Personal favourites of Asia’s no. 1 quizmaster Derek O’Brien, recognized as India’s leading quizmaster. From his vast repertoire of questions that span the informative and educational, thought-provoking facts and trivia, he has gleaned hundreds of his favourites for this unputdownable volume. The questions cover subjects as diverse as the Chinese New Year, coffee, crocodiles and Cleopatra to the Grammy Awards, Gujarat, Mars, swans, tsunamis and West Asia. There are also sets of questions on famous personalities like Asha Bhonsle, Isaac Newton, Lady Diana, Pablo Picasso, Shakespeare and Winnie the Pooh. Each set tests both the extent and depth of the readers’ knowledge on the subject. Among the questions readers will find answers to in this book are:
Millions of years ago, which super-continent did Antarctica originally form a part of?
What were the two styles of shading which Leonardo used to great effects in his paintings?
What special feature of a camel’s eyelids protects it from dust and sun?
What is the study of fishes called?
Whether you are a student, teacher, professional, quiz aficionado, or just a casual reader, this book will keep you engrossed for days.
Jordanus Catalani, the first bishop of the Church of Rome in India, introduced the northern part of the subcontinent to his readers in fourteenth-century Europe in this manner. Two hundred years before the advent of Vasco da Gama, Western Christianity-which comprises the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and Protestant denominations today-had already arrived in India, finding among its diverse people and faiths the Church of the East already at home since the beginning of Christianity.
This is an account of how global events, including the Crusades and the Mongol conquests, came together to bring Western Christianity to India.
A gripping narrative of two diagonally opposite impulses in Christianity: of humble scholars trying to live the Christian ideal, and of ambitious ecclesiastical empire-builders with more earthly goals.
Carpenters and Kings is a tale of Christianity, and, equally, a glimpse of the India which has always existed: a multicultural land where every faith has found a home through the centuries.
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw the involvement of India’s youth like never before. They were debating inside classrooms, sitting for dharnas on the street, having conversations in offices and on social media. The election in 2014 saw 150 million young voters—and the highest number of first-time voters in India.
And yet, the average age of our parliamentarians is sixty-three. Our leaders are almost four decades older than the average twenty-five-year-old.
In The Young and the Restless, Gurmehar Kaur, student activist and author of Small Acts of Freedom, follows the journeys of eight youth leaders, their aspirations for the country’s youth, their aspirations for themselves and, most importantly, their aspirations for the nation. She explores whether their politics only mimics that of the older party leaders or if they have the ideas, passion and motivation of the demographic they represent.
Learn all about an exceptional way of life
The book aims to introduce teenagers to the armed forces, unveiling both the perils-the rigours and the challenges-and the perks-the thrill and the adventure-of a career in uniform. Ballroom dancing, flying fighter planes, detonating bombs, skinning and eating snakes in times of dire need and everything else in between-there’s nothing our officers can’t do!
Read twenty-one nail-biting stories of daring. Hear from some amazing men and women about what the forces have taught them-and decide if the olive-green uniform is what you want to wear too.
Downward dog, tree pose, Marichyasana . . .
Have you ever wondered how these names for yoga poses came about, inspired from animals, nature, and even sages?
Using thirty carefully researched asanas, yoga teacher Pragya Bhatt draws upon her own yoga practice and research to make a connection between ancient Indian mythology and modern yoga practice.
By depicting the beauty and form of each asana through the lens of Joel Koechlin, this book intends to add meaning and value for practitioners and non-practitioners alike, shedding new light on a familiar subject.
Bright-eyed aspirants in sports-from badminton to gymnastics-are training across the country. Homegrown leagues are attracting the world’s best athletes and professionals. The country boasts multiple World No. 1 teams and athletes, and sporting achievements are handsomely rewarded.
Much of this was simply unthinkable at the turn of the millennium. Today, there is no longer a doubt that an Indian can excel at sports. A country is changing the way it looks at sport and, along the way, how it looks at itself.
Go! features a never-before-seen collection of essays by leading athletes, sports writers and professionals, who together tell a compelling story of India’s ongoing sporting transformation.
What makes some young Indians more successful than others?
Is the secret to their success a gifted mind or an affluent background?
The answer is-neither.
With in-depth interviews and analysis of what makes champions tick, Manthan Shah identifies the attributes that make them who they are-grit, courage, determination, creativity and empathy. In short, they are unstoppable!
This book chronicles the journeys of the best and the brightest Indians in business, sports, music, academia and entertainment. The stories are assisted by research from renowned experts in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, genealogy, social sciences and leadership.
Unstoppable not only provides inspiration to create something extraordinary from ordinary circumstances
and resources, but also highlights important factors and provides a ‘plan of action’ for achieving one’s goals.
So here I am, delving into the past like Monsieur Poirot, not to solve a mystery, but to try to understand some of the events that have helped define the sort of person I have become. Some of it, naturally, is in the genes; but much of it is in the environment, in the circumstances in which we grow up, in the people who come into our lives, even in the air we breathe.
Had I grown up in London or Timbuktu, I would have been a different sort of person, I’m sure. My parents (and those before them) made me. But India made me too. The soil, the air, the wind, the rain, the trees, the grass, the proximity of people-all these things made me . . .
Different things at different times helped to make the individual that is me, just as different things at different times helped to make you, just as they went into making your brothers and sisters, who are very different from you.
‘Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself,’ said Walt Whitman.
Each chapter of this memoir is a remembrance of times past, an attempt to resurrect a person or a period or an episode, a reflection on the unpredictability of life. Some paths lead nowhere; others lead to a spring of pure water. Take any path and hope for the best. At least it will lead you out of the shadows.
Shivya Nath quit her corporate job at age twenty-three to travel the world. She gave up her home and the need for a permanent address, sold most of her possessions and embarked on a nomadic journey that has taken her everywhere from remote Himalayan villages to the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador. Along the way, she lived with an indigenous Mayan community in Guatemala, hiked alone in the Ecuadorian Andes, got mugged in Costa Rica, swam across the border from Costa Rica to Panama, slept under a meteor shower in the cracked salt desert of Gujarat and learnt to conquer her deepest fears.
With its vivid descriptions, cinematic landscapes, moving encounters and uplifting adventures, The Shooting Star is a travel memoir that maps not just the world but the human spirit.
A tale of borders and beliefs shaped by the games people play
1947
New Delhi. Cyril Radcliffe’s hands are clammy, partly from the heat but mostly from the enormity of the task assigned. Mopping the sweat off his brow, he picks up his pen, draws a deep breath–and a dark line.
Rawalpindi. A barbaric frenzy of rioters fills the streets, disrupting a game of pithoo between Toshi and her brother, Tarlok, shattering their lives unimaginably.
2008
Rawalpindi. Cricket-crazy Inaya is sneaking out behind her father’s back for net practice when she discovers that she is not the only one in her family keeping a secret.
New Delhi. Jai accidentally stumbles upon an old, hidden away diary in his kitchen. The date of its last entry: 17 August 1947.
As Jai and Inaya’s unlikely worlds collide, another story unfolds. A story that started with the drawing of a line. A story that shifts the truth in their lives.
‘Compelling and uplifting . . . lingers long after the last page is turned‘ Vidya Balan
