As he steps into his ninety-first year, the prolific Ruskin Bond brings nine decades of wisdom to his readers, encapsulated in a book that draws from the author’s most personal experiences.
Reflecting on childhood and old age, people and places and Mother Nature—an inseparable part of his life—the writer ponders over the fleeting nature of human ambition, the sanctity of dreams (for he still dreams) and the endless generosity of our planet.
Fresh and witty, the text puts forth profound learnings with a candour that is uniquely his. Featuring life lessons, musings and memorable quotes, this book is a tribute to life’s magical moments. Because when life fades, it’s words and memories that live on.
Two events in the 1960s underlined the urgent need to restructure and revitalise India’s Intelligence system: the 1962 war against China, and the one against Pakistan in 1965, both shocking instances of failures in information gathering. The officer who would be given charge of this task was R.N. Kao—someone as unlike romanticised ideals of spies in films and novels as possible.
The founder-chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing lived and operated from the shadows. Understated and gentlemanly, he may not have looked the part, but Kao undoubtedly put Indian Intelligence on the world map.
In this riveting book, authors Anusha Nandakumar and Sandeep Saket trace the roots of modern Indian espionage and describe the newly formed R&AW’s integral role in the liberation of Bangladesh. Kao had one goal, to build an Intelligence-gathering agency that would ensure the security and integrity of India. And eventually, the legend of the ‘Kaoboys’—the nickname given to the team he built—would spread far and wide. This is the compelling tale of how it started; of covert operations, courage and quick thinking; and of how wars are won as much off the battlefield as on it.
Why are so many of our fellow citizens disentangling from the political and economic future of India to invest in the destiny of other nations? Are Non-Resident Indians turning irreversibly into Non-Returning Indians? Is enhancing soft power a fair trade off for losing priceless human capital? And, perhaps most pertinently, is India becoming, after Russia and China, the constricting land of intolerance and authoritarianism from which the elites flee in droves, seeking greener and more liberal pastures—not to forget tax havens.
Marshalling his magisterial scholarship into highly readable prose, Sanjaya Baru raises all these questions and more in Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India, which more than being a tome is a wakeup call we had better heed.
Clarice Aranxa has come to Bougainvillea House to die. But there will be no peace here, nor quiet surrender, as long-forgotten memories are brutally revived. And even as Clarice grows weaker by the day from the ravages of motor neuron disease, her violent past is mirrored in a series of unexplained deaths.
Parenting is a journey of self-discovery as much as it is about raising children. In this book, psychotherapist Riri G. Trivedi and parent coach Anagha Nagpal draw on years of expertise in psychotherapy and positive parenting to provide valuable insights and much-needed support for Indian parents across the globe to balance cultural nuances with modern challenges like screen time, social media, teen relationships, and joint family dynamics.
Rich with global research and real-life stories, this book offers a framework for positive parenting in the Indian cultural context and presents timely, age-appropriate strategies to handle every stage of your child’s life—from toddlerhood to teenage.
Learn how to heal from your childhood trauma and break free from negative patterns through self-reflection exercises. Discover self-regulation techniques to respond calmly to stress, setting a positive example for your children. Pave a healthier way for your child to develop a positive mindset and emotional resilience to handle the ups and downs of growing up.
There may be up to 10 million Indians living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias, and that number is expected to increase dramatically in the next few decades. What is it like to live with and amid this increasingly prevalent condition-an affliction that some fear more than death? In My Father’s Brain, the distinguished physician and author Sandeep Jauhar sets his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding this disease and how it might best be coped with, if not cured.
In an intimate memoir rich with humour and heartbreak, Jauhar relates how his immigrant father and extended family felt, quarrelled, and found their way through the dissolution of a cherished life. Along the way, he lucidly exposes what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters and explores everything from the history of ancient Greece to the most cutting-edge neurological-and bioethical-research. Throughout, My Father’s Brain confronts the moral and psychological concerns that arise when family members must become caregivers, when children’s and parents’ roles reverse, and when we must accept unforeseen turns in our closest relationships-and in our understanding of what it is to have a self. The result is a work of essential insight into dementia, and into how scientists, caregivers, and all of us in an aging society are reckoning with the fallout.
Darjeeling, late 1980s. The demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland has taken a violent turn. The Green Party is at war with the Red Party-and with the state’s security forces. Murder, loot, terror and arson beset the Himalayan foothills.
Fruits of the Barren Tree is a story of that time, and of Relling, a small village near Darjeeling. In Relling there’s Basnet, the village shaman, and his wife; there’s Jhuppay, their son-incorrigible thief, truant and amateur drunk; and also Nimma, Jhuppay’s great love, whose only desire in life is that he take the path of virtue. There’s Chyaatar too, former army man, now a militia commander in the Green Party, who rules the village with an iron hand. Ever the miscreant, nothing Jhuppay does can win Nimma’s heart. But when the Red Party hires his loudspeaker for a meeting-the first innocent, honest job of his life-it sets Jhuppay, Nimma and Chyaatar on a murderous course that fate itself cannot derail.
Originally published in Nepali as Phoolange, this sharp, evocative novel is the story of a failed movement and a cautionary tale of how easily the contagion of violence can infect a community. Intensely visual and imbued with a strong sense of place, it is equally a compelling portrait of Darjeeling away from the brochures and the postcards.
What of the many travels undertaken through history by men and women, in war and peace, that have been unrecorded, invisible, and forgotten?
In Benyamin’s Silent Journeys, we trace the voyage of Mariamma, a young nurse from Kerala who travelled from her hometown in Manthalir all the way across the world. Nothing was known of her journey until many decades later, when a curious great grandson began his investigations only to stumble across a tale of great adventure, hardship, resilience, and love.
The novel reflects upon terrific stories of unaccompanied and courageous journeys that many valiant women, primarily nurses, have made through history, reaching the coldest places in the Arctic, Canada, remote tribal locations in the desert, the interiors of the dark continent, and almost everywhere in Europe
In August 2017, over a thousand neo-Nazis, fascists, Klan members, and neo-Confederates descended on a small southern city to protest the pending removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Within an hour of their arrival, the city’s historic downtown was a scene of bedlam as armored far-right cadres battled activists in the streets. Before the weekend was over, a neo-Nazi had driven a car into a throng of counter-protesters, killing a young woman and injuring dozens.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Deborah Baker has written a riveting and panoptic account of what unfolded that weekend, focusing less on the rally’s far-right leaders than on the story of the city itself. University, local, and state officials, including law enforcement, were unable or unwilling to grasp the gathering threat. Clergy, activists, and organizers from all walks of life saw more clearly what was coming and, at great personal risk, worked to warn and defend their city.
To understand why their warnings fell on deaf ears, Baker does a deep dive into American history. In her research she discovers an uncannily similar event that took place decades before when an emissary of the poet and fascist Ezra Pound arrived in Charlottesville intending to start a race war. In Charlottesville, Baker shows how a city more associated with Thomas Jefferson than civil unrest became a flashpoint in a continuing struggle over a nation’s founding myths.
As technology, trade and affordable travel make our planet a much more interconnected place, and India’s importance on the world stage grows, India’s foreign policy attracts greater interest and scrutiny than ever before, both within and outside the country.
How do we understand the evolution of India’s foreign policy from the early years after Independence to the present day? How should India position itself as it moves towards 100 years of independence in 2047? These are among the big questions India’s Tryst with the World seeks to address.
Recognizing that India’s foreign policy is ultimately driven by the strength of its people (not just the privileged few) and its economy as a whole, this book prises open the discussion on India’s place in the world, taking it far beyond traditional foreign policy mandarins.
A thoughtful mix of essays by some of India’s most respected diplomats, opinion makers and political leaders—including the late Manmohan Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Shivshankar Menon, Suhasini Haider and Kishore Mahbubani—this new volume in the acclaimed Rethinking India series could not be coming out at a more opportune time in history, with all the uncertainty wrought by wars on several fronts and political disruption caused by the rise of the Right the world over.
