non fiction main category
Combined Box Set of R.K. Laxman’s best cartoons: the perfect gift for anyone who loves a good laugh
Includes the entire Common Man Series, A Vote for Laughter and A Dose of Laughter
In his Birth Centenary year, this box set presents all of Laxman’s Common Man cartoons, and some of the best on India’s politics and society.
Taslima Nasrin is known for her powerful writing on women’s rights and uncompromising criticism of religious fundamentalism. This defiance on her part had led to the ban on the Bengali original of this book by the Left Front in West Bengal as well as the Government of Bangladesh in 2003. While the West Bengal government lifted the injunction after the ban was struck down by the Calcutta High Court in 2005, Nasrin was eventually driven out of Kolkata and forced to expunge passages from the book, besides facing a four-million-dollar defamation lawsuit. Bold and evocative, Split: A Life opens a window to the experiences and works of one of the bravest writers of our times.
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.
How could you forgive a terrorist?
A month or so before Christmas 2008, Kia Scherr lost her husband and teenage daughter to the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack at the Oberoi. In a second, her life was clouded with grief, and since then, it has been a convoluted journey of resilience and recovery.
In Forgiveness is a Choice, Scherr peels back the many layers of personal bereavement. She moves beyond the incident, focusing on the reality of dealing with sorrow that rears its ugly heads in myriad forms. Never mawkish, her writing offers everyday advice on how to meander grief-laden experiences. A tender and understanding guide on getting a grip and taking life one day at a time.
Digital is inevitable. Disconnecting is impractical.
The Art of Bitfulness is a book on how to live with our devices, not how to live without them.
What is Bitfulness?
Bitfulness is being effortlessly mindful of your technology.
In this short, practical book, Nandan Nilekani and Tanuj Bhojwani describe a framework to tune out the overwhelming noise of the internet. They empower you with tools to take back your time, attention and privacy from those who want to capture and sell it. They reveal their own personal systems, and how they stay on top of a constant flow of information. This book doesn’t believe our excessive screen time usage is a personal failing. The internet creates winner-take-all market conditions, which in turn create an attentional race to the bottom. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The book covers how we, as a collective, can take back control of our future. The authors even analyse the promise of web3 & cryptocurrencies to see where that alternative will take us.
The reason to read this book is simple: If you don’t design your technology around your life, someone else will design your life around their technology.
‘Unlike many other books written about this toxic relationship, however, this one is by two people who love technology very much and are fascinated by its power to do good-and yet, are cognizant of the ways in which technology can overwhelm us.’
Shrabonti Bagchi, HT Mint
Written originally in Sanskrit, Yoga-Vasistha is a long philosophical poem in the tradition of the Bhagavad Gita, full of stories on superhuman feats and supernatural events. Attributed to Valmiki, the verses are in the form of a series of conversations between the sixteen-year-old Rama and the celebrated guru of his family, Vasistha. Verses for the Brave is a selection of 218 verses from the Yoga-Vasistha, ones that reflect upon the world and life, emphasizing the need for balance between involvement in worldly affairs and the motivation to attain liberation. A gorgeous rendition of a significant companion to the Ramayana, it offers the heroes of now a philosophy of the past.
50 transformative acts of kindness.
For the self. For others. For nature.
Aimed at mobilizing the world’s youth to create a positive culture of kindness, the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) launched the #KindnessMatters global campaign to gather proof that kindness could drive scalable, positive and sustainable change. In the process, they were met with narratives so deeply moving, it confirmed what they knew all along-that kindness wasn’t defined by lofty tales; it had always existed all around us, what we needed was to celebrate it in every moment of life because #KindnessMatters every day. Inspiring and thought-provoking, #KindnessMatters documents stories and poems of kindness from across the world, featuring voices and journeys of people who have dedicated their lives to making the world a kinder place. This book proves that small actions often have the biggest impact.
Written over 2500 years ago by Chinese general Sun Tzu, The Art of War is one of the most influential and renowned treatises on military strategy. But its knowledge transcends warfare, finding practical uses in all areas of contemporary life.
Be it at work, with friends and family, or within ourselves-conflict is an inevitable part of one’s journey. But the tools you need to battle these conflicts rest within you. This book will teach you how you can overcome the roadblocks that are stopping you from living your best life and reaching your highest self. Master your emotions, anticipate life’s many challenges, adopt discipline, and become an adept leader.
Perceptive and powerful, The Art of War is a must-read for anyone who wants to take charge of their life and succeed in all their endeavours.
Translated by Bibek Debroy
A GLORIOUS RENDITION OF ONE OF THE OLDEST PURANAS BY A MASTER TRANSLATOR
The Brahma Purana is the first of a series of eighteen texts known collectively as the Puranas. These are counted amongst the foundational texts of Hinduism. The holy trinity of Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the preserver and Shiva as the destroyer constitutes the central deities of this series and features in its narratives. Sometimes referred to as Adi Purana, Brahma Purana oscillates between being a work of geography with a focus on the holy sites of the River Godavari, and being an encyclopaedic work of cosmology, genealogy and mythology.
Reading almost like a travel guide, it celebrates temples and sites related to Vishnu, Shiva and Devi as it focuses on places like modern-day Odisha and Rajasthan. Brimming with insight and told with clarity, this luminous text is a celebration of a complex mythological universe populated with gods and mortals, providing readers with an opportunity to truly understand Indian philosophy.
Translated by Bibek Debroy
A GLORIOUS RENDITION OF ONE OF THE OLDEST PURANAS BY A MASTER TRANSLATOR
The Brahma Purana is the first of a series of eighteen texts known collectively as the Puranas. These are counted amongst the foundational texts of Hinduism. The holy trinity of Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the preserver and Shiva as the destroyer constitutes the central deities of this series and features in its narratives. Sometimes referred to as Adi Purana, Brahma Purana oscillates between being a work of geography with a focus on the holy sites of the River Godavari, and being an encyclopaedic work of cosmology, genealogy and mythology.
Reading almost like a travel guide, it celebrates temples and sites related to Vishnu, Shiva and Devi as it focuses on places like modern-day Odisha and Rajasthan. Brimming with insight and told with clarity, this luminous text is a celebration of a complex mythological universe populated with gods and mortals, providing readers with an opportunity to truly understand Indian philosophy.
