The year is 1950; the Liaquat-Nehru Pact has been signed between India and Pakistan; she doesn’t know it will change her life forever; it will also make her stronger
Bibi Amrit Kaur’s life is literally torn apart in the 1947 riots. She’s now in a different country with a different identity. She accepts this new life gracefully and begins a new chapter. She gets married and has two children. Life, however, has something else in store for her. It breaks her apart. Again.
This time the pain is unbearable.
But the hope that she will reunite with her children and be whole again keeps her alive. And she doesn’t let the bitterness cloud her days, becoming a beacon of hope and courage for all.
From the bestselling author of Calling Sehmat comes another hitherto untold story of strength, sacrifice and resilience.
A must read.
Catagory: Non Fiction
non fiction main category
1971
The year 1971 exists everywhere in Bangladesh-on its roads, in sculptures, in its museums and oral history projects, in its curriculum, in people’s homes and their stories, and in political discourse. It marks the birth of the nation, it’s liberation. More than 1000 miles away, in Pakistan too, 1971 marks a watershed moment, its memories sitting uncomfortably in public imagination. It is remembered as the ‘Fall of Dacca’, the dismemberment of Pakistan or the third Indo-Pak war. In India, 1971 represents something else-the story of humanitarian intervention, of triumph and valour that paved the way for India’s rise as a military power, the beginning of its journey to becoming a regional superpower.
Navigating the widely varied terrain that is 1971 across Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, Anam Zakaria sifts through three distinct state narratives, and studies the institutionalization of the memory of the year and its events. Through a personal journey, she juxtaposes state narratives with people’s history on the ground, bringing forth the nuanced experiences of those who lived through the war. Using intergenerational interviews, textbook analyses, visits to schools and travels to museums and sites commemorating 1971, Zakaria explores the ways in which 1971 is remembered and forgotten across countries, generations and communities.
Going Public
As chief of SEBI, Upendra Kumar Sinha guided the regulatory body through some of its most crucial years. Successive governments appointed him on this crucial post-making him one of the longest-serving heads of the organization. Under his leadership, SEBI successfully fought a long legal battle with Sahara, and led the crackdown on institutions such as PACL, Rose Valley, Saradha and the MPS groups which conducted unauthorized deposit collections.
Upendra Kumar Sinha has contributed significantly to shaping India’s capital markets in multiple roles, including as chairman of UTI Mutual Fund and head of the Capital Markets division in the Ministry of Finance. He’s been the guiding force behind reforms to protect the rights of investors, make stock exchanges more secure, and introduce alternate investment funds (AIFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs). He is credited with the current revival and growth of the mutual funds industry in the country. This candid and historically important memoir reminisces on his journey through India’s changing financial landscape.
Cow and Company
A brave and hilarious debut set in colonial India, Cow and Company begins with the British Chewing Gum Company setting up shop in Bombay with the mission of introducing chewing gum in the colonies. They declare paan, which is in all mouths at all times, as their enemy. A cow is chosen as the mascot. It is up on all the posters.
Religious sentiments are hurt. What begins as a search for a cow ends up in a catastrophe. With laugh-out-loud moments, ingenious use of language, and a spellbinding interplay of fantasy and myth, Cow and Company uses satire to take stock of the state of the nation, religion and capital, then and now.
Sridevi
Hailed as the first pan-Indian female superstar in an era which literally offered actresses crumbs, Sridevi tamed Hindi cinema like no other. Beginning her affair with the camera when she was four, this doe-eyed beauty conquered Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada industries with performances etched in gold. Taking Hindi cinema by storm with Himmatwala in 1983, Sridevi emerged as one of the most iconic screen goddesses of India, playing characters that went on to become cultural touchstones.
A supreme artiste who had mastered all the nine rasas, her comedy was peerless, her dances legendary, her histrionics awe-inspiring and her life a study in contrast, electric on screen, strangely reticent off it. Besides reigning as queen bee for the longest spell among Hindi heroines, she also remains the only actress who was No.1 in Tamil and Telugu cinema as well.
Such was Sridevi’s megastardom that she emerged as the ‘hero’ at the box office, towering above her male co-actors. Challenging patriarchy in Bollywood like no other, she not only exalted the status of the Hindi film heroine but also empowered a whole generation of audiences. After a hiatus of fifteen years, she shattered the rules again by becoming the only Bollywood diva to make a triumphant comeback in 2012 with the globally acclaimed English Vinglish.
If her life played out forever in the limelight, so did her sudden demise in 2018. Charting five decades of her larger-than-life magic, this book celebrates both the phenomenon and the person Sridevi was. This is her journey from child star to one of our greatest movie luminaries who forever changed the narrative of Indian cinema.
Re-forming India
India’s social and political landscape has, in recent times, witnessed many significant transformations. This book offers a wide-ranging review of how India has, over the last few years, fared on the most critical dimensions of our collective life-politics, economy, governance, development, culture and society.
The project of change entailed processes of both reform and re-formation: if reform was about correcting or improving what was considered unsatisfactory, re-formation was a bolder project that aimed to construct anew, anchored in a fundamental re-visioning of India in social, cultural and even moral terms. In many ways, the programme of re-forming India may have outpaced that of reforming India and even exceeded its own expectations.
This volume provides an overview of the prevailing political imaginary of nationalism and of the current trends of public discourse in Indian democracy; it seeks to identify and interpret the transformations in state institutions and the public sphere and evaluate their implications for the future.
Re-Forming India brings together reflections, from leading commentators in their fields, on some of these transformations-from the promise of economic revival and demonetization to the impact on gender relations, higher education and the media. Has the country been transformed in ways that were promised? Or indeed in other ways that had not been anticipated?
With essays from Smita Gupta, Ashok K. Lahiri, C. Rammanohar Reddy, Indira Rajaraman, Radhicka Kapoor, Prem Shankar Jha, Harish Damodaran, A. K. Bhattacharya, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Yamini Aiyar, Yogendra Yadav, Diane Coffey, Anirudh Krishna, Navroz K. Dubash, Shibani Ghosh, Madhav Khosla, Ramachandra Guha, Srinath Raghavan, Ashutosh Varshney, Suhas Palshikar, Anand Teltumbde, Pratiksha Baxi, Amitabh Behar, Sanjay Srivastava, Surinder S. Jodhka, Ravindra Karnena, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Gautam Bhatia (lawyer), Ravish Kumar, Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Neera Chandhoke, Apoorvanand, Gautam Bhatia (architect), Siddhartha Chatterjee and Chandrika Grover Ralleigh.
Breath of Gold
Fights, action, music, romance, secret trysts-renowned classical musician Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s life reads almost like a film script. Wrestler in the morning, student during the daytime and flute player in secret, he lived more than a double life through his early years, till he broke away from his wrestler father’s watchful eye to join All India Radio as a flautist.
His marriage, relocation to Bombay and his foray into films were events rich in drama. As were his meetings with other musical greats, including Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, his dearest friend and music partner, with whom he composed the music for films like Silsila, Lamhe and Chandni. His reminiscences about his journey as a student of the reclusive Annapurna Devi, daughter of the famed Allauddin Khan of Maihar, give deep insights into his nature as well as that of his guruma.
Hariprasad Chaurasia has also been a guru to innumerable students in his Mumbai and Bhubaneswar gurukuls, and at the World Music Department, Rotterdam Music Conservatory, the Netherlands, where he is artistic director. His mesmerizing flute can be heard in some of Hindi cinema’s most popular songs, in a composition by the former Beatle George Harrison, as well as in recordings with renowned musicians from across the world.
A plethora of awards, including the Padma Vibhushan, sits lightly on the man, who has taken the humble flute to international renown as an instrument that can hold its own. Hariprasad Chaurasia and his Breath of Gold will inspire and amaze everyone who reads the life story of this much-loved flautist.
A Chequered Brilliance
This is a compelling biography of one of India’s most controversial and consequential public figures. V.K. Krishna Menon continues to command our attention not just because he was Jawaharlal Nehru’s confidant and soulmate but also for many of his own political and literary accomplishments. A relentless crusader for Indian independence in the UK in the 1930s and 1940s, he was a global star at the United Nations in the 1950s before he was forced to resign as defence minister in the wake of the India-China war of 1962.
Meticulously researched and based entirely on new archival material, this book reveals Krishna Menon in all his capabilities and contradictions. It is also a rich history of the tumultuous times in which he lived and which he did so much to shape.
India’s War
Between 1939 and 1945 India underwent extraordinary and irreversible change. Hundreds of thousands of Indians suddenly found themselves in uniform, fighting in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Europe and-something simply never imagined-against a Japanese army poised to invade eastern India. By the war’s end, the Indian Army had become the largest volunteer force in the conflict, consisting of 2.5 million men, while many millions more had offered their industrial, agricultural and military labour.
In India’s War, historian Srinath Raghavan paints a compelling picture of battles abroad and of life on the home front, arguing that World War II is crucial to explaining how and why colonial rule ended in South Asia. The war forever altered the country’s social landscape, and when the dust settled, India had emerged as a major Asian power with her feet set firmly on the path toward Independence.
From Gandhi’s early support of Britain’s war efforts to the crucial Burma Campaign, Raghavan’s authoritative and vivid account shows how India’s economy, politics and people were forever transformed, laying the groundwork for the emergence of modern South Asia.
Come Home to Yourself
Written in a beautiful, simple and conversational style, Sadhviji covers the most pertinent issues affecting all of us-how to discover inner peace, find love, let go of anger, know your purpose, and connect with God, regardless of your religion. Born and educated in the US, Sadhviji has a PhD in psychology. She came to India approximately twenty-five years ago and has since lived at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, on the banks of the Ganga.
This book emerged from the satsangs held each evening after the sacred Ganga aarti at the Ashram, and will resonate deeply with everyone, whether you are old or young, rich or poor, religious or not, traditional or modern. It will touch you deeply, awaken your spirituality and connect you to your true self, allowing you to become the best version you can be.
Why do I think so negatively? How can I break out of negative patterns?
Negative thinking is a tragic pattern that many of us fall prey to. Sadly we do it because we’ve been programmed to do it. One part of it stems from our basic culture of education and discipline, which is a system based on punishments rather than rewards. The children who do well and behave are ignored, and the kids who cause problems are the ones who get all the attention. We constantly hear, ‘You’re stupid, you’re bad, you’re this, you’re that,’ and we internalize it.
The other part of it comes from the rest of the culture-media, politics, etc.-that is rooted in and founded upon convincing us that we are lacking something in our lives that they are going to fulfil. This is called marketing. If you already have everything, how am I going to sell you something? If you’re already satisfied, you’re not a very good customer, especially if what I’m selling is not something you need. I need you to feel that there is something missing in you, which my product is going to solve. Either you are too dark or too fair, your hair is too straight or too curly, you’re too fat or too thin, you’re wearing last year’s model of jeans. This is how advertising works…
I feel anxiety in many situations. Is anxiety a bad thing?
First of all, it’s important to remember that nothing we experience is bad. The only bad thing is thinking that what we feel is wrong, because then we end up separating ourselves from ourselves. We want to be good, we want to think and act in good ways, so the minute we label something inside of us as ‘bad’, we’ve cut ourselves off from it.
So when we examine anxiety, it is not ‘bad’ per se. However, what does it do? It makes our heart race. When we feel stressed and anxious, our heart rate rushes, our blood pressure goes up, all of our energy literally rushes to the extremities. It’s our fight-or-flight response. We are biologically primed and ready in that moment to either fight or flee.
That response would be very useful if we were living in a cave and had to protect ourselves from tigers or bears or warring tribes, but it’s not very helpful in the world we live in. We need that rush of adrenaline to be able to outrun a threat or to climb a tree. But we cannot live in a state of openness and expansion while simultaneously running or fighting. Either the world is something to be afraid of, or the world is something to be one with, but it can’t be both.
Every minute that we feel anxiety, what our body is telling us on a physiological level is that this situation is dangerous. And that’s not a healthy way to live. The question then becomes-how do we stop feeling anxious?
Every time you feel anxious, ask yourself: Is this really a situation where I want to separate myself from the world? And if not, then ask yourself how you can expand the way you think of yourself. Ground yourself in your breath. Try to experience a state of oneness with the people around you, rather than a sense of separation, because where there’s oneness, there’s no fear. Where there’s fear, you feel separation. Anxiety takes us away from the truth of who we are. And on a spiritual path, we want to be closer to who we are.
What is meditation?
Meditation is a noun, not a verb. It is more who we are than just what we do seated on a cushion for a few minutes or hours each day. It is knowing and living as the True Self. It is not a complex, esoteric skill that only experts can perform, such as feats of gymnastics or long division without using paper.
Meditation is what gets us back in touch with who we really are, but without judgement or analysis. Meditation creates stillness in the mind so that we’re able to genuinely live and experience the Truth of who we are. Our problems are not outside; they’re inside. Our minds run around and repeat stories to us-stories that we’ve taken in from our culture, our life. Stories that we’re too much of this, not enough of that, that we should be like this and not like that, and so on. It’s that judging, commentating voice. We internalize that voice, and most of us hear it all day long on repeat. If we listened to our thoughts intently, we would notice that the vast majority of them are utterly useless and make little sense.
Then there comes in thoughts about who others are, who they should be, what they’re doing, what they should be doing, and all of the judgement, yearning,longing, wishing and aversion that clog our minds. It’s not who we are, it’s just what our thinking mind has been habituated to doing mechanically.
Meditation gives us the experience of what it would be like if this weren’t going on all the time. It’s not a very complex skill, but the lack of complexity doesn’t mean it’s easy. This is because of the games that the mind plays. Don’t think that unless you’ve got lots of free time to learn meditation, you won’t succeed. If you’re able to just breathe it out as it comes-whatever ‘it’ is that comes-and bring your awareness back to the breath, you are meditating, and it will ground you back in the truth of who you are.
Meditation brings us back into a place of real awareness-awareness without judgement and analysis, open-eyed witnessing of who we are and what’s there when we remove the non-self from our identification. Through meditation, we are able to peel back layer after layer.