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Lambton’s Cartographical Adventure- An Excerpt from ‘Mapping The Great Game’

Posted on by Penguin India

While ‘the game for power’ between Imperial Russia and Great Britain was being played out in the 19th century, a self-educated cartographer named William Lambton began mapping the Great Arc, attempting to measure the actual shape of the Indian subcontinent. It was completed four decades later by a fellow officer working for the Survey of India, George Everest, who would have a special mountain named in his honor.

Featuring forgotten, enthralling episodes of derring-do and the most sincere efforts to map India’s boundaries, Mapping the Great Game is the thrilling story of espionage and cartography.

Read an excerpt from the book below:

—–

Now, nothing stood in Lambton’s way: he could embark on his cartographical adventure, and attempt to solve a key question of geodesy he had pondered for many years. It originated from a knotty problem known as ‘spherical excess’, which arises because the earth is essentially a sphere. In effect this means the angles of a triangle, rather than adding up to 180 degrees as they would on a flat surface, actually exceed this figure, albeit ever so slightly. If the triangles being marked out are relatively small, then this impact is minor and can be ignored, as Mackenzie was doing in his Topographical Survey. Conversely, as the land area being surveyed becomes larger than 10 square miles, the mathematics of trigonometry must be adjusted for this effect. Thus, a survey across the whole peninsula would obviously need to take spherical excess into account. But this was only the first part of the conundrum, and actually the simpler of two problems concerning the earth’s shape.

The second and more complex problem arises from the well-understood fact that the earth isn’t a true sphere, but is flatter at the poles as it spins on this axis. Isaac Newton had postulated this in the late seventeenth century, as a natural consequence to his theory of gravitation. It had been proven in the 1730s, by two separate expeditions sent out from France—at great expense—to measure one degree of latitude at two different points on the earth’s surface. This exercise, which took a number of years to complete and involved much hardship, determined a degree to equal 68.7 miles close to the equator, whereas near the Arctic Circle it measured 69.6 miles. This difference proved beyond doubt that the effect was significant, and must be corrected for if a large-scale survey was to be credible.

The geodetic problem for Lambton boiled down to a similar question: what was the length of one degree of latitude around the tropics where Madras lay? If he knew this, he would have the information needed to determine the extent of spherical excess in this part of the world. Such a discovery would not only improve the accuracy of his own survey, but also, as he put it, ‘determine by actual measurement the magnitude and figure of the earth’. It wouldn’t be just an academic exercise either, as ascertaining this dimension would have immense practical value: for example, it would improve the compilation of navigation tables and sea charts. Moreover, by measuring the actual shape of the earth on the subcontinent, the true positions and heights of all its places, including its towering mountains, could be fixed.

Once he had acquired his precious instruments and measured out the base-line, this question was finally answered in 1802, although it would require a year of painstaking work. First, he triangulated a short arc* just over 100 miles long, equivalent to almost 1½ degrees of latitude. Working down the south coast from Madras, this exercise gave him the arc’s precise ground distance, measured in miles. Next, he determined the latitude of both its extremities through astronomical observations and, by subtracting one from the other, determined the arc’s span in degrees. Since these two values were determined independently of each other, by dividing the length of the arc in miles by its span in degrees, he was able to deduce the precise length of one degree of latitude. In this way, he was able to finally determine the spherical excess figure that had eluded him for so long.

Grab your copy of  Mapping The Great Game  and discover forgotten and enthralling episodes of the most sincere efforts to map India’s boundaries!

Can the Stillness Of Your Mind Dispel the Discord that Threatens the World?

Posted on by Penguin India

The three-volume series of Commentaries on Living records revered philosopher and teacher J. Krishnamurti’s meetings with individual seekers of truth from all walks of life. While exploring topics as diverse as knowledge, truth, fulfillment, meditation, love and education, these dialogues offer an insight into the struggles and issues common to those who strive to break the boundaries of personality and self-limitation. The essence of Krishnamurti’s teaching is that only through a complete change of heart in the individual can there come about a change in society and so peace to the world.

In his exploration of the conditioning of the mind and its freedom, Krishnamurti raises questions that challenge accepted ways of thinking.

Read on for 6 thought-provoking questions and life lessons from the Commentaries on Living-

Outward simplicity may be an expression of intention but can this take us towards the peace and bliss we seek?

‘Simplicity of the heart is of far greater importance and significance than simplicity of possessions. To be content with few things is a comparatively easy matter. To renounce comfort, or to give up smoking and other habits, does not indicate simplicity of heart. To put on a loin-cloth in a world that is taken up with clothes, comforts and distractions, does not indicate a free being.’

With man becoming a slave of the state, can we find the freedom to awaken our highest intelligence?

‘To be a good citizen is to function efficiently within the pattern of a given society. Efficiency and conformity are demanded of the citizen, as they toughen him, make him ruthless; and then he is capable of sacrificing the man to the citizen. A good citizen is not necessarily a good man; but a good man is bound to be a right citizen, not of any particular society or country.’

Identification with something external offers an escape from one’s emptiness; in this endless cycle of substitution of attachments, can we ever face the unwillingness of our mind to be still and free of thought?

‘Attachment to your work is your escape. There are escapes at all the levels of our being. You escape through work, another through drink, another through religious ceremonies, another through knowledge, another through God, and still another is addicted to amusement. All escapes are the same, there is no superior or inferior escape. God and drink are on the same level as long as they are escapes from what we are.’

If ideas are inherently divisive, then can a revolution based on ideology bring about equality?

‘Revolution based on an idea, however logical and in accordance with historical evidence, cannot bring about equality. The very function of idea is to separate people. Belief, religious or political, sets man against man. So-called religions have divided people, and still do. Organized belief, which is called religion, is, like any other ideology, a thing of the mind and therefore separative.’

By lulling man into a state of temporary contentment, do reforms actually impede total transformation?

‘Reform, however necessary, only breeds the need for further reform, and there is no end to it. What is essential is a revolution in man’s thinking, not patchwork reform. Without a fundamental change in the mind and heart of man, reform merely puts him to sleep by helping him to be further satisfied.’

With the acceptance of authority ingrained within us we tend to get influenced by charismatic leaders but does their calm assumption of knowing what’s good for the people really work to our advantage?

‘Every party knows, or thinks it knows, what’s good for the people. But what is truly good will not create antagonism, either at home or abroad; it will bring about unity between man and man; what is truly good will be concerned with the totality of man, and not with some superficial benefit that may lead only to greater calamity and misery; it will put an end to the division and the enmity that nationalism and organized religions have created.’

 

Proclaimed as a saviour at the age of fourteen, J. Krishnamurti travelled the world sharing his wisdom with people and inspiring the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw and the Dalai Lama. In Commentaries on Living, he helps us to see ourselves as we really are, for it is in seeing with absolute clarity that the inward revolution takes place.

 

To explore the depths within you, read Commentaries on Living series!

The Game of Business: Excerpt from Simon Sinek’s ‘The Infinite Game’

Posted on by Penguin India

In today’s world lead by young entrepreneurs, what does competition in businesses actually mean?

An optimist, motivator and author, Simon Sinek lays out a clear framework to help us navigate the world of business – which he presents as an ‘infinite game’, with no clear finish lines, losers or winners.

Read on for an excerpt that introduces this idea.

The Infinite Game of Business

The game of business fits the very definition of an infinite game. We may not know all of the other players and new ones can join the game at any time. All the players determine their own strategies and tactics and there is no set of fixed rules to which everyone has agreed, other than the law (and even that can vary from country to country). Unlike a finite game, there is no predetermined beginning, middle or end to business. Although many of us agree to certain time frames for evaluating our own performance relative to that of other players – the financial year, for example – those time frames represent markers within the course of the game; none marks the end of the game itself. The game of business has no finish line.

Despite the fact that companies are playing in a game that cannot be won, too many business leaders keep playing as if they can. They continue to make claims that they are the “best” or that they are “number one.” Such claims have become so commonplace that we rarely, if ever, stop to actually think about how ridiculous some of them are. Whenever I see a company claim that it is number one or the best, I always like to look at the fine print to see how they cherry-picked the metrics. For years, British Airways, for example, claimed in their advertising that they were “the world’s favourite airline.” Richard Branson’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, filed a dispute with Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority that such a claim could not be true based on recent passenger surveys. The ASA allowed the claim to stand, however, on the basis that British Airways carried more international passengers than any other airline. “Favourite,” as they used the word, meant that their operation was expansive, not necessarily preferred.

To one company, being number one may be based on the number of customers they serve. To another, it could be about revenues, stock performance, the number of employees or the number of offices they have around the globe. The companies making the claims even get to decide the time frames in which they are making their calculations. Sometimes it’s a quarter. Or eight months. Sometimes a year. Or five years. Or a dozen. But did everyone else in their industry agree to those same time frames for comparison? In finite games, there’s a single, agreed-upon metric that separates the winner from the loser, things like goals scored, speed or strength. In infinite games, there are multiple metrics, which is why we can never declare a winner.

Are you playing an inifinite game or finite game? Read The Infinite Game to find out!

Who is an Indian and Whose India Is It? Shashi Tharoor’s Quest into the Idea of a Nation

Posted on by Penguin India

Inundated with a barrage of politically charged agendas, citizens of the world no longer have the luxury of being ignorant aboutin the dynamics of the state. In a nation as diverse and fluid as India, one’s very identity gets threatened by the discourse on nationalism.. Taking us right into the crux of the issues that affect each one of us are the intelligentsia of this vibrant nation, who have come together in Vision for a Nation: Paths and Perspectives to champion a plural, inclusive, just, equitable and prosperous India.

To put in perspective the sheer range and depth of this discussion, Shashi Tharoor writes: ‘Just thinking about India makes clear the immensity of the challenge of defining what the idea of India means. How can one approach this land of snow peaks and tropical jungles, with twenty three major languages and 22,000 distinct ‘dialects’…, inhabited in the second decade of the twenty-first century by more than a billion individuals of every ethnic extraction known to humanity?’

 

Read on to get a glimpse of the five Visions of India presented by Shashi Tharoor in his essay ‘A Land of Belonging’:

 

The Plurality of India

The pulsating energy that abounds in every corner of this vast land is the result of a unique convergence of diverse communities that are united in the fact of their nationality yet distinct in their culture. Tharoor points out the anomaly of looking at India in the singular-

‘There are, as the hackneyed phrase goes, many Indias. Everything exists in countless variants. There is no single standard, no fixed stereotype, no one way. This pluralism is acknowledged in the way India arranges its own affairs: all groups, faiths, tastes and ideologies survive and contend for their place in the sun.’

*

The Unity of India

Symbolic of the heritage of this great civilisation are the epics that demonstrate the impulse of unity, woven into the fabric of India despite the many episodes in Indian history of fractures that render this belief suspect:  

‘The epics have acted as strong, yet sophisticated, threads of Indian culture that have woven together tribes, languages and peoples across the subcontinent, uniting them in their celebration of the same larger-than-life heroes and heroines whose stories were told in dozens of translations and variations, but always in the same spirit and meaning.’

*

The Duality of India

The preamble of the Constitution encapsulates the vision of India’s founding fathers who believed in a glorious future where the Indian Republic would stand strong on the pillars of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. And yet, the dichotomy of modern India is evident:

‘Caste, which Nehru and his ilk abhorred and believed would disappear from the social matrix of modern India, has not merely survived and thrived, but has become an instrument for highly effective political mobilization.’

*

The Complexity of India

With pluralism and diversity being the foundation of this nation, India is unique in that the only commonality in its inhabitants is the awareness of their many differences. The identity of an Indian cannot be contained within descriptions of language, ethnicity, religion or geography-

‘It is the idea of an ever-ever land—emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy. India’s democracy imposes no narrow conformities on its citizens.

*

The Secularism of India

The notion of majority and minority in a nation that celebrates diversity can create a dangerous discourse which has the potential to incite violence in the name of religious identifications. Reiterating the essence of Indian Secularism, Tharoor writes:

‘Western dictionaries defined secularism as the absence of religion, but Indian secularism meant a profusion of religions; the state engaged with all of them but privileged none.’

 

At a time in history when the world is rife with conflict, India’s foremost intellectuals, academics, activists, technocrats, professionals and policymakers open a discourse on nation and identity. First in a fourteen-volume series titled Rethinking India, Vision for a Nation initiates a discussion on some key issues of our time.

To delve deeper into a subject that is both relevant and challenging, read Vision for a Nation.

The Yogini- An Excerpt

Posted on by Penguin India

With her days split between a passionate marriage and a high-octane television studio job, Homi is a thoroughly modern young woman-until one day she is approached by a yogi on the street. This mysterious figure begins to follow her everywhere, visible only to Homi, who finds him both frightening and inexplicably arousing.

Read an excerpt from The Yogini below:

 

It was late into the inflated night when she returned to her senses for the first time. She found herself standing by the door of a train compartment, holding the handles and swaying with the train as it hurtled along. Her body lurched alarmingly from side to side. She was leaning forward perilously. She would fall out of the train at any moment.

 

Was it time, then? she wondered. Was this how she and her fate were to be separated? Was this, finally,what fate had written for her?

 

The tracks seemed to howl fiercely at her when she looked down. Sparks flew from the friction of steel against steel. All she had to do was loosen her hold for everything to end.

 

Rattling a thousand chains, her soul cried out, Freedom! Freedom!

 

And she decided to jump. But then someone gripped her elbow. She didn’t turn around. There was no need to, for she knew who it was. She could see the hand clamped on her arm – the wrist encircled by rosary beads. A copper band, an iron chain, a red thread, chunky amulets. He scavenged for all sorts of things to slip around his wrist. Mounds of grime were gathered beneath his long nails. She raised her eyes to look – not behind her, but ahead. There was no beginning, no end, only a train passing through an endless expanse. No artificial lights shone now – the world beyond was lit generously by the moon, its beams crystallised in pools of water in the fields, the light magnified a million times by the reflections. The train raced through a silvery kingdom. Her heart was disproportionately heavy – but she no longer had cause to be sad or angry.

 

An icy current whispered in her ear, ‘Homi! Homi! Empress?’

 

‘Come closer, Empress.’

 

How much closer, man with the matted locks? Haven’t I already given you the right to claim me? So many thoughts flow through my head, but not one of them will lead to anything tangible. Not one will leave a physical imprint on the planet. Such notions, only some of which I embrace. I let go of the rest, to ensure that you have no power over me – neither over the causes of things happening to me, nor over their effects. Not even over the merging of cause and effect, because both are mechanical in my life, just as you are, an automaton. This is my final observation about existence. There is no such thing as free will here. No fundamental independence. I have long accepted that I have a natural fate in this world, a human being’s fate. I am no one, fate is everything. You are everything. This way, I can be closer to you too, can’t I?

These thoughts ran through her head, but she wished, too, to escape, to be free. A strange force took hold of her. She jerked her arm out of his grasp, and, the very next moment, whirled around to strike at the figure with the matted locks. With all her strength she lashed out at him, hoping that the impact would throw him off the train.

Following the inexorable pull of tradition, the mystic forces that run beneath the shallow surface of our modern existence like red earth beneath the pavements, The Yogini is AVAILABLE NOW!

 

5 Indian Ingredients You Can Use in Baking

Posted on by Penguin India

 

Uparwali Chai is a beautifully curated set of recipes full of nostalgic flavours and stories, this is a book every home cook will be referring to for generations to come.

Baking ingredients are now widely available in major cities but for most of these recipes, local markets and kirana shops will provide everything you need. Here we list down 5 such Indian ingredients and how they can be used in baking:

Yoghurt

It is mostly used as a mixing and a holding agent. It is used to make muffins and cakes in addition to other desserts. Pamela Timms uses it to make Lemon and Cardamom Yoghurt Cake, Refrigerator Bran Muffins and even a Labneh Cheesecake using hung yoghurt!

Saffron

This adds an aroma, flavour and colour  to any food item it is added to. Just a pinch is enough to turn a simple dish into an exotic one! Use it to make Daulat ki Chaat, Saffron and Chocolate Macaroons and many delicious desserts. (All these recipes can be found in the book!)

 

Mawa

Mawa or khoya is a milk-based ingredient and is often used in cakes, muffins or even biscuits. Delight your family and friends this festive season with Mawa Madeleines.

 

Mango

The king of fruits! It is not only eaten in abundance in India during the summer but it is also used as an ingredient in many desserts and baked items,  You can make a Mango and Old Monk Trifle if you’d like your dessert to have a kick! Or try out Pamela’s Mango and Gondhoraj Lime No-Bake Cheesecake.

 

Salted Butter (Amul)

When it comes to using butter, Indian baking mostly makes use of salted butter which is very readily available at every neighborhood grocery store. Add a slight savoury touch to your tea with the Banana Loaf Cake with Chai-spiced Icing or try something new like Mango and Marmalade Flapjacks.

Is your mouth watering already? Use these ingredients to make some of these delightful items and more with Uparwali Chai.

 

 

The Science of Ahimsa- An Excerpt from ‘The Power of Nonviolent Resistance’

Posted on by Penguin India

‘Where there is love there is life.’ – Gandhi

With the new year round the corner, take the time to read The Power of Nonviolent Resistance: Selected Writings , a specially curated collection of Gandhi’s writings on nonviolent resistance and activism.

Read an excerpt from the book below:

—

Toward the end of his life, Gandhi was asked by a friend to resume writing his autobiography and write a “treatise on the science of ahimsa.” What the friend wanted were accounts of Gandhi’s striving for truth and his quest for nonviolence, and since these were the two most significant forces that moved Gandhi, the friend wanted Gandhi’s exposition on the practice of truth and love and his philosophical understanding of both. Gandhi was not averse to writing about himself or his quest. He had written—moved by what he called Antaryami, the dweller within, his autobiography, An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth. Even in February 1946 when this exchange occurred he was not philosophically opposed to writing about the self. However, he left the possibility of the actual act of writing to the will of God.

On the request for the treatise on the “science of ahimsa” he was categorical in his refusal. His unwillingness stemmed from two different grounds: one of inability and the other of impossibility.

He argued that as a person whose domain of work was action, it was beyond his powers to do so. “To write a treatise on the science of ahimsa is beyond my powers. I am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain, and what I understand, according to my lights, to be my duty, and what comes my way, I do. All my action is actuated by the spirit of service.” He suggested that anyone who had the capacity to systematize ahimsa into a science should do so, but added a proviso “if it lends itself to such treatment.” Gandhi went on to argue that a cohesive account of even his own striving for nonviolence, his numerous experiments with ahimsa both within the realms of the spiritual and the political, the personal and the collective, could be attempted only after his death, as anything done before that would be necessarily incomplete. Gandhi was prescient. He was to conduct the most vital and most moving experiment with ahimsa after this and he was to experience the deepest doubts about both the nature of nonviolence and its efficacy after this. With the violence in large parts of the Indian subcontinent from 1946 onward, Gandhi began to think deeply about the commitment of people and political parties to collective nonviolence. In December 1946 Gandhi made the riot-ravaged village of Sreerampore his home and then began a barefoot march through the villages of East Bengal.

This was not the impossibility that he alluded to. He believed that just as it was impossible for a human being to get a full grasp of truth (and of truth as God), it was equally impossible for humans to get a vision of ahimsa that was complete. He said: “If at all, it could only be written after my death. And even so let me give the warning that it would fail to give a complete exposition of ahimsa. No man has been able to describe God fully. The same hold true of ahimsa.”

Gandhi believed that just as it was given to him only to strive to have a glimpse of truth, he could only endeavor to soak his being in ahimsa and translate it in action.

The Power of Nonviolent Resistance: Selected Writings by Gandhi  gives context to the time of Gandhi’s writings while placing them firmly into the present-day political climate, inspiring a new generation of activists to follow the civil rights hero’s teachings and practices. The book is available now!

“The trouble with discount websites is, you can’t see the people snatching bargains away from you.”- An excerpt from ‘Christmas Shopaholic’

Posted on by Penguin India

Don’t panic. Don’t panic. I’ve got 5 minutes 52 seconds before my basket expires. That’s loads of time! All I have to do is quickly find one more item to bump up my total to £75 so I’ll get free delivery.

Come on, Becky. You can find something.

I’m scrolling down the BargainFamily site on my computer screen, feeling like a NASA operative keeping cool under unspeakable pressure. The onscreen timer is in my peripheral vision, ticking down steadily beneath a heading that reads, Your Basket Will Expire Soon!

But you can’t give in to timer- fear when you’re shopping on discount sites. You have to be strong. Like tungsten. Shopping has really changed for me over the years. Or maybe I’ve changed.

The days when I was a single girl, living in Fulham with Suze and going round the shops every day, seem ages ago now. Yes, I used to spend too much. I’ll freely admit it. I’ve made mistakes. Like Frank Sinatra, I did it my way.

(Except ‘my way’ involved stuffing Visa bills under the bed, which I bet Frank never did.)

But I’ve learned some important lessons, which have genuinely changed the way I go about things. Like, for example:

1. I don’t use carrier bags any more. They used to be my biggest joy in life. Oh my God, the feel of a new carrier bag . . . the rope handles . . . the rustle of tissue paper . . .(I still sometimes go and swoon over my old collection at the back of the wardrobe.)

But now I use a Bag for Life instead. Because of the planet and everything.

2. I’m totally into ethical shopping. It’s like a win–win!

You get cool stuff and you’re being virtuous.

3. I don’t even spend money any more. I save money.

So obviously that’s not exactly, actually, literally true. But the point is, I’m always looking for a good deal. I see it as my responsibility as a parent to procure all the items that my family needs at the most cost-effective prices possible. Which is why BargainFamily is the perfect place for me to shop.

It’s all reduced! Designer labels and everything! The only thing is, you have to be a fast shopper, or else your basket expires and you have to start again.

I’m on £62.97 already, so all I need is another item around 12 quid. Come on, quick, there must be something I need. I click on an orange cardigan, £13.99, RRP £45, but when I zoom in I see a horrible lacy border.

White shirt?

No, I bought a white shirt last week. (One hundred per cent linen, £29.99, RRP £99.99. I must remember to wear that, actually.)

I click on my basket to double-check on what I’ve already got, and a pop-up window bursts forth, announcing You’ve

Saved £284 Today, Becky!

I feel a flash of pride as I survey my items. I’ve saved a whole £284! I’ve got an adorable bunny rabbit dressing gown for Minnie and a fantastic DKNY jacket, down from £299 to £39.99 in clearance, and a huge rubber ring shaped like a flamingo, which we can use next time we go on holiday.

And OK, yes. I could theoretically check out now and pay £5.95 for delivery. But that’s not prudent. I’m not a former financial journalist for nothing, I know these things. It’s far more economically sound to find yourself something else that you need, and get the free delivery.

Come on, there must be something. Tights? Everyone needs tights. Oh, but I’m always bumping up orders with tights. I have so many black opaques, they’ll last me till I’m 105. And those tartan patterned ones I clicked on last week were a big mistake.

I click on ‘Homewares’ and scroll down the items quickly. Silver antelope sculpture, was £79.99, now £12.99? Hmm, not sure. Scented candle? Oh God. No. I can’t buy another one.

Our whole house is like one big scented candle. In fact, Luke said the other day, ‘Becky, is there any chance of buying a candle called “Fresh Air”?’

I’m just squinting at a bread bin shaped like Big Ben when a pop-up appears in front of my eyes – Your Time Is Running Out, Becky! – and my heart jumps in fright.

I wish they wouldn’t do that. I know my time is running out. ‘I know!’ I hear myself saying out loud. ‘Don’t stress me out!’

Just to reassure myself, I click back on my basket again and my heart stops. The flamingo ring is sold out!

Sold out!

Noooo! I was too slow! Argh. The trouble with discount websites is, you can’t see the people snatching bargains away from you. Now my heart really is thumping. I’m not losing my jacket, or Minnie’s dressing gown. I need to fill this basket and check out, pronto.

Meet Munir Khan and Mohini Singh from ‘A Delhi Obsession’

Posted on by Penguin India

Two-time Giller Prize winner M.G. Vassanji returns with a powerful new novel, A Delhi Obsession about grief and second chances, tradition and rebellion, set in vibrant present-day Delhi.

Munir Khan, a recent widower from Toronto, meets the charming and witty Mohini Singh, a married liberal newspaper columnist, and what follows is a passionate love affair–uncontrollable yet impossible.

Read on to meet these two characters.

 

Munir Khan

Munir Khan was a puzzle. Such a floater. Without an anchor. But likeable… perhaps because of that?

Munir is a westernized agnostic of Muslim origin. He was born in Kenya and now, lives in Toronto. But he actually is an Indian (in a sort of way) who in reality, is ignorant about India. He lost his wife of many years in a car accident. A ‘mediocre’ writer by profession who had seen literary fame, he also has a daughter named Razia. He believes in a simple philosophy of living, in right and in wrong and respects all faiths. He likes history and enjoys finding out about the past. On a whim, to restore his family connections, he decides to visit India where he ends up meeting Mohini.

~

Mohini Singh

Smart, witty and liberal, that was her style.

Mohini is a modern Hindu woman. Utterly attractive and charming, she’s traditional and religious, but also a provocative newspaper columnist. She writes a weekly column for the daily paper the Express Times and teaches a course in English at a college twice a week. Her family were refugees from Sargodha, which became a part of Pakistan after the Partition. She had married early and has two daughters. She believes in prayer and turns to God for guidance. She usually look stunning in a saree and has a twinkle in her eye.

~

These two are from different worlds. To know more about them and their story, grab your copy of A Delhi Obsession today.

6 Very Delhi Things You Find in ‘A Delhi Obsession’

Posted on by Penguin India

Set in contemporary times and effectively M.G. Vassanji’s most urgent novel yet, A Delhi Obsession follows the inexplicable attraction between recent widower Munir Khan and Mohini Singh, a married liberal newspaper columnist. Delhi’s streets, monuments and ruins become the setting of their passionate affair.

With the sights serving as an essential part of Vassanji’s storytelling, we list 6 very Delhi things you can expect to find in the book:

 

“[Munir and Mohini] had gone to see the fortress city of Tughlaqabad. Bahadur dropped her off at DRC. Mohini watched him drive off, out of sight, then she and Munir called for a taxi, which they hired for the day. Tughlaqabad was the most isolated and private it could get, but it was far from romantic. It was forbidding, haunted by its history.”

~

“At Siri the place was flooded with lights. Dust, cars hooting, the crowds. The bheed. The night air was thick and moist, a full moon was out. And hundreds of devoted fans filling the seats. The Mishra brothers began with a lovely thumri, a single-line love song to Krishna, repeated over and over in variations. Kya karun sajani, aaye na baalam . . . What to do, beloved, he doesn’t come . . . Then a couple of khayals. A bhajan by Meera. Paga ghungaru bandh . . . She wished he were there to share the music, for her to explain it to him.”

~

“A Narrative of the Last Days of Delhi

One terrible day bled into another following the death of our Sultan Alauddin by poison, and the three princes’ gory murders in Gwalior Fort. There was no end in sight to the naib’s evil machinations; now a Hindu was installed Sultan of Delhi and the descendants of maharajas strutted about its streets, energized by their polished new idols and charms. The future of Hindustan lay exposed and our own lives hung in the balance from day to day.

Such dark thoughts had returned to play upon my mind as I walked home one evening from a visit to my master Nizamuddin . . .”

~

“This time [Munir and Mohini] met at Khan Market. They did a casual round of the shops first. He bought a notebook, for which she paid, and he picked up the reading glasses he had ordered. Alphonso mangoes were just in season, displayed in fragrant heaps, and she bought a couple for him to eat that evening.”

~

“[Munir] visited by taxi the Qutub Minar, a lean and elegant tower of red sandstone in the south of the city, from where the first Turkish sultans had ruled, having defeated the local Rajput kings in the tenth century; and the Purana Qila, which was the site of the earliest city of Delhi, called Indraprastha, from the time of the epic Mahabharata.”

~

“Karim’s was one of a cluster of eating places nearby that all offered the same cuisine, kebabs and biryani occupying pride of place, releasing enticing aromas into the street. Of them, Karim’s had the distinction of having its entrance leading inside through a passageway to a counter.”

Written with trademark sensitivity and a sharp, affecting vision, A Delhi Obsession cuts close to the bone, and compels you to confront your profoundest dilemmas.

 

 

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