‘God once told me life is absurd. How else can two boys land up in America and not find any girls?’
Karl and Kunal are just two ordinary Mumbai boys who like ordinary things: bunking class, films, food and pornography. Intent on attaining stardom they fly off to the legendary Lee Strasburg Acting Studio to sharpen their craft in acting and in chasing girls. They fail on both counts but come back with a jackpot: their maiden movie role. In Bollywood, they meet Yusuf Khan, who at forty-six is still the undisputed king of college romance. Being losers doesn’t get in their way and soon the trio become a hit team, churning out blockbuster after blockbuster. Before they know it, Karl and Kunal get their own spot boys, the defining moment in every Bollywood actor’s life, feature in an TV commercial with Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, and are even invited to meet Bill Clinton on his visit to India. But all this is not enough for Karl, who knows that it’s really politics which is the ultimate destination for all ‘great’ actors. As Pajama Party’s nominee from south Mumbai, Karl makes his debut as a politician. Will he hit the box office again?
A novel about celebrities, Bollywood and politics, Karl, Aaj aur Kal is a hilarious novel from India’s best known funny man.
Are you stressed?
The workplace has become increasingly competitive, family life has its never-ending complications, and when you step outside, you have to deal with heavy traffic, aggression, and massive pollution. No wonder that you’re tense and agitated, have hyper reflexes and blood pressure that’s higher than the midday sun. But you’re not alone. Fifty percent of Indian professionals suffer from stress with stress-related diseases from depression to lack of fertility drastically on the rise.
In I’m Not Stressed, Deanne Panday, one of the country’s leading health and fitness experts, shares with you her secrets to tackle this looming lifestyle problem. She tells you what stress really means, how to know when you have a serious case of it, and most importantly how to deal with it through a simple plan of diet, exercise, sleep, meditation, and breathing. With advice from leading psychiatrists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, and celebrities who have to deal with high-level stress, I’m Not Stressed is your mantra for enduring health and happiness.
When it comes to getting ahead in life, who we know is as important as what we do. How do you draw people to you? Impress the powerful? Make an impact and extend your circle of acquaintances? Cultivate influential friends? Suhel Seth, a man who knows almost everyone there is to know in the country, brings you the ultimate guide to social success. From the secret to throwing a successful party to the benefits of befriending the less important half of a couple, he gives you practical advice and strategies to become a successful networker. Inspiring, provocative, and wise, Get to the Top is the ultimate book about wielding soft power.
The human race created money and finance. But our inventions re-create us. Mankind mistook money-a lubricant of society and human well-being-for an end in itself. Finance, the monetary shadow of real things, came to dominate human reality. Extreme Money tells the story of how this happened. In so doing; it also tells the story of the modern world. Bestselling author Satyajit Das draws on thirty-three years of personal experience at the heart of modern global finance to narrate this story. Das reveals the spectacular, dangerous money games that have generated increasingly massive bubbles of fake growth, Ponzi prosperity, sophistication and wealth, while endangering the jobs, possessions and futures of virtually everyone outside the financial industry. You’ll learn how everything from home mortgages to climate change has become financialized, as vast fortunes are generated by individuals who build nothing of lasting value. Das shows how ‘extreme money’ has become even more unreal; how ‘voodoo banking’ continues to generate massive phony profits even now; and how a new generation of ‘Masters of the Universe’ has come to dominate the world.
K.R. Narayanan’s life graph reflects in many ways the fruition of the promise of ‘equality of status and opportunity’ that the Constitution guaranteed every citizen; from humble beginnings in a remote village to a distinguished career as an academician, diplomat, politician and, finally, India’s first Dalit President, Narayanan embodied modern India’s indomitable spirit. As President, as diplomat and as a citizen of India, Narayanan believed strongly in the ideas and principles that the nation was built upon—nationalism, democracy, economic progress, religious tolerance and social justice—and these found memorable expression in his speeches and writings over the years. In the Name of the People brings together Narayanan’s most important writings spanning five decades, from his first published article in 1954 to the Republic Day speech of 2000. In these pieces, he covers a diverse range of topics, from Indo–US ties and India–China relations to human development, Islam in India and women in politics; from the benefits of the parliamentary system and the need to build democracy from the grassroots to the role of education and technology in development and the importance of a sustainable environment. Also included are personalized accounts of Ambedkar, Gandhi and Nehru, and a good representation of Narayanan’s key presidential speeches. Informed, perceptive and well-argued, the pieces in In the Name of the People constitute one of our greatest statesmen’s reflections on independent India, and are especially striking in their continued relevance to the life of the nation.
‘If people have lost their lives in a storm, it is a different matter; but how can a massacre be forgotten? Especially when there’s been no justice?’
The three days of 1984, when over 3000 Sikhs were slaughtered, have indelibly marked the lives of thousands more who continue to exist in a twilight of bitterness and despair.
It was outrage at this state of affairs that led Jarnail Singh-an unassuming, law-abiding journalist-to throw his shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram during a press conference in New Delhi. He readily acknowledges that this was not an appropriate means of protest, but asks why, twenty-seven years after the massacres, so little has been done to address the issues that are still unresolved and a source of anguish to the whole community.
I Accuse . . . is a powerful and passionate indictment of the state’s response to the killings of 1984. By exploring the chain of events, the survivors’ stories and the continuing shadow it casts over their lives, Singh seeks answers to some relevant questions. Who initiated the pogrom and why? Why did the state apparatus allow it to happen? Why, despite the many commissions and committees set up to investigate the events, have the perpetrators not been brought to book? Because, finally, 1984 was not an attack on the Sikh community alone; it was an attack on the idea at the very core of democracy-that every citizen, irrespective of faith and community, has a right to life, security and justice.
The story of Ragnarok plays out the endgame of Norse mythology. It is a tale of the destruction of life on this planet and the end of the god themselves. What more relevant myth could any modern writer choose to retell? As the bombs rain down in the Battle of Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. she is struggling to make sense of her new wartime life. then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods – a book of ancient Norse myths – and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the impermanence of life itself are just some of the threads that A.S.Byatt weaves into The End of the Gods. just as Wagner borrowed from this dramatic and catasrophic Norse saga for the climax of his Ring Cycle, so AS Byatt reinvents it for our time in all its intensity and glory. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark piece of storytelling from one of the world’s greatest writers.
A stunningly lyrical work, The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata reinterprets Vyasa’s epic from Arjuna’s point of view. As Arjuna relives the battle of Kurukshetra, he senses a profound change coming upon himself. He begins to understand the true meaning of surrender and sacrifice.
The book comprises three parts, narrated principally by Arjuna. Part I takes us through the childhood and youth of the Pandavas and Kauravas, the game of dice, the Pandavas’ exile, and ends with the armies arrayed for battle at Kurukshetra. Part II recounts the battle itself, and the teachings of the Bhagvad Gita. Part III presents a moving and brilliantly original take on the Mahabharata, as Lidchi-Grassi gives a voice to the forgotten victims of every war—the ordinary citizens who must pick themselves up, and resume the business of life. An old order has been swept away, but can the new age—the Kali Yuga—help lessen human strife and misery? Vastly ambitious in scope and epic in scale, The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata is an astonishing read.
Are you or your partner having trouble conceiving?
You’re not alone. About 10–12 percent of Indians have infertility problems and this trend is increasing. Yet there is a stigma around infertility and many couples find it hard to talk openly about their problems or to get adequate information. Now Dr Firuza R. Parikh, India’s top fertility specialist and gynaecologist, gives you the seminal guide to infertility and its treatments. Simple, accessible, and completely authoritative, The Complete Guide to Becoming Pregnant tells you all that you need to know about conceiving a healthy child.
Oozing with men, money, and Maseratis, Dubai is the ultimate playground for the woman who knows her Louboutins from her Louis Vuittons.
But for some, there’s a lot more at stake than a Hermes Birkin. Leila has been in search of a wealthy husband for over a decade. Nadia moves to Dubai to support her husband’s career, only to have her sacrifices thrown in her face. Sugar escapes the UK in an attempt to escape her past. Lady Luxe, the rebellious Emirati heiress, scoffs at everything her culture holds sacred. Until the day her double life starts unravelling at the seams.
Set against a backdrop of luxury hotels and manmade islands, Desperate in Dubai tells the tale of four desperate women as they struggle to find truth, love, and themselves.
