Being the head honcho of a public sector enterprise is one of the most exacting or testing positions in the corporate world. Heading an archetypal corporate set-up where strengthening the bottom line is your sole objective is one thing; leading a corporation that has a crucial public service to perform while continuing to increase profits for its owners—the Government of India—is another. As chairman of PowerGrid.,one of India’s leading utility companies, R.P. Singh was on the inside track of Indian business, government and policy for 12 long years—years spent not just reshaping power networking in India but also raising the benchmark in corporate governance. It wasn’t always easy. Conservative, anti-reform forces had to be contested, rivals fought off, political and other influences contained. This book tells the story of how it was done. R.P. Singh reveals the inside workings of India’s government-owned business sector, the saga of how a start-up with borrowed staff and facilities was built into a public-sector jewel and one of the leading power grid operators of the world. This is a fascinating business book: part memoir, part management manual, part survival guide.
Archives: Books
Luck
‘Absorbing, spare and often deeply moving.’-Ruskin Bond
‘Wild tales with a difference…Hazarika’s empathy with all creatures great and small comes through in these absorbing, spare and often deeply moving stories. Life in the forests and small towns of Assam is brought vividly to life by a gifted writer.’ -Ruskin Bond
A hunt goes brutally wrong in the jungles of Karbi Anglong. A young magistrate on a police raid is saved from inhumanity by the sight of a hen and her chicks. A solitary bachelor brings home a pigeon and learns the pain of loving a wild thing. An egret visits a man on a moonlit night. Three schoolboys chance upon a leopard and her kill in the hills outside Guwahati.
In lean, taut prose Dhruba Hazarika writes of moments when men encounter animals and the natural world-often, also the moments when they encounter themselves. These are poignant, memorable stories from a literary imagination of uncommon honesty and sophistication.
Killing The Water
The Final Question
Like Dickens, Saratchandra had a bag of wonderful tales. The Final Question (Shesh Prashna) is one of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s last novels and perhaps his most radically innovative. The novel caused a sensation when it was first published in 1931, drawing censure from conservative critics but enthusiastic support from general readers, especially women. The heroine, Kamal, is exceptional for her time. She lives and travels by herself, has relationships with various men, looks poverty and suffering in the face, and asserts the autonomy of the individual being. In the process, she tears apart the frame of the expatriate Bengali society of Agra, where she lives. Through Kamal, Saratchandra questions Indian tradition and the norms of nationhood and womanhood. The Final Question transcends time and will appeal to readers of all ages. Translated by Department of English, Jadavpur University.
Love Stands Alone
Composed at the turn of the Common Era, the ancient poems translated from classical Tamil in Love Stands Alone are breathtaking in their directness, subtle in their nuances and astonishingly contemporary in tone. The poems fall under two broad themes: akam, the interior and puram, the exterior. The akam poems are concerned with love in all its varied situations: clandestine and illicit; conjugal happiness and infidelity; separation and union. The puram poems encompass all other aspects of worldly life. They talk of wars and battlefields, the valour of warriors, the munificence of kings and chieftains, and the wisdom of bards. These timeless, marvellous poems succeed in engaging today’s readers with their acute rendering of the secular life of an ancient people. Unlike earlier translations that have relied on medieval commentaries, M.L. Thangappa’s English translation is based on an original interpretation of the classics. This is the result of a lifetime’s immersion in teaching and translating classical Tamil poetry. The introduction by A.R. Venkatachalapathy situates classical Tamil poetry in its historical and cultural setting and evaluates its contribution to world literature.
Himalayan Wonderland
Below and around me lay the village, quiet and serene in the evening shadows, smoke rising from chimneys all along the slope. Looking down the valley, I could see the snow lingam of the Goshal Cone, glowing with the last flush of sunlight. On the opposite side of the valley, Karding and its monastery nestled in the shadow of the Dilburi peak. As twilight came on, all was quiet, save for the occasional gruff barking of a dog and the muffled roar of the Bhaga river in its cavernous passage. And then, the shrill haunting notes of the gyadung began to float down from the monastery. I was home at last.
Classic Sherlock Holmes
In four novels and fifty-six short stories, the exciting adventures of Baker Street’s most famous resident -Sherlock Holmes Known and loved for over a century, this shrewd amateur detective, with the faithful Watson by his side, has delighted readers across the world. This handsome omnibus edition stands as a lasting tribute to the indestructible sleuth and his famous creator. A Study in Scarlet The Sign of Four The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes The Hound of Baskervilles The Valley of Fear His Last Bow The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Where Girls Dare
‘So cadets; how’s the morale?’
‘High Sir!’ we boys and girls screamed in unison.
‘Should we tighten your training?’
‘Yes sir; give us more!’
‘Good!’ he said. Then whispered to the chief instructor; ‘Tighten their discipline.
Toughen their schedule. I’ve never seen such happy cadets. This is not a party!’
They entered the Officers’ Training Academy at Chennai; with a single desire—to be Officers in the army. Soon they discovered it was going to be an uphill task; literally! They fought; they bickered; they cried and they raised hell. But they also learnt. They learnt to take push-ups and punishments; front rolls and figures of eight; strict discipline and night marches in their stride.
Where Girls Dare is a hilarious and entertaining story of what happens when fifty-two lady cadets (LCs) train alongside four hundred Gentleman Cadets (GCs); some of whom believe that girls in the army is a bad idea.
For more info on new series Metro Reads; please visit www.metroreads.in
Dreams In Prussian Blue
Puffin Classics: The Land Of Cards
Poet, novelist, painter, musician and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore was one of modern India’s greatest literary figures. This collection brings together some of his best works—poems, short stories and plays in one volume. Be it the wit, magic and lyricism of his poetry or the vividly etched social milieu of his stories, or the sheer power and vibrancy of his plays, Tagore’s versatility and unceasing creativity come alive in these writings. The title play ‘The Land of Cards’ is a satire against the bondage of orthodox rules, while in ‘The Post Office’, a child suffocated by his confined existence dreams of freedom in the world outside. From a son’s cherished desire to protect his mother in the poem ‘Hero’ to a fruit-seller longing for his daughter faraway in the story ‘Kabuliwala’, Tagore’s works convey his humanism and his deep understanding of human relationships.