Basharat Peer was a teenager when the separatist movement exploded in Kashmir in 1989. Over the following years countless young men, seduced by the romance of the militant, fuelled by feelings of injustice, crossed over the Line of Control to train in Pakistani army camps. Peer was sent off to boarding school in Aligarh to keep out of trouble. He finished college and became a journalist in Delhi. But Kashmir-angrier, more violent, more hopeless-was never far away.
In 2003, the young journalist left his job and returned to his homeland to search out the stories and the people which had haunted him. In Curfewed Night he draws a harrowing portrait of Kashmir and its people. Here are stories of a young man’s initiation into a Pakistani training camp; a mother who watches her son forced to hold an exploding bomb; a poet who finds religion when his entire family is killed. Of politicians living in refurbished torture chambers and former militants dreaming of discotheques; of idyllic villages rigged with landmines, temples which have become army bunkers, and ancient sufi shrines decapitated in bomb blasts. And here is finally the old story of the return home-and the discovery that there may not be any redemption in it.
Lyrical, spare, gutwrenching and intimate, Curfewed Night is a stunning book and an unforgettable portrait of Kashmir in war.
It’s 2006 and George Bush is about to come to India on state visit. As part of his tour, armed with the knowledge that 70 per cent of India is below thirty, he asks to meet one young Indian achiever who represents the new face of the nation.
The US consulate shortlists India Today’s six ‘top Indian achievers under thirty. They are a stockbroking genius, unfortunately named Kapil Dev, a possibly lesbian novelist, the CEO of a lipstick company, a not-for-profit activist with sexist views, a call center owner who once lived in America, and a Microsoft programmer who likes the ladies.
The winner will be selected through a round of tests, each more absurd than the other. The next day, the President will shake their hand among a long line of waiting Indian luminaries. And all six candidates are desperate to win—some are even prepared to sell their soul for it. Who will come out first?
Smart, slick, and sarcastic, The President is Coming is a searing comedy that captures the pulse of the nation like no other book has.
To the world Imran may appear to be a rich, handsome buffoon with his sports car, eccentric dress sense and bizarre sense of humour—but in reality he possesses a razor-sharp mind, and the agility, strength and quick wits of the perfect spy. His colleagues at the secret service make fun of him, but little do they know that he is their mastermind chief X2—a man who can defeat any enemy and solve all mysteries. Detective Imran is spy-novelist Ibn-e Safi’s greatest creation and the bestselling Imran series are Urdu cult classics, translated into English for the first time.
The House of Fear: Dead bodies have been found in an abandoned house, each bearing three identical dagger marks, exactly five inches apart. Who is behind these eerie murders? Only Imran can solve this mystery. The House of Fear is the first book in the Imran series.
Shootout at the Rocks: Colonel Zargham knows he is in grave danger when he receives a three-inch wooden monkey in the mail. This is no ordinary threat, but a warning from the two-hundred-years-old Li Yu Ka, one of the world’s deadliest gangs. The monkey will be followed by a wooden snake, and then a wooden rooster, after which the colonel will be swiftly murdered. Only one man stands between Li Yu Ka and his death: genius sleuth, Ali Imran.
The year is 2500 BC: four high-spirited girls and boys—Kartik, Xerxes, Namami, and Kaveri—have set off from their home in Anantpur for the auspicious Surya Mela in Lothal, a port town in Meluhha (Bharat). But on the way a daring robbery takes place—sacred treasures are stolen from Mohenjo-daro’s temple, including the famous dancing girl statue—and soon, they are caught up in its coils. Then in the city, they meet thirteen year old Amu Darya—a boy from faraway Mesopotamia, a world utterly different from theirs. He is in search of his missing father, last seen in this part of the Indus Valley. The five become fast friends, and band together when they become entangled with forces much darker than they expected. Will the fearless fivesome succeed in foiling evil plans and upholding the honour of Mohenjo-daro?
An amazing tale full of white parrots, elephant rides, river caravans, and secret maps, The Adventure of the Missing Dancing Girl is a glorious children’s story set in the time of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Last week during one of our marathon telephone conversations my mother asked me which one of us, me or Frank, was the woman in our relationship. ‘Neither of us, obviously,’ I said. ‘That’s what makes us gay.’ ‘Very funny,’ my mom said. ‘Someone on Oprah said that often gay couples have one person who plays the man and the other who plays the woman. So I was wondering which you were.’ ‘Frank and I don’t believe in hetero-normative gender roles,’ I told her. I knew my mom didn’t know what ‘hetero-normative’ meant, so I figured she’d drop it. ‘So who does the cooking and cleaning?’ she asked. I could have truthfully answered ‘neither of us.’ Instead I asked, ‘Is that what you think womanhood is, Mom, cooking and cleaning?’
Rahul Mehta’s stories are inhabited by young, gay Indian men on the wrong side of the American dream: adrift in the world, in complicated relationships, and with uncertain futures. Here are lovers who go to a nightclub deciding to cheat on each other; a couple slowly breaking up while they holiday; a young man who can’t stop himself from burning up all his money; another who reluctantly prepares his grandmother for her US citizenship test.
In a voice that’s bare and wry, edgy and tender, Rahul Mehta writes of desire and family ties with rare candor. This is an outstanding debut.
A journalist sits in a café waiting for his subject—an artist called Drishya about whom he wants to write a novel. But Drishya doesn’t come. For that morning he has been visited by Maoists at his home and abducted by them…
So begins Palpasa Café, the extraordinary novel by Nepali journalist Narayan Wagle, which has become a sensation in the country. Starting with the murders of the royal family, it tells the troubled story of contemporary Nepal through the eyes of a romantic artist who falls in love, wanders the war-struck countryside and dreams of creating a café named after his beloved which serves the best coffee in the country.
Playful, moving and melancholic, fusing the boundaries between fiction and non fiction, Palpasa Café presents a rare picture of Nepal at war. It is one of the most important novels to come out of the country.
Was the first man you fell for a brooding desert prince? Or better still, a cruelly handsome feudal lord? Are you a spirited beauty, your fire contained—but only just—by the clinging brocade of your lehenga’s choli? A delicious Kama Kahani is sure to strike your fancy.
Madhubati, the beautiful, fiesty daughter of a Bengali teacher who tutors sons of rich zamindars, is pledged to Bidyut, the son of a family friend. But when fate brings her father’s dashing student Som into her life just as it did six years ago, the voluptuous village belle is forced to choose between fighting against their families-or against her fast-beating heart. Will love prevail over reason and class?
Was the first man you fell for a brooding desert prince? Or better still, a cruelly handsome feudal lord? Are you a spirited beauty, your fire contained—but only just—by the clinging brocade of your lehenga’s choli? A delicious Kama Kahani is sure to strike your fancy.
Rani, a radiant Punjabi beauty and the illegitimate daughter of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, is kidnapped by the notorious bandit Ranbir Singh, who decides to use her as a pawn in his revenge against the King. But soon she realizes she cannot ignore her desire for her captor, handsome and mysterious as he is. Torn between passion and loyalty, past and present, Rani must discover what really lies in her heart.
Was the first man you fell for a brooding desert prince? Or better still, a cruelly handsome feudal lord? Are you a spirited beauty, your fire contained—but only just—by the clinging brocade of your lehenga’s choli? A delicious Kama Kahani is sure to strike your fancy.
Devastatingly handsome Rajput lothario Shivendra of Jaigarh has a formidable reputation—until he meets his match in bewitching Nandini, the headstrong daughter of an impoverished zamindar from Multan. He decides he must have Nandini as his mistress, but she is determined to resist his indecent proposal, attracted as she is to him. Shivendra is persistent, however, and defies convention to bring them together illicitly. But for how long, and to what end? Through desert sandstorms and Mughal camps, the epic love story of the yuvraj and his impetuous lover unfolds.
Q: My girlfriend and I have both been working late these days, and are just not in the mood
for love by the time we get home at night. What can we do?
A: Welcome to the world of morning sex. All you need to get started is to set your alarm
half an hour earlier, and keep breath mints and condoms by your bedside.
They don’t call it ‘morning glory’ for nothing…
Single and sexy Laila is back in Mumbai and seems to have landed the perfect job as features editor and sex columnist of the popular men’s mag Guyzone. Her friends Karthika and Maya cannot stop teasing her as Laila definitely knows a thing or two about men. And there seem to be plenty in her life. There is Neil, Laila’s boyish yet charming photographer flatmate or Rahul, her ex-boyfriend, who still has the hots for her. These and other men are complications Laila can deal with but when Sameer, the suave CEO of Luxur enters her life, she knows she has found her match.
What happens when the tables are turned and Laila loses her heart in this unpredictable game of love? Funny, smart, and utterly entertaining, Girl Plus One captures the life of a spunky city girl and her quest for that perfect plus one.
