2084 BCE: In the great city of Mohenjodaro, along the banks of the Indus, a young man named Prkaa grows increasingly mistrustful of the growing authority of a cult of priests.
455 CE: In the fabled university city of Takshila, Buddhamitra, a monk, is distressed by how his colleagues seem to have lost sight of the essence of the Buddha’s message of compassion.
1620 CE: During the reign of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, a pair of itinerant fortune-seekers endeavour to swindle the patrician elite, only to find themselves utterly disillusioned.
1857 CE: Mirza Sahib, a wandering minstrel, traverses the realms of human deception even as a rebellion against the British Raj is advancing across India.
2009 CE: In contemporary Lahore, the widow Rafiya Begum navigates legal complexities in order to secure her rights and fend off predatory charlatans.
2084 CE: A scholar revisits the known history of the cataclysmic events that led to world-domination by ruthless international water conglomerates.
Across epochs and civilizations, these are intensely personal journeys that investigate the legitimacy of religion and authority, and chronicle the ascent of dissent. Snuffing Out the Moon is a powerful debut novel that is at once a cry of freedom and a call for resistance.
Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2010
A gripping story of a lone Jewish woman battling land sharks to keep her community alive
Rachel lives alone by the sea. Her children have long migrated to Israel as have her Bene Israel Jew neighbours. Taking care of the local synagogue and preparing exquisite traditional Jewish dishes sustains Rachel’s hope of seeing the community come together again at a future time. When developers make moves to acquire the synagogue and its surrounding land, Rachel’s vehement opposition takes the synagogue committee and the town by surprise.
Written with warmth and humour, Book of Rachel is a captivating tale of a woman’s battle to live life on her own terms. Continuing the saga of the unique Bene Israel Jews in India, it adds to Esther David’s reputation as a writer of grace and power.
The story begins on the Konkan coast in the nineteenth century, when Bathseba, a woman of great moral courage, steers her family through the odds in the absence of her husband. The family distinguishes itself when her great-grandson David earns renown as a doctor in Ahmedabad. Displaying a remarkably different kind of empathy, his exuberant son Joshua raises lions, panthers and crocodiles as pets, and later founds a zoo. Things come full circle when Joshua’s daughter Esther embarks on a journey to Israel in search of her roots, amidst the confusion of a failed marriage and the turmoil in her place of birth, Ahmedabad.
Seamlessly blending storytelling, history and memoir, Book of Esther shines fresh light on the Jewish experience in India and becomes an affecting tale about love, home and belonging.
In this authoritative and comprehensive survey of the challenges a changing global security environment poses to India, former deputy national security advisor Arvind Gupta outlines the important aspects of the country’s security apparatus and how they interface to confront internal and external conflicts. We have today a turbulent Middle East to the west; a rising and assertive China to the north; Pakistan in the grip of the military and the militants across our border and an increasingly militarizing Indian Ocean region surrounding us. Additionally, climate change, cyber security and the vulnerability of our space assets are major areas of concern. Anything that weakens a nation weakens its security, which makes the issues of food, water, health, economics and governance critically significant. Arvind Gupta draws on his long experience in these areas to argue that instead of tactical remedies, a strategic, coherent, institutional approach is needed to deal with these challenges. Strengthening the National Security Council, for instance, could be one way forward.
How India Manages Its National Security explains with great clarity and thoroughness the concept and operation of India’s national security apparatus. This book will be of great interest to practitioners, analysts and laymen alike and offer an important voice in the discussion on how national security challenges should be resolved in the decades to come.
‘As the Ask the Sexpert columnist . . . he [Dr Watsa] has—gently, gently—pushed the limits in Indian popular culture, among other things by introducing the words penis and vagina instead of the squeamish euphemisms . . .’ New York Times
From adolescence to sex after forty, from foreplay to masturbation to sexual intercourse, from pre-marriage relationships to homosexuality, to conception and pregnancy—this book answers all questions pertaining to sex. Gleaned from a career spanning several decades as a gynaecologist and sex columnist, Dr Watsa writes about sex with wit and humour. In an easy manner he addresses the concerns and demystifies sex for the common Indian.
The book also has an extensive FAQ section with questions from his highly popular column.
Why do saree emporiums and apparel shops offer heavy discounts on a few occasions during the year? Why is it that airline tickets booked well in advance are always cheaper? How would Phoolan Devi and Veerappan react to a case of Prisoners’ Dilemma?
Professor Deodhar explains the dynamics of pricing with respect to demand and supply and various market structures like perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly through engaging everyday examples and case studies. With illustrative diagrams and interactive examples, Why I am Paying More is a highly useful and accessible book on microeconomics for both the uninitiated and the seasoned. A must-buy for students, professionals, and laypersons alike.
A first-generation American’s searing appraisal of race and assimilation in the US
At the age of twelve, Sharmila Sen emigrated from India to the US. The year was 1982, and everywhere she turned, she was asked to self-report her race. Rejecting her new ‘not quite’ designation-not quite white, not quite black, not quite Asian-she spent much of her life attempting to blend into American whiteness. But after her teen years, watching shows like The Jeffersons, dancing to Duran Duran, and perfecting the art of Jell-O no-bake desserts, she was forced to reckon with the hard questions: Why does whiteness retain its cloak of invisibility while other colours are made hypervisible?
Part memoir, part manifesto, Not Quite Not White is a witty and poignant story of self-discovery.
How do we define being Desi? We all know what we mean by it but what are the actual sights, scents, sounds and tastes-the myriad elements from the South Asian imagination that come together in various combinations to conjure ‘self’ for all of us? Because being Desi is no respecter of national boundaries; Desi cultures are truly transnational and cannot be defined by the rupture of Partition or lines on a map. Ziauddin Sardar is a Person of Pakistani Origin-and proud of it-but he boldly says that his identities draw on antecedents from all parts of the subcontinent. From the beauty of Bharatanatyam, to the poetic genius of Amir Khusrau and Faiz; from the universes created by Dilip Kumar and Guru Dutt to the untranslatable, indescribable taste of a perfect golgappa.
Ways of Being Desi is a brilliant, provocative and deeply honest exploration of the ingredients that make us who we are. It is not a simple listing of food, films or even the universal importance of ‘Aunties’ in South Asian culture; it is a meditation on the subcontinent’s recent past and all that happens when we decide to forget our shared histories.
An anecdotal travelogue about Lahore – which begins in the present and travels through time to the mythological origins of the city attributed to Ram’s son, Lav. Through the city’s present – its people, communities, monuments, parks and institutions – the author paints a vivid picture of the city’s past. From its emergence under Mahmud Ghaznavi to the Mughal centuries where several succession intrigues unfolded on its soil, its recasting as the capital of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Khalsa Empire, the role it played in preserving the British Raj, to acting as an incubator of revolutionaries and people’s movements, Lahore influenced the subcontinent’s political trajectory time and again.
Today, too, Lahore often determines which way the wind will blow on Pakistan’s political landscape. The Lahore Resolution of 1940, which laid the blueprint for the creation of the country, was signed here. The city saw the birth of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP, as well as his downfall. It was to Lahore that Benazir Bhutto returned to combat a military dictator, and where Imran Khan heralded his arrival as a main contender on the political battlefield. As the capital of Punjab, Lahore continues to cast a long shadow over the federal state.
In the cultural hub of 1880s’ Lahore Kay Robinson has taken over as editor of the Civil and Military Gazette. Assisting him is the young and impressionable Rudyard Kipling, a lonely, impulsive man who dreams of becoming a writer. Kipling’s literary pursuits have been dismissed as fanciful and foolish by his previous boss. But Robinson is different. He encourages the young ‘Ruddy’, allowing him greater creative freedom at the Gazette. As he becomes Ruddy’s friend and confidant, Robinson gains access to intimate glimpses of the Kipling family, where he is smitten by Ruddy’s sister Trix.
Narrated by Robinson, The Kipling File is a moving story of doomed friendship and difficult love recounted against the powerful backdrop of Anglo-Indian life in a Punjab that has begun to stir with anti-colonial sentiment. Through his eyes unfold the turmoils that shaped the author of beloved classics like The Jungle Book and Kim.
In Sudhir Kakar’s luminous prose, Kipling emerges as a man of compelling contradictions-a mercurial genius whose immense talent was in pitched battle with his inner demons.
