What if you decided to do what you love instead of working at someone else’s desk every day?
That’s exactly what the men and women in this book did. They took the conventional route but slowly gathered the skills, resources and strength to make their own path. Featured here, among other incredible people, are Mahesh and Suresh Ramakrishnan, IT and banking professionals turned bespoke suit makers, former corporate lawyer Piya Bose, who now owns a travel company, and Raghu Dixit, a microbiologist turned rock star. Success, to them, is in earning a living from their passion, having a strong sense of purpose and learning from the challenges they face every day.
Their lives and sterling tips for success are not only inspiring but also empower you to muster up the courage and make a go of your new life.
Archives: Books
The Seven Sages: Selected Essays
A scintillating collection from one of our most original minds
Eminent philosopher, professor and public intellectual, Ramchandra Gandhi (1937-2007) was regarded as a sage in his lifetime. This book brings together some of his long essays and hitherto unpublished talks and writings on themes ranging from non-violence and karma to svaraj, brahmacharya and modern Indian spirituality, that are contextualized in an introduction by close disciple A. Raghuramaraju.
Bridging the moral, religious and social, the book offers many original insights: on how Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi’s catholic vision of religion annihilated exclusivism; the manner in which Gandhi’s martyrdom broke the prevailing power of evil and violence worldwide; how going beyond celibacy, brahmacharya is a joyous renunciation of sex; and on svaraj being ‘a struggle for the kingdom of self and autonomy’, not mere political independence.
Brilliantly argued and inspiring, The Seven Sages brings Ramchandra Gandhi’s ideas to a new audience, beyond his admirers.
Aiwa Maru
A young Indian seaman sets out on a hazardous voyage from Hong Kong aboard the M.T. Aiwa Maru-a blacklisted vessel that has been banned from sailing. Although wary of the risks involved in his new assignment, Anant is mesmerized by the ship. But the terrors of the open sea are not the only perils that beset the multiracial crew of the Aiwa Maru. With the arrival of the Second Engineer’s beautiful young wife Ujjwala, Anant finds himself irresistibly drawn to her even as matters aboard this bewitching vessel spin dangerously out of control.
A cult novel in the original Marathi, Aiwa Maru is a dark and thrilling tale of passion, greed, obsession and adventure.
P.I. Pojo
‘Something smells fishy here and I don’t mean Mr H’s uneaten dinner.’
Meet Pojo Pande, aspiring private eye prowling the corridors of Heathcote International with a ready ear for eavesdropping and a nose for intrigue. And he’s got two sidekicks-Radha Rao, a senior and the latest in a long line of Raos to skirt the school rules and Pops, a pesky junior who insists on being Pojo’s protégé.
Together, they face the toughest case of their career yet-the killing of Mr Heathcote, the beloved school cat.
Join Pojo on his adventures in this hugely funny, unputdownable book as he gets to the bottom of the killing of Mr Heathcote!
Family Life
It is the late 1970s. India has been wrenched by the Emergency. Ajay and Birju are taken by their parents to America so they can have a better life. In New York, their flat is tiny, the students at their school racist. The brothers forge ahead, pushed on by their ambitious parents. But then everything changes. Birju has an accident that leaves him brain-damaged, and the world around Ajay collapses. His father begins to drink, his mother takes to prayer, and it is Ajay who must now bear all the guilty weight of their love.
The Curse Of Surya
Sangeeta Rao, a beautiful, feisty reporter at Channel 7 TV in Singapore, rushes to Agra on a special assignment after an early-morning phone call. At the Taj Mahal, she meets Alan Davies, a charming Welshman. But a terrorist attack on Mathura’s renowned Krishna temple turns them into fugitives from justice and the duo must decipher a series of complex cryptographs and unearth the illustrious Shyamantaka that belonged to Surya, the Sun God, to prove their innocence. Joined in their quest by an elderly Frenchman, Anton Blanchard, the duo race against time in helicopters, motor boats and yachts. In hot pursuit are the brilliant and daring SP Nisha Sharma and the most ruthless terrorist organizations. Before she realizes it, Sangeeta is trapped in a world of betrayal, deceit and horror. Fast-paced and gripping, The Curse of Surya will keep you hooked and on the edge of your seat while you unravel one of the biggest mysteries in 5000 years.
Mahabharata
It is the aftermath of the war in Volume 8. Ashvatthama kills all the remaining Pandavas-with the exception of the five Pandava brothers-and Panchalas. The funeral ceremonies for the
dead warriors are performed. Bhishma’s teachings in the Shanti Parva, after Yudhishthira is crowned, is about duties to be followed under different circumstances.
Mahabharata
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins-the Pandavas and the Kouravas-but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters face them with no clear indications of what is right and what is wrong; there are no absolute answers. Thus every possible human emotion features in the Mahabharata, the reason the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination.
In this superb and widely acclaimed translation of the complete Mahabharata, Bibek Debroy takes us on a great journey with incredible ease.
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known, there is much more to the epic than the dispute between the Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurukshetra. It has innumerable sub-plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions, and it has rarely been translated in full, given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couplets. This magnificent 10- volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. Volume 1 consists of most of Adi Parva, in which much happens before the Kouravas and the Pandavas actually arrive on the scene. This volume covers the origins of the Kuru clan; the stories of Poushya, Poulama and Astika; the births of the Kouravas and the Pandavas; the house of lac; the slaying of Hidimba and Baka; Droupadi’s marriage; and ends with the Pandavas obtaining their share of the kingdom. Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata, the reason why the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid, nuanced and confident translation, Bibek Debroy makes the Mahabharata marvellouly accessible to contemporary readers.
Mistress
Christopher, a young travel writer, arrives at a riverside resort in Kerala to meet Koman, a famous kathakali dancer. Immediately he is sucked into a world of masks and repressed emotions. Koman is instantly drawn to the enigmatic young man with his incessant questions about the past-but so is his niece Radha. Excluded from this triangle is Shyam, Radha’s husband, who can only watch helplessly as she embraces Chris with a passion that he has never been able to draw from her. As the drama unfolds, the nuances and contradictions of the relationships being made-and unmade-come alive in this searing novel of art and adultery.