AN EXPLOSIVE NEW NOVEL THAT ASKS DIFFICULT QUESTIONS ABOUT MODERN IDENTITY IN A WORLD ON FIRE
Anita Rose lives in a concrete block in one of Karachi’s biggest slums, languishing in poverty with her mother and older brother. Determined to escape her stifling circumstances, she struggles to educate herself, scribbling down English words-gleaned from watching TV or taught by her elderly neighbour-in her most prized possession: a glossy red notebook. All the while she is aware that a larger destiny awaits her.
On the other side of Karachi lives Monty, whose father owns half the city. But Monty wants more than fast cars and easy girls. When the rebellious Layla joins his school, he knows his life will never be the same again.
And far away in Portsmouth, Sunny fits in nowhere. It is only when he meets his charismatic, suntanned cousin Oz-whose smile makes Sunny feel found-that that he realizes his true purpose.
These three disparate lives will cross paths in the middle of a desert, a place where life and death walk hand-in-hand, and where their closely guarded secrets will force them to make a terrible choice.
Nine-year-old Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari and Faiz. When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.
But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighbourhood. Jai, Pari and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force and rumours of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.
Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is extraordinarily moving, flawlessly imagined and a triumph of suspense. It captures the fierce warmth, resilience and bravery that can emerge in times of trouble and carries the reader headlong into a world that, once encountered, is impossible to forget.
Loya is twenty-five: solitary, sincere, with restless stirrings in her heart. In an uncharacteristic move, she sets off on an unexpected journey, away from her mother, Rukmini, and her home in Bengaluru, to distant, misty Assam. She comes looking for her beloved Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, but also seeks someone else-her grandfather, Torun Ram Goswami, someone she has never met before. She arrives at the Yellow House on the banks of the Brahmaputra, where Torun lives, not knowing that her life is about to change. Twenty-five years ago, Rukmini had been cast out of the family home by her mother, the formidable and charismatic Usha, while Torun watched silently. Loya now seeks answers, both from him and from the place that her mother once called home. In her quest, she finds an understanding not only of herself and her life but also of the precarious bonds that tie people together.
A delicate, poignant portrait of family and all that it contains, Undertow becomes, in the hands of this gifted writer, an exploration of much more: home and the outside world, the insider and the outsider, and the ever-evolving nature of love itself.
A dazzling translation of one of the most revered ancient Bhakti poems
The Tiruvaymoli (sacred utterance or sacred truth) is a grand 1102-verse poem, composed in the ninth century by Sathakopan-Nammalvar, the greatest of the alvar poets. Ingeniously weaving a garland of words-where each beginning is also an ending-the poet traces his cyclical quest for union with the supreme lord, Visnu. In this magnificent translation, Archana Venkatesan transports the flavour and cadences of Tamil into English, capturing the different voices and range of emotions through which the poet expresses his enduring desire for release. The scholarly introduction illuminates the poem’s kaleidoscopic brilliance and the traditions of devotional religiosity it inspired.
When Amal finds out that her disastrous Tinder match is now going to be her boss, she can’t be more annoyed. Qais Ahmed is everything she never wants to be: narcissistic, manipulative and arrogant.
However, despite her relentless efforts, she is unable to resist his charm and wit and is drawn to him once she gets to know the real him.
She soon discovers that he isn’t just a part of her professional life but has a deep connection to a past she is trying to forget.
Will this disturbing secret tear them apart or bind them together forever?
ITC Engage, one of India’s leading fragrance brands is back with its much-loved bestselling series Pocketful O’Stories 2.0 in collaboration with the bestselling romance novelist Durjoy Datta.
This year’s theme, @LOVEIMPROMTWO was inspired by the newly launched 2-in-1 Pocket Perfume which makes sure that you are always ready for romance. People were invited to submit microtales on the unexpected and impromptu moments of love. Almost 25,000 entries were received within a month, making the second edition bigger than the first. Here’s presenting a compilation of the best stories that also includes Durjoy’s own microtales on unexpected moments of romance.
Bholanath and Khudabaksh are two soldiers in the British Indian Army, sent off to Europe to fight in World War I. One happens to be Hindu and the other happens to be Muslim, but that doesn’t keep them from being the best of friends.
When a mission in a surveillance balloon goes awry, these two gentle soldiers-along with an exceptionally ill-tempered squirrel-are set adrift high above the Western Front. What follows is a grand tragicomic adventure, taking them into the heavens and across a continent gone mad with war. Together, they learn about the worst humankind can do . . . and how true friends, however unalike their identities may be, can soar above it all.
Guru Nanak was deeply spiritual from an early age, having being born into a
society caught in the throes of orthodoxy and ritualism. The ills of child
marriage, infanticide and a rigid caste system had further crippled his people.
The outpouring of Nanak’s faith evolved into the universal message of the
omnipresence and existence of one God, of true love, equality and compassion,
which appealed to Hindus and Muslims alike.
Drawing upon the various myths and legends contained in anecdotal biographies
and placing them in as precise a historical framework as possible, The Book of
Nanak traces the chronology of the main events of Nanak’s life. It sheds new
light on Guru Nanak’s message and includes translations of some of his hymns,
which continue to inspire people the world over.
The easiest way to learn Hindi (or any other language) is to hear it spoken. This book, designed by a successful Hindi teacher to foreigners, creates an “audio” effect for quicker grasp and assimilation. Rules of grammar have been explained only where absolutely necessary. A direct conversational style, with the help of a minimal vocabulary, phrases and sentences, makes learning Hindi effortless and pleasurable. Correct pronunciation is a difficult exercise, especially for tongues not accustomed to Devanagari script. Diacritical marks have been provided to indicate different sounds and accents. By repeated practice with the help of the book one can acquire a working knowledge of spoken and written Hindi – and then, if one prefers, pursue advanced study.
The narrator in Jeet Thayil’s second full-length collection abandons the sectarian histories of 1990s’ Bombay for New York City-and the events of September 11, 2001. In the faux prologue poem, ‘About the Author’, he stands on ‘Sixth, watching ruin, with/a handful of rain and a prophecy’, a citizen of no country except the republic that gives the book its title. English here is more than a language. It is a source of divinity, and it holds a hard-won tenderness for all things living.
