Young Tagore is a first-of-its-kind psychobiography that deepens our understanding of Rabindranath Tagore, perhaps the greatest multifaceted genius India has produced in the last two hundred years. In this reconstruction of Tagore’s childhood and youth, preeminent psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar draws a nuanced portrait of the young prodigy and the decisive experiences that shaped him: the death of his mother when he was fourteen, the intimate bond he shared with his sister-in-law Kadambari and his sojourn in England. Through these Kakar uncovers the vital themes in young Rabi’s inner world that shaped his creative genius: his yearning for solitude that was tempered by his fear of loneliness; his preoccupation with spiritual concerns that enabled him to give voice to the sensualist within; and his abiding quest to find a balance between traditional Indian values and Western cosmopolitanism.
Kakar’s scrutiny is intense as he pieces together this incredible puzzle, but the rigorous scholarship is finely balanced with deep empathy. In laying bare the inner workings of Tagore’s brilliance, Kakar reveals the real man behind the towering genius.
In how many Hindi films has the hero beenafflicted by the Big C (cancer)? Who played adouble role in Sholay? Which early Dev Anandmovie had the song ‘Usne phenka leg break to mainemara chhakka?’ From Geet Gaata Chal (songs thatbecame movies) to Nishabd (ten silent scenes ofAmitabh Bachchan), every page in this bumperbook is going to engross and entertain you.
A copy of Bollybook belongs on your table, right next to your DVD remote.
The skin is the largest and the most visible organ of the body, but it is also one that ages the fastest! Unfortunately, when it comes to right skin care, most of us are totally clueless. With Skin Talks, you can be your own skin doctor by learning about:
• the process of skin ageing and its causes
• home remedies for skin problems like sun tan, acne, and pigmentation
• how to take care of your skin by using the right cleansers, moisturisers, sunscreens, and anti-ageing creams
• the difference between skin care in summer, winter, and monsoons
• tips to add to your daily routine
Written by one of India’s top cosmetic dermatologists, Skin Talks is your quintessential beauty bible to help you achieve healthy, supple skin. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to let your skin blossom.
In 1984, Simranjit Singh Mann resigned from the Indian Police Service in protest of Operation Blue Star, the Indian Army operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, that cleared the Golden Temple complex of Sikh militants. Mann was subsequently charged, among other things, with conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A passionate Sikh whose radical beliefs were honed by his family, Mann went underground and was apprehended while trying to flee the country. He spent five years in prison, after which all charges were dropped.
Three decades after Blue Star, his daughter Pavit Kaur looks back on the years her father spent in prison. In this disarmingly honest and emotionally charged account, Pavit Kaur documents her father’s hellish journey through the Indian prison system. This is also a personal story and the story of a family during one of the most fraught times in India’s history.
In October 1947, two months after he became independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the first of his fortnightly letters to the heads of the country’s provincial governments-a tradition that he kept until his last letter in December 1963, only a few months before his death.
Carefully selected from among nearly 400 such letters, this collection covers a range of themes and subjects, including citizenship, war and peace, law and order, national planning and development, governance and corruption, and India’s place in the world. The letters also cover momentous world events and the many crises and conflicts the country faced during the first sixteen years after Independence.
Visionary, wise and reflective, these letters are not just a testimony to Nehru’s statesmanship and his deep engagement with every aspect of India’s democratic journey, but are also of great contemporary relevance for the guidance they provide for our current problems and predicaments.
As a young girl in Bangalore, Gayathri was surrounded by the fragrance of jasmine and flickering oil lamps, her family protected by gods and goddesses. But as she grew older, demons came forth from dark corners of her idyllic kingdom—with the scariest creatures lurking within her tortured mind.
Shadows in the Sun traces Gayathri’s courageous battle with debilitating depression that consumed her from adolescence through marriage and a move to the United States. Her inspiring memoir provides a first-of-its-kind cross-cultural view of mental illness—how it is regarded in India and in America, and how she drew on both her rich Hindu heritage and Western medicine to find healing.
Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), also known as the ‘Poet of the East’, earned a doctorate in philosophy from the Ludwig-Maximillian University at Munich, and wrote his most evocative poems in Urdu, a language that was not his mother tongue. He counted Jawaharlal Nehru as one of his fans, and earned Mahatma Gandhi’s respect as well. His funeral was attended by 70,000 people, which included colonialists and freedom fighters, socialist atheists and Islamic fundamentalists, Indian nationalists and Muslim Leaguers, reflecting his ability to defy categorization.
The book is a relatively short volume that introduces Iqbal to the millennial generation. It is written in a relatively contemporary language, similar to Ghalib: A Thousand Desires. The bulk of the book will comprise a temporal and intellectual biography of Iqbal, while the rest will include a detailed discussion of one of Iqbal’s poems, a translation of some of his well-known poems, and a sampling of some of his famous verses.
It will not for the Iqbal-expert or the Urdu-expert, but for a relative newcomer.
The deafening noise in the Wankhede turns to silence so complete that you’d swear you can hear Tendulkar’s footsteps as he begins the walk back to the pavilion.
It’s the end of an era, they said. No more switching off televisions when he got out; no more resounding chants of ‘Sa-chi-i-i-n, Sa-chin!’ In November 2013, Sachin Tendulkar played his final Test.
Dilip D’Souza builds on close and detailed observation of those two and a half days, capturing all the hysteria it spawned, the love and adulation that showered from the rafters at the Wankhede, the choking emotion, and yes, there was a match on too, against the West Indies. Final Test discusses cricket from the old to the new, as Sachin takes to the pitch one final time.
India is the diabetes capital of the world. Yet, diabetes can be prevented or controlled with the help of the right natural cure. Charmaine D’Souza has more than 24 years of practice dealing with diabetes and has a host of celebrity clients including Karan Johar, Bipasha Basu, Rani Mukerji, Padmini Kolhapure, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Shalini and Samrat Zaveri, and Anita and Naresh Goyal. She tells us how and why we contract diabetes, points out the ensuing health hazards, and explains how we can manage the condition through natural remedies, including enticing recipes for diabetes patients and their families.
Blood Sugar and Spice: Living with Diabetes is a comprehensive manual to help prevent, control, and cure diabetes using naturopathy. Whether you have been diagnosed with diabetes, have a relative or friend with diabetes or have a general interest in the ailment, this book is meant for you.
Eighteen-year-old Shaheen Mistri, having grown up around the world, spends the summer in Mumbai and wanders into the Ambedkar Nagar slum community. She sees Pinky, who becomes the first of the thousands of children whose lives she will touch on her journey. Hers are the endlessly compelling stories of the underprivileged children of India, the harsh realities that they face, and the hope and love that will catapult them into being a future generation of leaders.
This is a story of the power of personal reflection and makes us ask ourselves the question, ‘What is the greatest life I can live?’ And in answer are the personal accounts of so many Teach For India Fellows and staff, India’s best and brightest, who have shown that each and every one of us, working together, towards the belief that one day every child will have the opportunity to receive an excellent education, has the power to change the world.
