The definitive social history of tuberculosis, from its origins as a haunting mystery to its modern reemergence that now threatens populations around the world.
It killed novelist George Orwell, Eleanor Roosevelt, and millions of others-rich and poor. Desmond Tutu, Amitabh Bachchan, and Nelson Mandela survived it, just. For centuries, tuberculosis has ravaged cities and plagued the human body.
In Phantom Plague, Vidya Krishnan, traces the history of tuberculosis from the slums of 19th-century New York to modern Mumbai. In a narrative spanning century, Krishnan shows how superstition and folk-remedies, made way for scientific understanding of TB, such that it was controlled and cured in the West.
The cure was never available to black and brown nations. And the tuberculosis bacillus showed a remarkable ability to adapt-so that at the very moment it could have been extinguished as a threat to humanity, it found a way back, aided by authoritarian government, toxic kindness of philanthropists, science denialism and medical apartheid.
Krishnan’s original reporting paints a granular portrait of the post-antibiotic era as a new, aggressive, drug resistant strain of TB takes over. Phantom Plague is an urgent, riveting and fascinating narrative that deftly exposes the weakest links in our battle against this ancient foe.
The story of four billion years of life on Earth
Looking forward to a book that explains life? Well, here it is! Explaining Life Through Evolution opens a window to the four billion year history of the millions of species we see on this planet. This book does not simply narrate the story of evolution: It brings to light who we are and where we came from. As humans we often focus on identifying our differences, no matter how small; Prosanta Chakrabarty demystifies our perceived differences and emphasizes our similarities. As more and more people take ancestry tests, sending their DNA samples and money to genealogy testing centres, we need to be educated on what the results actually mean scientifically; and we all have to decide together what it means socially. He thinks we should be celebrating the fact that our diversity comes from the same little drops of water and sunlight, each of us just shining a little differently as seen through the prism of evolution.
Prosanta encourages us to think of life as being like a book, one that is always in the making. What we see living around us today are just the last few pages. If we look out on to the millions of species that we share this planet with we can trace their histories, and ours, back through nearly four billion years of evolution. We can also think of all the living things around as the young leaves on an ancient and gigantic ‘Tree of Life’, all of us connected by invisible branches not just to each other, but to our extinct relatives and our evolutionary ancestors.
Evocative, comprehensive and thought-provoking, this is a book which will compel you to reimagine life.
Against All Odds: The IT Story of India is an insider’s account and an anecdote-rich history of Indian IT over the last six decades. It taps into the first-hand experiences of Kris Gopalakrishnan and fifty other stalwarts
who built and shaped the IT industry. This is a tale of persistence and resilience, of foresight, of planning and being ready when luck knocks on the door, of a spirit of adventure and, above all, of an abiding sense of faith in technology and the belief that it would do good for India. It is a tale of triumph, and the best is yet to come!
Combined box set of all the bestselling books by Atul Gawande, acclaimed surgeon and writer
In The Checklist Manifesto, Gawande finds a remedy to tackle immensely complex problems with the humblest of techniques: the checklist. Through riveting stories from the fields of medicine to disaster response, investment banking to skyscraper construction and businesses, he demonstrates how the checklist can help anyone improve their own and others’ lives.
In Being Mortal, Gawande argues that an acceptance of mortality must lie at the center of the way we treat the dying. Using his experiences (and missteps) as a surgeon, comparing attitudes toward aging and death in the West and in India, he provides an extraordinary account of loss. Questioning, profound and deeply moving, Being Mortal is a masterpiece.
In Better, Gawande’s gripping stories take us to battlefield surgical tents in Iraq, delivery rooms in Boston, a polio outbreak in India, and malpractice courtrooms in the US. He discusses the ethical dilemma of lethal injections, examines the influence of money on modern medicine, and recounts the contentious history of hand-washing. And as in all his writing, he gives us an inside look at his own life as a surgeon.
In Complications, Gawande performs surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science that is complicated, perplexing and profoundly human. Dramatic true stories explore how mistakes occur, why good surgeons go bad, and what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable.
The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation comes at a time when the world is grappling with unprecedented issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic that has left all humanity in the eye of the storm. In this book, Malavika Dadlani, Anil Wali and Kaushik Mukerjee deftly explore the scientific underpinnings and social gains of frugal innovations. They also explain how these frugal innovations can help the world overcome a variety of obstacles.
While differentiating between frugal and low-cost innovations, this straightforward book also picks the common thread between the two and demonstrates how durable solutions to problems can be found through scientific planning and systematic testing.
All in all, The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation is about breaking boundaries and sharing knowledge, expertise and ideas that can lead to sustainable development for all.
A path traversed by caravans laden with silk, spices and much more besides, the old Silk Road influenced trade, religions, cultures and economies across Europe, Asia and far beyond.
In his latest book, Riaz Dean blends the best of this region’s history and geography with ancient cartography to solve a 2,000-year-old riddle that has perplexed scholars for centuries: Where was the Stone Tower that the great geographer Claudius Ptolemy had written about? This highly significant but now-lost landmark represented the midpoint and thumping heart of the Silk Road, as merchant caravans plied their wares between the Occident and the Orient.
From the significance of the Heavenly Horses to the intrigues of geopolitics and war between clans and kingdoms, Dean brings to life the legendary Silk Road even as his evocative narrative and meticulous research pinpoints the Stone Tower’s probable location somewhere by the so-called Roof of the World.
Nobel Laureate Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant minds. Arguably the founder of modern physics, his scientific ideas and research changed the world. His book Relativity: The Special and the General Theory is regarded as a seminal work-one of the most important and influential scientific ideas to have emerged out of the 20th century.
First published in 1916, the book explores the relationship between space, time, and the theory of gravitation-offering a new perspective on the universe. Einstein, using minimum mathematical terms and equations, explains some of the basic ideas and principles behind our world and the forces that have shaped it. The General Theory speaks of black holes, the evolution of the Universe, the behaviour of orbiting neutron stars, why clocks run slower on Earth than in space, and even suggests the possibility of time travel.
Ingenious and insightful, Relativity is a must-read for anyone who wants to expand their mind and learn about the universe and its working.
How was the universe created? Who made us? What makes us so distinct from other creatures on this Earth? Eminent naturalist Charles Darwin attempted to answer these questions in the early 19th century.
In 1831, Charles Darwin left Plymouth Harbor aboard the HMS Beagle. During the next five years, he conducted research on plants and animals from around the world, collecting key evidence and making detailed notes. Through his studies he discovered one of the greatest biological phenomenon that changed the course of mankind-evolution.
Twenty eight years later, he finally published his findings in The Origin of Species, a revolutionary work of scientific literature that laid down the foundations for evolutionary biology. In the book Darwin argues that all species evolve through a process of ‘natural selection’, adapting to their changing environment to ensure survival; this leads to the birth of new species and the transformation of the old.
Lucid, cerebral, and utterly riveting, The Origin of Species is amongst the greatest works of scientific imagination.
Awarded the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the OBE, Dr Tehemton Erach Udwadia is widely regarded as the father of laparoscopy in India. From 1951 as a medical student to the present day, he has not only witnessed first-hand the avalanche of surgical progress, but has also seen lives saved as a result of these advances, be it a disposable plastic syringe or a liver transplant.
In this, his memoirs, he painstakingly maps his journey from his student years through residency, research, surgical practice and surgical teaching with a view to sharing the lessons he has learnt. And what they can teach you.
More Than Just Surgery is a warm personal account of people, incidents, mentors, failures and absurdities against the backdrop of surgery. It is also an engrossing historical account through the eyes and hands of someone who has lived through the journey.
Have you ever wondered why diets just don’t seem to work? In Yuktahaar, celebrity nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal argues that the reason why none of the diets in the past have seemed to work is because they focused on the wrong cause-you, the reader. While we may continue to have a fling with low carb, vegan, low fat diets and everything in between but a long-lasting solution may never be found if we do not shift our focus from ‘you’ to ‘them’-the human-gut microbiome connection.
Nearly all chronic issues are rooted in an imbalanced microbiome. Disruption in the balance of your belly-based microscopic community not only causes weight gain and increases the risk of chronic diseases but also impacts our mood, behavior, happiness, and a general sense of well-being.
In this book, Munmun gives an actionable 10-week holistic program that encourages a gut balancing lifestyle, consisting of season-wise meal plans, recipes, exercise routines, sleep hygiene tips, and yoga practice. The book also charts actress Taapsee Pannu’s phenomenal physical transformation while working with Munmun. With a focus on combining traditional, regional Indian foods with evidence-backed tips, Yuktahaar will transform your relationship with food and rebalance your gut for a leaner and healthier you.
