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Meet the Characters from Anand Neelakantan's 'Vanara'

Posted on by Penguin India

Baali and Sugreeva of the Vana Nara tribe were orphan brothers who were born in abject poverty and grew up as slaves like most of their fellow tribesmen. Sandwiched between the never-ending war between the Deva tribes in the north and the Asura tribes in the south, the Vana Naras seemed to have lost all hope. But Baali was determined not to die a slave. Aided by his beloved brother, Sugreeva, Baali built a country for his people. For a brief period in history, it seemed as if mankind had found its ideal hero in Baali.
But then fate intervened through the beautiful Tara, the daughter of a tribal physician. Loved by Baali and lusted after by Sugreeva, Tara became the cause of a fraternal war that would change history for ever.
The love triangle between Baali, Tara and Sugreeva is arguably the world’s first. Written by Anand Neelakantan Vanara is a classic tale of love, lust and betrayal. Let’s meet the characters.

Baali – the chief of Vana Naras, an indomitable warrior, a noble savage, and straight as an arrow. He loves his brother Sugreeva deeply and would give him anything he asks for – except Tara, who is the love of his life.

~

Sugreeva – The greatest warrior in Vana Nara tribe after Baali. He loves his brother and would do anything for him. He has always been the second man and for him, the end justifies his means. If he wasn’t lusting after Tara, his devotion to his brother was incomparable.

~

Tara – Daughter of an impoverished but principled and kindhearted tribal doctor. She was considered to be the wisest of all and the most desirable women as per Baali. She was deeply in love with Baali, her husband. If Baali had not been there, perhaps Sugreeva had a chance of marrying her.
 

Shakespearean in its tragic depth and epic in its sweep, Vanara gives voice to the greatest warrior in the Ramayana-Baali.

Everything You Need to Know about the Dargah of Salim Chishti

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Told through interesting stories with captivating illustrations, ‘Amma, Take Me’ series introduces readers to the history of different faiths and their associated monuments.
In Amma, Take Me to the Dargah of Salim Chishti, travel with Amma and her boys to the fascinating walled city of Fatehpur Sikri and behold the dargah of Salim Chishti shining like a white pearl in an oasis of red sandstone.

Here are some astounding facts about the much- revered Dargah of Shaikh Salim Chishti:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hear the story of why the great Mughal emperor Akbar visited the Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chishti and then had a mausoleum built in his honour.

Meet the firecracker protagonist of ‘You Are Here’

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When it first came out in 2008, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s You Are Here was a game changer: unexpectedly candid, surprisingly wise, audaciously explicit.It introduced us to Arshi, a bold and irresistible new voice.
Here are a few things to know about Arshi, the protagonist of the book:

Her blonde American stepmother tries too hard

“Every time I’ve visited their place, Barbara has appeared (in a sari sometimes, if she could contrive it) with a puja thali to do an aarti before I enter.”

Her job in a PR company is shit

“ One time,my boss, Shruti the Horrible, sent me to Janpath to pop in and out of the silver jewellery shops they have there with the list of journos who were invited to some pub inauguration to, get this, buy fifty-four one-of-kind silver earrings for women… Yes,ladies and gentlemen, this, this jewellery choosing, was my job description.”

She has a cool mom

“It wasn’t easy at all, being my mother’s daughter…She was too popular and the kids she taught (Class 9 and up) adored her… She wasn’t the kind of teacher who’d hover around if you wanted to escape somewhere with your best friend and talk for a couple of hours, or even if you wanted a moment alone with your boyfriend.”

Her ex- boyfriend is a lying-cheating-bastard

“We had been seeing each other for exactly a year and a week when he zoomed off to Manali with some colleagues, one of whom happened to be a pretty young thing who was also his work buddy…I guess they were pretty bonded. Evidently they got even more ‘bonded’ in Manali.”

Topsy, her flatmate and best friend, lives a double life

“But if you see Topsy around her parents, you’ll never think she’s the same girl who lives with me. She pulls out all the salwar-kameezes her mother bought for her to wear to college…and speaks in very soft polite tones in a mix of Hindi and English.I don’t know how she grew up the way she did, but she says it was boarding school and the Internet that changed the way she looked at things.”


She wished she had a normal childhood

“ I wanted to be like the ‘normals’ because it seemed like such a safe way to be. In my eyes their lives were superior in every way to the one my family lived.”

This 10th anniversary edition of You Are Here is a reminder of how much, and how little, has changed in the life of a single woman in India. AVAILABLE NOW

Books To Gift Your Little Ones This Holiday Season

Posted on by Penguin India

It’s everyone’s favourite time of the year – the month of festivities and holidays, and along with it, the question of what to gift little children. We personally think books are a great present and so we bring to you a list of books from which you can choose what to gift your little one!
Amma, Take Me to the Dargah of Salim Chishti
 

Explore the places where we worship with Amma and her boys. Told through interesting stories with captivating illustrations, ‘Amma, Take Me’ series introduces readers to the history of different faiths and their associated monuments. In Amma Take Me to The Dargah of Salim Chishti, travel with Amma and her boys to the fascinating walled city of Fatehpur Sikri.
Of Course, It’s Butterfingers!

Even when Amar Kishen-better known as Butterfingers-isn’t stumbling through misadventures, he sure has disaster tailing him every step of the way. Join the irrepressible Butterfingers in this exciting and enjoyable instalment of side-splitting short stories.
The Adventures of Woka Chimni

Woka’s love for travel, helpful nature and ecological curiosity make her stories charming and memorable. Discover our country India’s splendour through this series of picture storybooks for kids, one exciting adventure at a time.
Magic in Mussoorie

Nakul Sahej and his friend Kuku stumble upon an antique book while on holiday in Mussoorie. The book turns out to be a magical one that transports the two back in time to the Mussoorie of over a century ago. Action-packed and unputdownable, this thrilling adventure is the first in a series of comic books set in the Garhwal Himalayas.
The Girl Who Went to the Stars and Other Extraordinary Lives

An unbelievable journey through outer space, the voice of a nightingale, a climb up the highest mountain, a leader of the nation. These are the incredible stories of fifty phenomenal Indian women, such as Amrita Sher-Gil, Arundhati Roy, Kalpana Chawla, Mary Kom, Indira Gandhi, Tessy Thomas and more!
The Ultimate Memory Handbook for Students

This book will serve as a handbook for you to memorize information, topics and answers from your course of study. Using memory-enhancing practices and techniques along with tips, activities and practice sections, you can train your brain to retain a wide range of topics and subjects. From the periodic table to trigonometry, history dates to countries and their capitals, master it all with these practical techniques, supported by some quirky and fun artwork that serves as a great visual aid.
Wonder Words

Wonder Words is a gorgeous, illuminating and often hilarious lexicon of unique words from all over the globe. It will open up your world, making you aware of emotions, cultures and practices from far and beyond. Join author-illustrator Rituparna Sarkar in finding the joy of new words in different languages that you always hoped would exist in English!
Discover India series

Sonia Mehta is back with her Discover India series, where the adorable Pushka and Mishki join the wise and witty Daadu Dolma as they traverse the length and breadth of India. This month, they explore Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and the Union Territories of India!
 

100 years of Sai Baba: His Journey on Life, Death and Everything in Between

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Rabda has attempted suicide and chances are that he is going to die. Sai Baba of Shirdi enters the hospital room and awakens the spirit body of Rabda. The two, Master and musician, begin to converse about life, death and everything in between.
Set in the present, Rabda by Ruzbeh N. Bharucha takes the reader to the past, to when the Sai lived in His physical body and the life and philosophy of Sai Baba of Shirdi are revealed.
Here are seven quotes from the book that will show you Sai Baba’s path:
 

“ Each moment, every single moment, we either create a dream or a nightmare, as each moment we either choose to live or we choose to kill the opportunity to live.”

∼

“Either you believe that God does not exist, there is no Supreme Power running this grand show, or you believe in a just God.You cannot believe in a God who exists but is unjust.”

∼

   “The more selfless your love,the greater the happiness all around.”

∼

“You may pronounce the words immaculately but if the words aren’t coming from the very breath of your essence, the very sigh of your soul,then those prayers might as well be verbalized by an intelligent parrot.”

∼

“One needs to be careful of desires as once you have your desires under control,you shall move into the region of the heart.”

∼

“When your thoughts rule you, you are like a slave in your own house.”

∼

“So the only wise and commonsensical way of going through life is calmly,giving your best, and leaving the rest to Him.”

A powerful spiritual read, Rabda is a journey you really do not want to miss.
 

Poems That Give A Rare Glimpse into Atal Bihari’s Mind

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Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister of India from 1998 to 2004 but he was a poet for much longer. Twenty-One Poems is a collection of poems marked by his disarming simplicity, passion and sincerity.
The poems highlight his concerns and convictions, both public and private. The English translations by Pavan K. Varma, retain the simplicity and immediacy of the Hindi originals, which appear alongside the translations in this bilingual edition.
Here are lines from the poems that will give you a glimpse into Vajpayee’s mind:

A New Milestone

“And so a new milestone’s been crossed.

How many more remain, no one knows,

And no one knows when the final

destination will arrive.

The sun is imperishable, the earth indestructible,

Only the body lives and dies;

Another year added is cause for celebration.

A new milestone’s been crossed.”

 

Two Quatrains

“The kingdom’s changed

The crown’s changed

But the social order

Remains unchanged.”

 

Never Place Me So High

“A height

Whose touch alone

Turns water to stone,

Such height,

That merely to look upon it is to feel small,

May be deserving of praise,

An invitation to tireless climbers,

A good place to plant your flag.”

 

Who Are the Kauravas, and Who the Pandavas

“In every panchayat

Draupadi is robbed of her honour.

Without Krishna

Today

The Mahabharata will be fought,

No matter who claims the throne,

The poor will continue to suffer.”

 

Peace of Mind

“On earth, among the living,

Only a human being

Feels alone in a crowd, and

Besieged by crowds when alone.”

 

A Battle With Death

“A battle with death!

What a battle it will be!

I had no plans to take her on,

We had not agreed to meet at that curve,

Yet there she stood, blocking my path,

Looming larger than life.”

 

Twenty-One Poems provides a rare and rewarding glimpse into the mind of the leader of over a billion people.

Meet PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves

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PG Wodehouse is one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century. His writing paved way for a marvelous collection of comic novels and short stories enjoyed by many. He was also a well-known lyricist and playwright. He is fondly remembered for creating the characters Bertie Wooster and his resourceful helper Reginald Jeeves, who starred in many of his famous works. The famed character of Reginald Jeeves was known and loved by everyone who was a great admirer of Wodehouse’s work.
Here we give you a chance to know more about this beloved character:
 

  1. Reginald Jeeves is the adept valet of the wealthy Londoner Bertie Wooster.
  2. The character of Reginald Jeeves first appeared in print in 1915.
  3. Being older and wiser, Reginald Jeeves is the epitome of a British gentleman and also a friend to Bertie Wooster.
  4. With the help of his quick-thinking Reginald Jeeves always succeeds in helping his master out of difficult situations.
  5. In the books, Reginald Jeeves is known to be so smart that his brain bulges at the back of his head.
  6. In his own words, Reginald Jeeves is a “Gentleman’s personal Gentleman”.
  7. Apart from being extremely intelligent, Reginald Jeeves is very observant.

 

Five Modern Homages to Jeeves!

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PG Wodehouse’s memorable creation,  is a highly implausible pairing—not romantic, not quite friendship but something immeasurably greater—that of that incomparable lounger and shining light  of the Drones Club, Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves.
‘Valet’  may be his official job designation, but he is so much more—father figure, nurse, guardian angel and all-round messiah to Bertie and his many bumbling friends, extricating them from multiple capers and bad decisions-money, thievery and marriage.
Jeeves and Wooster live on through modern literary tributes, TV shows and through the ‘bumbling master-supremely efficient staff’   trope still used in so much modern media.
 
Jeeves and the King of Clubs-Ben Schott
This is a magnificent new homage to Jeeves and Wooster, that leads them through an uproarious adventure of espionage through the secret corridors of Whitehall, the sunlit lawns of Brinkley Court, and the private clubs of St James’s.  As storm clouds loom over Europe and the very security of the nation is in peril-it seems that Jeeves has long been an agent of British Intelligence, but now His Majesty’s Government must turn to the one man who can help . . . Bertie Wooster. We encounter an unforgettable cast of characters – old and new – including outraged chefs and exasperated aunts, disreputable politicians and gambling bankers, slushy debs and Cockney cabbies, sphinx-like tailors, and sylph-like spies.
Jeeves & the King of Clubs is essential reading for aficionados of The Master, and a perfect introduction to the joys of Jeeves and Wooster for those who have never before dipped their toe.
(Read more about this story here)
 
The classic television adaptation-Jeeves and Wooster
This is the show that made Laurie and Fry one of the ultimate dream-teams, almost as perfect  as Jeeves and Wooster, Laurel and hardy or (as Wodehouse would have put it) eggs and b. The episodes keep the deliciously Jazz-Age nonchalance of the novels while the irresistible charm and chemistry of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie is the perfect recreation of the eternal chemistry of Jeeves and Wooster.
(Read more about this story here)
 
 
Wake-Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames
From the creator of the HBO series Bored to Death, the story of a young alcoholic writer and his personal valet, a hilarious homage to the Bertie and Jeeves novels of P.G. Wodehouse.
Alan Blair, the hero of Wake Up, Sir!, is a young, loony writer with numerous problems of the mental, emotional, sexual, spiritual, and physical variety. He’s very good at problems. But luckily for Alan, he has a personal valet named Jeeves, who does his best to sort things out for his troubled master. And Alan does find trouble wherever he goes. He embarks on a perilous and bizarre road journey, his destination being an artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs. There Alan encounters a gorgeous femme fatale who is in possession of the most spectacular nose in the history of noses. Such a nose can only lead to a wild disaster for someone like Alan, and Jeeves tries to help him, but…well, read the book and find out!
(Read more about this story here)
 
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells-Sebastian Faulks
A gloriously witty novel from Sebastian Faulks using P.G. Wodehouse’s much-loved characters, Jeeves and Wooster, fully authorised by the Wodehouse estate.
Bertie Wooster is staying at the stately home of Sir Henry Hackwood in Dorset. He is more than familiar with the country-house set-up: he is a veteran of the cocktail hour and, thanks to Jeeves, his gentleman’s personal gentleman, is never less than immaculately dressed.
On this occasion, however, it is Jeeves who is to be seen in the drawing room while Bertie finds himself below stairs – which he doesn’t care for at all. His predicament is, of course, all in the name of love …
(Read more about this story here)
 
 
A film homage to the master-valet pairing-Arthur (1981)
Featuring Sir John Gielgud as Hobson- a Jeeves-esque  valet to Dudley Moores’s Arthur, the classic ‘happy drunk’ playboy-the movie takes one through a crazy ride of finding love amid wealth, prostitution and substance abuse in the hedonism and excess of 1980s America.
The film won writer Steve Gordon an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and the Writer’s Guild of America award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen.
(Read more about this story here)
 
 

Home Remedies to Strengthen Your Lungs – Handy Tips from 'The Asthma Cure'

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Given the levels of pollution in many metropolitan cities and states in India, most of us are able to identify the impact on our lungs. But did you know that many a times the medicines and bronchodilators prescribed to asthmatics to temporarily relieve the symptoms actually weaken the lungs over a period of time?
Using authentic remedies and principles from Ayurveda and macrobiotics, The Asthma Cure is a step-by-step practical guide with natural remedies, easy-to-follow wholesome recipes and daily food plans to help a person heal bronchial asthma, wheezing and other lung-related conditions naturally.
Listed below are a few quick home remedies and tips to strengthen your lungs:
 

 
Asthma is a curable disease. This is the primary reason Tarika Ahuja chose to write The Asthma Cure  and she hopes to work as an asthma revolutionary through workshops and awareness campaigns in order to break the myth that it is incurable.

6 Instances Highlighting the Pervasiveness of Caste in Everyday India

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The Radical in Ambedkar: Critical Reflections , edited and introduced by Anand Teltumbde and Suraj Yengde, establishes B.R. Ambedkar as the most powerful advocate of equality and fraternity in modern India. Critically evaluating his thought and work, the essays in this book—by Jean Drèze, Partha Chatterjee, Sukhadeo Thorat, Manu Bhagavan, Anupama Rao and other internationally renowned names—discuss Ambedkar’s theory on minority rights, the consequences of the mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism, Dalit oppression in the context of racism and anti-Semitism, and the value of his thought for Marxism and feminism, among other global concerns.

Read on to learn why Ambedkar deemed it essential to demystify the traditional terminology of caste oppression

Economic problems intertwine with social discrimination

“The problems of untouchability and caste discrimination and atrocity, however need to be top priorities in government policy and programmes, and in high-caste civil society. Presently, they are low in the pecking order. The removal of untouchability has not become a state-level issue of prime concern, importance and urgency. But it is as important as the problem of poverty. If poverty is the daily experience of hunger, discrimination is the daily experience of humiliation and contempt. It is a day-to-day experience which is absorbed by Untouchables under suppression and dominance.”

The history of caste took roots from skin colour

“The term ‘caste’ is not of Indian origin. Formulated by the Portuguese in the 16th Century, the word has roots in the Portuguese word casta, which literally refers to breed. Varna, which finds mention in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, referring to class, also means colour in Sanskrit and is essentially a colour system construct.”

Marginalisation is entrenched deep within our society

“Both African-Americans and Dalits have been segregated and terrorized, denied education, economic opportunity, healthcare and political participation over centuries, and both continue to be exploited economically and psychologically for the benefit of those the elites in their respective societies have ranked above and against them.”

Misogyny and lack of agency in women is a byproduct of casteism

“The structural reproduction of caste occurs in a systematic alliance of unfair gender norms and sexual violence. In other words, the caste system is grounded in gender discrimination and sexual violence. The system operates through a complete control over the being-body of the woman, reducing her to a sub-human category. One can outline the caste-gender-sexuality system as a birth-related graded hierarchical structure of purity pollution and division of labour manifested in distinct ritual status and style of life.”

The practice of segregation does not even spare cremation grounds

“The most widespread and blatant practice of untouchability in the public secular sphere relates to water and cremation or burial grounds—the bare necessities of life and death. Despite being common amenities that are managed and maintained by local governments, access to them continues to be governed by the notion of caste-based pollution and untouchability.”

Educational institutions influence casteist attitudes amongst children

“The practice of untouchability continues to pervade the public sphere, including a host of state institutions and the social interactions that occur within them. In one out of four primary schools in rural India, Dalit children are forced by their teachers or by convention to sit apart from non-Dalits. As many as 40 percent of schools practise untouchability while serving midday meals, with Dalit children being made to sit in a separate row while eating.”

An extraordinary collection of immense breadth and scholarship that challenges the popular understanding of Ambedkar, The Radical in Ambedkar is essential reading for all those who wish to imagine a new future.

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