‘Integrity and character matter. Without them, no amount of ability can get you anywhere. In addition, you need courage–courage to make difficult decisions and courage to oppose something if your conscience tells you that you are right’–Rahul Bajaj
Rahul Bajaj is a billionaire businessman, the chairman emeritus of the Bajaj Group and a former member of Parliament. This book is not just the story of Rahul Bajaj but the story of India. The author takes us through the country’s transformation from the time Rahul Bajaj’s mother was imprisoned during the freedom struggle to the prism of his eventful life.
Based on unrestricted interviews, the book is full of anecdotes, business learnings and political asides. It is, at its core, a moving human story.
Archives: Books
Whitaker’s World of Facts
Play With Me
Sid is a successful photographer in a boutique ad agency. He is single and has everything he wants-a great job, great colleagues and a hassle-free life. But if there is one thing that has eluded him, it is love. Until the gorgeous, free-spirited Cara walks into his life. The two begin a charged affair that disrupts all his notions of love and transforms the way Sid thinks about pleasure. But then something strange happens-Sid finds himself falling in love with another woman.
Master On Masters
Veteran musician and sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan writes a deeply personal book about the lives and times of some of the greatest icons of Indian classical music. Having known these stalwarts personally, he recalls anecdotes and details about their individual musical styles, bringing them alive.
Twelve eminent musicians of the twentieth century appear in the book – Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, Begum Akhtar, Alla Rakha, Kesarbai Kerkar, Kumar Gandharva, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Bhimsen Joshi, Bismillah Khan, Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan and Kishan Maharaj. In writing about them, Amjad Ali Khan transcends the Gharana and north-south divide, and presents portraits of these great artists that are drawn with affection, humour and warmth.
Sheena Bora
Who killed Sheena Bora?
What led to her disappearance and gruesome murder?
When the partially burnt body parts of a young woman are discovered on the outskirts of Mumbai and her mother arrested as a suspect, the country is taken by storm. A rich boyfriend, an unnoticed brother, stepfathers, a farfetched tale, socialites and media barons-all tumble out of the woodwork like badly kept secrets. Sachin Waze provides insights into the relationship between Indrani and Sheena, the murky world of media czars, the high stakes in police investigations and the goings-on that led to the murder.
Based on court documents, police chargesheets and interviews, Sheena Bora is the first-ever comprehensive account of the gruesome murder that became a national obsession and shook us to the core.
Grey Pigeon and Other Stories
‘Each story in this collection illuminates a particular universe, completely authentic in texture and detail, giving us writing that is not only pleasurable, but finely-crafted as well’-Indian Review of Books
In ‘A New Year’s Party’, Geoffrey finds all his attempts to throw a successful party come to naught as his inappropriately chose guests make their dislike for each other very vocal; the wonderful camaraderie that can exist between a four-year-old and his ancient Nana is explored in ‘Song of Innocence and Experience’; two men’s lives follow a similar pattern in ‘A Diagnosis of Destiny’-and then one of them dies to the other’s horror; in ‘The Taste of Almonds’, a senile but endearing Nawab finds himself at odds with the changed times.
As each exquisite story unfolds we are introduced to characters as varied and colourful as the parts of India to which they belong.
Winter Companions and Other Stories
How do villagers respond to pornography?
Not very differently from their big-city cousins, we discover in the wonderfully comic ‘Chandu and the Bissyaar’, one of eighteen evocative stories in Neelum Saran Gour’s third book of fiction. The making and unmaking of a poet is described in ‘A Lane in Lucknow’; two old men find solace in ‘Winter Companions’; and a nurse examines the quality of her faith in ‘The Knitting Needle’.
In a vivid kaleidoscope of provincial bazaars, claustrophobic bedrooms, cemeteries, courtyards, hospital corridors, park benches and railway compartments, we are introduced to varied and colourful characters forging unexpected emotional bonds with friends, lovers, strangers and kin, tangled in the skeins of dreams, deceptions, anxieties, lusts and joys.
Growing Up Gay in the 90s
It was the best and brightest of times . . .
You’d think a Bombay teen’s life in the early 90s would be the usual sunshine and rain. But when this regular teenager realizes he’s gay, things suddenly get interesting.
Pop culture and its massive influence on a young gay boy lie at the core of this memoir. Bear witness to his transition to adulthood as he traverses a big, burgeoning city and the gay scene slowly blooming at its fringes.
Jeevan Ke 50 Mahatwapoorna Sawaal
Jeewan ke 50 Mahatwapoorn Sawal invites people to have a conversation about themselves withthemselves. Deepak Ramola’s quest began after he was inspired by a life lesson from a young girl who said, ‘Life is not about giving easy answers, but answering tough questions.’ Over the years, Ramola has amassed life lessons from a range of inspirational sources across the world: from the women of the Maasai tribe in Africa and young girls in Afghanistan to sex workers
in Kamathipura, Mumbai; from earthquake survivors in Nepal to Syrian refugees in Europe, among many more. This book is a collection of fifty questions thatmade him pause, along with a bouquet of answers,anecdotes, stories and notes from his journey ofteaching human wisdom for a decade. Strikinglyfresh, tender, yet searing, these questions will makeyou reflect and inspire you to push your boundaries.
Annus Horribilis
A STANDOUT DEBUT COLLECTION OF POETRY
Annus Horribilis is concerned with the violence of thinking, alone. The voices in these poems move through relationships, family, friendship, external disintegration, the labour of loving, being loved and of caring, where they are constantly confronted with the familiar turning foreign, the quotidian becoming a scene of absolute hostility, and where a word otherwise spoken easily becomes incommunicable. The book grapples with a (habitually futile) desire to communicate what should only be communicable-looking for some friend in language-that won’t lead to misunderstanding or, worse, silence. It searches for a language in which thought might survive and perhaps even reach out towards others.