Cambridge-educated Sir Saraswati Chandra Ranbakshi is a towering public figure in early twentieth century India. A firm believer in the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, he also has faith in the virtues of the British Raj. As a result, he has to mediate between the Maharaja of a princely state and the Viceroy and strike a fine balance between tradition and modernity. This tussle between old and new values is reflected in his three children, the daredevil Maneka, the timid Sita, and their brother, Yogendra, who turns their father’s world upside down by falling in love with a lower-caste girl.
A comedy of manners laced with intrigue and excitement, The Tailor’s Needle explores some of the great moral dilemmas of pre-independent India with wit and sensitivity.
Catagory: Fiction
Fiction main category
Return To Bhanupur
‘It is the first duty of kingship to be as the people wish to see me.’
This fictional account of events in the court of the princely state of Bhanupur, a hundred years ago, is a tale of intrigue, politics and image-building. What was going through the mind of Maharaja Amar Singh II in the key moments of his reign? How much did he rely on the advice of his clever prime minister Chatterjee, the wily Bengali? How did he solve sensitive issues like undertaking a voyage across the seas to attend the coronation ceremony of the British king, without polluting his caste? And what were his relations with the British—especially with Dr Constable and the architect Colonel Talbot, employed by his court? As the narrative moves towards its tragic conclusion, the characters’ innermost convictions are laid bare
Dance Of Death
Three stories-one of a demi-god, a Swamiji on trial for murdering his followers, the other, of a young law graduate, racked by nightmares and Fits, and that of a judge whose entire family is threatened because he is presiding on the Swami’s case-come together in strange ways… …and raise a few questions:
Where is the Swami’s wife, the only witness to the case? Why does the young man not respond to treatment? Why does every judge die or leave soon after he takes up the Swamiji’s case?
The mystery slowly begins to unravel as the story progresses and out tumbles a shocking tale of horror, black magic and hypnotism…
The Terrorist
When you are trained to endure the harshest of climates, the most hostile of situations, to survive where no ordinary man can – there’s little difference between you and the terrorist you are trying to kill. Little, except which side you are on. Suvir and Murad – both victims of circumstance, both numb with the pain of haivng lost their loved ones – choose to do things differently. While one becomes the most feared of terrorist, the other joins the Special forces. Their face-off is a flight to death as one is out to carry out a major terrorist operation in Delhi and the other has been specially called in to foil the attack… Moving breathlessly, through rugged terrain, this edgy thriller will not let you rest till the very last page!
The Sly Company Of People Who Care
When a young Indian journalist quits his job to take a year off in Guyana, he discovers a country of epic indolence, lush rainforests and an array of characters . Among the motley crowd of seasoned rogues, Samaritans and ideologues, people trying to escape or accept their colonial legacies, he falls for Jan, a girl who transports him to a new place-within himself and in the world. Acute and lyrical, this brilliant first novel is one of the finest literary achievements to come out of the subcontinent in the last decade.
The Monochrome Madonna
Sitara said, with awful distinctness, ‘I think I’m going to die’.
And that’s how I got stuck with the annual corpse. Half an hour later I stood in an empty flat, along with a stranger who was very recently, and very violently, dead.
Rushing to Sitara’s aid, Lalli’s niece Sita is distracted by Raphael’s Sistine Madonna. Why is it monochrome? And what does it have to do with the body on the living-room floor?
Such questions are hardly relevant to the police in their hunt for the murderer. But Lalli is a detective who revels in curiosities, and she thinks otherwise.
A brisk thriller of deceit and intrigue, The Monochrome Madonna has Lalli at her most astute as she interprets the nuances of a murder without motive.
The Morning After
The Woman Who Flew
Winner of the Philips Literary Award in Bangladesh
The Woman Who Flew (Urukkoo) tells the story of Nina, a young woman who moves from small-town Bangladesh to the megacity of Dhaka, where she soon finds herself divorced, bereaved of her newborn and trapped in a mundane existence. Hungry for fresh air, Nina strikes up a friendship with her mother’s handsome ex-lover, Irfan, who encourages her to paint again. But as Nina tugs at her chains, her sexually confused ex-husband, Rezaul, insinuates himself back into her life, leaving her pregnant . . .
Intense, edgy and tinged with rage, The Woman Who Flew lays bare the inner world of a woman beating her wings against a hostile, conservative landscape.
The Man Who Tried To Remember
A well-known figure in Pune, Achyut Athavale is a retired economist of wide-ranging interests and some social standing. He is often invited to give lectures and speak at public events. One such speech results in a riot taking place in the city, leading a troubled Achyut to move into a home for the elderly located near three small villages in rural India named Norway, Sweden and Denmark. There Achyut suffers a temporary loss of memory and murders another inmate of the home. Events take a turn for the bizarre with the media, the Hindi film industry and some international political figures campaigning to assert Achyut’s innocence.
Bringing together the stylistic elements of the early twentieth-century Marathi novel and the modern European Absurd in this superbly crafted exploration of causality and memory, Makarand Sathe creates a scathing and humorous narrative around the happenings of Achyut’s life.
Confessionally Yours
Jhoomur Bose is a former journalist, blogger and full-time mother. She has written for various Indian magazines, newspapers and websites and currently lives in Melbourne, Australia. She writes about stuff that happens and stuff she wishes would happen at http://twistingthetail.blogspot.com