati to Ashokasundari and Bhamati to Mandodari, this book features fearless women who frequently led wars on behalf of the gods, slew demons and protected their devotees.
- The Sage with Two Horns: Unusual Tales from Mythology
A gem of a collection featuring lesser-known accounts of wit, wisdom and intrigue from Indian mythology.
Columnist, author and political commentator, Aakar Patel has long been a close observer of the political scenario. In Price of the Modi Years, he seeks to explain the data and facts on India’s performance under Narendra Modi.
Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, had once said that Modi would be a disaster as prime minister. This book shows how. It concedes Modi’s popularity; this is an accounting of the damage he has wrought. It is the history of India since 2014, assessing the damage across the polity from the economy, national security, federalism, foreign relations, legislations and the judiciary to media and civil society.
Our memories are not long, news cycles are transient and incidents are forgotten or misclassified as being only episodic, unless documented, unified and placed together as a record. And, therefore, this book-a history of these present times.
