Taslima Nasrin is known for her powerful writing on women’s rights and uncompromising criticism of religious fundamentalism. This defiance on her part had led to the ban on the Bengali original of this book by the Left Front in West Bengal as well as the Government of Bangladesh in 2003. While the West Bengal government lifted the injunction after the ban was struck down by the Calcutta High Court in 2005, Nasrin was eventually driven out of Kolkata and forced to expunge passages from the book, besides facing a four-million-dollar defamation lawsuit. Bold and evocative, Split: A Life opens a window to the experiences and works of one of the bravest writers of our times.
Archives: Books
More than Just Surgery
Awarded the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the OBE, Dr Tehemton Erach Udwadia is widely regarded as the father of laparoscopy in India. From 1951 as a medical student to the present day, he has not only witnessed first-hand the avalanche of surgical progress, but has also seen lives saved as a result of these advances, be it a disposable plastic syringe or a liver transplant.
In this, his memoirs, he painstakingly maps his journey from his student years through residency, research, surgical practice and surgical teaching with a view to sharing the lessons he has learnt. And what they can teach you.
More Than Just Surgery is a warm personal account of people, incidents, mentors, failures and absurdities against the backdrop of surgery. It is also an engrossing historical account through the eyes and hands of someone who has lived through the journey.
Forgiveness Is a Choice
How could you forgive a terrorist?
A month or so before Christmas 2008, Kia Scherr lost her husband and teenage daughter to the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack at the Oberoi. In a second, her life was clouded with grief, and since then, it has been a convoluted journey of resilience and recovery.
In Forgiveness is a Choice, Scherr peels back the many layers of personal bereavement. She moves beyond the incident, focusing on the reality of dealing with sorrow that rears its ugly heads in myriad forms. Never mawkish, her writing offers everyday advice on how to meander grief-laden experiences. A tender and understanding guide on getting a grip and taking life one day at a time.
The Girl in the Glass Case
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Simone Singh is a feisty IPS officer who would rather spend her days locking up criminals than apologizing for her lack of social skills. Freshly back from an unjust suspension, Simone is forced to team up with DSP Zoya Bharucha, an empathetic officer who’s as loved in the police force as Simone is shunned.
Tasked with hunting the Doll Maker-who dresses up her victims as pretty Barbie dolls and displays them in glass cases-both must set aside their differences and work together as one team. But Simone and Zoya know that time is running out to piece together the clues as the Doll Maker has made it clear that she has just begun.
Riveting and relentlessly paced, The Girl in the Glass Case is a jaw-dropping, psychological crime thriller that will keep you guessing till the last page.
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‘Full of intriguing characters and sharp plot twists. A typical thriller makes you break into instant sweat and feel stalked. Sardana’s, for a change, makes you pause and mull over life’s gains and losses.’ The Hindu
The Art of Bitfulness
Digital is inevitable. Disconnecting is impractical.
The Art of Bitfulness is a book on how to live with our devices, not how to live without them.
What is Bitfulness?
Bitfulness is being effortlessly mindful of your technology.
In this short, practical book, Nandan Nilekani and Tanuj Bhojwani describe a framework to tune out the overwhelming noise of the internet. They empower you with tools to take back your time, attention and privacy from those who want to capture and sell it. They reveal their own personal systems, and how they stay on top of a constant flow of information. This book doesn’t believe our excessive screen time usage is a personal failing. The internet creates winner-take-all market conditions, which in turn create an attentional race to the bottom. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The book covers how we, as a collective, can take back control of our future. The authors even analyse the promise of web3 & cryptocurrencies to see where that alternative will take us.
The reason to read this book is simple: If you don’t design your technology around your life, someone else will design your life around their technology.
‘Unlike many other books written about this toxic relationship, however, this one is by two people who love technology very much and are fascinated by its power to do good-and yet, are cognizant of the ways in which technology can overwhelm us.’
Shrabonti Bagchi, HT Mint
Adam (KERALA SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARD-WINNING BOOK)
AN AWARD-WINNING SHORT STORY COLLECTION BY THE WINNER OF THE JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
‘S. Hareesh, in these astonishing stories, takes an honest joy in human villainy’ ANJUM HASAN
‘An inspired translation of a brilliant constellation of stories’ NAMITA GOKHALE
‘A gloriously tangled web of lives that intersect in hilariously unsavoury, yet always human, ways’ JANICE PARIAT
Four Belgian Malinois puppies, raised by an ex-serviceman, who end up in four different life situations; two men who play a game made out of death notices clipped from newspapers; a man who exploits his friend’s disability to satisfy his own bestial needs; a government employee who is intoxicated by the taste of wild meat and sinks deeper and deeper into the toxic world of hunting; two buffaloes who break away from their butcher, leading an entire village to chase after them; an old man who rejoices in the death of a sworn enemy who was once his friend.
S. Hareesh’s Adam explores the more difficult of human emotions-lust, anger, jealousy, vengeance and greed. Translated from the Malayalam, the collection presents nine unusual stories about ordinary people, their passions and their diverse destinies in a world where humans, animals and nature collide. Hareesh’s unique style of storytelling, which mixes astute social observation with an irreverent and sarcastic tone, makes these stories invigorating, and pushes the craft of the short story to new and refreshing realms.
India’s Most Fearless 2
Untold accounts of the biggest recent anti-terror operations
First-hand reports of the most riveting anti-terror encounters in the wake of the 2016 surgical strikes, the men who hunted terrorists in a magical Kashmir forest where day turns to night, a pair of young Navy men who gave their all to save their entire submarine crew, the Air Force commando who wouldn’t sleep until he had avenged his buddies, the tax babu who found his soul in a terrifying Special Forces assault on Pakistani terrorists, and many more.
Their own stories, in their own words. Or of those who were with them in their final moments.
The highly anticipated sequel to India’s Most Fearless brings you fourteen more stories of astonishing fearlessness,and gets you closer than ever before to the personal braverythat Indian military men display in the line of duty.
New Book
Born on the same day and at the same time, Druvan and Anvesha know they are soulmates in every sense of the word. Their parents, however, refuse to accept their ‘togetherness’ at first and try to tear them apart. Druvan and Anvesha hold on to each other against all odds.
In the same timeline, the world is on the brink of a major scientific breakthrough that could make reincarnation possible.
This is an opportunity for the two to prove their love and to tell the world that it is love that can make the impossible, possible.
Druvan and Anvesha participate in the experiment as if their life depends on it, because it does. Will the dream of a man to control love and life come true? And when the time comes, can one stay true to their soulmate?
Verses for the Brave
Written originally in Sanskrit, Yoga-Vasistha is a long philosophical poem in the tradition of the Bhagavad Gita, full of stories on superhuman feats and supernatural events. Attributed to Valmiki, the verses are in the form of a series of conversations between the sixteen-year-old Rama and the celebrated guru of his family, Vasistha. Verses for the Brave is a selection of 218 verses from the Yoga-Vasistha, ones that reflect upon the world and life, emphasizing the need for balance between involvement in worldly affairs and the motivation to attain liberation. A gorgeous rendition of a significant companion to the Ramayana, it offers the heroes of now a philosophy of the past.
#KindnessMatters
50 transformative acts of kindness.
For the self. For others. For nature.
Aimed at mobilizing the world’s youth to create a positive culture of kindness, the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) launched the #KindnessMatters global campaign to gather proof that kindness could drive scalable, positive and sustainable change. In the process, they were met with narratives so deeply moving, it confirmed what they knew all along-that kindness wasn’t defined by lofty tales; it had always existed all around us, what we needed was to celebrate it in every moment of life because #KindnessMatters every day. Inspiring and thought-provoking, #KindnessMatters documents stories and poems of kindness from across the world, featuring voices and journeys of people who have dedicated their lives to making the world a kinder place. This book proves that small actions often have the biggest impact.