Billions have died in the thousands of years since human beings first developed language, but we do not have a single credible account of the subjective experience of dying and the afterlife. This is why death continues to be an immense mystery and a subject of eternal fascination.
In Death and Dying, scholars and intellectuals illumine the major issues raised by the inevitable ending to life. The range is wide: from the dread that accompanies all notions of mortality to the objective evidence for the existence of an afterlife; from an exploration of the spiritual dimensions of mourning to analyses of how death was perceived and interpreted by geniuses like John Keats, Rabindranath Tagore and Carl Jung.
Utterly compelling, these essays prompt us to question our fears and notions of death while enabling us to perceive this phenomenon with greater understanding and intelligence.
A decoding of Hindu mythology Hindus have one God. They also have 330 million gods: male gods; female gods; personal gods; family gods; household gods; village gods; gods of space and time; gods for specific castes and particular professions; gods who reside in trees; in animals; in minerals; in geometrical patterns and in man-made objects. Then there are a whole host of demons. But no Devil. In this groundbreaking book Dr Devdutt Pattanaik; one of India’s most popular mythologists; seeks an answer to these apparent paradoxes and unravels an inherited truth about life and death; nature and culture; perfection and possibility. He retells sacred Hindu stories and decodes Hindu symbols and rituals; using a unique style of commentary; illustrations and diagrams. We discover why the villainous Kauravas went to heaven and the virtuous Pandavas (all except Yudhishtira) were sent to hell; why Rama despite abandoning the innocent Sita remains the model king; why the blood-drinking Kali is another form of the milk-giving Gauri; and why Shiva wrenched off the fifth head of Brahma. Constructed over generations; Hindu myths serve as windows to the soul; and provide an understanding of the world around us. The aim is not to outgrow myth; but to be enriched and empowered by its ancient; potent and still relevant language.
Try as you may, you won’t get the answer because we’re guys and we come from Mars where it’s an alien-eat-alien world. Most of the time we’re confused as heck and need a girl to set us straight but all the other times we pretty much know what we want. The same way how we can’t figure you lot out and why you need so many pairs of shoes, we too can be hard nuts (all puns intended) to crack. Girls rule. That’s a fact no guy can deny. That said, there are a few things about you that drive us crazy and make us go running across continents and enroll into witness protection programmes to get as far away from you as possible.
Here’s a book that’ll help you if not figure us out, save you from a few nasty dates and know when to run screaming, because at the end of the day boys will be boys.
Worried about not ageing gracefully?
Do you constantly find yourself wistfully wishing you could turn back the clock?
The clock keeps ticking. That’s inevitable. What we can do, however, is slow down the process and push further the visible signs of ageing. In Age Erase, renowned aesthetic physician Dr Rashmi Shetty will fill you in on the whats, whys, and hows of ageing, the reason why these changes occur, and how simple do’s and don’ts can make a remarkable difference. Immerse yourself in insights on the latest advances in skin care, the right kind of nutrition, and cutting-edge anti-ageing solutions.
From the latest advancements in aesthetic medicine to old-fashioned kitchen remedies that really work to grandmother antidotes, Age Erase unlocks the secrets of ageing gracefully.
The voices who could tell the Indian story of the First World War have long been silenced, but at last India is getting the chance to hear its own soldiers speaking in this collection of letters sent by them while they served in France. Fighting alongside soldiers whose language, customs and indeed colour were strange to them, these letters bear eloquent witness to the sepoys’ often unsettling encounters with Europe and European culture. By turns poignant, funny and moving, they provide an intimate picture of the world of the Western Front.
They think they’re invincible. After seventeen very ordinary years of life in small-town America, Amit Pillai suddenly finds himself on a red-eye flight to Kerala. An NRI, he is forced to join the posh Ananthapuri International School, the only school in town that accepts ‘soft boys’ like him. But this Kerala is faux Americana where it’s all loud music and lined pockets, and there is never enough time to stop and look around. Amit quickly discovers that life here is anything but soft. Struggling with love and identity, he is never quite sure where to draw the line, when his fragile existence at school is rocked by a series of shocking events. What have they done? What are the consequences? And can they live with them? A roller-coaster ride through the real-time experiences of an Indian teenager, Wicked Games is contemporary school life told like never before.
Patriarchy asserts men are superior to women
Feminism clarifies women and men are equal
Queerness questions what constitutes male and female
Queerness isn’t only modern, Western or sexual, says mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik. Take a close look at the vast written and oral traditions in Hinduism, some over two thousand years old, and you will find tales of:
Shikhandi, who became a man to satisfy her wife
Mahadeva, who became a woman to deliver a devotee’s child
Chudala, who became a man to enlighten her husband
Samavan, who became the wife of his male friend
and many more . . .
Playful and touching—and sometimes disturbing—these stories when compared with tales of the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh, the Greek Ganymede, the biblical Sodom or the Chinese ‘cut sleeve’ Emperor reveal the unique Indian way of making sense of queerness.
Devdutt Pattanaik’s new book builds on profound ideas that our ancestors shared but which we have rarely inherited.
This book has content for mature audiences. Discretion advised.
Defying the Odds is about the new Dalit identity. It profiles the phenomenal rise of twenty Dalit entrepreneurs, the few who through a combination of grit, ambition, drive and hustle—and some luck—have managed to break through social, economic and practical barriers. It illustrates instances where adversity compensated for disadvantage, where working their way up from the bottom instilled in Dalit entrepreneurs a much greater resilience as well as a willingness to seize opportunities in sectors and locations eschewed by more privileged business groups.
Traditional Dalit narratives are marked by struggle for identity, rights, equality and for inclusion. These inspiring stories capture both the difficulty of their circumstances as well as their extraordinary steadfastness, while bringing light to the possibilities of entrepreneurship as a tool of social empowerment.
The boys are back!
And this time, they are hungrier than before. Travelling the length and breadth of the country in search for gastronomical perfection, India’s original street food connoisseurs Rocky and Mayur promise to take you on a culinary road trip like no other.
Based on the highly acclaimed NDTV Good Times TV series, this second edition of the book which won the BEST IN THE WORLD Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2012 covers more than two hundred new food joints, over 1500 different food items, and provides indispensable information on the best dhabas and street stalls in the country.
With authentic food reviews, interesting visuals from the show, and even maps for directions, Highway on my Plate-II is the ultimate foodie’s guide to Indian roadside eating.
The memoir of one of Pakistan’s most prominent businessmen in exile
‘I reached to see not the beautiful hotel that we had so lovingly built, but a war zone. . . . We found bodies of our dear guests, colleagues, friends: faces I recognized, faces I had worked with and smiled at. The sight that stunned me was the crater-60 feet wide and 20 feet deep. It had been created by over 1000 kg of RDX. The hotel had not been attacked, it had been brutalized. Dead bodies and dismembered limbs, little pools of blood-it was a massacre. I had thought of myself as a hardened man who had seen violence and gristly sights-but what I saw that day left me shaken.’
Truth Always Prevails is the memoir of one of Pakistan’s most prominent businessmen, Sadruddin Hashwani, chairman of the internationally renowned Hashoo Group.
From sleeping in the back of trucks in the cold deserts of Balochistan to now owning a brand of luxury hotels as well as numerous other businesses, Sadruddin Hashwani has led a remarkable life. He has struggled against corrupt politicians and uncooperative government officials to build and sustain an extensive business empire. He has faced near-death experiences, most remarkably the 2008 bombing of his own hotel, the Marriott Islamabad, and has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.
Filled with fascinating anecdotes and telling sketches of prominent Pakistani personalities, his is an extraordinary story that will inspire and entertain readers.
