Born into a conservative family in a provincial town in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla dreamt of the stars. And through sheer hard work, indomitable intelligence and immense faith in herself, she became the first PBI – Indian woman to travel to space, and even more remarkably, to travel twice.
In this well-researched biography, journalist Anil Padmanabhan talks to people who knew her— family and friends at Karnal, and colleagues at NASA—to produce a moving portrait of a woman whose life was a shining affirmation that if you have a dream, no matter how hard it is, you can achieve it.
A mysterious incident in Nepal. A dead body on the beaches of Puri. A murder in an abandoned house… The search for a valuable scroll leads Feluda and his friends to a strange case of characters, and perhaps the most chilling case Feluda has ever been faced with. For among D.G.Sen, the collector of scrolls, his son Mahim, his secretary Nishit, the wildlife photographer Bilas Majumdar and the astrologer Laxman Bhattacharya, there is a cold-blooded criminal, and he must be stopped before it is too late… Feluda’s twelve greatest adventures are now available in special Puffin editions. This is the eleventh book in the series.
A deserted temple. The death of a patriarch. An escaped tiger… An incident near the desolate Chinnamasta temple on the rocky riverbank of Rajrappa leads to the death of Mahesh Chowdhury, the head of a Hazaribagh family. Adding to the mystery are a set of coded diaries, a valuable stamp collection that is missing, and a tiger that is roaming the streets of Hazaribagh. One of Feluda’s most intriguing adventures, this shows the master sleuth at his best.
Muhammad is the Prophet; the messenger of God. But for the vast majority of people outside the Islamic faith; he remains a mystery; and myths and misconceptions about him abound.
Born in a time of moral despondency and despair; Muhammad spent his entire life trying to transcend human pettiness; searching for absolute values; the meaning of life and what it meant to be a human being. The Book of Muhammad recounts this journey-Muhammad’s early struggles to bring his message to the people in Mecca; the Revelation; his flight to Medina and the establishment of Islam and an ideal city-state there; and his triumphant return to Mecca. Mehru Jaffer’s own search to understand the teachings of Islam inform this lucid yet profound retelling of the life of one of the most mesmerizing figures to walk this earth; thereby making his teachings and spiritual significance accessible to all.
In this short biography; Mehru Jaffer presents Muhammad as an extraordinary prophet and leader; a man of God who succeeded in uniting all of Arabia through his new faith and exerted enormous influence over centuries of human history. In her detailed introduction to the book she also examines why the fundamental tenet of his teachings-that to be a good human being is to be kind; compassionate and charitable-is particularly relevant in our troubled times today.
A maneater in the jungles of the Terai. An ancient riddle. The lure of hidden treasure … Visiting the famous hunter and wildlife writer Mahitosh Sinha-Roy in his Jalpaiguri palace, Feluda is presented with a riddle that holds the clue to ancestral treasure. But before he can begin unravelling the puzzle, Mr Sinha-Roy’s secretary is found dead in the forest, his body savaged by a big cat. Feluda’s investigations lead him deeper and deeper into a scandalous family secret, and bring him face to face with a bloodthirsty Royal Bengal tiger in a final confrontation.
Fairy tales with a difference India’s greatest poet of modern times, Nobel Prize-winning author Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher, a visionary and a storyteller par excellence. His short, lyrical prose fables, set in a generic fairyland or in everyday locales, are philosophical excursions across magical landscapes that speak to the imaginative child in every reader. The pages of The Prince and Other Modern Fables are full of insightful little stories that reveal the simple truth about life. There is the story of a little boy who has lost his mother, of a tribal girl who is mistaken for a fairy, of a jester who watches a king fight his battles from the sidelines, of a young man who tries to come to terms with his first heartache, and of a modern-day prince who is trying to eke out a living in the unforgiving city. Asking questions that we usually don’t stop to ask ourselves, and often coming up with answers that are surprising in their simplicity, every story sparkles with insights on the human condition, and remains etched in the mind long afterwards. Now available in a lucid and vibrant translation, this classic collection is sure to enchant modern readers who might never have encountered it before.
A pup with ESP, a benign elephant, a kidnap and a Secret Service led by the famous Rani of Bandalbaaz!
This swift and racy tale of the adventures of Jaldi, a railway puppy with special powers, is set against the backdrop of Bombay’s notorious underPBI – World.
Recruited for the Secret Service by the elegant and ferocious Rani, Jaldi must use her powers to find JP and BB, the evil duo who want to destroy the historic friendship between the proud Bombay Strays and the humans who share their city.
Can Jaldi outwit the killers and the crafty TickTock? With her Uncle Musafir, King Ilango the Elephant, and other assorted friends, Jaldi plunges headlong into mayhem and adventure!
Knowledge ahead, knowledge behind,
knowledge to the left and right.
The knowledge that knows what knowledge is:
that’s the knowledge that’s mine.
-Bijak, sakhi 188
One of India’s greatest mystics, Kabir (1398-1448) was also a satirist and philosopher, a poet of timeless wit and wisdom. Equally immersed in theology and social thought, music and politics, his songs have won devoted followers from every walk of life through the past five centuries. He was a Muslim by name, but his ideas stand at the intersection of Hinduism and Islam, Bhakti and Yoga, religion and secularism. And his words were always marked by rhetorical boldness and conceptual subtlety.
This book offers Vinay Dharwadker’s sparkling new translations of one hundred poems, drawing for the first time on major sources in half a dozen literary languages. They closely mimic the structure, voice and style of the originals, revealing Kabir’s multiple facets in historical and cultural contexts. Finely balancing simplicity and complexity, this selection opens up new forms of imagination and experience for discerning readers around the world.
Buddha Shakyamuni tells us that a practitioner should think in terms of eons, not just days and hours. From a Buddhist viewpoint, life has no beginning. What we do have is the desire to overcome suffering. But desire alone is not enough to achieve the goal. What we need is the correct method to help us achieve this aim.’— His Holiness the Dalai Lama So compelling is the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama that it loses none of its sheen with a retelling. Impelled by a desire to deal with the sorrows of human existence, he renounces the world when barely twenty-nine and finds Buddhism. Giving Buddha’s spiritual journey a contemporary dimension, this anthology contains essays by spiritual leaders like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe on the impact of Buddhist philosophy on them. Equally poignant are the accounts of others who, dissatisfied with the present world, embark on a search for salvation. Urged by a seemingly simple notion, Donna Brown starts her quest to find a really ‘good’ person; a journey which takes her from the heart of Canada to Nepal’s remote Kopan monastery. An inexplicable restlessness takes Robina Courtin from dabbling in drugs, political activism and martial arts to finding truth as a Buddhist nun. Though born into a Sikh family, Dharmakirti grows up in Sikkim amidst Buddhist monasteries, maroon-robed monks and monastic rituals, and eventually chooses the philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism over science. For Kabir Saxena, Buddhism offers a practical path in this broken, imperfect world. Varied and meaningful, The Path of the Buddha provides a rare glimpse into Buddhism.
There is always, if not exactly a ‘happily ever after’, at least an ‘afterwards’ to every story — When Rahul Tiwari arrives in Kerala for a short break from London, he has no premonition of a life-changing moment. But one glance over the fence at his lovely but reticent neighbour Maya is enough to launch him on a path of no return. He finds himself playing friend, partner, co-conspirator, and finally the entirely unexpected role of saviour as Maya, suffocating under the weight of a loveless marriage and a suspicious husband, turns to him for help. Together, they flee India with Maya’s one-year-old daughter Anjali and life seems to hold all the promise of a new beginning, until destiny strikes — With characteristic ease and insight, Jaishree Misra writes in her new novel of the transforming power of love and of the joy and heartbreak of giving yourself to another, for better or for worse.
