Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, an internationally renowned Carnatic musician from the illustrious musical lineage of composer Saint Tyagaraja, wore many hats in his lifetime. Having made a stage debut at the age of seven, he was hailed as a child prodigy. From then till the time he passed away, at age eighty-six in 2016, he continued to be in the spotlight, not just for his extraordinary talent and versatility as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, but as a composer, playback singer and even, briefly, as a character actor.
He was a primary school dropout, a teenage poet and composer, a restless mind, a polyglot, a legacy upholder, a wordsmith, an ice cream lover and a pathbreaker. This is a story of the many lives of Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna.
Veejay Sai’s in-depth research into his life and work led him deep into unseen archival material and across the Carnatic musical landscape of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Fortified by interviews with his family members, disciples and peers, The Many Lives of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, a definitive biography of the musical genius, is not only a revealing account of the personal traits and facets of an unparallelled genius, but is also a portrait of India’s classical music world, a place as much of beauty as of untrammelled egos.
Catagory: Non Fiction
non fiction main category
Leaders in the Making
Leaders in the Making includes in-depth interviews of thirty HR leaders, drawn from public as well as private sectors. These life stories provide highlights of their early childhood, education and career over the years, and touch upon the inflexion points in these leaders’ lives, their major influences and the lessons they learnt to become who they are. The authors provide an analysis of these thirty stories to establish a pattern of the life journeys, competencies and values these leaders displayed.
The book has excellent lessons for parents, heads of schools and colleges, teachers, managers, HR leaders, CXOs and CEOs. It also includes self-help tools to assess competencies, values and the careers of readers so that they can plan for self-development.
The Dolphin and the Shark
The Dolphin and the Shark is born out of Namita Thapar’s experiences of being a judge on Shark Tank India and running the India business of the pharma company Emcure as well as her own entrepreneurship academy. The book emphasizes how leaders of today need to strike a balance between being a shark (aggressive leader) and a dolphin (empathetic leader).
It is divided into fifteen chapters which focus on various business mantras. The author shares personal stories, anecdotes about Emcure’s evolution over the years as well as learnings from entrepreneurs who have inspired her. The Dolphin and the Shark also includes references to pitches from Shark Tank India‘s Season 1. Straight from the heart, candid and authentic, this book will inspire and motivate every reader to push their limits.
The Song of the Cell
From Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene, The Song of The Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human-rich with Siddhartha Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and all the patients whose lives may be saved by their work.
In the late 1600s, a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, look down their handmade microscopes. What they see introduces a radical concept that sweeps through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences and altering both forever. It is the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves-hearts, blood, brains-are built from these compartments. Hooke christens them ‘cells’.
The discovery of cells-and the reframing of the human body as a cellular ecosystem-announced the birth of a new kind of medicine based on the therapeutic manipulations of cells. A hip fracture, a cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s, dementia, AIDS, pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney failure, arthritis, COVID-all could be viewed as the results of cells, or systems of cells, functioning abnormally. And all could be perceived as loci of cellular therapies.
In The Song of the Cell, Mukherjee tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. He seduces readers with writing so vivid, lucid, and suspenseful that complex science becomes thrilling. Told in six parts, laced with Mukherjee’s own experience as a researcher, doctor, and prolific reader,
Challenges to A Liberal Polity
Challenges to a Liberal Polity, amazingly relevant and thought provoking for our times-by Hamid Ansari, former Vice President of India-brings to light some of the most critical issues, which influence our thoughts every day.
From Nehru’s vision for India as a major world power to the issues of citizenship, religion, democracy, the idea of plurality and Muslim identity in Indian society, inclusion/exclusion of Indian Muslims, the ‘mainstream’ decision making process in India, the role of women in order to build a compassionate society, implication for dissent, Muslims’ role and contribution to Indian culture, civilization and nation-building in the post-Independent India, among others, the book thrashes some of the burning issues of Indian polity and society.
Comprehensive, argumentative and evocative, this title will not only interest a wide spectrum of readers but also politicians, policymakers and students and scholars of Indian politics, history and sociology.
Temple Lamp
The poem ‘Chirag-e-Dair’ or Temple Lamp is an eloquent and vibrant Persian masnavi by Mirza Ghalib. While we quote liberally from his Urdu poetry, we know little of his writings in Persian, and while we read of his love for the city of Delhi, we discover in temple Lamp, his rapture over the spiritual and sensual city of Banaras.
Chiragh-e-dair is being translated directly from Persian into English in its entirety for the first time, with a critical Introduction by Maaz Bin Bilal. It is Mirza Ghalib’s pean to Kashi, which he calls Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India.
Stories and Sutras
India is the birthplace of legends, the mother of culture and tradition, and as Indians, we love our stories. This book contains ten powerful stories of the original superheroes-stories that will leave a permanent impression on your consciousness and spill over in your conversations, stories of passion and patriotism, of valour and wit, of devotion and sacrifice, and of intelligence and faith.
When decoded, the accounts in this book are not merely stories-they are a treasure trove of wisdom, life hacks, leadership and management sutras. Did you know that Lord Hanuman can teach us communication skills, that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj can teach us how to run a startup and that Chanakya shows us how to use emotional intelligence in business strategy? Have you ever imagined Arjuna, Narada Muni, Kabir and Adi Shankaracharya as leaders and influencers and do you know about Rani Abbakka, one of the unsung battle queens of India? Stories and Sutras is a journey of these incredible tales and priceless sutras-an edutainment experience that is uniquely Indian and utterly global.
Sojourn
An unnamed man arrives in Berlin as a visiting professor. It is a place fused with Western history and cultural fracture lines. He moves along its streets and pavements; through its department stores, museums and restaurants. He befriends Faqrul, an enigmatic exiled poet, and Birgit, a woman with whom he shares the vagaries of attraction. He tries to understand his white-haired cleaner. Berlin is a riddle-he becomes lost not only in the city but in its legacy.
Sealed off in his own solitude, and as his visiting professorship passes, the narrator awaits transformation and meaning. Ultimately, he starts to understand that the less sure he becomes of his place in the moment, the more he knows his way.
The Bellboy
Latif’s life changes when he is appointed bellboy at the Paradise Lodge – a hotel where people come to die.
After his father’s death, drowned in the waters surrounding their small Island, it is 17 year-old Latif’s turn to become the man of the house and provide for his ailing mother and sisters. Despite discovering a dead body on his first day of duty, Latif finds entertainment spying on guests and regaling the hotel’s janitor, Stella, with made-up stories. However, when Latif finds the corpse of a small-time actor in Room 555 and becomes a mute-witness to a crime that happens there, the course of Latif’s life is irretrievably altered.
The Bellboy is as much a commentary on how society treats and victimizes the intellectually vulnerable as it is about the quiet resentment brewing against religious minorities in India today. With a mix of wry humour and heart-wrenching poignancy, the book narrates a young boy’s coming-of-age on a small island, and his innocence that persists even in the face of adversity and inevitable tragedy.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 100 Anecdotes
On 6 July 1935, a mischievous boy was born in a remote village in Tibet, who, at the age of two, was recognized as the fourteenth reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. His eventful boyhood in Lhasa, thrilling escape to India and subsequent exile in Dharamsala, captured the imagination of thousands. With an endearing smile and childish humour, he has become a symbol of optimism and hope for the oppressed.
Tracing his life through 100 lesser-known and inspiring incidents, unusual trivia and gorgeous illustrations, this one-of-a-kind book explores the Dalai Lama’s vision, teachings and philosophies. His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 100 Anecdotes is a classic tribute and a collectible edition that celebrates the various facets of an extraordinary spiritual leader from his birth through his eighty-seventh birthday.