Category: Specials

“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”

Margaret Thatcher

This Women’s Day, get inspired by the women who make it happen. Penguin presents a list of books by women, about women who inspire for men, women and children of all ages. Take a look!

The Women’s Courtyard by Khadija Mastoor

Set in the 1940s, with Partition looming on the horizon, The Women’s Courtyard cleverly brings into focus the claustrophobic lives of women whose entire existence was circumscribed by the four walls of their homes, and for whom the outside world remained an inaccessible dream. Daisy Rockwell’s elegant and nuanced translation captures the poignance and power of Khadija Mastur’s inimitable voice.

Priya by Namita Gokhale

In this wickedly funny, occasionally tender, book, Namita Gokhale resurrects some unforgettable characters from her 1984 cult bestseller Paro, and plunges them neck-deep into Delhi’s toxic waste of power, money and greed.

A Girl like That by Tanaz Bhathena

This beautifully written debut novel from Tanaz Bhathena reveals a rich and wonderful new world to readers; tackles complicated issues of race, identity, class and religion; and paints a portrait of teenage ambition, angst and alienation that feels both inventive and universal.

That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande

Shashi Deshpande gives us an exceptionally accomplished portrayal of a woman trying to erase a ‘long silence’ begun in childhood and rooted in herself and in the constraints of her life.

This Wide Night by Sarvat Hasin

In the quietly seething world of This Wide Night, Virgin Suicides meets Little Women in Pakistan. Moving from Karachi to London and finally to the rain-drenched island of Manora, here is a compelling new novel from the subcontinent—and a powerful debut to watch.

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal

Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and orientalist cliches of romance and intrigue, while giving a new insight into the lives of the women and the girls during the Mughal Empire, even where scholars claim there are no sources. Nur’s confident assertion of authority and talent is revelatory. In Empress, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There by Krishna Sobti

Part novel, part memoir, part feminist anthem, A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There is not only a powerful tale of Partition loss and dislocation but also charts the odyssey of a spirited young woman determined to build a new identity for herself on her own terms.

A Murder on Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Bombay, 1921. Intrepid and intelligent, young Perveen Mistry joins her father’s prestigious law firm to become one of India’s first female lawyers. Her tumultuous past also makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women’s rights.

Aftertaste by Namita Devidayal

Diwali, 1984. Mummyji, the matriarch of a mithai business family, lies comatose in a hospital in Bombay. Surrounding her are her four children: the weak, ineffectual Rajan Papa who is desperately in need of cash; Samir, the dynamic head of the business with an ugly marriage and a demanding mistress; Suman, the spoilt beauty of the family who is determined to get her hands on her mother’s best jewels; and Saroj, the unlucky sister, who has always lived in her shadow. Each of them wants Mummyji to die . . .

Requiem in Raga Janki by Neelam Saran Gour

Based on the real-life story of Hindustani singer Janki Bai Ilahabadi (1880-1934), Requiem in Raga Janki is the beautifully rendered tale of one of India’s unknown gems. Moving from Hindustani classical music’s earliest times to the age of the gramophone, from Tansen’s mysticism to Hassu Khan’s stringent opposition of recordings, this is a novel that brings to life a golden era of music through the eyes of a gifted performer.

The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto

Anita Rose lives in a concrete block in one of Karachi’s biggest slums, languishing in poverty with her mother and older brother. On the other side of Karachi lives Monty, whose father owns half the city. And far away in Portsmouth, Sunny fits in nowhere. These three disparate lives will cross paths in the middle of a desert, a place where life and death walk hand-in-hand, and where their closely guarded secrets will force them to make a terrible choice.

The Pakistani Bride by Bapsi Sidhwa

Zaitoon, an orphan, is adopted by Qasim, who has left the isolated hill town where he was born and made a home for the two of them in the glittering, decadent city of Lahore. This is a The Pakistani Bride novel on women, tribals and contemporary politics.

Seeing like a Feminist by Nivedita Menon

For Nivedita Menon, feminism is not about a moment of final triumph over patriarchy but about the gradual transformation of the social field so decisively that old markers shift forever. From sexual harassment charges against international figures to the challenge that caste politics poses to feminism, from feminist dilemmas regarding commercial surrogacy to the Shah Bano case, from queer politics to domestic servant’s unions to the Pink Chaddi campaign, from the ban on the veil in France to the attempt to impose skirts on international women badminton players, Menon insists that feminism complicates the field irrevocably.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape By Sohaila Abdulali

Writing from the viewpoint of a survivor, writer, counsellor and activist, and drawing on three decades of grappling with the issue personally and professionally and her work with hundreds of survivors, Sohaila Abdulali looks at what we-women, men, politicians, teachers, writers, sex workers, feminists, sages, mansplainers, victims and families-think about rape and what we say.

The Shooting Star by Shivya Nath

Shivya Nath quit her corporate job at age twenty-three to travel the world. With its vivid descriptions, cinematic landscapes, moving encounters and uplifting adventures, The Shooting Star is a travel memoir that maps not just the world but the human spirit.

Red Lipstick by Laxmi

The world keeps taunting him as girlish but the fact is that, biologically, he is a boy. And, he is always attracted to guys. Is Laxmi both a man and a woman? Or, perhaps, neither a man nor a woman? In this fascinating narrative Laxmi unravels her heart to tell the stories of the men-creators, preservers, lovers, benefactors, and abusers-in her life. Racy, unapologetic, dark and exceptionally honest, these stories open a window to a brave new world.

Small Acts of Freedom by Gurmehar Kaur

This is the story of three generations of strong, passionate single women in one family, women who have faced the world on their own terms. With an unusual narrative structure that crisscrosses elegantly between the past and the present, spanning seventy years from 1947 to 2017, Small Acts of Freedom is about courage. It’s about resilience, strength and love.

Cyber Sexy by Richa Kaul Padte

In this intrepid, empathetic and nuanced account of the sexual shopping cart that is the internet today, Richa Kaul Padte takes readers on an intimate tour of online sex cultures. From camgirls to fanfiction writers, homemade videos to consent violations, Cyber Sexy investigates what it means to seek out pleasure online.

Three Thousand Stitches by Sudha Murthy

So often, it’s the simplest acts of courage that touch the lives of others. Sudha Murty-through the exceptional work of the Infosys Foundation as well as through her own youth, family life and travels-encounters many such stories . . . and she tells them here in her characteristically clear-eyed, warm-hearted way.

Mrs Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna

Full of wit and delicious observations, Mrs Funnybones captures the life of the modern Indian woman—a woman who organizes dinner each evening, even as she goes to work all day, who runs her own life but has to listen to her Mummyji, who worries about her weight and the state of the country.

Twenty Nine Going on Thirty by Andaleeb Wajid

Free-spirited Farida, shy Namrata, feisty Mini and Priya are brought together by family drama, boy trouble, and the fast-approaching birthdays. As they navigate love and friendships, they realize there’s a difference between growing up and growing old . . .

The Perils of Being Moderately Famous by Soha Ali Khan

The Perils of Being Moderately Famous takes us through some of the most poignant moments of Soha’s life-from growing up as a modern-day princess and her days at Balliol College to life as a celebrity in the times of social media culture and finding love in the most unlikely of places-all with refreshing candour and wit.

Feminist Rani by Shaili Chopra and Meghna Pant

Feminist Rani is a collection of interviews with path-breaking and fascinating opinion leaders. These are women and men who have advocated gender equality and women’s rights through their work. These compelling conversations provide a perspective on the evolving concept of feminism in an age when women are taking charge and leading the way.

Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight by Rujuta Diwekar

Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight has revolutionized the way Indians think about food and their eating habits. Funny, easy to read and full of great advice, it argues that we should return to our traditional eating roots (yes, ghee is good for you), nutrients are more important than calories (cheese over biscuits) and, most importantly, the only way to lose weight is to keep eating.

Changemakers by Gayatri Rangachari Shah and Mallika Kapur

This book tells the story of twenty incredible women, many with no prior connections in the industry, who have carved successful careers despite significant challenges. They often work away from the public gaze-as studio heads, producers, directors, make-up artists, stylists, script writers, lyricists,editors, choreographers, stunt artists, set designers, and in the many other jobs that support the making of a movie. These women deserve to be applauded and their journeys acknowledged, as they transform Bollywood and in the process, create a new India.

Daughters of Legacy by Rinku Paul and Puja Singhal

Chosen from a wide cross section in terms of scale of business, roles and hierarchy these women have not only kept the legacies alive but have also gone on to carve a niche for themselves as individuals beyond their famous last names. Clearly for all of them legacy is far more than mere inheritance.

The Two Minute Revolution by Sangeeta Talwar

Insightful and packed with fascinating examples-from creating and launching Maggi Noodles to spearheading the highly effective Jaago Re campaign for Tata Tea-this book suggests tried and trusted strategies for building extraordinary brands.

Healed by Manisha Koirala

Healed is the powerful, moving and deeply personal story of actor Manisha Koirala’s battle against ovarian cancer. From her treatment in the US and the wonderful care provided by the oncologists there to how she rebuilt her life once she returned home, the book takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through her many fears and struggles and shows how she eventually came out triumphant.

I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

Fixie, the protagonist in Sophie Kinsella’s new standalone, I Owe You One, can’t help herself from fixing things…she just has to put things right. It’s how she got her nickname, after all.

After saving a stranger’s laptop from certain disaster, he scribbles her an IOU, as a thank you. Fixie never intends to call in the favour. That is, until her teenage crush comes back into her life and needs her help. She turns to the stranger, Sebastian, and soon the pair are caught up in a series of IOUs.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it – in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations – and whose story inspires us to do the same.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire.

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Many intelligent women tend to leave their professional careers and become homemakers for various reasons. One of the vital reasons is that women find it impossible to balance the growing career pressure and meeting increasing family demands. Sheryl Sandberg, in this book ‘Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead’ provides solution to this issue and guides women on how to find the perfect balance in life.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person’s life – a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us – blazingly – about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege. Alternating menace with overwhelming tenderness, Sally Rooney’s second novel breathes fiction with new life.

Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls

Illustrated by sixty female artists from every corner of the globe, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls introduces us to one hundred remarkable women and their extraordinary lives, from Ada Lovelace to Malala, Amelia Earhart to Michelle Obama. Empowering, moving and inspirational, these are true fairy tales for heroines who definitely don’t need rescuing.

Milkman by Anna Burns

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.

The Girl Who Went to the Stars by Ishita Jain and Naomi Kundu

The Girl Who Went to the Stars and Other Extraordinary Lives is a collection of incredible stories that teach passion and courage. These Indian women followed their dreams, however difficult they seemed, and showed us that we can be anything we want to be.

In the land of the Marathas, there was once a fearless young ruler called Shivaji. He was known for his bravery and effective war strategies. This young man went on to become Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj-one of India’s greatest kings and a thorn in the side of the mighty Mughal Empire. The Maratha Empire that he established changed the course of India’s history, becoming a major military power.

Here are a few facts about Shivaji that are responsible for his legacy as one of the mightiest rulers of India:

Fifth in a series of illustrated books created for young readers to get to know our world heroes betters, Junior Lives: Shivaji Maharaj peppered with little-known facts, takes the reader through the awe-inspiring journey of Shivaji, built on his determination and valour as well as his exemplary victories.

There was one partition of the land in 1947. Harsh Mander believes that another partition is underway in our hearts and minds. How much of this culpability lies with ordinary people? What are the responsibilities of a secular government, of a civil society, and of a progressive majority? In Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India, human rights and peace worker Harsh Mander takes stock of whether the republic has upheld the values it set out to achieve and offers painful, unsparing insight into the contours of hate violence. Through vivid stories from his own work, Mander shows that hate speech, communal propaganda and vigilante violence are mounting a fearsome climate of dread, that targeted crime aided by silent official collusion or by political apathy is systematically fracturing our community. Hate can indeed be fought, but only with solidarity, reconciliation and love, and when all of these are founded on fairness.

The painful stories in this meticulously researched social critique are a rallying cry for public compassion and conscience, essential human decency and a call for a re-evaluation of an overtly fundamentalist national identity.

The infamous Gujarat Riots where families living in a peaceful residential society, along with an influential former MP, were gruesomely slaughtered by a virulent mob.

“In 2002, however, Gulberg Society was burnt down, and its residents slaughtered. Muslim community, were slaughtered. The killings were exceptional for their soul-numbing brutality and the extensive ruthless targeting of women and children. Mass rape, public sexual humiliation of women, and the battering and burning alive of girls, boys, women and men, marked those dismal days. Even as the city of Ahmedabad once again was engulfed in flames of hatred, the residents of Gulberg Apartments were certain that Ehsan Jafri would be able to save their lives and homes once again. But that was not to be. On 28 February, Jafri was gruesomely murdered by a feverish mob. Slaughtered along with him were around seventy women, children and men who had taken shelter with the man whom they had believed was influential enough to save their lives from a colossal armed mob baying for blood.”

The brutal, unprovoked knife attack on three brothers on a local train in Delhi.

“After their Eid shopping at Jama Masjid that day, on 24 June 2017, the three brothers—Shakir, Hashim and Junaid—took a local train from the Sadar Bazar station and found seats. Crowds entered at Okhla, and Junaid gave up his seat to an old man. A group of fifteen men asked the others roughly to vacate their seats. When they refused, they slapped and beat them, threw off their skullcaps, pulled the beards of the older boys, abused them for their faith, and called them Pakistanis, beef-eaters and a vulgar slang for the circumcised

In the nine minutes from Ballabhgarh to the next station, Asaoti, the men took out knives and stabbed the three brothers several times, even as they screamed for help. Not one person came to their rescue. A few took videos and pictures on their phones instead, as the compartment filled with blood. Several egged on the lynch mob. These included the old man to whom Junaid had given his seat.”

The arbitrary targeting of Muslims in Assam as being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and their placement in ‘foreigner’ detention camps.

“The BJP election victory in Assam—the first in the state—was followed by massive official coercive action that targeted and uprooted tens of thousands of Muslims in Assam, charging them to be forest or riverine encroachers or foreigners. ‘There is an openly and distinct anti-Muslim bias in all of these actions,’ human rights lawyer Aman Wadud tells me. People are barely given a few hours’ notice before they are displaced, their homes destroyed, without any chance to show their documents. It is not unusual for some blood relations from the same family to be deemed foreigners and others legitimate citizens. Life in foreigner detention camps, says Abdul Kalam Azad, a postgraduate researcher from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati, is worse than life in jail, and families sometimes have to spend years there to prove that they are legitimate Indian citizens.”

The brutal lynching of an aged and indigent dairy farmer, Pehlu Khan and his sons who despite having receipts to show that they had just bought milch cows, were attacked for being cattle smugglers

“As we sat with a large group of men under the makeshift canopy outside the house of Pehlu Khan, the talk would return over and over again to their anguish about the new climate of hate and suspicion against Muslims that they found surrounded them. ‘It has never been like this before,’ they said. Hindus and Muslims have always lived together like brothers and sisters. Just in the last two or three years everything has changed. ‘We are watanparasth, true nationalists. Our ancestors made so many sacrifices for our country. They fought against Babur’s army on the side of Rana Sangha.’ I wanted to stop them—please, please, you don’t have to say this—why must you feel you must prove your love for your country? But the words got stuck in my throat, as they went on insistently. And they would also ask—who loves the cow more than us Meo Muslims? Go to any Meo village home, and see how much they love their cows, like a member of the family. Any evening, see how lovingly they bathe their cows. And yet we are being called cow murderers.”

The harrowing, almost Kafkaesque story of Mohammad Aamir Khan who was imprisoned for fourteen years after being tortured—the victim of unspeakable injustice that stole the best years of his youth from him.

“But his story is, at the same time, one of exceptional endurance, love and hope. In the three years I have known him, I found him a remarkably gentle person, free of bitterness and anger, and convinced about justice, democracy and secular values. In a deeply affecting book he has written with Nandita Haksar, he describes how when he was twenty, one late winter evening in February 1998 in a by-lane of Old Delhi close to his small home, he was picked up by policemen in plain clothes, and driven to a torture chamber. He recounts his days and nights of torture—stripped naked, his legs stretched to extremes, boxed, kicked, and subjected to electric shocks, anti-Muslim abuse, and threats to frame his parents. He finally succumbs, and agrees to sign numerous blank sheets and diaries. As a result, he was charged in nineteen cases of terror crimes, and accused of planting bombs in Delhi, Rohtak, Sonipat and Ghaziabad. From here began a nightmare that lasted nearly fourteen years.”

The Hashimpura massacre of forty-two young civilian Muslim men on the night of 22 May 1987 by PAC members is a horrifying blend of police collusion with systemic violence with even supposedly secular parties refusing to even take in survivors or conduct the bare minimum of investigation

“These youths were rounded up from their homes in Hashimpura in Meerut on that humid midsummer night, allegedly picked from a larger crowd by security personnel, driven to a canal bank, shot in pitch darkness at close range, and their bullet-ridden bodies were thrown into the Hindon canal. The men were guilty of no crime, and were chosen for slaughter allegedly by paramilitary soldiers only because of the god they worshipped, and their youth. Not a single person has been punished for this crime despite heroic and dogged battles for justice for three decades by the indigent survivors of the slain men. Twenty eight years after the crime, all sixteen persons accused of the massacre, all junior paramilitary personnel, were acquitted giving them the ‘benefit of the doubt’ as there was ‘insufficient evidence’.”

In Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India, human rights and peace worker Harsh Mander takes stock of whether the republic has upheld the values it set out to achieve and offers painful, unsparing insight into the contours of hate violence.

Credited as the event that galvanised the first major anti-colonial nationalist movement, and inexorably set Indian nationalists, including Gandhi, on the path towards independence.

The story of Jallianwala Bagh is accordingly also the story of a particular colonial mindset haunted by the spectre of the ‘Mutiny’. Kim A Wagner’s book seeks to show the interplay between a colonial mentality rooted in the nineteenth century and the contingenciesof the unrest in 1919 – an awareness of, and attention to, the varying themes at play within a single event.

The book introduces us to interesting facts we never knew about one of the most historical locations in the story of India’s Independence.

The pillars of the portico at the entrance of Jallianwala Bagh supposedly symbolise Dyer’s soldiers.

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The real hero of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial,is the figure of Udham Singh, who, along with Bhagat Singh, is Punjab’s most celebrated freedom fighter. Following the assassination of O’Dwyer, Udham Singh was executed by the British, and was instantaneously accorded the status of a true patriotic martyr. It is said that Udham Singh had himself been present at Jallianwala Bagh and was wounded in the arm, although there is little evidence for this.

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When the new Viceroy, Lord Reading, took the remarkable step of visiting Jallianwala Bagh on the anniversary of the massacre in 1921, the first British official to do so, he was met with complaints about the disparity of compensation awarded to Indians and Europeans. Reading promised to look into the matter, but nothing ever came of this.

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Within a year of the massacre, and long before its real consequences were known, Jallianwala Bagh was purchased after a public subscription and turned into a memorial park. There was originally some opposition to the idea, and it was suggested that a memorial at Amritsar would – like the British ‘Mutiny’ memorial at Cawnpore – simply ‘perpetuate bitterness and ill will’.

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The Amritsar Massacre was accordingly both retributive and pre-emptive: Dyer took revenge for the attacks on Europeans, including Miss Sherwood, during the riots three days earlier, but he also acted to prevent a much bigger outbreak that he believed to be imminent.

Situating the massacre within the ‘deep’ context of British colonial mentality and the local dynamics of Indian nationalism, Wagner provides a genuinely nuanced approach to the bloody history of the British Empire in Jallianwala Bagh.