Kathmandu is the greatest city of the Himalaya; a unique survival of cultural practices that died out in India a thousand years ago. It is a carnival of sexual licence and hypocrisy, a jewel of world art, a hotbed of communist revolution, a paradigm of failed democracy, a case study in bungled Western intervention, and an environmental catastrophe.
Closed to the outside world until 1951 and trapped in a medieval time warp, Kathmandu’s rapid modernization is an extreme version of what is happening in many traditional societies. The many layers of the city’s development are reflected in the successive generations of its gods and goddesses, witches and ghosts; the comforts of caste; the ethos of aristocracy and kingship; and the lately destabilizing spirits of consumer aspiration, individuality, egalitarianism, communism and democracy.
Kathmandu follows the author’s story through a decade in the city, and unravels the city’s history through successive reinventions of itself. Erudite, entertaining and accessible, it is the fascinating chronicle of a unique city.
Sharp, insightful, shocking, delightful . . . In this sparkling memoir, Vinod Mehta, India’s most independent, principled—and irreverent—editor finally tells his own story. With its ringside view of some major events of our times, and masterly portraits from the worlds of politics, business, films
and the media, this unputdownable book brims over with wit, wisdom, scandal and gossip.
Born in April 1891into a poor Mahar family, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a victim of caste discrimination for most of his early life. And while India struggled against the oppressions of British Raj, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb, continued his struggle against the oppressions of the Indian caste system, the social discriminations against Dalits in India. He struggled so the underprivileged sections of Indian society could enjoy equal political rights and be treated with equal respect.
An Indian jurist, politician, philosopher, anthropologist, historian and economist, Babasaheb was one of the earliest Dalit’s to earn a college degree. He grew to be the principal architect of Indian constitution. He published journals, periodicals, and launched active movements for social and political freedom for India’s Dalit community.
Ambedkar, in the later years of his life, turned to Buddhism, preached it and finally made a formal conversion. This book explores the life and times of the independent India’s first law minister who fought against the discriminations inflicted by his own countrymen, who lived his life acting only in the interest of people.
Payal Kapadia is the author of the very popular Wisha Wozzawriter published by Puffin in 2012. She lives in Bombay.
If eleven-year-old Ferg Gottin had been bought from a store, his parents would have returned him and demanded a refund. Because, you see, for the Gottins, parenting is an experiment gone badly wrong. So when they find a school where you can dump your kids and forget about them, they decide that Horrid High is the perfect place for Ferg. But there’s nothing perfect about Horrid High-it’s quite unlike the boarding schools Ferg has read about in storybooks. Ferg soon realizes that this isn’t just a school for orphans, runaways and rejects. Horrid High is a training ground for horrid teachers who are being sent out into the world to spread horridness! If that’s not enough,Principal Perverse has a Grand Plan that he plans to reveal to every horrid teacher everywhere. Ferg and his friends are the only hope that the children of the world now have. Will they manage to save the day? Open the gates of Horrid High and find out!
‘All our lives we are running. What are we running from? What is the fear? The fear is that on the one hand we are unable to live fully, and on the other hand the fear of death is imminent, present. Both things are interconnected . . . then what is the answer?’ Osho
Most of us look for security in our relationships and in our choice of living and working conditions. Underlying this search for security is a deep, instinctive fear of death, which continually colours our lives and drives our focus outward, toward survival.
But we also have a longing to turn inward, to relax deeply within ourselves, and experience the sense of freedom and expansion this brings. With this book the reader can start an exploration of his or her inner world.
Osho debunks the myths and misunderstandings around death and invites us to experience our eternal inner space that is now and here.
THE WORLD’S MOST HORRID SCHOOL JUST GOT MORE HORRID!
When Granny Grit is called away on a most mysterious mission, twelve-year-old Ferg and his friends are left at the mercy of Cook Fracas’s frenzied food fights, Colonel Craven’s manic panics and Miss Nottynuf’s nervous nail-biting. To make matters worse, the Grand Plan is still missing and the kids must find it before someone truly awful does.
Can Ferg and his friends survive another term at the world’s most horrid school? Return to Horrid High and find out!
ONE AMAZING STORY. TWO DIFFERENT ENDINGS.
At the end of Perumal Murugan’s trailblazing novel One Part Woman, readers are left on a cliffhanger as Kali and Ponna’s intense love for each other is torn to shreds. What is going to happen next to this beloved couple?
In Trial by Silence-one of two inventive sequels that picks up the story right where One Part Woman ends-Kali is determined to punish Ponna for what he believes is an absolute betrayal. But Ponna is equally upset at being forced to atone for something that was not her fault. In the wake of the temple festival, both must now confront harsh new uncertainties in their once idyllic life together.
In Murugan’s magical hands, this story reaches a surprising and dramatic conclusion.
ONE AMAZING STORY. TWO DIFFERENT ENDINGS.
At the end of Perumal Murugan’s trailblazing novel One Part Woman, readers are left on a cliffhanger as Kali and Ponna’s intense love for each other is torn to shreds. What is going to happen next to this beloved couple?
In A Lonely Harvest-one of two inventive sequels that pick up the story right where One Part Woman ends-Ponna returns from the temple festival to find that Kali has killed himself in despair. Devastated that he would punish her so cruelly, but constantly haunted by memories of the happiness she once shared with Kali, Ponna must now learn to face the world alone.
With poignancy and compassion, Murugan weaves a powerful tale of female solidarity and second chances.
In a life spanning nine decades, Krishna Kumar Birla (1918-2008), son of the legendary Ghanshyam Das Birla, witnessed landmark events that shaped India in the twentieth century, and had close associations with iconic figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Madan Mohan Malviya, Jayaprakash Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Head of one of India’s leading business houses, K.K. Birla embraced principles in which the creation of wealth, philanthropy and political leadership were all regarded as part of nation-building.
An illuminating and engaging chronicle, Brushes with History brings alive an important era in the life of the nation, its changing social mores, evolving principles of corporate governance and enduring family values. In an affectionate and moving tribute, K.K. Birla’s daughter, Shobhana Bhartia, acquaints readers with her father’s spiritual strength and moral values that were an integral part of his life.
Who was Radha, and why has she captured the imagination of so many writers across centuries? No other goddess combines the elements of bhakti and shringara quite as exquisitely as the divine milkmaid. She spans a vivid rainbow of imagery-from the playfulness of the Ras Lila to the soulfulness of her undying love, from the mystic allure of her depictions in poetry, art and sculpture to her enduring legacy in Vrindavan. In a way that sets her apart from other female consorts, Radha is idealized and dreamed of in a way that is almost more elemental than mythical.
Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal, who brought us In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology, now present an anthology on the mysterious Radha, the epitome of love, who defies all conventional codes yet transcends social prohibitions through the power of the spiritual and the sensual, the sacred and the erotic. Finding Radha is the first of its kind: a collection of poetry, prose and translation that enter the historical as well as the artistic dimensions of the eternal romance of Radha and Krishna.
