Annawadi is a slum in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as the Indian economy booms, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective teenager, sees ‘a fortune beyond counting’ in the recyclable garbage that the city’s richer people throw away. He is so fast, sorting waste, that he’s close to lifting his whole family out of the slum. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, is eyeing an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck and the right connections, her sensitive, beautiful teenaged daughter might soon become the first female college graduate in the slum. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a homeless 15-year-old scrap-metal thief, feel themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call ‘the full enjoy.’
But then Abdul the teenaged garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; a terrorist attack and a global recession rock Mumbai; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest human hopes intersect with the harshest realities of life in an Indian megacity, the true contours of a desperately competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the resilience and ingenuity of the people of Annawadi.
In Katherine Boo’s fast-paced and riveting book—beautifully written, rigorously researched and intimately reported—the impact of poverty, inequality, corruption and global change is made human through breathtaking, sometimes heartbreaking, stories that will stay with you forever.
Culture of the Sepulchre is not only a retelling of Idi Amin’s brutality and buffoonery, which unfolded in the seventies, it is also a heart-rending saga of the forced evacuation of the Indian diaspora from Uganda and their trials against the backdrop of a fierce internal armed conflict.
Madanjeet Singh, the Indian High Commissioner to Uganda at the time, gives a first-hand account of the unimaginable violence and savagery unleashed by a man who designated himself ‘His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular’ (and by some accounts even appointed himself the King of Scotland), as well as the ghastly and macabre events that followed Amin’s defeat by the rebel forces led by Museveni.
This is also an account of the extraordinary courage demonstrated by Madanjeet at a time of great personal turmoil—his sister died under mysterious circumstances and his trusted servant turned criminal—and the great risks he took to evacuate hundreds of families desperate to escape the murderous environment
‘The body was the only truth she knew. It was the body alone that was left, even as she went beyond the body.’
Journeys form the leitmotif of these astonishing new stories by Ambai. Sometimes culminating in an unconventional love affair, some are extraordinary tales of loyalty and integrity; others touch on the almost fantastic, absurd aspect of Mumbai. Yet others explore the notion of a wholesome self, and its tragic absence at times. These stories are illuminated by vivid and unusual characters: from an eccentric, penurious singer-couple who adopt an ape as their son, to a male prostitute, who is battered by bimbos for not giving ‘full’ satisfaction.
Crucially, some of the stories, like the title one, engage uninhibitedly with a woman’s relationship to her body. For Ambai, feminist par excellence, the sensual body, experienced as a natural landscape changing with age, is at the same time, the only vehicle of life and tool for mapping the external world.
The cubicle: a small, compressed, half room where we spend half our lives bored, stressed, and secretly planning holidays. Where imagination and creativity die a slow death and ‘out of the box’ can mean only one thing—leaving the office.
Mayukh, a young and harried manager, can’t believe his misfortune when he discovers one morning that his computer has been taken over by a virus. Especially when he has enough work on his plate to last him a lifetime. But things take a strange turn and soon the virus starts a revolution that gradually frees our hero from the tyranny of pressure and the shackles of stress. It reconnects him with his true self and family, and brings him more success than he could ever imagine.
So if you’ve been spending more time in your cubicle than anywhere else, The Cubicle Manifesto is the revolution that you’ve been waiting for; one that you can start in the comfort of your own cubicle.
What if life threw you a magnificent opportunity, only to knock you down later and laugh at you? Would you fight back or let it pass?
Nisha’s life is far from perfect. At twenty-six, she is plump, plain-looking, and without a boyfriend. A chance date and a bizarre twist of events lead her to the altar with suave Samir Sharma, only to be abandoned eight years later. As she struggles to stand on her own feet, Akash, a younger guy, enters her life. Can Nisha find love a second time?
Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake is an unusual, a heart-warming, and gripping love-story between two people who have so much to lose by getting into a relationship with each other, yet so much to gain.
As India’s economy has liberalized, so too has it become Hinduized.
Middle-class Indians are becoming actively religious as they are becoming prosperous. The last decade has seen the proliferation of powerful new god-men, a massive rise in temple rituals, the creation of new gods, and the increased demand for priests. Hinduism has entered public life as well with politicians regularly using pujas and yajnas in their campaigning.
The state is enabling this Hinduization with the help of the private sector. From actively promoting religious tourism, to handing over higher education to private sector institutions, some of whom use religious trusts to run these institutions and impart ‘value-based’ education, to giving away land at highly subsidized rates to gurus and god-men, many of the privatization measures of the government are linked with the promotion of Hinduism.
Why has this happened? What does it mean? And does this spell the death of Indian secularism? In this eye-opening book, Meera Nanda looks at the rise of popular Hinduism and uncovers, for the first time, the nexus between the state, temple and corporate India, and the ugly truth behind India’s leap into globalization and economic reforms. She argues that india is creating its own, insidious form of fundamentalism, one that can lead the country into grave danger.
Hard-hitting and controversial, full of fascinating facts, The God Market is essential reading for all citizens.
Can eating make you look good?
Yes, it’s true. Diet provides nutrition but also makes you look beautiful by helping you lose weight, getting a proportionate body, making your skin glow and your hair and eyes shine. In The Beauty Diet, celebrity dietician Shonali Sabherwal, whose clients include Katrina Kaif, Neha Dhupia, Esha Deol, Hema Malini, Jacqueline Fernandez, Chitrangada Singh, Shekhar Kapur, and Kabir Bedi, among others, offers easy-to-follow and tried-and-tested diet advice for women of all ages to look younger and more stunning. She shows you how to:
• do a basic detox to cleanse the body
• make your skin glow, your hair shine, and your teeth healthy
• tuck that rebellious tummy in
• get rid of fat thighs and flabby arms
• eat to look younger
• change your mood with the right food
With diet charts, recipes, cooking techniques, illustrations, real-life stories, and celeb experiences, The Beauty Diet redefines the purpose and formulas of eating. So get ready to welcome the fab new you!
The 10 Laws of Learning by acclaimed educationalist Steven Rudolph is just the book you need. In ten steps, Rudolph teaches you how to help your child excel in life. Not only that, now you can train your children out of problem behaviours—watching too much TV, not doing homework on time, disobeying parents in public, using foul language, not eating properly and much more. Peppered with relevant examples and keen insight, it is the perfect guide to create a superior learning environment for our child. Now parents, teachers, principals as well as children themselves don’t need to look far. Just follow the magic mantra, The 10 Laws of Learning and experience the difference.
Guava Bellini. Lamb chops with a fennel and coriander crust. Masala pop corn. Crab tikkis. Chicken in mint and ginger. Tamarind margarita. Tomato and basil pulao. Spicy fig yoghurt. Pan-seared eggplant with ginger and honey. Curried carrot soup with paneer. Pista-mirch-dhaniya spread. Lychee phirnis. Achari chicken salad. Mango and champagne granita.
Modern Spice teaches you how to cook Indian food for today’s kitchen, giving you recipes that are quick to make, short on ingredients, and full of global influences. Try an Indian inspired cocktail; soups and salads using masalas; Indian-style stir fries, and fantastic spice combinations for meat dishes. Whether it’s for a quick meal or a stylish party, here are recipes bursting with flavour and originality. Full of passion and mouthwatering ideas, Modern Spice is the most fun you’ll ever
have in your kitchen.
