After a bomb blast rips through Sikandar Chowk Park, Allahabad, killing fifty-seven people, a journalist pieces together the lives of eleven of the dead from the heap of mutilated bodies.
Among them a self-effacing music teacher who won’t go abroad on a fellowship because of his family of stray dogs; an Anglo-Indian widow coping with the knowledge of her husband’s infidelity thirty-five years ago; a precocious ‘problem’ child; a firebrand feminist confronting the sexual misdemeanours of her friend’s husband; and a young Dalit woman who defies her marriage and her society and enters into a relationship with an unemployed Brahmin boy-all ordinary people leading ordinary lives in a quintessential mofussil Indian township.
Neelum Saran Gour’s vibrant prose conjures up a multitude of characters involved in a maze of relationships, and the dynamics of events which propel them to Sikandar Chowk Park on the fateful day. In the process, she crafts a talk at once poignant and witty, which ingeniously addresses contemporary issues of communal and caste prejudices, bigotry and faith, forgiveness and redemption.
Meet the heroes who changed the world!
Once upon a time, a young boy swore never to lie. He felt strongly about injustice and wanted to change anything that was unfair. When he grew up, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi applied the very same principles to lead India to freedom, becoming an icon of non-violence and changing the fate of a people.
Second in a series of illustrated books created for young readers to get to know our world heroes better, this engaging biography, peppered with little-known facts, takes the reader through Gandhi’s life of purpose, goodwill and resistance. This is the story of the making of the Mahatma, a simple man who taught the world that anything can be achieved through peace.
People have been telling their love stories for thousands of years. It is the greatest common human experience. And yet, love stories coach us to believe that love is selective, somehow, that it can be boxed in and easily defined. This is a collection of eleven remarkable essays that widen the frame of reference: transgender romance; body image issues; race relations; disability; polyamory; class differences; queer love; long distance; caste; loneliness; the single life; the bad boy syndrome . . . and so much more.
Pieced together with a dash of poetry and a whole lot of love, featuring a multiplicity of voices and a cast of unlikely heroes and heroines, this is a book of essays that show us, with empathy, humour and wisdom, that there is no such thing as the love that dare not speak its name.
Where did the name Radha come from?
When did Christianity first come to India?
What is the connection between sanskar and dharma?
After the enormous success of the first two seasons of EPIC Channel’s Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik, India’s favourite mythologist is back with a third instalment to answer these questions and more, this time delving deeper into Hinduism and other religions as well!
In this volume, you will read about the various versions of the Ramayana found across Asia. There are chapters on Buddhism and Jainism and their fascinating histories. Learn where the concept of marriage comes from, the reasons behind the many riti-riwaz in Hinduism and the place of fathers and fatherhood in Indian mythology, among myriad other topics and lesser-known tales-all tackled by Devdutt in a Q&A format.
Covering over fifteen informative and inspiring episodes, this volume is a heady mix of education and entertainment.
A journalist accused of hacking the inbox of a billionaire
A company which fought back when its data was stolen
An entrepreneur who fought an international battle to end piracy
A hacker who decided to take a start-up hostage by stealing its data
Full of riveting stories of hackers, police and corporates, Breach reads like a thriller. The book brings to light several incidents which till now were brushed under the carpet. It has instances of piracy, data theft, phishing, among many others.
Even though he focuses on India, Nirmal John takes great pains to show links between underground international networks working to undermine data security.
You don’t need big things to happen. A little love, a little togetherness and a little happiness are all you need!
Whether it is in dealing with a bad day at work, trying out a new restaurant or experiencing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) on a weekend, Dhruv and Kavya are there for each other. Their lives are a series of simple yet charming incidents that makes for a heart-warming read.
Unpretentious and honest, this book offers a peek into the life of a young couple who knows how to find meaning in the ‘little things’.
Adapted from Dice Media’s immensely popular web series by the same name, Little Things is both delightful and entertaining.
A lone woman travels fearlessly into the jungle to confront the enemy. She holds the fate of an entire world in her hands.
The year is 120 ce. The Ashwamedha Yagna has established young Vijay the ruler of Virinara, a mighty city-state of south India. Soon after the kingdom starts to expand into the surrounding forests, its glittering capital, Dandavrut, is attacked in a brazen act of terror. Even as Raja Vijay unleashes his forces against the nomadic forest dwellers, his beloved sister Shanti treks secretly into the wilderness—and falls in love with the handsome warrior Narun. Will love triumph over hubris, and Shanti forge a new destiny for her people?
A thrilling tale of adventure and political intrigue, The Legend of Virinara stirs up timeless questions about war and peace. This is a powerful parable of our times.
Set in Lahore, This House of Clay and Water explores the lives of two women. Nida, intelligent and lonely, has married into an affluent political family and is desperately searching for some meaning in her existence; and impulsive, lovely Sasha, from the ordinary middle-class, whose longing for designer labels and upmarket places is so frantic that she willingly consorts with rich men who can provide them. Nida and Sasha meet at the famous Daata Sahib dargah and connect-their need to understand why their worlds feel so alien and empty, bringing them together.
On her frequent visits to the dargah, Nida meets the gentle, flute-playing hijra Bhanggi, who sits under a bargadh tree and yearns for acceptance and affection, but is invariably shunned. A friendship-fragile, tentative and tender-develops between the two, both exiles within their own lives; but it flies in the face of all convention and cannot be allowed.
Faiqa Mansab’s accomplished and dazzling debut novel explores the themes of love, betrayal and loss in the complex, changing world of today’s Pakistan.
In ‘Connectivity’ a retired bureaucrat’s telephone line is accidentally connected to that of a grieving man’s, while a heart surgeon helps his patient across the great abyss in ‘Song without End’. The fine grooming of a poet is described in ‘A Lane in Lucknow’, and a senile old nawab finds himself a stranger in an altered world in ‘The Taste of Almonds’. In ‘Through the Looking Glass’ a man losing his sight finds he can get to the heart of all the books in his library by an inexplicable miracle, and in ‘Play’ the roles an actor enacts are a source of important life lessons.
Songs without End and Other Stories is a collection of fifteen captivating short stories by Neelum Saran Gour that amuse and absorb by their lively engagement with people, places and ideas in an unforgettable way. Funny, humane and culturally vibrant, these tales portray characters who are challenged by life and who arrive at their own individual truths.
Meet Sravan (novelist, bored husband) and Buddhoo (chatterbox, merry bachelor), friends since their college days. When Buddhoo blows back into Allahabad, peace and quiet leave town. Spouting lustrous tales both true and false, this perpetual nomad spurs his literary friend to ponder the nature of his craft. Things only go awry when Sravan, at work on a family saga, finds that current events begin to look familiar. His real family lands in trouble, and Sravan must face the worrisome fact that his novel is writing his life.
Bursting with snappy chats, glowing yarns and edgy characters, Virtual Realities is at once a romp and a meditation on the stories we all tell, out loud or otherwise, to keep our souls alive.
