A sweeping saga of ancient india
Return of the Aryans tells the epic story of the Aryans – a gripping tale of kings and poets, seers and gods, battles and romance and the rise and fall of civilizations. In a remarkable feat of the imagination, Bhagwan S. Gidwani takes us back to the dawn of mankind (8000 BC) to recreate the world of the Aryans. He tells us why the Aryans left India, their native land, for foreign shores and shows us their triumphal return to their homeland…
Vast and absorbing, the novel tells the stories of characters like the gentle god, Sindhu Putra, spreading his message of love; the physician sage Dhanawantar and his wife Dhanawantari; peaceloving Kashi after whom the holy city of Varanasi is named; and Nila who gave her name to the river Nile…
Richly textured and with a cast of thousands, the epic adventure of the Aryans come gloriously alive in the hands of the bestselling author of The Sword of Tipu Sultan.
A compelling tale of mystery, passion and spiritual exploration seventy-year-old Shastri; A reciter of Harikatha, encounters an Ayyappa pilgrim on a train. Around the pilgrim’s neck is a Sri chakra amulet which looks like one that belonged to Saroja, Shastri’s first wife. But Shastri thought he had killed Saroja years before, believing she was pregnant by another man. If the amulet is Saroja’s, then she might have survived, and the pilgrim (Dinakar, a television star) could be Shastri’s son. A similar story is revealed when Dinakar visits his old friend Narayan: either could be the father of Prasad, A young man destined for spiritual attainment. The interwoven lives of three generations play out variations on the same themes. Whose son am I? Whose father am I? Where are my roots? These mysteries of the past and present are explored, but there are no clear answers. And while significant in daily being , such questions lose urgency in the flux of becoming (Bhava means both being and becoming). So we are led to consider that Samsara-the world of illusion and embodiment-may not be very different from Sunya , the emptiness from which everything arises. At times a drama of cruelty and lust, at times a lyrical meditation on love and transformation, Bhava is an exceptional novel by one of India’s most celebrated writers. Translated from the Kannada by Judith Kroll with the author.
Poet, novelist, painter and musician Rabindranath Tagore created the modern short story in India. Written in the 1890s, during a period of relative isolation, his best stories—included in this selection—recreate vivid images of life and landscapes. They depict the human condition in its many forms: innocence and childhood; love and loss; the city and the village; the natural and the supernatural. Tagore is India’s great Romantic. These stories reflect his profoundly modern, original vision. Translated and introduced by William Radice, this edition includes selected letters, bibliographical notes and a glossary.
An entertaining, intimate and deeply moving portrait of the legendary industrialist. For six decades J.R.D. Tata headed India’s largest industrial conglomerate with uncommon success. This was only one aspect of his life. He was also a man of great sensitivity who suffered at the loss of friends and was pained by the poverty he saw around him: a philanthropist who wanted India to be -a happy country’ and did all that he could to make it so: a man with a passion for literature, fast cars, skiing and, of course, flying. This book, by the author of the best-selling The Last Blue Mountain, records JRD’s thoughts on a variety of subjects. In these pages he speaks of the House of Tatas and his style of management, about how he nearly joined the freedom struggle in the early 1940s, about the -thrill of living a little dangerously’, his love of music and wine, and the writers he likes to read. He speaks also, with striking candour and insight, about the failures of socialism, the future of India and his association with stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru. Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabbhai Patel, Indira Gandhi and Henry Kissinger. Towards the end of the book, in the final year of his life, we see him come to terms with death, God and the afterlife.
The new novel from the bestselling author of That Long Silence The narrator in The Binding Vine is the clever, sharp-tongued Urmi, grieving over the death of her baby daughter and surrounded by, but rebuffing, the care of her mother and her childhood friend, Vanaa. Instead, she becomes caught up in the discovery of her long-dead mother-in-law’s poetry, written when she was a young woman subjected to rape in her marriage; and in Kalpana, a young woman hanging between life and death in a hospital ward, also the victim of rape. Yet, in this web of loss and despair are the glimmerings of hope. Shashi Deshpande explores with acuity and compassion the redemptive powers of love.
REVISED AND UPDATED WITH A NEW FOREWORD
A classic biography of one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our times
In 1909, when he was just fourteen, Krishnamurti was proclaimed the world teacher in whom Maitreya, the Bodhisattva of compassion, would manifest. The proclamation was made by Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society, a movement that combined Western occult philosophy with Buddhist and Hindu teachings. Besant trained Krishnamurti in his role as the chosen one but twenty years later he chose to disband the order he was head of and set out alone on his endless journey.
As a contemporary of Krishnamurti and one of his closest associates, Pupul Jayakar offers an insider’s view of the fascinating life and thought of an extraordinary individual.
Lush and beautiful, Cinnamon Gardens is a story of intertwined lives in the gracious world of Ceylon in the 1920s In a novel of exceptional achievement, Shyam Selvadurai evokes the life of the upper classes of Colombo’s wealthy suburb, Cinnamon Gardens, at a time when the power of colonial rule in the country is shifting. It tells the story of Annalukshmi, a young schoolteacher, who finds herself caught between her family’s pressures to marry and her own desire for a more independent life; a life she sees reflected in her mentor, Miss Lawton, a progressive headmistress. She comes to realize that this life is fraught with complexities and danger and with rules that cannot be broken. There is also Balendran, the obedient son of a domineering patriarch, whose story is brilliantly counterpointed with that of his niece Annalukshmi’s. He leads a comfortable existence with his wife Sonia till he learns that Richard Howland is to arrive in Colombo. This uneasy reunion with a lover from the past throws Balendran into turmoil and re-ignites tensions with his father. As the narrative unfolds and deepens a varied cast of characters emerge, including Louisa, Annalukshmi’s mother who, in the face of a failed marriage, struggles to raise her daughters alone; Arul, Balendran’s exiled brother; and the delightfully high-strung and meddlesome Philomena Barnett. Selvadurai’s sensual descriptions and keen insights take us behind the fragrant gardens and polished surfaces to reveal a world of splintered families, conflicted passions and lives destroyed by class hatred. With this novel, the author confirms his earlier promise as one of Sri Lanka’s most distinctive and talented new voices.
A selection of the most enjoyable and popular short stories from India. Best Loved Indian Stories brings together tales from different parts of the country that have enthralled readers of all ages. This volume, the first of two, represents the best English stories written by Indians in the twentieth century. In these twenty stories you will meet unforgettable characters like the inimitable Muni with his two goats in R.K. Narayan’s classic ‘A Horse and Two Goats’, the pious Vishnu in Khushwant Singh’s ‘The Mark of Vishnu’, the innocent basket-seller with the enchanting eyes in Ruskin Bond’s unforgettable ‘Night Train at Deoli’, the dying grandmother with her eccentric demands in Githa Hariharan’s ‘Remains of the Feast’ and many other men and women who have touched our lives over the generations. The authors included in this volume are: Anjana Appachana Anita Desai Attia Hosain Bharati Mukherjee Githa Hariharan K.A. Abbas Keki N. Daruwalla Khushwant Singh Manjula Padmanabhan Manoj Das Manohar Malgonkar Mulk Raj Anand Nayantara Sahgal Nergis Dalai Padma Hejrnadi R.K. Narayan Raja Rao Ruskin Bond Santha Rarna Rau Shashi Deshpande.
Colombo is in the throes of an explosion. Its face changes continuously, its vices are legion, its future as yet obscure and its paths speak of sunlight as well as of shadow.-‘ Carl Muller begins his quasi-fictional portrait of this beautiful, war-torn city by describing the great battles fought over it by European colonizers-. In AD 1505, a Portuguese fleet blown off-course took shelter in Galle, overthrew the local kings, fortified Colombo and decided to stay. The Dutch came along, ousted the Portuguese, made Colombo their capital and ruled till the British arrived and sent them packing. Muller intersperses the tales of the past into descriptions of the battles that are being fought in Colombo today”political battles in which vested interests play a major role as well as battles fought on the individual level in the struggle to survive: young women and children turning to prostitution to earn an extra buck, people begging in the streets to make ends meet, unemployed young men turning to crime in frustration, students demonstrating against atrocities, lovers pining for nightfall in order to push away loneliness if only for a few moments… Written in Muller’s lucid style, Colombo: A Novel is a chronicle of a city’s trials and triumphs.
The Calcutta Cookbook Is Much More Than A Cookery Book&Mdash;It Is A Culinary Chronicle Of Travellers And Traders Who Built The City That Job Charnock Founded.
Calcutta ‘S Chronicle Began On A Hot, Wet August Afternoon In 1690 When A Hungry Charnock Climbed Off His Ship On To The Steps Of A Muddy Ghat. The River Was Hooghly And The Place Sutanati&Hellip; The Story Of Calcutta Is Told By Three Food Lovers&Mdash;The Late Gourmet Chef And Author Of Bangla Ranna, Minakshi Das Gupta, And Feature Writers Bunny Gupta And Jaya Chaliah&Mdash;Who Have Collected Recipes From All Over The World. Many Of These Are Family Secrets Of Calcuttans Who Have Recreated Armenian, Jewish, Arabian, European, Chinese And Tibetan Dishes With Distinct Calcutta Flavour. Through Over Two Hundred Tried And Tested Recipes Ranging From The Delicious Bengali Chingri Maacher Malai Curry To The Biryani And Kebabs Of Kabul, And The Temperado, Vindaloo And Sorpotel Of Goa, Calcutta Unfolds As A Gourmet&Rsquo;S Paradise
