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This Light in Oneself

A leading spiritual teacher of the twentieth century presents meditation as a tool for better understanding not just ourselves but the world around us.

When you observe, when you become extraordinarily aware of this activity of the self, then the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet, sane, healthy, holy.” – J. Krishnamurti

This compilation of Krishnamurti’s work focuses on the nature of human consciousness, man’s inquiry into truth, the importance of being a light to oneself, and the true meaning of meditation, silence, enlightenment, and the sacred. Seekers who are trying to find the true meaning of a religious life in the modern world will find, in these pages, questions and statements that help to intensify their search.

Krishnamurti’s main theme is the essential need to look inward, to know ourselves, in order to understand our own—and the world’s—conflicts. “We are the world”, says Krishnamurti and “it is our individual chaos that creates social disorder.”

Pick up this book and embrace the profound wisdom within this book, unveiling the wellspring of genuine freedom and profound insight, gifted by the author.

His Majesty’s Headhunters

Surprisingly little is known about the siege of Kohima, considered a game-changing event that altered the course of world history during the Second World War. His Majesty’s Headhunters adds to our understanding of this battle and shows how it redefined a whole era.

Providing a unique perspective of Nagaland and its warriors, this book uncovers the untold story of the siege, regarded as one of the more celebrated battles of D-Day and often referred to as the ‘Stalingrad of the East’ by Western scholars. Historians even believe that this was the last battle of the British Empire
and the first battle of the ‘New India’.

However, that is just the tale told so far by everyone except the Nagas. The real history of this battle—which involved the Japanese Army, led by Lieutenant General Sato, and the Allied forces—is yet to be recounted. As Lt Gen. Sato is said to have remarked, if it were not for the Naga people, the Allied forces would have been defeated in Kohima, and the Japanese Army would have easily secured the Dimapur railway station and moved victoriously towards Bengal via Assam, thus reversing the outcome of the war.

This rare and deeply researched historical account, drawing on records left by the officers and soldiers who fought in Kohima, is a page-turner. It brings to light the valour and spirit of the Naga ‘headhunters’, who made the supreme sacrifice to protect the honour of their people.

Swadeshi Steam

In 1906, Britain’s grip on the world was unassailable. Its navy ruled the seas, and its trade empire spanned the globe. But in the small port town of Tuticorin, a lawyer named V.O. Chidambaram Pillai—known to the world as VOC—had a revolutionary idea that would challenge the might of the empire itself.

VOC’s plan was audacious: to launch the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, a venture that would compete head-on with the British India Steam Navigation Company, the shipping giant that controlled the region. To make his dream a reality, he rallied native traders and patriotic citizens, raising the capital needed to launch his daring enterprise. But the company faced a formidable foe: British mercantile interests and the imperial state both backed its competitor, giving it deep pockets and brazen government backing. VOC and his allies would have to defy overwhelming odds to make their venture a success.

Swadeshi Steam is a tale of heroism and defiance in the face of colonial oppression. Based on four decades of research in archives around the world, this inspiring saga showcases the power of one individual’s vision to ignite a movement.

Becoming Goan

Goa’s magnetism and its promise of a relaxed, almost bohemian lifestyle, have always attracted admirers and colonizers. Before the locals could make up their minds about such interlopers, Covid-19 brought hordes of them to town—Michelle Mendonça Bambawale was one of them. In June 2020, Michelle found herself moving to the 160-year-old house she had inherited in Siolim, a village in North Goa, with her human and canine family.

Having never lived in Goa before, she couldn’t help but wonder if her Goan ancestry made her an insider or if she would forever remain an outsider. In this memoir, she confronts her complex relationship with her Goan Catholic heritage and explores themes of identity, culture, migration, stereotypes and labels.

She also uncovers some of the uncanniest legends that pervade Siolim, including those of St. Anthony and the Snake, Sao Joao, and the statue of Beethoven. She also takes us back to Siolim and Goa in the 1970s and 1980s, where she spent her summer vacations without paved roads or electricity, pulling water from a well. Today, she dodges reeking septic tankers, earth movers and piling plastic garbage while walking her Labrador, Haruki.

Becoming Goan is a heartfelt and charming story of Michelle’s love for this land that her grandparents left her. She cares deeply about Goa’s biodiversity and is distraught about the environmental impact of tourism, construction and mining. Her devotion to Mother Earth deepens as she learns more about her roots, steeped as they are in syncretic traditions.

The Grammar of My Body

Subverting an ableist India’s expectations from a disabled person to be ‘inspirational’ and an ‘underdog who made it’ despite their illness, Abhishek Anicca writes about everyday stories of living with disability and chronic illness in this memoir-in-essays.

With piercing mindfulness and radical vulnerability, Annica writes sparse and compelling essays on the self, questions of care and dignity, dating and navigating desire as a queer-disabled man, self-hatred, moving about with a crutch, chronic pain and shame, the chilling lack of representation in the media and reflections on nearing death.

Conversational and informal, truthful and unflinching, Anicca’s wry and urgent essays in The Grammar of My Body compel the reader to become at once distant from and proximate to their inner experiences.

Fabulous Feasts, Fables and Family

Deeply personal and intimate, this absolutely magical culinary memoir by Tabinda Jalil-Burney combines recipes and memories from the idyllic summers of her childhood which she spent with her grandparents in Aligarh. There, presided over by Amma—her formidable grandmother—the extended clan gathered and as the women concocted delicious dishes, they exchanged family stories and lore, embroidered, knitted and crocheted, while the children played games free of distractions.

Family entertainment included bait bazi, involving people reciting couplets in a chain. Some family dishes were prepared by talented home cooks and some by the women from extended family. Over the years, recipes began to be associated with a particular aunt or grand aunt. No one used a recipe book or measured quantities when cooking. They cooked with the seasonal produce available at home and measurements were by andaaza. Everyone would eat sitting cross-legged by a courtyard with tamarind and guava trees and the large thorny bushes of the sour kakronda berries.

In here are family secrets for the best shami kebabs, qormas, chuquandar gosht and desserts. This richly textured, densely peopled memoir conjures the vanished world of an Aligarh family in the sixties and seventies through food and cooking, and of India long gone.

Move Better : A two-step guide to efficient posture and increased mobility

Have you woken up one day and noticed that your knee is suddenly hurting? Do you go through days managing spasms and sprains that you can’t really explain? All of this, even though you exercise regularly and have a fitness schedule?

The problem might be in how you move or how you sit, says popular rehab and movement coach, Shikha Puri Arora. In this practical and timely book, the Mumbai-based expert argues that the way we move, sit, stand, walk and carry ourselves reveals a lot about the quality of our health.

However, one doesn’t have to tolerate this discomfort anymore. This book—with its specially formulated Move Better course—offers easy, tried and tested solutions that are designed to make you pain-free in ten days.

Living at the peak of our well-being is the birthright of every individual. So, what are we waiting for? It’s time to move better.

Revolutionizing Business Operations: How to Build Dynamic Processes for Enduring Competitive Advantage

Don’t risk the dire consequences of your work processes becoming obsolete—discover a powerful model for constant, ongoing, enterprise-wide process evolution and optimization.

If you have a great product, but don’t have the operations in place to efficiently and effectively support it—production, manufacturing, sales, finance, human resources, etc.—you won’t succeed. Product innovation is seen as flashier and so gets far more attention, but you can create an enduring competitive advantage by revolutionizing business operations.

The problem is most attempts to improve business operations are reactive, sporadic, and siloed. Tony Saldanha and Filippo Passerini’s Dynamic Process Transformation model provides a living model for constant, ongoing process evolution and optimization.

The authors focus on maximizing three drivers of change. First, “open market rules”—each business process must be run as a separate business, instead of via monolithic mandates coming down from on high. Second, there must be “unified accountability”— outcomes must be clear and consistent across the company, instead of being siloed within departments. And third, there needs to be a “dynamic operating engine,” a methodology to convert the constantly changing business process goals into tactical day-to-day employee actions.

With numerous examples from leading companies, this book shows how to proactively keep business processes across the company from becoming obsolete and take advantage of a neglected key to success.

Head and Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership

One of Thinkers50’s Ten Best Management Books of 2023

“A timely, actionable book on the virtues that every great leader needs to learn.”
—ADAM GRANT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

Leadership is simply a series of moments, and this book gives you the tools to turn each moment into an opportunity to leave a positive legacy for those you lead.

In this ground-breaking book, award-winning leadership expert and business leader Kirstin Ferguson has written a much-needed practical guide for every modern leader. Whether you are the head of one of the largest companies in the world, supervising a small team, or guiding your family, it will be your ability to integrate your head and heart that will influence your success in leading others and navigating our complex world.

Combining studies from leading thinkers in the field with her own research, and more than three decades of personal experience, Kirstin explains the 8 key attributes of a head and heart leader and provides the tools to measure your own approach. Along the way, she shares her conversations with modern leaders from a broad range of backgrounds whose stories will surprise you, challenge your thinking and inspire you to be the type of leader the world needs.

Mental Models

Think Smarter. Solve Better. Make Decisions Like an Expert—Even If You’re Not One (Yet).

Mental models are like treasure maps for your mind—offering clarity, direction, and the tools to navigate any challenge. Instead of stumbling through problems, you’ll know exactly what lens to use and what tool to reach for.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This book equips you with the full toolkit: saws, drills, levels, and more—so you’re never stuck with a one-size-fits-all mindset.
Whether you’re trying to boost productivity, make better life decisions, think more critically, or simply understand the world more clearly, Mental Models: 30 Thinking Tools gives you the frameworks that high performers use every day.

  • Learn how to think in frameworks, not fragments
  • Use mental models to simplify decisions and reduce overthinking
  • Tackle complex problems with proven cognitive tools
  • Make faster, smarter choices in work and life
  • Train your brain for clarity, focus, and better outcomes

Written by bestselling author and human performance expert Peter Hollins, this book distills over a decade of research into clear, practical tools anyone can apply.

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