Substance and Steel: The Life of Raj Deo Singh is a compelling tribute to one of India’s most revered law enforcement officers, Shri Raj Deo Singh (RD). Through the words of those who knew him best—family, colleagues, dignitaries, and friends—this book paints a portrait of a man whose life was defined by unwavering principles of honesty, discipline, and moral courage. From his early days to his rise as Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), RD’s journey is marked by a deep commitment to justice, compassion for others, and an unshakeable sense of duty. In a world where integrity often faces great challenges, RD’s story serves as a powerful reminder of the impact one individual can have in shaping a better society. Written by Dr R.P. Singh, this book not only honours RD’s legacy but also offers invaluable lessons in character, leadership, and resilience for future generations.
Catagory: Biographies, Diaries & True Accounts
A Glimpse of My Life
Ram Prasad ‘Bismil’ (1897-1927) remains among the best-known revolutionaries of India’s struggle for freedom. In this autobiography, Bismil reflects on his life, as well as on the people and ideas that inspired him, and on the revolutionary movement he built. He remembers his childhood, the hardships his parents faced, the role his mother and guru played in shaping him, his involvement in the Kakori train robbery, his experiences in prison, and his comrades fighting alongside him for freedom from British rule.
Bismil not only offers glimpses of his eventful life but also lays out his ideas on gender, caste, class, communalism, justice, nation-building and the attractions and pitfalls of revolutionary activity. The readers of his autobiography will find many of these ideas to be of great relevance in present-day India.
Originally titled Nij Jiwan Ki Chhata, this book was written in secret during Bismil’s imprisonment, while he was on death row. It is a passionately narrated account of the life of a young and daring freedom fighter who lived and died with the single aim of freeing India from foreign rule.
Mother Mary Comes to Me
Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, this is a soaring account, both intimate and inspiring, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as ‘my shelter and my storm’.
Born out of the onrush of memories and feelings provoked by her mother Mary’s death, this is the astonishing, often disturbing and surprisingly funny memoir of the Arundhati Roy’s life, from childhood to the present, from Kerala to Delhi.
With the scale, sweep and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity and warmth of her essays, this book is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace – a memoir like no other.
Any depiction of smoking in this book is for representational purposes only. Penguin Random House India does not promote or endorse tobacco use
Stumped
Fourth in the world to have six victims in an innings on debut; claimed five victims in a world-cup match; was adjudged as the world’s best wicket-keeper in the 1983 Prudential World Cup—this is Syed Kirmani for you. Very few people from the current generation know that Kirmani holds three world records.
A legend, Kirmani is one of the exceptional wicketkeepers to have ever graced the game of cricket. This book is not only about his life as a cricketer and as a person but also about an epic period of Indian cricket, the period in which India won the 1983 world cup, the Asia Cup and the World Championship of Cricket. A role model to budding cricketers, Kirmani through this autobiography, for the first time, opens his heart out candidly discussing the highest and lowest points of his career—from being one of the best in business to unceremoniously exiting the game.
Apostles of Development
The battle against global poverty that began after World War II was a major undertaking engaging economists, engineers, and organizations. Featuring front and centre were six remarkable economists: Amartya Sen, Manmohan Singh, Mahbub ul Haq, Jagdish Bhagwati, Rehman Sobhan, and Lal Jayawardena, all born as colonial subjects in the British Empire and studied at Cambridge University. They represented a new figure on the world scene — the Third World development expert — and played a crucial role in global debates about poverty and development.
Apostles of Development examines their different economic doctrines and the ongoing debate surrounding economic theory in poor countries compared to rich ones. The lives of these apostles reveal how development did not begin with textbooks but with real-world attempts to solve very specific and pressing problems. Finally, the book emphasizes that development was a Global South project first and foremost, aiming to improve the conditions of the world’s poorest countries.
It challenges the conventional wisdom that sees development only as a tool of rich countries to dominate, or as proof of their humanitarian spirit. It argues that development succeeds not when it follows ideological prescriptions, but when it looks for what works. The fading of grand visions shaped by ideological concerns has been one of the lasting effects of the end of the Cold War. The book argues that the best way forward is determined modesty, focusing on practical matters, such as addressing gross inequality and insisting that development means more than just economic growth. Given the salience of questions of economic inequality and the constant visibility of the promises and problems of economic development in the world today, this is a timely and important read.
Honest John
John Matthai was independent India’s first railways and transport minister. Later, he was India’s second finance minister but resigned due to his differences with Pandit Nehru over the Planning Commission. Matthai served in important position in the Tatas and was a friend and confidant of J.R.D. Tata. He was chairman of the Taxation Enquiry Commission (1953), which provided a framework for the future tax policies of the government. Matthai was the first chairman of the State Bank of India of the court of governors of the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, and of the National Book Trust. He was also the founder-president of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.
Drawing from numerous primary and secondary sources this comprehensive biography introduces Matthai to a new generation, even as it rekindles the memory of a man who has become the victim of collective amnesia. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, it also provides a window to that period in history: Matthai’s life and work provide a picture of those tumultuous times as well as describe the thinking that went into the making of modern India. This biography fills an important gap by throwing light on one of the more substantial, but now forgotten men, in the public life of those times.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Breaking the Glass Ceiling is the story of the first ethnic Gorkha officer’s rise to the highest echelons of command in the Indian Army. Commissioned into the Grenadiers in the Indian Army where Gorkhas usually do not serve, he rose to become a colonel to then command a frontline corps along the Line of Actual Control and finally retired as the military secretary.
Full of anecdotes and vignettes, the book is the story of his lived life and world view. It talks about who the Gorkhas are, their customs and traditions, how they came ‘along with the land’ to become a part of India. It delves into the crisis of identity of the Indian Gorkha community, their numerous sacrifices and their quest for a homeland. It also takes an unbiased look at India–Nepal issues.
Having served extensively in counter-insurgency and counterterrorism operations in J&K and India’s Northeast as well as in lesser-known Myanmar as the defence attaché, Lt General Shakti Gurung covers in this book a wide landscape of issues of the region not tread upon earlier by anyone.
From a community known for its valour, this book walks the path of him having served thrice in the MS Branch, the challenges he faced and how he overcame them, swimming against the tide and revelling in the competition.
Gandhi
Gandhi was 20th century’s most acclaimed political thinker-practioner of nonviolence. His method of nonviolence, however, was under trial during the ferocity of Partition. Why was it so? Gandhi: The End of Nonviolence explores this crisis in depth.
Putting Gandhi center stage in significant political events ranging from the Khilafat Movement (1919-1922) to Partition (1946-1947), Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee critically engages with some of the key figures who had a stake on the Hindu-Muslim question: Maulana Mohamad Ali, Muhammad Iqbal, the Arya Samajists, B.R. Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
The tragic repercussions of Jinnah’s declaration of ‘Direct Action Day’ on 16th August 1946 leads Manash to ask probing questions on the persistent malady in our political history: How does communal politics descend into genocide? What is the psychology of communal violence? Attentively reading the exceptional witness accounts of Pyarelal, Nirmal Kumar Bose and Manu Gandhi, Manash throws light on the many shades of Gandhi’s epic peace mission as he walks (often barefoot) through the devastated neighbourhoods of Noakhali, Bihar, Calcutta and Delhi, offering courage and healing wounds.
Combining poetic flair, diligent research and argumentative rigour, this one-of-a-kind book reminds us why Gandhi is part of our ethical conscience and transforms our understanding of the human condition.
The Diary of a Young Girl
“I’ve found that there is always some beauty left?in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”
Anne begins her diary entries at the age of thirteen in June 1942, recording all her experiences until August 1944. All people have the right to freedom, but Anne wasn’t sure that idea included her. During WWII, Anne and her family were forced to go into hiding like many other Jews.
Vivid snippets of two years of living in an annexe, without seeing the sun, are journalled by Anne. From their bones dwindling to her emotional growth all is reflected in her writings. She writes of her passion for literature and art, her desire to travel, the struggles of family ties in hiding: showing her incredible emotional resilience.
How does she keep her spirits alive through imagination, hold onto the hopes of free life, when they weren’t allowed to bring attention to themselves?
Fortune Seekers
Nattukotai Chettiars were the most prominent business community from Tamil region and this book captures their spirit of enterprise that led many of them to seek their fortunes overseas. It’s a story that connects South India, Burma, and South-East Asia across the Bay of Bengal and equally one that spans the British imperial era and that of the modern nation state.
For students of history, business, and for modern entrepreneurs, the book has valuable lessons on the importance of diversifying into promising investment opportunities and gauging the economic winds of change.