Halloween is here and we know how you can make it even more spooky!

Check out these books which will make you want to sleep with the lights on:

The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories

In this spine-chilling collection you will encounter a creepy spirit that occupies a deserted bungalow, the reincarnation of a goddess who wants the sacrifice of blood, an ominous swing that makes one fly far away into a dark, deathly world, and the sheer wrath of the dead.

Written by the best contemporary authors including Ruskin Bond, Jerry Pinto among others, The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories will have horror-story addicts craving for more.

Whispers in the Dark: A Book of Spooks

For all those who have trembled through Ruskin Bond’s tales of horror and mystery, here’s another collection of strange and dark stories from the master storyteller. Within these pages you will befriend Jimmy the jinn who has trouble keeping his hands to himself, be witness to the mischief of the Pisaach and Churel who live in the peepul tree, and find yourself in the company of a bloodthirsty vampire cat, among other tales and curiosities that are guaranteed to send a delicious shiver down your spine! Written in Bond’s inimitable style and riveting to the core, this beautifully illustrated book is a must-have for anyone with a taste for the macabre.

The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop 

Making and selling sweets day after day is the life of Vishnudas Mithaiwala, the owner of The Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop. However, when Laddoo appears at his doorstep one night, claiming to be his estranged sister Revati’s son, Vishnu’s life is thrown into confusion.
And Laddoo, worried about his parents, who have suddenly disappeared, is thrown another curveball-he senses a ghostly presence in the house! When a plot to steal the Mithaiwala family’s valuable recipe book is hatched, Laddoo tries to use this new psychic ability to save the day.

The Wind on Haunted Hill

The wild wind pushes open windows, chokes chimneys and blows away clothes as it huffs and puffs over the village by Haunted Hill, where Usha, Suresh and Binya live. It’s even more mighty the day Usha is on her way back from the bazaar.
In search of shelter, Usha rushes into the ruins on Haunted Hill, grim and creepy against the dark sky. Inside, the tin roof groans, strange shadows are thrown against the walls and little Usha shivers with fear. For she isn’t alone.

House of Screams 

When Muneera finds out she’s inherited her uncle’s old house on Myrtle Lane, she decides to move in with her husband, Zain, and their three-year-old son, Adnan. The promise of saving money and living in one of Bangalore’s nicest areas has them packing up their old lives at their tiny apartment and shifting to this sprawling bungalow.
But they soon realize there’s more to the house than its old-world charm.

Boo 

A collection of short stories, Boo by Shinie Antony will give life to your fears. Penned by Shashi Deshpande, Kanishk Tharoor, K.R. Meera, Jerry Pinto, Usha K.R., Jahnavi Barua, Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, Jaishree Misra, Kiran Manral, Madhavi S. Mahadevan, Durjoy Datta and Shinie Antony, the tales in Boo will send chills down your spine.

Haunted

Haunted chronicles the real-life adventures of paranormal investigator Jay Alani in ten of the spookiest locations in India. Co-authored by Neil D’Silva, these exploits provide a ringside view of these hair-raising paranormal journeys for everyone who has an interest in exploring the dark side of the normal.

Which book will you be reading this Halloween?

Has politics always been an area of interest for you? Do you remember any particular time in your childhood when this interest started growing?

Indeed. I developed an interest in world affairs and politics at an early age. My father used to read the newspapers and discuss issues even when I was very young. After he passed away when I was ten years old, my elder brother, then a young army officer, shared his books with me and allowed me to purchase on his account at the London Book Company in Rawalpindi. We are an old military family. So history, military affairs, and of course, politics were always on my list of books. Though, and thank God for that, a heavy dose of poetry and fiction also helped feed the soul. Working in Pakistan Television on news and current affairs programs helped me see history being made, up close and in person.

What is your writing process like? One often hears of writers getting into a zone when writing about a certain topic, is that how you write, or is it in bits and pieces?

My wife will tell you that I can be very disciplined when it comes to writing. I work in one spot in a room that has a lot of table space for a mess of books and files in open topped boxes, arranged by chapter per my outline. Being a habitual early riser, I use the first few hours of the day, when the mind is rested and recharged, to do a lot of my work. It also makes the day longer and productive for me. A break for exercise and breakfast helps fuel the process. The six-day writing week is divided into planning, reading, note taking and then the actual writing. I work directly on my computer and sometimes forget to take breaks for mid-day meals. At one point, rather embarrassingly, I stood up a former US ambassador to Pakistan whom I had invited to my club for lunch for an interview because I started writing in the morning and did not break till 4 PM. My phone was switched off. And the door to my writing room closed.

Fortunately, he was very gracious in accepting my abject apology and we rescheduled the interview for later. It pays to have understanding friends and colleagues!

Which bit about bringing a book to its fruition is the most exciting for you?

At heart I remain a journalist. So the reporting is the most exhilarating part. I learn to pick up direct and indirect information. If the material is not in the main text, it sometimes makes for interesting footnotes!

You learn to listen and pick up leads in that process. Polite but firm questions are needed. Persistence pays off.  And using an indirect approach sometimes helps when you hit a dead end or face stonewalling. Always triangulate the information. Since some folks will shave or bend the truth, as they see it. Like a good lawyer, it helps to research the topic as much as possible so you have the answers to many questions that you ask. It helps keep things honest. In The Battle for Pakistan, I was very lucky in that everyone I approached for an interview was known to me because of my work on policy issues since 2008 in the United States and Pakistan. There was a level of established trust. Most people agreed to interviews on the record. Where the few interviewees went off-the-record, I resorted to triangulation to verify information.

As cliché as it might sound, what inspires you to write?

The desire to seek truth or the nearest approximation to it, so we can collectively learn from our past and avoid mistakes in the future. I remain committed to Waging Peace and see conflict as an aberration. Some of my friends disagree with this approach. Some even call it naive.  But I am stubborn in this missionary quest though the final product must be offered with a dose of humility and modesty.  Readers must make the final judgment.

Shuja Nawaz’s latest book, The Battle for Pakistan, untangles the complex US-Pakistan relationship in the past decade, with an aim to identify a path forward.

The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas is an attempt to provide several unknown insights into the India-China, India-Tibet and China-Tibet relationships. The book tries to take into consideration the overriding power of the conflicting cultural interests that are linked to the geopolitical interests of both China and India. At the same time, the book suggests how Buddhism could become a potential source for recultivating awareness towards an India–China congruity in the current context.

Read on to discover some interesting facts about the contentious India-China relationship:

1. It might seem a strange contradiction then that two ancient nations, India and China, bordering each other and sharing a spiritual destiny for thousands of years, have become bitter geopolitical rivals, especially in the Himalayas. Most tend to believe that the mutual mistrust has its genesis in colonial history when Indian troops fought for the British against the Chinese anti-colonial uprising (the Boxer Rebellion) between 1899 and 1901. The event, though unintended, was to underpin the course of the relationship between the two countries in modern times.

2. Tibet was never an issue of public importance in India even months after the March 1959 uprising in Lhasa. In fact, until 1958, there were hardly any serious differences between India and China, even though the need to sort out the discrepancies in boundary maps along with minor readjustments was felt by the two sides. Indian concerns related more to the difficulties faced by Indian traders in Tibet. The notes exchanged between the two countries in the early 1960s suggested that managing trading activities for India had become untenable because of the constant harassment faced by Indian traders.

3. Up until 1959, the border was not a serious issue even though there had been a few skirmishes arising out of discrepancies in maps, especially in the Aksai Chin and Barahoti areas. It was a time when the Chinese were consolidating their hold on Tibet. The controversy only erupted between September–November 1955 over Chinese troops preventing an Indian detachment from entering Damzan (south of the Niti Pass).

4. China sees a great advantage in employing Buddhism alongside its hard-power pursuits, especially to seek political and economic leverage in the context of China’s latest OBOR initiative in Asia. For quite a few years now, China has been conducting ‘Buddha relic diplomacy’ to improve ties and win important economic and infrastructure projects, such as in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Buddhism is among the list of weapons that the Chinese seem to have considered best suited to employ even in the Indian Himalayan belt.  The Indian Buddhist Himalayan complexity is fast changing and could be a source of considerable concern for India’s security. In part, this seems to be arising from an excessive Tibetan influence (‘Tibetanization’) in the Himalayas via a gradual taking over of Indian institutions by Tibetan lamas in the Buddhist Himalayas.

To know more about the complexities of the Indo- China relationship, grab your copy of The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas today!

The aura of the Indian Administrative Service has remained intact over the years. In this humorous, practical book, T.R. Raghunandan aims to deconstruct the structure of the bureaucracy and how it functions, for the understanding of the common person and replaces the anxiety that people feel when they step into a government office with a healthy dollop of irreverence.

Here are a few things you didn’t know about the Indian bureaucracy!

Although higher civil services were in theory open to women since Independence, the first women officers who joined the government (Chonira Belliappa Muthamma to the foreign service in 1948 and Anna George to the administrative service in 1951) were inducted with reluctance and with the caveat that they must leave if they ever married. At that time, patriarchal and misogynistic ideas about the unsuitability of women at higher official levels were widely prevalent among colleagues, bosses and members of the public.

The first woman to top the IAS list was Anuradha Majumdar in 1970, the year in which a record number of women became civil servants.

The government is stubbornly loyal to the paper file. Unless a government office is buried under paper, preferably with fetid odour, it does not look and feel like a government office.

The blunt fact of the matter is that the bureaucracy, and particularly the IAS, is inherently suspicious of and, therefore, resistant to changes that introduce imponderables into the way the officers’ careers progress.

In an earlier era, the idea that an IAS officer should be a generalist had the makings of a    It was considered bad form for an IAS officer to quote an educational degree in a particular subject to seek a posting in a related department; indeed, it was bad form for an officer to ever ask for a post.

There is no doubt that one of the significant reasons why India is progressing is because there are large numbers of honest bureaucrats, who go about their work diligently and honestly, but are constrained not to speak about the changes they have brought about, because they are trained to be self-effacing.

IAS officers are sticklers for detail. They need to find out quickly as to whether the individual opposite them are (a) senior or (b) junior to them and/or whether they are (c) direct recruits or (d) promotees into the service. The nub of the matter is to find out the status and seniority of the other. A miscalculation of seniority in that introductory meeting can result in the destruction of one’s confidential reports. It is prudent for the ambitious officer to err on the side of caution and address any object that looks senior to her, animate or inanimate, as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Bureaucracy But Were Afraid to Ask tells you all about the fast-tracked elite civil servant, who belongs to a group of generalist and specialized services selected through a competitive examination

In Khaki Files, Neeraj Kumar, a distinguished former Delhi Police Commissioner revisits many sensational police cases of his career -from investigation of one of the biggest lottery frauds in the country to foiled ISI attempt to kill Tarun Tejpal and Anirudh Behal of Tehalka-bringing to light numerous achievements of the country’s police force, otherwise largely reviled and ridiculed.

One of the high- profile cases Neeraj worked on, during his stint at CBI, was that of the deadly serial bombings in Mumbai on 12 March 1993 that claimed 279 lives, caused injuries to nearly 700 people and damage to property, both public and private, worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

Read an excerpt from his book to discover how this case was solved under Neeraj’s leadership!

I reached Hyderabad at around 8 p.m. I was to stay in the local police mess, but I drove straight from the airport to the office of the ACP, who was a prominent member of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in the Hyderabad Police. The real name of the ACP eludes me now, but I remember that he was popularly called Gabbar Singh. His colleagues, on account of his imposing height, build and rather villainous looks that belied his friendly disposition, had given him this moniker. It was a pleasure to meet him and exchange details of the work being done by our respective units, which led to an immediate kinship. Soon the ACP sent for his informant and in walked a short and frail man in his mid-thirties. He was unkempt and rather smelly. Gabbar Singh introduced me to him saying that I was the CBI officer sent from Delhi to follow up on the information he had. I tried my best to make the informant feel at ease and soon he began to talk freely with me in his typical Hyderabadi Hindi. His conversation with me, still etched in my memory, went something like this: ‘Sahib, apne kuch jaante jo tumko batana kya?’ (Shall I tell you something that may be useful to you), he asked. When I said he may, he asked me, ‘Kya aap AP Express ka bomb dhamaka case dekhte?’ (Are you looking into the AP Express blast case?) When I replied in the affirmative, he said, ‘Bombay me ek jagah hai Mominpura. Wahan ek doctor hai jiska naam apun ko nahee maloom. Par uska khairat ka ek hospital hai Mominpura mein. Woh mastermind hai, usko dhoondo, woh aap ko sab bata sakta hai.’ (There is a place in Mumbai called Mominpura where a Muslim doctor resides. He runs a charitable hospital but is the mastermind behind the blasts. Please look for him.)

The information was rather sketchy, but I had to make the most of it. The first logical step was to share it with my field officers in Mumbai. That would require the exchange of information in real time between Satish Jha—my able junior colleague and superintendent of police (SP) in Mumbai— and myself. Mobile telephony had not reached India as yet. To add to my woes, even the subscriber trunk dialling (STD) facility was not available on Gabbar Singh’s office phone. (In those days, official telephones, whether at home or at work, were provided with the STD facility only if they were for the use of very senior-ranking officers. I also remember that a common practice to avoid the misuse of the facility was to keep the telephone instrument locked or to protect its use by means of a code that was known only to the officers.)

So, I booked a trunk call (as inter-city calls were then called) and passed the information on to Satish. Five years my junior, Satish was a hands-on police officer known for his investigative and operational skills and had been with me on several sensitive missions. He quickly collected his team of handpicked officers and decided to rope in the Mumbai Police, which was just as well.

To get more inside glimpses of police missions, grab your copy of the book here!

The Annual Carnival is the most awaited event at Hastings. Mr. Cheeks, a dapper tap-dancing Chihuahua; Mr. Grey, a Persian cat with a flair to paint;  and Hopper, a nervous rabbit who loves to sing; could not be more excited to participate in the carnival. But soon they realise that in Hastings, everyone has been strictly categorised according to their type regarding their roles in the carnival.

The Incredible Adventures of Mr Cheeks by Tazmeen Amna, tells the journey of these three friends, fighting the odds together and realising some valuable lessons in the process. These lessons are sure to resonate with your little ones!

Here we list a few of these lessons:

1. Cheeks and Mr. Grey, warmly welcome Hopper, who is new to the village of Hastings and  is quite anxious in the new atmosphere. Hopper immediately feels comfortable in the company of these two friends  due to their inclusive nature. Inclusivity is an important vein in the book that runs throughout the scope of the story.

2. . Just like Hopper, who is new to Hastings, the book  showcases how easily one can adjust and become comfortable in a new environment despite their anxieties, if they approach new people with confidence and a pleasant attitude.

3. The book also teaches an important lesson about not being judgemental especially about one’s looks. One should value one’s friends for their personality and the qualities that they possess. This point is reinforced by the beautiful bond that Mr. Cheeks. Mr. Grey and Hopper share.

4. Despite Mr. Cheeks being a dog; Mr. Grey being a cat and Hopper, a rabbit; they all have varied interests that do not necessarily conform to the categories they belong to. Nevertheless, they courageously took all the obstacles in their stead and made a shining example of how one should always follow their heart.

5. The book shows the wonder of friendship. , Mr. Cheeks, Mr. Grey and Hopper,  are willing to go the distance to help out their friends in their hour of need.

The Incredible Adventures of Mr Cheeks is a must read for your child as it will help them learn these lessons subtly!

Pather Panchali, is rich in rural turns of speech, local vocabulary, and references to the agrarian life of southern riverine Bengal.

In translating Pather Panchali, the translator Rimi has thus focused on preserving as much of this ‘music and suggestiveness’ of the original text as possible, to offer readers as authentic an experience as possible of immersing themselves in the original novel.

Here is a little peek into the different characters existing in the world of Pather Panchali:

Indir Thakrun

Now an elderly widow, she was the daughter of a particularly prestigious Brahmin Family. Indir had been married young to a brahmin from the eastern districts. Despite being married to him for several years before she was widowed, Indir had only vague memories of him—she couldn’t even remember his face properly. One of their rare unions, however, had produced a little girl. Indir named her Bishweshwori; she died a few months after her own wedding.

Horihor

He was Indir’s cousin who had been taken in by her family when his parents passed away and had left Contentment in search of better prospects. Horihor had abruptly returned to Contentment and brought with him a pretty young wife, a girl he had married during his years away. The young couple settled into the old house, and within a year had their first child—a little girl they called Durga.

Shorbojoya

Shorbojoya was Horihor’s wife. She disliked Indir knowing that the later had taken advantage of Horihor’s mother’s kindness and permanently attached herself to a family that could barely afford to support its own. Her dislike of the older woman began to manifest itself in sharp words, and before long, shouting matches became a daily staple of the Roy household. The smallest matter could trigger Shorbojoya’s quick temper, and the closer poverty bit to the bone of her family, the harsher she became with Indir.

Durga

She was the daughter of Horihor and Shorbojoya. She was the only thread that held the women together. Indir lavished all her love on this ‘Khuki’, this little girl born of her beloved Horihor. Khuki’s childish lisp, her wobbly first steps, her constant curiosity about the simplest things— everything flooded Indir’s shrivelled old body with maternal ecstasy. It infuriated Shorbojoya to see Durga fall for Indir’s pathetic act every single time, and become closer to her ‘aunt’ than she was to her own mother!

Opu

The baby of the family, loved and coddled by all, young Awpurbo—or Opu, for short—spends his childhood immersed in pranks and games with his sister, unaware of the winds of change that will upturn his family’s life forever. Opu and his coming-of-age journey eventually become the focus of this novel, the pivot around which this epic tale spins.

Pather Panchali chronicles the glorious discoveries along the path of everyday life—from spots for secret picnics and the true flavour of desserts to the pleasure of fulfilled dreams and life’s sobering lessons embedded in disappointed hopes.

Celebrity nutritionist Pooja Makhija has, to date, transformed the bodies – and lives – of thousands of people by teaching them to believe in the power of food.

In N for Nourish Your Body and Food, she teaches children about the wonder and magic of food, and she finds that giving them the right tools at the right time helps them reap lifelong benefits. And even though she’s strict about her kids eating right, she is—by her own account— a fun person to live with.

‘N for Nourish is more than just a book. It is a journey to living your best life.’ writes Pooja.

Here are 8 things about this dynamic author’s life that you may not have known!

1. Pooja studied the relationship between body and food while doing her B.Sc in Dietetics. She holds a Master’s degree in the field of Food Science and Nutrition.

2. Her bestselling book on nutrition and weight loss, Eat Delete, released in 2012, has already been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi.

3. Pooja followed up the astounding success of her authorial debut Eat Delete : The Anti- Quick Fix Approach with Eat Delete Junior : Child Nutrition for Zero to Fifteen Years and Before You Give Up On You
4. Pooja gained recognition on TV as the star of The Pooja Makhija Show on the Food Food channel.
   

5. Pooja has consistently campaigned for healthy eating through her regular columns in the Times of India and DNA among other publications.

6. Her new weight loss and health portal, www.nourishgenie.com, delivers customized meal plans straight to the subscriber’s inbox and includes clients from all over the world.

7. Fit and famous Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor are some of her celebrated clients.

8. Pooja has two daughters, Ahaana and Amaira. She lives and works in Mumbai where she promotes health and wellbeing through her clinic, aptly named, Nourish. She is also working on raising awareness on nutrition by doing workshops all over the country in schools.

In her latest book N for Nourish, Pooja Makhija offers her young readers tools to shape their future as fit and healthy achievers. Her keen observations on how children succumb to the lure of unhealthy foods and what measures can they take to fortify their health makes this a must read for both parents and children.

‘Welcome to N for Nourish. This book is not just the ABC of nutrition but is also packed with OMG facts about how food can change your life. And it can.’

N for Nourish is India’s first children’s self help book on nutrition and is perfect for children ages 10+