Prithviraj Chauhan was destiny’s chosen one, singled out for glory and greatness. During the course of an extraordinary life, he transcended the limits imposed on mortals and achieved Godlike luster. The conquering hero dreamed of a united land where peace prevailed over war and love over hate.
Princess Samyukta loved him from afar, and when Prithviraj Chauhan claimed her for his own, defying the wrath of an implacable foe, their happiness was complete. Victorious in love and war, Prithviraj Chauhan was soon to discover that success came with a terrible price – trials, treachery and tragedy. What happened next? Read the tale of the legendary warrior who lives on in the hearts of those who remember his unmatched valor and timeless heroism.
A gorgeous, lucid rendering of the majestic conclusion to the Mahabharata
As an epilogue to the greatest epic of all time, the Harivamsha further elaborates on the myriad conflicts of dharma and the struggle between good and evil. Stories abound-from the cosmogony of the universe to the legends of the solar and lunar dynasties and even a foreshadowing of kali yuga in the future. At the centre of all these magnificent tales is the mercurial figure of Krishna, whose miraculous life and wondrous exploits are recounted with vivid detail. In offering a glimpse into Krishna’s life-as a mischievous child, as an enchanting lover, as a discerning prince-this luminous text sheds light on many questions left unanswered in the Mahabharata.
Brimming with battles and miracles, wisdom and heroics, philosophical insight and psychological acuity, Bibek Debroy’s splendid translation of the Harivamsha is absolutely essential reading for all those who love the Mahabharata.
At a time when writing by and about women was rare and tentative, Ismat Chughtai explored female sexuality with unparalleled frankness and examined the political and social mores of her time.
She wrote about the world that she knew, bringing the idiom of the middle class to Urdu prose, and totally transformed the complexion of Urdu fiction.
Lifting the Veil brings together Ismat Chughtai’s fiction and non-fiction writing. The twenty-one pieces in this selection are Chughtai at her best, marked by her brilliant turn of phrase, scintillating dialogue and wry humour, her characteristic irreverence, wit and eye for detail.
Srikanta, the narrator of Saratchandra’s epic novel, is an aimless drifter, a passive spectator to his own life, a weak and impressionable soul who cannot survive without the support of an individual stronger than himself. As a child he idealizes the chaste and selfless Annada Didi. Arriving in Burma as a young man looking for new experiences, Srikanta meets the rebellious Abhaya who rejects her violent, bigamous husband to live openly with her lover. Srikanta then experiments with becoming a sanyasi, is bewitched for a while by the Vaishnavi, Kamal Lata, and wanders on till his directionless existence finally finds a focus- when he resigns himself to life with the notorious but stunning Pyari Baiji, breaking free of the social values he grew up with. Through his dynamic and arresting characters, Saratchandra brings alive nineteenth-century Bengal, rife with prejudices and ready for change.
One of the giants of Hindi literature, Jainendra introduced the ‘psychological’ in Hindi fiction. Questions of love, marriage and relationships occupy much of Jainendra’s works, taking them into the realm of the internal and the intimate. In The Resignation, Jainendra tells the story of Mrinal, a young woman whose uncompromising idealism results in her family and society rejecting her completely. Almost seventy-five years after it was written, the story of Mrinal’s struggle against stultifying social norms and her fierce individualism remain startlingly relevant.
When her parents die in an air crash, Mikki Hiralal discovers that her father’s massive business empire is in serious trouble. And it’s up to her to sort the mess. Beset by creditors, rapacious tycoons and untrustworthy associates, the young woman realizes that there is only one person she can turn to for help—the beautiful Alisha, her father’s illegitimate daughter. There is only one hitch—Alisha hates Mikki . . .
A divorce and a succession of sordid affairs have left prominent Bombay socialite Karuna feeling battered, empty and melancholic. She looks back upon her life and the friends and enemies who surround her-neurotic, man-hungry Anjali; gorgeous, vivacious Ritu; high-profile editor Varun, with a penchant for young boys; Krish, the pretentious adman, whose wife actively helps him in his extramarital affairs. Scandalous, astute and utterly riveting, Shobhaa Dé’s first novel, Socialite Evenings, laid bare the world of high-society India and changed the face of the Indian novel forever.
The god Shiva is utterly seduced by Mohini, the enchanting female form assumed by the god Vishnu during the churning of the ocean for nectar. A barber employs wit and wile and rumours of witchcraft to win his wife back from the lustful attentions of their king. The celestial nymph Urvashi curses the Pandava prince Arjuna when he rejects her sexual advances. A woman caught in adultery befools her elders with a religious ritual. A man with a disagreeable missing wife insists nevertheless that she be recovered by his ruler who has a similar problem.
Refined, colloquial, romantic, cynical, satirical by turns, these stories of erotic love, elegantly translated from the Sanskrit classics, make a sustained argument for the secular ends of life of desire tempered with discrimination and pleasure with restraint.
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.
French Lover is the story of Nilanjana, a young Bengali woman from Kolkata who moves to Paris after getting married to Kishanlal, a restaurant owner. Kishanlal’s luxurious apartment seems to be a gilded cage for Nilanjana, and she feels stifled within its friendless confines. Her marriage, where she functions as little more than a housekeeper and sex object, is far from fulfilling and Nilanjana desperately looks for a way out of the boredom and depression that threaten to engulf her. It is at this point that she meets Benoir Dupont, a blond, blue-eyed handsome Frenchman, and is swept off her feet. Benoir introduces Nilanjana to the streets, cafes and art galleries of Paris. In her passionate, sexually liberating relationship with Benoir, she finally begins to have an inkling of her own desires. The relationship ends when Nilanjana realises that Benoir’s first priority is himself and not the woman he loves, and that her need for him has ended. But her road to self-discovery has only just begun. Bold in concept and powerful in execution, French Lover is a fascinating glimpse into the workings of a woman’s mind as she struggles to come to terms with her identity in a hostile world.
