Pegged on journalist Sameer Arshad Khatlani’s visit to Pakistan, this book provides insights into the country beyond what we already know about it. These include details on the impact of India’s soft power, thanks to Bollywood, and the remnants of Pakistan’s multireligious past, and how it frittered away advantages of impressive growth in the first three decades of its existence by embracing religious conservatism.
The book profiles extraordinary people-lawyers, poets, musicians and even a former military chief-who stood up to an oppressive state. It has historical anecdotes, like the story of an ordinary woman who became the ‘muse and mistress’, and often the ‘brains behind the regime of a swinging general’ who led Pakistan to ignominy in the 1971 war, that of a Sikh family which dared to swim against the tide to stay back in Pakistan after Partition, and a prostitute’s son who uses his art to humanize commercial sex workers in defiance of a conservative society.
The book attempts to present a contemporary portrait of Pakistan-where prohibition remains only on paper and one of the biggest taxpayers is a Parsee-owned brewery-as a complicated and conflicted country suspended between tradition and modernity.
Catagory: Non Fiction
non fiction main category
Rebirth
Rebirth is the story of Kaberi, a young woman coming to grips with an uncertain marriage. It is also an intimate portrait of the passionate bond between a mother and her unborn child. Moving between Bengaluru and Guwahati, the novel weaves together Kaberi’s inner and outer worlds as she negotiates the treacherous waters of betrayal and loss-an unfaithful husband, a troubled relationship with her parents and the death of a childhood friend. With characteristic restraint and disarming honesty, Jahnavi Barua lays bare the disquieting predicaments of contemporary urban life and reveals the timeless and redemptive power of love, friendship and self-renewal.
Endless Song
A dazzling translation of one of the most revered ancient Bhakti poems
The Tiruvaymoli (sacred utterance or sacred truth) is a grand 1102-verse poem, composed in the ninth century by Sathakopan-Nammalvar, the greatest of the alvar poets. Ingeniously weaving a garland of words-where each beginning is also an ending-the poet traces his cyclical quest for union with the supreme lord, Visnu. In this magnificent translation, Archana Venkatesan transports the flavour and cadences of Tamil into English, capturing the different voices and range of emotions through which the poet expresses his enduring desire for release. The scholarly introduction illuminates the poem’s kaleidoscopic brilliance and the traditions of devotional religiosity it inspired.
Upstream
Upstream is the story of a remarkable journey, from a boyhood in pre-partition Lahore, then in Shimla post-Independence, to the creation of the unique entrepreneurial vision that is the ANAND group.
Deep Anand’s diverse conglomerate of companies and businesses is a herculean achievement. It is the story of the flowering of India’s engineering and manufacturing expertise decades before Make in India.
None of this would have happened without Anand’s ability to attract talented Indians from different regions and provinces of a richly diverse nation and bring home those working abroad–to create a unique blend of skills, cultures, languages, and beliefs.
Upstream is a fascinating insight into the art of foraging and managing joint venture partnerships with leading global companies and how to survive inevitable challenges and crisis and emerge stronger.
Equally, it is about the people who have made the ANAND group the successful venture that holds diversity together now and into the future.
Death; An Inside Story
Death is a taboo in most societies in the world. But what if we have got this completely wrong? What if death was not the catastrophe it is made out to be but an essential aspect of life, rife with spiritual possibilities for transcendence? For the first time, someone is saying just that.
In this unique treatise-like exposition, Sadhguru dwells extensively upon his inner experience as he expounds on the more profound aspects of death that are rarely spoken about. From a practical standpoint, he elaborates on what preparations one can make for one’s death, how best we can assist someone who is dying and how we can continue to support their journey even after death.
Whether a believer or not, a devotee or an agnostic, an accomplished seeker or a simpleton, this is truly a book for all those who shall die!
Inside a Dark Box
When you get trapped in darkness, finding your way out can be a long and lonely battle, especially when the war is within your own head. Here’s a peep inside a mind struggling with itself.
Inside a Dark Box is a simple book about what depression can feel like.
Fearless
Through the ages, strong, inspirational women and girls have risen in response to uncertainty and injustice. A timeless call to arms that many like Fatima Jinnah, Asma Jehangir, Sheema Kirmani, Nighat Dad and Malala Yousafzai have always been answering.Demonstrating that one girl can change everything.
Fearless: Stories of Amazing Women from Pakistan chronicles the lives of fifty such incredible women-scientists, lawyers, politicians, activists and artists-who incite hope, inspire action and initiate dialogue. Fiercely bold, this beautifully illustrated book holds up a mirror to South Asians across the world and highlights that their voices are crucial.
A Double Life
Bubbling with indefatigable energy, Alyque Padamsee was a unique genius who had mastered both theatre and advertising. Famous for playing Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi, he also created several iconic advertisement campaigns on Indian television.
A Double Life takes you on a memorable, sometimes hilarious, trip spanning nearly all the years of Padamsee’s brilliant career. It also offers you a chance to go backstage with the man dubbed ‘God’, as he unfolds thrilling scenes from his high-voltage life. With acute human insights that illuminate the book like flashes of lightning, Padamsee reveals the hidden stories behind the provocative ads for megabrands like Liril and Kama Sutra, and behind blockbuster productions like Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar.
My Girlhood
Set in the backdrop of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, this book recollects Taslima Nasrin’s early years. From her birth on a holy day to the dawn of womanhood at fourteen to her earliest memories that alternate between scenes of violence, memories of her pious mother, the rise of religious fundamentalism, the trauma of molestation and the beginning of a journey that redefined her world, My Girlhood is a tour de force.
Off the Beaten Track
Saeeda Bano was the first woman in India to work as a radio newsreader, known then and still as the doyenne of Urdu broadcasting. Over her unconventional and courageous life, she walked out of a suffocating marriage, witnessed the violence of Partition, lost her son for a night in a refugee camp, ate toast with Nehru and fell in love with a married man who would, in the course of their twenty-five-year relationship, become the Mayor of Delhi. Though she was born into privilege in Bhopal-the only Indian state to be ruled by women for four successive generations-her determination, independence and frankness make this a remarkable memoir and a crucial disruption in India’s understanding of her own past.