Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, M.S. Subbulakshmi and Jyoti Basu were defined by the epoch they lived in and they, in turn, defined it. Their legacies are part of our lore, not yet of our understanding. Of a Certain Age celebrates twenty such individuals with charming biographical sketches. Gopalkrishna Gandhi illuminates key moments in their lives with personal knowledge, conversations and correspondence. He offers us little-known facts, vivid portrayals of their vulnerabilities and strengths and touches upon the qualities that made them the stuff of legend. In sketches that are sympathetic and frank, intimate and objective, Gopalkrishna Gandhi analyses the public and political trajectories of these figures and explores the events that connect them to the broader horizon of history. Written in elegant and fluid prose, Of a Certain Age provides valuable insights to understanding these remarkable men and women who shaped events in the twentieth century and had a considerable impact on the subcontinent we know today
Archives: Books
Of A Certain Age
I Never Thought I Could Fall In Love
Upworldly Mobile
What should you wear when your American colleague invites you to an informal dinner? What is the correct way to address a business associate you are meeting for the first time? When should you shake hands, and when is the right time to bow or do namaste? How can you manage as an Indian abroad when you are faced with unfamiliar food? What clicks with a German client, and how do you win over a Japanese partner? If you get an important business call in the middle of an equally important meeting, should you take it? Is it possible to be succinct in an email without being curt?
With real-life examples from world leaders that inspire emulation and featuring an easy ‘pick-a-page’ format, Upworldly Mobile is the ideal companion for Indian managers dealing with expatriate colleagues and global workplaces. It is equally useful for foreign managers looking to decode Indian work practices. Drawing on the author’s business interactions with C-level executives of thousands of multinationals across seventy-six nationalities, this book aims to help develop a culturally sensitive outlook that will cement relationships with international counterparts most effectively. Upworldly Mobile tells you everything they don’t teach at business schools-how to hold your own in the global work environment today.
Doa Detective Files
Chief architect of the Taj Mahal, Ustad Ahmed Lahauri has been kidnapped, leaving work on the construction unfinished. Emperor Shah Jahan now has to find a new architect for his dream project. But the ghost of his dead empress, Mumtaz Mahal, is determined not to let any other architect work on her mausoleum. She summons the DOA detectives and commands them to find the missing architect before it’s too late and she’s saddled with as hideous tomb for eternity.
Soon the detectives discover that there is much more to the Ustad’s disappearance than a mere kidnapping. There is a traitor in the imperial court who will stop at nothing till he fulfils his evil designs! Who could it be? Will the detectives be able to stop his wicked plans? Will they be able to ensure that the magnificent Taj Mahal gets built?
When the Time Is Right
Buddhadeva Bose’s greatest novel When the Time Is Right is a grand family saga set in Calcutta during the last two decades of British rule. Of Rajen Mitra’s five lovely daughters; it is the youngest—the beautiful; intelligent Swati—who is the apple of her father’s eye. As she grows from an impetuous; spirited child to a lonely young woman; Swati is witness to the upheavals and joys of the Mitra family even as the country slides towards the promise of independence and the inevitability of war. Anxious to ensure that his daughters find suitable husbands; Rajen-babu realizes it is only a matter of time before his favourite child too must leave home. While the boorish entrepreneur Prabir Majumdar decides that she will make him a fitting wife; Swati finds herself increasingly drawn to Satyen; the young professor who introduces her to a world of books and the heady poetry of Tagore and Coleridge. First published in Bengali as Tithidore in 1949; When the Time Is Right is a moving tale of a family and a nation.
Red Lilies And Frightened Birds
The Secret Diary Of The World’s Worst Cook
Rohin is fifteen and, despite his father’s wishes, wants nothing to do with science in school. But what does he want to do instead?
On vacation at his grandparents’ rambling haveli in Lucknow, he stumbles upon the secret diary of fifteen-year-old Hassan Ali, or Hasnu, reluctant cook’s apprentice, the despair of his father and black sheep in a long line of illustrious chefs to the nawabs of Lucknow. As Rohin reads the story of Hasnu’s doomed culinary career, he decides he has to track down Hasnu and find out what happened to the Bekaar Bawarchi. Did he escape the kitchen? What did he do instead? And how did he tell his father he didn’t want to be a cook?
Rohin’s search unearths some hilarious stories-of spotted eggs; how a famous actress demanded a hot meal; the disappearance of a khandani khazana; of friends and kitchens!
And one day Rohin realizes what it is he wants to do with his own life.
Welcome To Americastan
Samira, a Pakistani-American, returns home to her family in North Carolina after being dumped by her boyfriend of eight years (for her best friend), fired from her job (because she ended up in jail) and finding herself on the FBI’s terror watch list (after trying to run over her ex). But living at home with her somewhat eccentric and almost-dysfunctional family proves to be both tricky and exhausting. Between learning to make aloo kofta curry, entertaining cousins from Pakistan, watching her mother spiking the punch with Captain Morgan rum, nursing her broken heart and having the Pakistani American Council foisted on her by her father, Samira cannot escape situations that are challenging, comical and, quite often, downright bizarre. Welcome to Americastan is a hilarious, delightfully irreverent yet thoughtful look at the Pakistani community in America—the double lives led by the young who debate the significance of animal sacrifice while sipping cocktails; atheists who agree to having a maulvi perform their wedding just to please their parents; and parties with an open bar, but only for the goras! With effervescent humour and wit, Jabeen Akhtar turns every stereotype of Muslim–Americans on its head in this quirky, refreshingly candid debut novel.
The Great Speeches Of Modern India
The Great Speeches of Modern India tells the story of modern India through its speeches. Here are all the classics from Tilak, Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore, Ambedkar, L.K. Advani, Manmohan Singh, Indira Gandhi, and here are also some rare speeches—Satyajit Ray on cinema, Vikram Seth on his school days and Godse’s defence of his assassination of Gandhi. Stimulating, informative, and full of rare gems, The Great Speeches of Modern India is a must on every bookshelf.