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Lal Singh Dil is a legend in Punjab, famed as much for his rousing poetry as for the brew of his tea stall. Born into the ‘untouchable’ Dalit community in the years before partition, he bravely challenged deep-rooted social prejudices through his crisp and stirring verses. His struggle led him to join the Naxalite movement – an experience that culminated in three horrifying years of torture at the hands of the police. In his later years, much to the dismay of his comrades, he converted to Islam because he believed that its tenets could be reconciled with theegalitarian and inclusive principles of communism. A powerful indictment of caste violence and discrimination, Poet of the Revolution describes dil’s most turbulent years in his clear, fiery voice. Translated into English for the first time, this book also includes a selection of his most memorable poems.

Cheated by her young and handsome Spanish boyfriend, Kaveri is back in India to follow a career as an artist and to find her dream man. However, getting involved with an older man,
making out with the hottest star in Bollywood, teaching a hot, upcoming actress Hindi . . . her goals seem nowhere in sight.

Starting afresh seems to have thrown her off completely and she begins to see the superficial life that she’s been leading. It’s time to take some hard decisions. With fresh hope and a new philosophy, Kaveri begins to focus on her goals.

Things begin to look up when there is a kindling of romance across Twitter and she’s starts to understand her true calling. She might finally be moving in the right direction!

The scandal that rocked the Raj

IIn 1891, a notorious curio-dealer from Simla offered to sell the world’s largest brilliant-cut diamond to the Nizam of Hyderabad. If the audacious deal came through, the merchant would have been set up for life. But the transaction went horribly wrong. The Nizam accused him of fraud, triggering a sensational trial in the Calcutta High Court that made headlines around the world.

The dealer was Alexander Malcolm Jacob, a man of mysterious origins and colourful infamy. He was India’s most successful purveyor of precious stones and was rumoured to be ‘rich almost beyond the dreams of Aladdin’. Hailed as a celebrity in his own lifetime, he was the inspiration for the shadowy Lurgan Sahib in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. A confidant of viceroys and maharajahs, he dabbled in magic and was a player in the Great Game. Yet he died in obscurity, carrying many of his secrets to his grave.

In this meticulously researched account of Jacob’s life, John Zubrzycki reconstructs events through long-lost letters, court records and annotations on secret files, bringing us a riveting study of a man whose obituary in a leading daily fittingly described him as the most ‘romantic and arresting figure in our time’.

In the ancient Tamil country, the Vaiyai was much more than a mighty river rushing towards the sea. People knew the river intimately and lived their lives upon its banks. In these exquisite poems from the distant past (second to eighth century CE), we glimpse the ebb and flow of everyday life: the bathing, the water games, the lovers’ quarrels and the sacred rituals. Breathtaking in their descriptive power and graceful in their celebration of sensuality, the Vaiyai poems from the Paripa?al anthology delight our senses and give us insight into a world long past. In V.N. Muthukumar and Elizabeth Segran’s radiant new translation, the Vaiyai River comes alive to a new generation of readers.

One of the biggest challenges facing India today is the question of reservation for the nation’s minority communities. Although the Constitution of India affirms equal justice for all, the manner in which legislatures and courts operate often compromises justice in the name of political pragmatism. As a result, the voiceless and vulnerable members of society—Dalits, tribals, women and religious minorities—continue to be excluded and marginalized.
Taking Sides outlines a credible roadmap to aid the quest for an inclusive and just society. Examining this churning debate from several points of view, Rudolf Heredia makes a persuasive argument for a justice premised on liberty, tempered by equality and moderated by fraternity—a justice beyond politics.