The veena had vanished . . . again? There are no coincidences.
Eleven-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician-until her instrument goes missing. It was a gift from her grandmother, an antique veena, intricately carved with a mysterious dragon.What Neela soon discovers is that the veena’s vanishing is no accident but part of a chain of disappearances involving a dead musician, a new girl at school, and an age-old curse. On a journey that takes her from Harvard Square to Chennai, Neela sets out to find her precious veena, learn the truth behind the curse, and discover what it means to be a true musician.
Will Neela be able to track down her family heirloom and stop it from disappearing again?
Catagory: Children
children main category
Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm
Stories with purrs and moos and puzzle clues!
Loud and lively Talky Tumble lives on Jumble Farm with her mum and more animals than she can count. When Mummy falls ill one day, it’s up to Talky, joined by her furry and purry friends, to step in and take charge!
But when it’s Talky’s turn to have a bad day, will she be able to cheer herself up? Or is her grumpy mood going to stay put?
A rollicking ride through a maze of wordplay and a sea of rhyme, this unique interactive picture book is perfect for kids ready to take on scrambled words and opposites.
Lend Me Your Ears
Express to impress
Poets are born. Public speakers are made. And this collection of assorted elocution pieces is designed to do just that: unleash the orator within you. Handpicked by master speaker Terry O’Brien, it includes:
· Delightful poems that impart wisdom: from Kipling’s classic If, to charming verses by the beloved Ruskin Bond
· Eloquent prose pieces: from Twain’s razor-sharp wit to the insights of Bacon
· Impressive dramatic excerpts: think Shakespeare
· Speeches that changed the world: from John F. Kennedy to our very own Mahatma Gandhi
Partitions of the Heart
There was one partition of the land in 1947. Harsh Mander believes that another partition is underway in our hearts and minds.
How much of this culpability lies with ordinary people? What are the responsibilities of a secular government, of a civil society, and of a progressive majority? In Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India, human rights and peace worker Harsh Mander takes stock of whether the republic has upheld the values it set out to achieve and offers painful, unsparing insight into the contours of hate violence. Through vivid stories from his own work, Mander shows that hate speech, communal propaganda and vigilante violence are mounting a fearsome climate of dread, that targeted crime is systematically fracturing our community, and that the damage to the country’s social fabric may be irreparable. At the same time, he argues that hate can indeed be fought, but only with solidarity, reconciliation and love, and when all of these are founded on fairness.
Ultimately, this meticulously researched social critique is a rallying cry for public compassion, conscience and justice, and a paean to the resilience of humanity.
The Children of Destruction
We used to live in a world of magic . . .
For Alice, life as a teenager is hard enough without turning into a supernatural herald of destruction. And you would think that after causing minor hurricanes with a major sneeze, being visited by a talking fox and ending up on a journey with death around every corner, things can’t get much worse.
Wrong.
They can.
Between a blind and telekinetic mass murderer, a girl bound to a shadow-demon and a genetically engineered pseudo messiah, a whole generation of weird is ready to come of age. And when it does, the world will change.
If it survives that long.
Derek’s Picks
Personal favourites of Asia’s no. 1 quizmaster Derek O’Brien, recognized as India’s leading quizmaster. From his vast repertoire of questions that span the informative and educational, thought-provoking facts and trivia, he has gleaned hundreds of his favourites for this unputdownable volume. The questions cover subjects as diverse as the Chinese New Year, coffee, crocodiles and Cleopatra to the Grammy Awards, Gujarat, Mars, swans, tsunamis and West Asia. There are also sets of questions on famous personalities like Asha Bhonsle, Isaac Newton, Lady Diana, Pablo Picasso, Shakespeare and Winnie the Pooh. Each set tests both the extent and depth of the readers’ knowledge on the subject. Among the questions readers will find answers to in this book are:
Millions of years ago, which super-continent did Antarctica originally form a part of?
What were the two styles of shading which Leonardo used to great effects in his paintings?
What special feature of a camel’s eyelids protects it from dust and sun?
What is the study of fishes called?
Whether you are a student, teacher, professional, quiz aficionado, or just a casual reader, this book will keep you engrossed for days.
The Bournvita Quiz Contest Collector’s Edition
THE edition for all quiz aficionados
The award-winning Bournvita Quiz Contest started as a radio programme in 1972, then shifted to television in the 1990s. Since 1994, it has been hosted by Asia’s best-known quizmaster, Derek O’Brien, in his inimitable style, and it holds the record for being the longest-running knowledge game show on Indian television.
This definitive edition comprises a selection of the best Q & As from this iconic children’s show. Featuring 1000 questions, carefully curated from the exhaustive twenty-year-old archives, this book is dotted with heartening anecdotes, fun trivia and thoughtful essays by people who worked on this much-loved show.
The Puffin Book of World Myths and Legends
Timeless stories told anew
Find out how the world was created, why the sun and the moon never meet each other though they live in the same sky, how clouds appeared to save mankind from the sun’s scorching rays and why living creatures shed tears when they are in pain.
Retold by bestselling author Anita Nair, these magical stories from all over the world come alive with a freshness and exuberance that is sure to delight and captivate readers of all ages.
Who Let Nonu Out?
A new house can be fun! Nonu squirrel moves to a new house on a butter fruit tree with mummy squirrel and papa squirrel when mummy squirrel surprises him with – a brand new skateboard ! Hop on the skateboard with little Nonu squirrel and his ‘blue’, and make new friends, eat tasty nut cakes, go to camp, get out of scrapes with the mean Goonda Cat and steal mangoes with the Mango Gang. Featuring charming illustration, Who let Nonu Out ? is a joyride of emotions, experiences and life lessons, and is delightful read for childern (and even adults ) of all ages.
Carpenters and Kings
Jordanus Catalani, the first bishop of the Church of Rome in India, introduced the northern part of the subcontinent to his readers in fourteenth-century Europe in this manner. Two hundred years before the advent of Vasco da Gama, Western Christianity-which comprises the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and Protestant denominations today-had already arrived in India, finding among its diverse people and faiths the Church of the East already at home since the beginning of Christianity.
This is an account of how global events, including the Crusades and the Mongol conquests, came together to bring Western Christianity to India.
A gripping narrative of two diagonally opposite impulses in Christianity: of humble scholars trying to live the Christian ideal, and of ambitious ecclesiastical empire-builders with more earthly goals.
Carpenters and Kings is a tale of Christianity, and, equally, a glimpse of the India which has always existed: a multicultural land where every faith has found a home through the centuries.