Aru and Rohit get married and settle down into the life of a working couple in a big city. Aru, still coming to terms with her mother Sumi’s death in a road accident and her father Gopal’s desertion of the family prior to that, remains the force that binds the lives of her sisters and her aunts. But tragedy strikes the family again, in the form of a devastating act of terrorism and a heinous crime and Aru has to face some of her life’s toughest moments.
Shadow Play is a masterful meditation on kinship, marriage, ambition and the changing face of urban India. Filled with a memorable cast of characters, it also tells the story of Kasturi, trying to find understanding and peace after enduring extreme cruelty and heartbreak. Kalyani, who atones for the wrongs society deals its women through an act of generosity in her death and Gracy, Tressa and Ramu, a family torn asunder by a senseless act of violence.
In Shadow Play, one of India’s most respected and accomplished novelists has produced a work that is deeply humane and contemplative—as much about the ephemeral nature of human life as it is about the enduring relationships that give it meaning.
Catagory: Literature & Fiction
Strangers to Ourselves
She—an oncologist whose days are driven by the desire to alleviate pain.
He—a rising star in the musical world, whose life is governed by his art.
Yet, all it takes is one meeting for everything to change.
Set in Mumbai, Strangers to Ourselves tells the story of an unlikely love between two unusual people. Tender and tempestuous by turns, it draws you into the conflicts, languid pleasures and sharp sorrows of falling in love with a stranger who can never entirely be yours.
Nishesh/नि:शेष
देश के बंटवारे के बाद पाकिस्तान से आई एक हिंदू रिफ्यूजी महिला की कहानी जो चंडीगढ़ में अपने पत्रकार पति के साथ रहती है और कई द्वंदों में जीती है। उसे विभाजन के दिनों का भाईचारा याद आता है, हिंसा याद आती है और दगाबाजियाँ भी याद आती है। इस पुस्तक में प्रेम है, विछोह है, जड़ों की ओर लौटने की तड़प है और विचारधाराओं का द्वंद है। कुल मिलाकर यह किताब एक खंडित व्यक्तिक्व की महिला की कहानी है जो बंटवारे के बाद अपनी जड़ों से उखड़ चुकी है, प्रेम और आकर्षण के बीच के अंतर को समझ नहीं पाती और फिर नारीवाद की कई परतों से गुजरकर एक पारिवारिक लेकिन लगभग एकाकी जीवन जी रही है जिसमें उसका पति तो साथ है, लेकिन वह भी अपनी दुनिया में डूबा हुआ है।
Under the Night Jasmine
How complex are relationships between men and women? How corrupted is a man’s thinking for women he interacts with? Even though a woman gives birth to a man, how little a man understands her!
When the pandemic strikes and the lockdown happens, the usually, always travelling Rohit is forced travel within himself and explore his relationships thus far: with his mother, his teacher, his lovers—relationships that affect his current thought process, his relationships now. With the first stirrings of sexual attraction for his teacher and her lover came the shame of desire. His relationship with his lost girlfriend, with Dushyant, brings in guilt and remorse. What could he have done differently? What kind of a shameless person was he, using people to fulfil himself?
Fluctuating between poetry and prose, questioning even the method of writing Under the Night Jasmine is a world that is layered and many-splendored. It’s a coming-of-age novel — A micro look at a man’s world that both pushes back and fascinates.
Shubhda/शुभदा
वह आकर बोला, अपने संदूक की चाभी दे।’ गला बड़ा मोटा था – भारी। अचानक, सुनते ही ख़्याल होता था, मानो कोशिश करके वह ऐसा भारी गले से बोल रहा था। शुभदा कुछ नहीं बोली।
उसने फिर वैसे ही स्वर में, लाठी को फिर एक बार ज़मीन पर पटककर कहा, ‘चाभी दे, नहीं तो गला दबाकर मार डालूँगा।’
अब शुभदा उठ बैठी । तकिए के नीचे से चाभियों का गुच्छा निकालकर पास ही फें ककर धीरे-धीरे शांत भाव से बोली, मेरे बड़े सन्दूक के दाहिनी ओर के खाने में पचास रुपए का नोट हैकृवही लेना। बाईं ओर विश्वनाथ बाबा का प्रसाद है, उसपर कहीं हाथ न डालना।’ जिस तरह शांत भाव से उसने यह सब कह डाला, उससे यह नहीं मालूम होता था कि उसे अब रत्तीभर भी डर लग रहा है। शुभदा एक ऐसी नारी की मार्मिक कथा है जो गरीबी की यातनाएंॅ भोगते हुए अपने नशेड़ी पति के प्रति समर्पिता ही नहीं, बल्कि स्वाभिमानिनी भी है – शुभदा और उसकी विधवा बेटी के माध्यम से शरत् बाबू ने नारी वेदना की गहन अभिव्यक्ति की है। संभवतया इसी कारण उन्हें ‘नारी वेदना का पुरोहित’ कहा जाता है।
Grihdah/गृहदाह
गृहदाह शरत् चन्द्र का 1919 में प्रकाशित एक चर्चित उपन्यास है। इसमें महिम, सुरेश और अचला की कहानी है। शरत् चंद्र ने इसमें हिंदू धर्म और ब्रह्म समाज के बीच उभर रहे विरोधाभास को उजागर किया है। यही कारण है कि यह कृति सामाजिक विसंगतियों, विषमताओं और विडम्बनाओं का चित्रण करनेवाली एक अनुपम कृति बन पड़ी है। यह उपन्यास एक ऐसी महान रचना है, जो लम्बे समय तक पाठक के मन को गुदगुदाती रहेगी, साथ ही एक नए कोण से सोचने के लिए भी विवश करेगी, क्योंकि इसमें धर्म एवं समाज के बीच मतभेद के अलावा एक प्रेममयी नारी के हृदय की विवशता का भी बड़ा ही अनोखा चित्र प्रस्तुत किया गया है।
Secrets Within
In the shadow of opulence, ambition can be a dangerous driving force. Aakash, a visionary architect, finds himself with the chance of a lifetime—a contract that could crown his career or crush it. The job? To build and redesign a mansion for Mr Khanna, a man whose riches are only matched by his secrets. Aakash’s path to success is paved with temptations when he crosses paths with the enigmatic Maya, Mr Khanna’s wife, whose eyes hold stories yet to be told.
Caught in a clandestine spiral with Maya, Aakash must navigate a maze of intrigue that leads him to the very heart of the Khanna empire. But in a world where wealth whispers and walls talk, he finds himself ensnared in a plot much darker than he imagined.
Dive into Secrets Within, where the scent of scandal is as intoxicating as the allure of power. Here, every corner turned could be a step towards an empire or a slip into an abyss, and every face masks a secret dying to break free.
Will Aakash be able to navigate this treacherous maze to emerge victorious or will he become a casualty of his unchecked desires?
Behind the gates of the Khanna mansion, a game of deceit beckons, where the price of truth may be too perilous to pay.
Fool Me Twice
Since school, Sana has been the popular girl with excellent grades, beloved by both teachers and parents, living an enviable life. Sana and Ashish have been dating since the eleventh grade, sharing the kind of teenage romance that makes it to the bestsellers list, sells out theatres and causes their loveless friends to gag. Nothing, not even long-distance, can tear the two apart.
Except, maybe, a handsome, overachieving, book-reading senior from Sana’s college?
Pranav is the typical ‘cool guy’ sought after by the entire college. He also happens to be Sana’s new friend, Aanchal’s, brother. But he’s nothing more than a friend! Sana already has the best boyfriend in the world!
Correction: had, before a drunk driver on New Year’s Eve obliterated her happiness.
Set in New Delhi, Fool Me Twice is an unconventional story that will stump readers expecting a good, old romance trope. We meet and fall in love with a young couple planning their futures together when life rudely hijacks the steering wheel. Exploring the ways a twenty-year-old navigates grief and life after a loss that shatters most fifty-year-olds, Fool Me Twice looks at the complexity of falling in love ‘again’ at an age where most are falling for the first time, and what it feels like to move on from mourning one great love to make room for another.
Charu, Chivar Aur Charya/चरु, चीवर और चर्या
यह ऐतिहासिक उपन्यास आठवीं सदी के भौमकर राजवंश की एक कहानी है। यह एक विराट आख्यान है, जिसमें बौद्ध धर्म का उसकी ऊँचाइयों को छूना, उसकी साधना एवं परंपरा तथा उसे मिल रहा राज्याश्रय और उसका क्षरण सभी शामिल है।
उड़िया से हिंदी में अनुदित चरु, चीवर और र्चया एक क्लासिक श्रेणी का उपन्यास है जिसके मूल उड़िया संस्करण को उड़िशा में प्रतिष्ठित सरला पुरस्कार से सम्मानित किया जा चुका है।
East and West: Stories of India
Pippa Rann Books commissioned this book for the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.
East and West is a captivating collection, exploring contrasting and complementary aspects of India through stories of seekers, and stories of ordinary Indians; stories of heroes, frauds, and victims; stories set in America, and stories set in India.
“I found myself in each story living the situation and the outcome”
– MEENA KAUSHIK PhD., CEO OF QUANTUM CONSUMER SOLUTIONS, BANGALORE
“Unique, wonderfully written, and enchanting. Not only worth reading, but reading again, and reading aloud to others”
– RAVI RAVINDRA, PhD, AUTHOR OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA: A GUIDE TO NAVIGATING THE BATTLE OF LIFE
“The Catherine Ann Jones dharma is storytelling”
– R. E. MARK LEE, AUTHOR OF WORLD TEACHER: THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF J. KRISHNAMURTI
“Catherine Ann Jones knows India and loves its people with the deepest understanding. She writes with the clarity and delicacy of butterfly wings” – ROSHAN SETH, ACTOR