As the Second World War draws to a close, George Clark finds himselfbeginning his regimental life with the British Army in the remote outpost ofBajapur. Battle-worn and broken-hearted, he is soon caught in a periloustangle. Intelligence officer James Ruffington wants George to spy onlocal nationalist activists in order to please the paranoid and communistobsessedCaptain Dennis Porter. For this, George must not only betrayhis close friend Deborah Sunderland but also use Anna Benson, his newlove, to infiltrate the local Congress networks.
Set amidst the political unrest of 1940s’ India, The Communist Cookbookis an enthralling story of espionage and divided loyalties.
Archives: Books
Kiss the Lines
The President Is Coming
It’s 2006 and George Bush is about to come to India on state visit. As part of his tour, armed with the knowledge that 70 per cent of India is below thirty, he asks to meet one young Indian achiever who represents the new face of the nation.
The US consulate shortlists India Today’s six ‘top Indian achievers under thirty. They are a stockbroking genius, unfortunately named Kapil Dev, a possibly lesbian novelist, the CEO of a lipstick company, a not-for-profit activist with sexist views, a call center owner who once lived in America, and a Microsoft programmer who likes the ladies.
The winner will be selected through a round of tests, each more absurd than the other. The next day, the President will shake their hand among a long line of waiting Indian luminaries. And all six candidates are desperate to win—some are even prepared to sell their soul for it. Who will come out first?
Smart, slick, and sarcastic, The President is Coming is a searing comedy that captures the pulse of the nation like no other book has.
The Painter
On April 29, 1848, in a small estate in Travancore, was born a boy destined to become more famous than the ruler of his kingdom. His uncle, noticing his precocious talent at art, took the teenager to the royal court at the invitation of the king to learn painting there. Ravi Varma’s debut was to come seven years later when a Danish painter arrived in court to paint the Maharaja and his wife. The twenty-year-old boldly upstaged the experienced artist, presenting the king with a more flattering painting of the royal couple at the same time as the official portrait was unveiled.
Jensen, the painter, never forgave Ravi Varma, but for the young man there was no looking back. His reputation grew with each painting. For the first time, an Indian artist was using the realism and sensuality of the European oil painters and applying them to not just ordinary Indians, but to the deities as well. The artist-prince became India’s first celebrity painter. The lines to see his exhibition of mythological paintings in Bombay in 1890—the first public showing by any Indian artist—were endless; the prices he commanded were astronomical; then, when he started his own printing press, producing oleographs of his work, Raja Ravi Varma became a household name. Soon, every home had a Ravi Varma print.
For the first time, comes a beautifully told, gripping account of Ravi Varma: the man who was the darling of the royal courts, but who hardly gave his own wife and children any time; the nobleman who took the revolutionary step of being an artist, yet who insisted on using the false title of raja; and the idealistic entrepreneur who bankrupted himself running a printing press, yet whose dream of bringing art to the masses became a reality. Blending fact with imagination, writing with wit and lyricism, Deepanjana Pal takes you into the life of an extraordinary man and brings him vividly alive.
The House Of Fear
To the world Imran may appear to be a rich, handsome buffoon with his sports car, eccentric dress sense and bizarre sense of humour—but in reality he possesses a razor-sharp mind, and the agility, strength and quick wits of the perfect spy. His colleagues at the secret service make fun of him, but little do they know that he is their mastermind chief X2—a man who can defeat any enemy and solve all mysteries. Detective Imran is spy-novelist Ibn-e Safi’s greatest creation and the bestselling Imran series are Urdu cult classics, translated into English for the first time.
The House of Fear: Dead bodies have been found in an abandoned house, each bearing three identical dagger marks, exactly five inches apart. Who is behind these eerie murders? Only Imran can solve this mystery. The House of Fear is the first book in the Imran series.
Shootout at the Rocks: Colonel Zargham knows he is in grave danger when he receives a three-inch wooden monkey in the mail. This is no ordinary threat, but a warning from the two-hundred-years-old Li Yu Ka, one of the world’s deadliest gangs. The monkey will be followed by a wooden snake, and then a wooden rooster, after which the colonel will be swiftly murdered. Only one man stands between Li Yu Ka and his death: genius sleuth, Ali Imran.
The Adventure Of The Missing Dancing Girl
The year is 2500 BC: four high-spirited girls and boys—Kartik, Xerxes, Namami, and Kaveri—have set off from their home in Anantpur for the auspicious Surya Mela in Lothal, a port town in Meluhha (Bharat). But on the way a daring robbery takes place—sacred treasures are stolen from Mohenjo-daro’s temple, including the famous dancing girl statue—and soon, they are caught up in its coils. Then in the city, they meet thirteen year old Amu Darya—a boy from faraway Mesopotamia, a world utterly different from theirs. He is in search of his missing father, last seen in this part of the Indus Valley. The five become fast friends, and band together when they become entangled with forces much darker than they expected. Will the fearless fivesome succeed in foiling evil plans and upholding the honour of Mohenjo-daro?
An amazing tale full of white parrots, elephant rides, river caravans, and secret maps, The Adventure of the Missing Dancing Girl is a glorious children’s story set in the time of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Quarantine
Last week during one of our marathon telephone conversations my mother asked me which one of us, me or Frank, was the woman in our relationship. ‘Neither of us, obviously,’ I said. ‘That’s what makes us gay.’ ‘Very funny,’ my mom said. ‘Someone on Oprah said that often gay couples have one person who plays the man and the other who plays the woman. So I was wondering which you were.’ ‘Frank and I don’t believe in hetero-normative gender roles,’ I told her. I knew my mom didn’t know what ‘hetero-normative’ meant, so I figured she’d drop it. ‘So who does the cooking and cleaning?’ she asked. I could have truthfully answered ‘neither of us.’ Instead I asked, ‘Is that what you think womanhood is, Mom, cooking and cleaning?’
Rahul Mehta’s stories are inhabited by young, gay Indian men on the wrong side of the American dream: adrift in the world, in complicated relationships, and with uncertain futures. Here are lovers who go to a nightclub deciding to cheat on each other; a couple slowly breaking up while they holiday; a young man who can’t stop himself from burning up all his money; another who reluctantly prepares his grandmother for her US citizenship test.
In a voice that’s bare and wry, edgy and tender, Rahul Mehta writes of desire and family ties with rare candor. This is an outstanding debut.
Palpasa Café
A journalist sits in a café waiting for his subject—an artist called Drishya about whom he wants to write a novel. But Drishya doesn’t come. For that morning he has been visited by Maoists at his home and abducted by them…
So begins Palpasa Café, the extraordinary novel by Nepali journalist Narayan Wagle, which has become a sensation in the country. Starting with the murders of the royal family, it tells the troubled story of contemporary Nepal through the eyes of a romantic artist who falls in love, wanders the war-struck countryside and dreams of creating a café named after his beloved which serves the best coffee in the country.
Playful, moving and melancholic, fusing the boundaries between fiction and non fiction, Palpasa Café presents a rare picture of Nepal at war. It is one of the most important novels to come out of the country.
The Zamindar’s Forbidden Love
Was the first man you fell for a brooding desert prince? Or better still, a cruelly handsome feudal lord? Are you a spirited beauty, your fire contained—but only just—by the clinging brocade of your lehenga’s choli? A delicious Kama Kahani is sure to strike your fancy.
Madhubati, the beautiful, fiesty daughter of a Bengali teacher who tutors sons of rich zamindars, is pledged to Bidyut, the son of a family friend. But when fate brings her father’s dashing student Som into her life just as it did six years ago, the voluptuous village belle is forced to choose between fighting against their families-or against her fast-beating heart. Will love prevail over reason and class?
Passion In The Punjab
Was the first man you fell for a brooding desert prince? Or better still, a cruelly handsome feudal lord? Are you a spirited beauty, your fire contained—but only just—by the clinging brocade of your lehenga’s choli? A delicious Kama Kahani is sure to strike your fancy.
Rani, a radiant Punjabi beauty and the illegitimate daughter of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, is kidnapped by the notorious bandit Ranbir Singh, who decides to use her as a pawn in his revenge against the King. But soon she realizes she cannot ignore her desire for her captor, handsome and mysterious as he is. Torn between passion and loyalty, past and present, Rani must discover what really lies in her heart.