A seamless blend of fable and philosophy, the Bhagavata Purana is perhaps the most revered text in the Vaishnava tradition. It brings to life the legends of gods, asuras, sages and kings-all the while articulating the crucial ethical and philosophical tenets that underpin Hindu spiritualism.
The narrative unfolds through a series of conversations and interconnected stories. We are told how the sage Vyasa was inspired by Narada to compose the Bhagavata Purana as a means to illumine the path to a spiritual life. We learn of the devotion of Prahlada, the austerity of Dhruva, and the blinding conceit of Daksha. Also recounted are tales of the many incarnations of Vishnu, especially Krishna, whom we see grow from a beloved and playful child to a fierce protector of the faithful.
Catagory: Fiction
Fiction main category
Haroun And The Sea Of Stories
In a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name, lived a professional storyteller named Rashid and his son Haroun.’ Thus begins Rushdie’s magical and delightful book, which is comprised of hundreds of stories, funny and sad, all of them juggled at once, together with sorcery and love, wicked uncles and fat aunts, and mustachioed gangsters in yellow check pants.
Living Hell
All Nadeem Sayed Khatib, aka Nadeem Chipkali, wants to do is stay in his apartment all day, watch some TV and ignore his mounting worries. He is not in the best shape, cash-wise and otherwise, but let’s be honest: people seriously have it out for him. Sometimes, dangerous people.
Things change when his landlord hauls him up for not paying the rent and practically blackmails him into extracting money from another tenant-Makhija-in the building. Nadeem grumbles his way to Makhija’s apartment, expecting protests and other minor annoyances. What he does not expect is to find him dead-murdered-in the bathroom, a discovery which turns Nadeem’s already messed up on life on its head and lands him deep in the heart of a heinous conspiracy.
As he races against time, a particularly unhelpful police force, the dead man’s bereaved and unusually attractive ex-wife, and the Bombay underworld, Nadeem relies on his wits and an unexpected motley crew of people who, sometimes, want him dead too.
Set against the backdrop of a low-life Bombay that comes alive at night, Living Hell is a fast-paced noir murder mystery with dark humour and an accidental hero.
Love Bi the Way
Rihana is a painter who is trying to find inspiration in love. Zara is a businesswoman trying to make a niche for her company in a male-dominated world. Rihana is fire, Zara is ice; Rihana is openly sensual, while Zara is more cautious with her heart-they are opposites that attract. They are different people bound together by their house-‘Cupid’-and their pet golden retriever, Tiger.
As both of them navigate their fulfilling careers and try to leave behind troubled pasts, they find solace in each other. But Tiger’s not the only male in their lives. Rihana finds herself a string of sexy men, while Zara emerges out of her shell and meets an actual prince who sweeps her off her feet. But can these relationships last? And what road will they take when love happens bi the way?
Sweet Shop
Arising from visits to sweet shops in the by-lanes of Calcutta, these poems brim with the excitement of what it means to discover, marvel at, and taste the universe. As the first line of the book states, ‘The whole universe is here’. Showcasing the edible, the intimate, and the singular, this collection, like the sweet-shop shelf, is characterized by ‘an unnoticed balance of gravity and play’.
‘Chaudhuri’s experiments in poetic alchemy turn sweet nothings into ontological reflections. These odes to the pleasures of faltu-the unnecessary – are pungent, chewy, and succulent.’ –Charles Bernstein
‘The lexical vitality, magically achieved through words which are mostly new to us, is a perfect lyrical representation of the sweetness and elegiac bitterness of life.’ –Bernard O’Donoghue
The Glory Of Patan
The kingdom of Patan faces an ominous future. King Karnadev lies on his deathbed. His son, Jaydev, is too young to ascend the throne. Rumours abound of scheming warlords intent on establishing their own independence and powerful merchants plotting to wrest control from Patan Fort. There is also the shadowy monk Anandsuri and his vision to unite Patan under one religion: Jainism.
In the eye of this gathering storm are Queen Minaldevi and the shrewd chief minister Munjal Mehta. Both have striven to maintain order in Patan and ensure that Jaydev’s succession is secure. But the attraction between them is threatened by betrayal and intrigue, with dramatic consequences for the future of Patan.
A sprawling, fast-paced saga in the oeuvre of Alexandre Dumas, The Glory of Patan is the first book in an epic trilogy about the exploits of the magnificent Chalukya dynasty at a crucial period in the history of Gujarat.
Kaifiyat
Kaifi Azmi’s literary legacy remains a bright star in the firmament of Urdu poetry. His poetic temperament-ranging from timeless lyrics in films like Kagaz Ke Phool to soaring revolutionary verses that denounced tyranny-seamlessly combined the radical and the progressive with the lyrical and the romantic.
Love and romance, in fact, run like warp through the woof of politics and protest in Kaifi’s poetry. This beautifully curated volume brings together poems and lyrics that reflect Kaifi’s views on women and romance-from sweetly lyrical odes like ‘The First Greeting’ to the powerful, anthem-like ‘Woman’; from the haunting ‘Regret’ to the mercurial ‘She of Many Faces’. These stunning verses conjure a dynamic portrait of womanhood as seen through the eyes of an exquisitely gifted poet.
This scintillating new translation is accompanied by an illuminating introduction by Rakhshanda Jalil on Kaifi Azmi’s life and legacy, as well as a moving foreword by his daughter Shabana Azmi.
The Girl From Nongrim Hills
Bok, a guitar player with a Shillong band, has a lot on his mind. His elder brother Kitdor has lost 50 lakh rupees on a trip to Nagaland to purchase arms for a group of militants. Kitdor is given a week to repay the money, and the only person he can turn to is his laidback younger brother. Bok is helpless until a chance encounter with a beautiful woman provides him with a desperate solution. But fate can’t be cheated and soon the hapless musician is tangled in her web of lies. He must outmanoeuvre her and the trail of politicians, militants and cops she leaves in her wake, and find the 50 lakh in time if he is to save his brother.
Dark, atmospheric and utterly gripping, The Girl from Nongrim Hills is a superb thriller and a great Shillong novel.
Dead Meat
A chopped-up body recovered from a tandoor oven A quiet young accountant missing with a suitcase full of cash Match-fixing and illegal betting in a city in the grip of T20 ever
A lonely detective with a conscience …
Private eye Arjun Arora works the streets of Delhi dealing with the shady underbelly of the capital city. Hired to track down a missing person, Arjun stumbles upon a gruesome murder where the suspects seem to be linked to something larger and more sinister.
Part noir thriller and part detective story, Dead Meat introduces us to an unforgettable character-Arjun Arora, a man with a troubled past-who takes us on a dark and
memorable journey through the greed and grime of today’s urban India.
Part noir thriller and part detective story, Dead Meat
introduces us to an unforgettable character-Arjun Arora,
a man with a bad marriage, a drinking habit, and a troubled
past-who takes us on a dark and dangerous journey
through the grime of today’s urban India.
More Bodies Will Fall
A girl from north-east India is murdered in Delhi. The main suspect is her ‘Indian’ boyfriend, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove his guilt. Amid a growing outcry about police neglect and racial injustice, detective Arjun Arora reluctantly takes on this case. Immediately, he finds himself propelled into a tangled investigation that leads him beyond the hills of Nagaland and Manipur to the Indo-Myanmar border with new suspects emerging at every turn, including an American working at the US Embassy who may or may not be a CIA spy.
The search for answers embroils him in the dangerous new realities of the North-east–riven with strife and suffering–and also brings him face-to-face with an old enemy, culminating in an unexpected climax.