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.
‘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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The greatest long poem in classical Sanskrit, by the greatest poet of the language
She with her beautiful face at once was in the power
of Siva and of drunkenness, taking her shyness away,
both eagerly drawing her toward the bed
and both now turned into kindled desire.
The greatest long poem in classical Sanskrit, Kumarasambhavam celebrates the love story of Siva and Parvati, whose passionate union results in the birth of their son, the young god Kumara. Beginning with a luminous description of the birth of Parvati, the poem proceeds in perfectly pitched sensuous detail through her courtship with Siva until the night of their wedding. This poem plays out their tale on the immense scale of supreme divinity, wherein the gods are viewed both as lovers and as cosmic principles.
Composed in eight cantos by the greatest Sanskrit poet of all time, the verses of Kumarasambhavam continue to enchant readers centuries after they were first written. Hank Heifetz’s sparkling translation brings to life the heady eroticism and sumptuous imagery of the original.
Her left hand rests on her hip, the bangle motionless at her wrist
while the other arm falls freely like a fig branch.
Lowering her eyes to the tiled floor, where her big toe caresses a flower,
her curved body is more beautiful than her dance.
Believed to be Kalidasa’s first work, Malavikagnimitram is the love story of King Agnimitra and the court dancer Malavika. The tale unfolds through humorous palace interludes, vivid descriptions of fine arts and the cunning machinations of court players. Even in this early work, Kalidasa’s characteristic penchant for romance, art and natural beauty is evident at every delightful turn of the plot. He transforms a simple tale of forbidden love into an engrossing courtly drama filled with beauty, humour and wit.
