Sophie and Matteo are young and in love, sharing a dissatisfaction with their bourgeois Italian upbringing. Naturally, like so many other young Westerners in the sixties and seventies, they go to India. But the realities of life in an ashram ignite their differences; Sophie wants to be a tourist and go to Goa and eat shrimp, which Matteo scorns, seeking the ‘real’ India. Pragmatic Sophie is disillusioned by the hardships they encounter, while her husband, who yearns for spiritual fulfillment, sees only the purity of ascetic life, leading him to Mother, a charismatic guru.
Trying to reclaim an ailing Matteo, Sophie embarks on a new journey in search for a different truth; that of Mother’s mysterious past. Soon, she finds that the immortal has a history of her own; born in Cairo, she was once Laila, a dancer who toured the world before coming to Bombay to search for ‘divine love’. What each of the three people discover, on their individual quests, is at its heart that ancient truth: that wisdom is found in the journey itself.
A stirring, profound exploration of emotional exile, of sacred and profane loves, Journey to Ithaca is a masterful novel.
Internationally acclaimed director Mira Nair offers the reader an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into the creation of her most ambitious film yet: The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Covering every aspect of the film-making process, this magnificently designed film book comprises an incredible array of images as well as short essays by those involved in the film-making process. Mira Nair discusses how the novel was turned into a screenplay; Mohsin Hamid reminisces about his first experience on a film set; production designer Michael Carlin recounts the thrill of transforming Old Delhi into contemporary Lahore; lead actor Riz Ahmed reveals how he got under the skin of his character Changez; and editor Shimit Amin demystifies some of his tricks on the editing table. This book also features a series of gorgeous black-and-white photographs by celebrated photographer Brigitte Lacombe.
Rinki has everything she needs to go crazy with: bickering boys, a bitchy grandma, boring books and the Biggest B of them all, Board Exams. Rinki and her wolf pack are back in action and they have company in the form of Google (Mr Know-it-all) and Adit (Mr Goody Two-shoes). At last, Rinki has her wish fulfilled. She has two boys fighting over her, er, mostly with her! Meanwhile, Rinki’s brand new grandmother, Mausiji, is raising hell at home. Her dad (lucky fellow!) is away in Coimbatore and it’s all up to Rinki to cool tempers down. At school, things are no better. Board Exams are looming large and Princy is making her feel smaller than ever. Her grades are shrinking and her waistline is growing. School life is about to get over, but not before things get a lot more crazy. Read the next instalment in the Rinki series and discover why turning seventeen is no walk in the park!
Ever since my mom was murdered, I’ve been completely alone. I live in the shadows, because there’s no one like me. I have no choice because I have to fight the Hunger, the Hunger that drives me to hunt people and eat their souls. And I have to fight it if I want to stay out of the darkness.
WHO AM I? I’M MEDA MELANGE. WHAT AM I? I DON’T KNOW-BUT I’M NOT HUMAN. AND NOW, I FINALLY HAVE THE CHANCE TO FIND OUT.
In March 2009 Manvendra Singh, the BJP’s candidate for the Barmer Lok Sabha constituency, launched his election campaign to retain the seat that he had won with a record margin in 2004 and lovingly nurtured as a member of Parliament for five years. Over two months, he criss-crossed his sprawling constituency straddling Rajasthan’s Thar desert, covering 34,000 kilometres in temperatures often nearing 50°C, to meet his constituents. They included herders and headmen; communities of traditional balladeers and craftsmen; youth groups and hoary old political fixers; Muslim pirs, Jain munis and Hindu priests. Campaign Diary, a daily record of those gruelling weeks of canvassing voters, is a compelling portrait of democracy in action in one corner of India, and shows the impact of local, national and international issues and policies at the grass-roots level. Vividly bringing to life the heat and dust, the intrigues and infighting, the moving personal encounters and comic episodes that make up the Great Indian Election Circus, Campaign Diary is also an honest and insightful account of the rewards— and the heartbreak—of a life in politics.
A superb collection of stories from a modern Indian master!
One of the most versatile and innovative among contemporary Tamil writers, Sundara Ramaswamy’s early stories, written between 1951 and 1966, focus on ordinary people leading ordinary lives and are full of gems by way of characterization: the policeman and the priest of the Nadi Krishna temple in ‘Prasadam’, and Varadan and Joswyn in ‘True Love’ remain unforgettable, in spite of their pedestrian lives. Written in the 1970s, clouded by the aftermath of the Bangladesh war and the Emergency, in the later stories—‘Intoxication’, ‘Waves’—the plots turn darker and more complex.
Surprising us with their twists and turns, raising uncomfortable questions, and yet touched by a fine sense of humour and humanity, the stories in this collection belong with the best in the genre.
In recent years, the remote kingdom of Bhutan has increasingly attracted the attention of the world. In 2008, it emerged as the world’s youngest democracy and in the same year crowned the world’s youngest monarch. This was followed by the new King’s colourful wedding in 2011. Today, it continues to enchant the rest of the world with its policy of Gross National Happiness and has become a very popular destination for travel. But, despite its growing popularity and the rising scholarly interest in the country, Bhutan remains one of the most poorly studied places on earth.
Karma Phuntsho’s The History of Bhutan is the first-ever attempt to cover the entire history of Bhutan in some detail in English, combining both traditional perspectives and modern academic analysis. Written by a leading expert on the country, the book tells the story of Bhutan in a narrative style interspersed with some analytical and topical discussion, and numerous citations and translations from earlier writings. It is primarily a historical account, but it also includes substantive discussions of Bhutan’s geography, culture and society to give the readers an incisive introduction to the country.
