1950s Calcutta. Seventeen-year-old Shankar walks on to Old Post Office Street to become a clerk in the Calcutta High Court. There he meets the last English barrister, and thus begins their unusual and unforgettable relationship.
The Great Unknown is the moving story of the many people Shankar meets in the courtrooms and lawyers’ chambers of Old Post Office Street—some seeking justice, others watching the drama of life unfold. It offers a uniquely personal glimpse into their PBI – World of unfulfilled dreams and duplicity, of unexpected tragedy, as well as hope and exhilaration.
Here you will meet Marian Stuart, who journeys from Lebanon to PBI – India in search of a husband and happiness; the once-rich but now-destitute Englishman James Gould; Helen Grubert, the embittered Anglo-PBI – Indian typist, who wins her breach-of-promise case but has a miraculous change of heart; Nicholas Droulas, the betrayed Greek sailor desperate for revenge; Shefali Mitra, the distraught mother fighting to hold on to the daughter she did not give birth to; Chhoka-da, the benevolent babu who takes the young clerk under his wing; and the barrister sahib who profoundly enriches Shankar’s life with his own experiences.
The Great Unknown (Kato Ajanarey), Sankar’s debut novel, first appeared in Desh in 1955. An instant success, it remains immensely popular more than fifty years after its publication. This first-ever English translation captures the simplicity and poignancy of the original.
STEP BACK TO GLIMPSE
A BYGONE TIME…
Mahlee, dhobie, cook, horsekeeper,
Each were to the chokee sent,
Last of all the wretched sweeper-
Still the Colonel’s liquor went.
‘Devlish odd this!’ said the Colonel
‘What a land to soldier in!
Aboo, this is most infernal –
Who the blazes drinks my gin?’
Sahib’s India’s is a panaromic look at the lives of the British in colonial India. Culled from Raj literature , it reveals little-known aspects of their lives and their dealings with their Indian subjects. Drawing from contemporary journals, plays and poems, the author provides wonderful descriptions of British homes and servants , their tastes and fashions, cultural idiosyncrasies, profligacy, sports, hunts and shoots, giving us, with the relaxed familiarity of the after -dinner raconteur, a flavour of the period. The book is peppered with a host of characters- astrologers, jugglers, magicians, grass widows, the ‘fishing fleet’, missionaries, nautch girls, mavericks and eccentrics- who made India their home as the British turned from traders to empire- builders, and is interspersed with period photographs, paintings and sketches. Thsi is a delightful evocation of a vanished world.
When DCP Ravi and his ACP Rahul are handed the case of the death of the Union Sports Minister and cricket board member S.N. Rao, little do they know that this is just one of the series of murders across the city. What unravels is a ruthless game of supremacy-a deeper, more sinister plan to squash anyone coming in the way of setting up the twenty-twenty league and becoming one of the richest sporting bodies of the world!
In the nexus between politicians and the cricket board, the players are just pawns and the real game a tamasha.
Forgotten tells the stories of women who transcended great tribulation to bring strength and succour to others.
We meet Donna Juliana, a devout Catholic of Portuguese descent, whose influence in the court of the Mughal prince Shah Alam-later Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar I-was so strong that the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British frequently sought her help to get an audience with the ruler.
Similarly, the poetry of the beautiful court poet, singer, song writer and warrior Mahlaqa Bai Chanda was largely ignored by critics for nearly two centuries after her death. At a time when few women could read and write, Mahlaqa received an elaborate education, compiling her first collection of poetry when legendary Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib was just a year old.
The author draws vivid portraits of Chand Sultana, the Ismaili Muslim warrior-princess who defended Ahmadnagar against the Mughal forces of Emperor Akbar, and of two queens of the Deccan, Rudramma Devi and Hayat Bakshi Begum, who exemplified the ability of women rulers to govern well. The aurhor also remembers Radha Bai, a courageous Brahmin child-widow whose lifelong search to call someone her own touched all those she encountered.
Bilkees Latif skilfully merges real and imagined events from the lives and times of these extraordinary but forgotten women, to restore to them their place in the annals of history.
Religion is not in books, not in forms, not in sects, not in nation; religion is in the human heart…It is love alone that can conquer hatred…’- Swami Vivekananda A genius, a visionary, a writer, a dreamer, a teacher and an inspiration for generations of Indians—this was Swami Vivekananda. Born into a family of lawyers, Narendranath Dutta was an exceptionally intelligent child, a natural leader among his playmates, who impressed his teachers with his scholarship. The spirituality of his mentor Shri Ramakrishna and his own study of philosophy and logic influenced Narendranath to join the monastic order. Vivekananda was the spokesperson for India at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago where the magic of his words held his audience in thrall. He also instilled among the Indian youth self-confidence and the hope of regeneration. Devika Rangachari’s account of the life and times of Swami Vivekananda is both inspiring and absorbing. It is the remarkable story of a spiritual leader who worked against overwhelming odds to realize his vision of a free India.
When Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature in1913, it reinforced the power he had to touch readers across countries and cultures.
The Jewel That Is Best comprises three volumes of Tagore’s poetry–‘Particles’ (ika),)Kan ‘Jottings’ (Lekhan) and ‘Sparks’ (Sphuli?ga). The poems are quiet, philosophical observations that carry as much meaning as mystery, as much sensitivity as objectivity. Written at various points in the poet’s long life, they remain resonant even today. It was perhaps his imagination as a painter that enabled Tagore to combine humanity, nature and science on one canvas, a harmony strongly felt in these verses. Each poem is a gem delicately arranged with the others. They continue to sparkle in William Radice’s elegant and faithful translation.
A stunning array of voices guaranteed to make you think, feel, dream
The MetroPlus Playwright Award was instituted in 2008 by The Hindu for the best original, unpublished and unperformed English script.
Harlesden High Street by Abhishek Majumdar, the 2008 winner, is an evocative, complex play about displacement and optimism. Through its motley characters and shifts of time and space, this play captures the limited world of immigrants, their frustrations and their dilemmas.
The Skeleton Woman by Prashant Prakash and Kalki Koechlin, the 2009 winners, is a love story about two people who defeat fantastical odds to be together. Swinging between reality and make-believe, it weaves together an Inuit folk tale and a modern-day story about a young fisherman-turned-writer with a potent imagination and his long-suffering wife.
Taramandal by Neel Chaudhuri, the winner for 2010, borrows the protagonist from Satyajit Ray’s short story ‘Patol Babu Filmstar’. Chaudhuri uses a host of characters to masterfully construct a parallel narrative that mirrors Patol’s journey to disillusionment.
Three Plays questions definitions and pushes boundaries. It is a powerful reminder of who and where we are on the cultural map.
