Archives: Books

What are the consequences of Empire? Do they ever fade? In this follow-up to his bestselling book Being Indian, Pavan K. Varma takes a long hard look at our cultural psyche, sixty years after India’s political liberation from Western colonial masters. Examining modern history, contemporary events and personal experience, he demonstrates, with passion, insight and impeccable logic, why India, and other formerly subject nations, can never truly be free-and certainly not in a position to assume global leadership-unless they reclaim their cultural identity.

Padma Desai grew up in the 1930s in the provincial world of Surat, where she had a sheltered and strict upbringing in a traditional Gujarati Anavil Brahmin family. Her academic brilliance won her a scholarship to Bombay University, where the first heady taste of freedom in the big city led to tragic consequences-seduction by a fellow student whom she was then compelled to marry. In a failed attempt to end this disastrous first marriage, she converted to Christianity.

A scholarship to America in 1955 launched her on her long journey to liberation from the burdens and constraints of her life in India, with a growing self-awareness and transformation at many levels, as she made a new life for herself, met and married the celebrated economist Jagdish Bhagwati, became a mother, and rose to academic eminence at Harvard and Columbia.

How did she navigate the tumultuous road to assimilation in American society and culture? And what did she retain of her Indian upbringing in the process? This brave and moving memoir, written with a novelist’s skill at evoking personalities, places and atmosphere, and a scholar’s insights into culture and society, community and family, tells a compelling and thought-provoking human story that will resonate with readers everywhere.

Alehya is back in Chandigarh after ten years to attend her childhood friend, Shagun’s wedding. However, her plans are rudely interrupted when she finds out about the man Shagun is going to marry.
Vicky, is a sorted guy who knows exactly what he wants in life. His decision of marrying Shagun has the approval of everyone who means a lot to him-everyone, except Shagun’s best friend, Alehya.
Shagun is excited about getting married to Vicky. This fulfills her childhood dream of marriage. But with her best friend and future husband being childhood frenemies, will things go by without a hitch?

As the wedding draws near, Shagun, Vicky and Alehya grapple with issues of love, confusion and guilt to discover what their heart truly desires.
They have to make life altering decisions, in the Nick of Time, before time runs out on them and the life of their dreams!

When Muhammad Iqbal first recited Shikwa (Taking Issue) in 1909, his audience was enraged by his effrontery. Iqbal, in his lament, took issue with Allah directly, audaciously implicating Him for the sorry state of Muslims worldwide and ruing the lost glory of Islam. In recompense, Iqbal composed Jawaab-e-Shikwa (Allah’s Answer) in 1913. Here, Allah responds to the poet, first berating his community, then offering hope for Islam in the world. Iqbal’s mellifluous words greatly assuaged those angered earlier. Over time, the poems have found their place in the canon of South Asian literature, and, through recitation, repetition and selective use, have forwarded a variety of agendas in the subcontinent.

In this elegant translation by Mustansir Dalvi, these classics by the most influential poet of his generation come alive once again in a language that is contemporary and immediate.

Some people can kiss ass naturally, some can’t do it to save their lives, and many just don’t know how!
Kissing Ass: The Art of Office Politics is a no-bullshit, jargon-free, non-sloppy guide that breaks down typical workplace situations and offers you not textbook advice but real sucking-up solutions to them. From nervous first days to elated farewell mails, Kissing Ass gives you tips and tricks on how to act, react, or play dumb as per the scenario. Learn different types of ego massage techniques, what to say to the CEO in the loo, how to reply to work emails over weekends, and, yes, even how to deal with sex at work! So polish your corporate lips, pucker up, and get ready to kiss your way to success.

Maxing our career is our ‘dharma’ in this age of Kali. But at what cost?
Working parents don’t see enough of their children, couples barely spend time with each other, young men and women become strangers to their families and friends. And here’s the irony–most of us mention our families and loved ones as the main reason for why we strive towards success, without realizing that we stand to lose them in this very quest.

So how do we strike a balance between our careers and our families?

In his first major work of non-fiction, bestselling author Ashok K. Banker goes back to Puranic sources to address this question. He writes of Ratnakaran the bandit, who made a living out of killing and looting to support his family, and his transformation into Valmiki, the sage. Using his story and contemporary stories from today, he shows us how they contain the answers to today’s most pressing issue: how to prioritize, manage, and enhance our personal as well as professional lives.

Insightful, thought-provoking, and utterly inspiring, The Valmiki Syndrome is a map to the most elusive treasure of modern existence–personal fulfilment.

Because I Am a Girl is a collection of seven stories of seven girls from different parts of India who fought with their situation and tried to empower themselves. With an Introduction by Govind Nihalani and written by personalities from all walks of life—writers, actors, artists, and TV stars—the stories try to capture their struggles, their dreams, and how they keep hope alive in their lives.

• Anjum Hasan visits a village in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, where young girls are forced to become sex workers.
• Pooja Bedi goes to Lucknow and meets a woman who gets an ultrasound done but then decides against killing her unborn baby girl.
• Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan travels to Hyderabad where she meets a young girl who comes to the city, learns data entry and finds herself a job.
• Shahana Goswami meets a young school drop-out who has done a beautician’s course, and plans to set up her own parlour.
• Namrita Bachchan tells the story of a young girl who sells vegetables in the male-dominated Delhi’s Govindpuri sabzi mandi during the wee hours of the morning and then learns to read and write during the day.
• Nafisa Ali Sodhi writes about a young girl in Delhi, who works as a rag picker but is a bright young student.
• Aditi Rao Hydari encounters a woman whose husband died of tuberculosis and who is training to be a nurse now while being an apprentice in a hospital.