Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia, the protagonist of A Girl Like That is many things: a bright and outspoken student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a trouble maker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say.
But is that all to Zarin’s multi-faceted personality? Well, surely not. Get to know more about the vivacious heroine here.
8 Facts About Abu Salem- One Of The Most Dangerous Dons India Has Ever Seen
Abu Salem’s life is a study in paradox. He was unique among the Mumbai mafia in a number of ways. Here are some facts about one of the most dangerous dons our country has ever seen from the bestseller book- My Name is Abu Salem, the third book by Hussain Zaidi’s part of the mafia trilogy, after Dongri to Dubai and Byculla to Bangkok.
Books That Celebrate Mom
On mother’s day or any other day, it is always a great idea to celebrate your mom. So we have compiled a list of perfect reads that honor these unbreakable caregivers and boss ladies. Check them out now!
The Thousand Faces of Night by Githa Hariharan
A subtle and tender tale of women’s lives in India, this award-winning novel is structured with the delicacy and precision of a piece of music. Fusing myth, tale and the real voices of different women, The Thousand Faces of Night brings alive the underworld of Indian women’s lives.
Ladies Coup by Anita Nair
Meet Akhilandeshwari, Akhila for short: forty-five and single, an income tax clerk and a woman who has never been allowed to live her own life—always the daughter, the sister, the aunt, the provider. Until the day she gets herself a one-way ticket to the seaside town of Kanyakumari. This is a story of a woman’s search for strength and independence.
This Wide Night by Sarvat Hasin
The Maliks live a life of relative freedom in 1970s Karachi: four beautiful sisters, Maria, Ayesha, Leila and Beena, are warily watched over by an unconventional mother. Captain Malik is usually away, and so the women forge the rules of their own universe, taking in a few men: Amir, the professor who falls in love with Maria, and Jamal, the neighbour who tells this tale. The curious young man is drawn in by all four sisters, and particularly by rebellious Ayesha. But slowly, it becomes clear he will never completely penetrate their circle—just as they will never completely move with the tide that swirls so potently around them.
Millionaire Housewives by Rinku Paul
Millionaire Housewives tells the stories of twelve enterprising homemakers who, in spite of having no prior experience in business, managed to build successful empires through the single-minded pursuit of their goal, defying all stereotypes. For Ambika Pillai-one of the most well-known names in the world of hair and beauty-it was the need to be financially independent that led her down this path. For celebrity chef Nita Mehta, entrepreneurship was the result of wanting to do something beyond her traditional role as a homemaker. Millionaire Housewives offers valuable lessons for homemakers who want to venture into entrepreneurship.
Legacy: Letters from Eminent Parents by Sudha Menon
Legacy brings forth a rare collection of personal and evocative letters from parents to their daughters. Through their fearless approach to life, love, and overcoming obstacles, these icons from the world of business, arts, films, food, and sports share their experience and wisdom as they pass them on to their daughters. Deeply moving and thought provoking, Legacy is a remarkable collection of life lessons that will delight and inspire at the same time.
The Mother-In-Law by Veena Venugopal
In this witty and often painfully funny book Veena Venugopal follows eleven women through their marriages and explores why the mother-in-law is the dreaded figure she is. Meet Deepa, whose bikini-wearing mother-in-law won’t let her even wear jeans; Rachna who fell in love with her mother-in-law even before she met her fiancé only to find both her romances sour. The Mother-in-Law is a book that will make you laugh and cry and understand better the most important relationship in a married woman’s life.
Mom in the City by Kausalya Saptharishi
When single working mother, Ira, enrolls her son, Abhi, at Bumblebees, a posh playschool in Lutyens’ Delhi, little does she know what she is getting into. The other moms are everything she is not—impeccably groomed, fashionistas who throw lavish birthday parties for their children and holiday in exotic locales. In her eagerness to befriend these hip moms, Ira inadvertently lets slip a lie about her marriage that could lead to her being ostracized from this clique. Mom in the City is an intimate, humorous, and poignant story about contemporary motherhood, love, and life in India.
The Mother I Never Knew by Sudha Murty
Sudha Murty’s new book comprises two novellas that explore two quests by two different men—both for mothers they never knew they had. Venkatesh, a bank manager, stumbles upon his lookalike one fine day. When he probes further, he discovers his father’s hidden past, which includes an abandoned wife and child. Mukesh, a young man, is shocked to realize after his father’s death that he was actually adopted. He sets out to find his biological mother. The Mother I Never Knew is a poignant, dramatic book that reaches deep into the human heart to reveal what we really feel about those closest to us.
Bijnis Woman by Tanuja Chandra
A masaledaar mix of fact and fiction, action and emotion, drama and passion—these strange, funny, intriguing tales from small-town Uttar Pradesh have been passed orally from one generation to the next. The bizarre chronicle of a lazy daughter-in-law, the court clerk who loved eating chaat, two cousins inseparable even in death, a blind teacher who fell in love with a woman with beautiful eyes and other wild tales from Bareilly, Lucknow, Hapur, Badaun, Sapnawat and Pilibhit, places big and small, in that fascinating part of India called Uttar Pradesh.
The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
The Mirror of Beauty embarks on an epic journey that sweeps through the death-giving deserts of Rajputana, the verdant valley of Kashmir and the glorious cosmopolis of Delhi, the craft of miniature painting and the art of carpet designing, scintillating musical performances and recurring paintings of mysterious, alluring women. Its scope breathtaking, its language beguiling, and its style sumptuous, this is a work of profound beauty, depth and power.
That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande
Jaya’s life comes apart at the seams when her husband is asked to leave his job while allegations of business malpractice. Differences with her husband, frustrations in their seventeen-year-old marriage, disappointment in her two teenage children, the claustrophia of her childhood-all begin to surface. 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.
Margot by Reba Som
Among all the disciples of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita occupies pride of place. Margaret Noble arrived at India’s shores in the late nineteenth century, took the vows of a brahmacharini, and devoted the rest of her life to the cause of India. In this compelling biography, the author traces the development of Margaret from a loyal Irishwoman into Sister Nivedita, and finally into ‘Lok Mata’ or ‘People’s Mother’—a title bestowed on her by Tagore.
Sita by Devdutt Pattanaik
This book approaches Ram by speculating on Sita—her childhood with her father, Janak, who hosted sages mentioned in the Upanishads; her stay in the forest with her husband who had to be a celibate ascetic while she was in the prime of her youth; her interactions with the women of Lanka, recipes she exchanged, emotions they shared; her connection with the earth, her mother; her role as the Goddess, the untamed Kali as well as the demure Gauri, in transforming the stoic prince of Ayodhya into God.
Devi by Mrinal Pande
Writer and journalist Mrinal Pande sees in strong passionate women who defy the strictures of a male-dominated world, shades of the Goddess. There were many such women in her life, women who succeeded beyond the expectations of men. First, there was her forceful mother, the writer Shivani. Then came Badi Amma, the most colorful woman in this book, her domineering, intellectual aunt. There were friends who silently lived lives of emotional deprivation till they opted out of the world altogether. There were women who made the news and women who preyed on men. In all these women, the writer sees the original Devi.
Balancing Act by Meera Godbole Krishnamurthy
Balancing Act is a book that is all about the balancing act that Tara Mistri does on a day-to-day basis in her life. Tara Mistri is a stay-at-home mother, who is a frustrated architect as well. She is described as being a baker of biscuits and a maker of bricks. Tara is perplexed by the absolute confusion in her life and is inspired by the Salk Institute, which is in California. Her aim is to bring in the kind of symmetry that exists there, into her own life.
French Lover: Nilanjana's Road to Self-Discovery
French Lover by Taslima Nasrin is the story of Nilanjana, a young Bengali woman from Kolkata who moves to Paris after getting married to Kishanlal, a restaurant owner. Kishanlal’s luxurious apartment seems to be a gilded cage for Nilanjana, and she feels stifled within its friendless confines. While she looks desperately for a way out of the boredom and depression that threaten to engulf her life, her road to self-discovery begins.
Bold in concept and powerful in execution, this book is a fascinating glimpse into the workings of a woman’s mind as she struggles to come to terms with her identity in a hostile world.
Here are quotes from the book that take us into Nilanjana’s world.
The Literary Renegade Whom No Force Dared Stop
Saadat Hasan Manto is the most widely read and controversial short story writer in Urdu. A pre-eminent practitioner of the genre, he produced twenty-two collections of short stories. The prevalent trend is to classify Manto’s work into stories of Partition or stories of prostitutes but neither Partition nor prostitution gave birth to the genius of Saadat Hasan Manto. They only furnished him with an occasion to reveal the truth of the human condition.
On Manto’s birthday, we delve deeper into factors that moulded Manto’s creative world and showcase him as an astonishing writer who truly was unstoppable.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/11/saadat-hasan-manto-short-stories-partition-pakistanhttp://www.academia.edu/35301622/Biography_of_Saadat_Hasan_Manto
The Unseeing Idol of Light by K.R. Meera; Excerpt
K.R. Meera is a multi-award-winning writer and journalist. She has published short stories, novels and essays, and has won some of the most prestigious literary prizes. The Unseeing Idol of Light, K.R. Meera’s latest book is a haunting tale that explores love and loss, blindness and sight, obsession and suffering-and the poignant interconnections between them.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
Deepti had gone missing one day before the TV centre in Thiruvananthapuram was commissioned. On their last day together, Prakash and Deepti had mostly talked about TV.
‘Considering the state of affairs here, we’ll probably get to watch TV by the time our son goes to college! Though I sometimes wonder whether we will ever really be so lucky.’ Deepti laughed, the rich timbre of her voice reminiscent of a finger knocking softly against a bronze pitcher.
That laughter and her question had resounded so often in Prakash’s ears that he had refused to purchase a TV in his home for a very long time. TV, to Prakash, was inexplicably associated with misfortune. In the shock of losing Deepti, the nerves controlling his vision had separated, making him blind. As it turned out, he never really had the luck to watch TV, just as Deepti had predicted.
Much later, when cable TV came into vogue, Prakash had two unexpected visitors at the town’s government college, where he was employed as the chief librarian. A young woman and a man had dropped in, carrying a camera and a microphone.
‘We would like to interview you since you are a blind librarian.’ The young woman brusquely extended the microphone towards him.
‘Where did you get such pretty lips, my girl?’ Prakash’s brazen query stunned the woman.
‘Ah, you are not blind, are you?’
‘Aren’t we all blind in some way or the other?’
Opening Chekov’s Collected Stories and turning to page 132, Prakash started reading out from ‘The Husband’, the book held close to his nose.
‘It makes me sick to look at her!’ he muttered. ‘Going on for forty and nothing to boast of at any time, she must powder her face and lace herself up!’
The young woman peeked into the book and, seeing that he was perfectly correct, beat a hasty retreat. However, after they had left, Prakash regretted sending them away. Deepti might have seen the TV programme in some corner of the world, recognized him and returned to spread light again in his life. Immersed in this thought, he became extremely frustrated.
Even after so many years he had not been able to reconcile himself to Deepti’s departure. He had been completely prepared to be a father, and eager to play with his little son, when Deepti disappeared. In his mind’s eye, he repeatedly saw how, on that evening, seated in the kitchen, Deepti and he had enjoyed platefuls of ada with their tea.
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Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim by Anurag Tripathi – An Excerpt
Anurag Tripathi is an investigative journalist with sixteen years of experience spanning print, electronic and digital media. Tripathi’s book, Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim, involves his decade long investigation into reported criminal activities undertaken at the Dera Sacha Sauda headed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
Let’s read an excerpt from the book.
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For twenty-one-year-old Anshul, life was moving at a pace that any youngster from a small town envisions. He was good at his studies and dreamt of studying to be a lawyer. It was his father’s dream that he was pursuing diligently. With two siblings—a fourteen-year-old brother, Aridman, and sixteen-year-old sister, Shreyasi—mother Kulwant Kaur and father Ram Chander Chhatrapati, Anshul was content and secure. Little did he know that life as he knew it and expected it to be was about to change forever.
After 8.15 p.m. on 24 October 2002, he would embark on the journey of a relentless legal battle, fought amid constant threats to him and his family. He was not to know that for the next fifteen years, he would have to put aside his own dreams and fight tooth and nail for justice for his family.
On that fateful day, in their small, single-storeyed house at Govind Nagar in Sirsa, Anshul was watching a television show along with his brother and sister. He was also chopping vegetables for the dinner that was yet to be made. His mother had had to leave in a hurry that morning for Guru Har Sahai in Firozpur, Punjab, to attend the funeral of a close family member. Before leaving, she had instructed Anshul to take care of his younger siblings for she was aware of her husband’s routine of returning home late from work.
‘After writing his reports and sending the newspaper to press, my father had a habit of meeting his old friends at a tea shop in town. There, he would discuss the latest news making the rounds, and also take feedback on major events taking place at the Dera.’
That day, however, was not a usual one. Chhatrapati, to his children’s surprise, reached home at around 7.15 p.m., which was early for him. He was elated as he told Anshul about a major lead in his investigation against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. He announced that he would try his culinary skills and busied himself in the kitchen.
At around 8.05 p.m., the family heard a motorcycle stop at their gate and someone call for Ram Chander Chhatrapati by name from the small alley outside their house. Asking his children to stay indoors, he went out to meet the visitor. The house has two gates—a bigger one, which opens out into the main alley of the locality to the west, and a smaller one, which opens into an adjoining alley to the north of the house. Normally, the main gate was kept closed most of the time, and it was the smaller gate that was used by the family to enter and exit the house.
As was his habit, this time too, Chhatrapati used the smaller gate to get out of the house. The killers, who had obviously been tracking his and his family’s movements, knew that it was the small gate that was in frequent use. If they waited for him at that gate, Chhatrapati might not open it. So they hid themselves behind the main gate on the west side, and waited for him to emerge from the small gate and walk out towards the main alley.
When a few minutes had passed, Anshul thought of going out and calling his father back in for dinner. He was about to open the main door when they all heard five consecutive gunshots. The assailants, two in number, fled the spot on a motorcycle. As the nearest police post at Khairpur was barely 200 metres from the house, one of the assailants, Kuldeep Singh, was apprehended by a constable who had heard the gunshots and was heading towards the alley. The other assailant, Nirmal Singh, managed to flee the crime scene.
Meanwhile, Anshul locked the main door of the house and rushed towards the small gate.
‘By the time I reached the main alley, all I could see was my father lying in a pool of blood.’ He started screaming for help as he rushed to help his father. Chhatrapati, though grievously wounded, with two gunshots in the abdomen and one each on the shoulder, the back and the thigh, was trying to stand up. The entire neighbourhood had heard the gunshots and people had started gathering in the alley. A neighbour brought his car out and rushed the badly wounded Chhatrapati to the nearest hospital in Sirsa.
‘The 200–km drive from Sirsa to Rohtak seemed like the longest I have ever had to drive in my life. All throughout, I was holding my father’s hand. He was conscious and was looking into my eyes. I felt utterly miserable and helpless,’ said the son, for whom his father was the greatest role model.
Meanwhile, Anshul’s sister and brother were at home, crying and clueless about why their father had been shot. The news of the brutal attack also reached Firozpur. Kulwant Kaur composed herself and started for Rohtak. ‘He was an upright man. He was fighting against a monster and he knew its consequences,’ Kaur told me while recalling that night of horror. ‘He would always tell us that no one has left this earth alive. “Neither will I. But I can’t sit back and see my city go to ruin because of Gurmeet Ram Rahim.”
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What Exile Meant to Taslima Nasreen
In Exile, Taslima Nasrin writes about the series of events leading to her ouster from India, her house arrest, and the anxious days she had to spend in the government safe house, beset by a scheming array of bureaucrats and ministers desperate to see her gone. Without a single political party, social organization or renowned personality by her side, she had been a lone, exiled, dissenting voice up against the entire state machinery with only her wits and determination at her disposal.
These seven quotes from the book give us a glimpse into her life in the seven month period in India.
Taslima Nasrin’s book Exile is a moving and shocking chronicle of her struggles in India over a period of five months, set against a rising tide of fundamentalism and intolerance that will resonate powerfully with the present socio-political scenario.
The Tao of Life, Verse and Satire by Sanjeev Sanyal
Sanjeev Sanyal, bestselling history author of Land of the Seven Rivers, is currently the principal economic adviser to the Indian government. A Rhodes Scholar and an Eisenhower fellow, he has written extensively on economics, environmental conservation and urban issues.
His work takes him to many places and often leads to encounters with various colourful characters throughout India. You can meet them all in his latest book, Life Over Two Beers, slated to release this month marking his entry into the world of fiction and poetry.
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By Sanjeev Sanyal
My latest book “Life over Two Beers” will hit the stores next week. Quite unlike my previous books, it is a collection of quirky short stories, some satirical, some with a twist in the end. And then there is the odd verse thrown in along the way. So, why this foray into the world of fiction and poetry?
It will come as some surprise to those who have read my non-fiction writings over the years that I began writing this book, in bits and pieces, a decade and a half ago. I was then a young economist working in financial markets, recently relocated to Singapore from Mumbai. My first child had just been born. Sitting in my study one hot and sunny Sunday afternoon, with the rock-band Era playing loudly in the background, I typed out my first short story on my company issue IBM Thinkpad. Nothing pre-meditated, it was just something that I wrote out just like that.
My profession as an economist requires routine writing of reports, articles and newspaper columns. However, over the next few years, I ended up typing a story here, a fragment of verse there. At some point, I had written out enough that I wondered if it could be published. So, when I first reached out to publishers circa 2005-6, it was to publish this book. The problem was that publishers were not too keen on it. As any editor or aspiring writer will tell you, it is very difficult to publish short fiction and almost impossible for poetry. The publishers persuaded me to write non-fiction. I am not complaining – it sent me on a happy journey and I will probably remain primarily a non-fiction writer. Nonetheless, the idea of publishing my short stories remained and I kept adding and updating the collection. Every time I changed laptops, I had to remember to transfer the file. Only four of my original set have found their way here but I am glad the book finally got published.
There are a several reasons that I wanted to publish this book. First, I have long felt that the art of short story writing needs to be revived. Till the middle of the 20th century, it was the dominant form of fiction writing and most well-known authors across the world practiced the art. However, by the 1970s, short fiction was replaced by the novel. Those who were once avid readers of short stories in magazines and other periodicals, I am told, moved on to television serials. As a result, the market dried up and short fiction became a poor cousin of the longer format.
I have never been convinced by this explanation. I like reading short fiction and I think others do too. People still read short stories by Tagore, Manto, Dahl, Hemingway, Doyle and Borges. Indeed, every era since the Panchatantra and the Arabian Nights has had its stories told simply and without the literary fuss of a full-fledged novel. Why not 21st century India?
The second motivation was to revive the art of satire. India has a long tradition of satire going back to ancient times. While it survives here and there in a few Indian languages (and in social media), it is sadly no longer a mainstream art form. Note that I distinguish here between first-order humor of comedy, which is alive and well, and the second-order humour of satire. Hindi and Bengali, till very recently, had a vibrant culture of satirical poetry. These seem to have somehow been replaced by the humor of comedy. Not quite the same thing.
I am a firm believer that no society can thrive unless it can occasionally mock itself. Hence, many of the stories in this collection, albeit not all, have an element of satire. I would like to clarify, nevertheless, that all the characters are fictional and any apparent similarity is merely due to the fact that satire, by its very nature, is based on a caricature of real world social mores.
The more avid readers will probably enjoy the many hidden layers and inside jokes in the collection. For instance, there are many direct and indirect allusions to my favourite authors. No prizes for guessing who inspired the cover but the reader will be amused to know that the artist Jit depicted himself in the cast of characters!
A more serious theme that run through the book is that of intellectual openness and social mobility in its many forms. India is currently experiencing unprecedented intellectual and social churn. Any depiction of early 21st century India needs to take this into account. Thus, many of the stories depict new entrants into social and intellectual spaces, and the responses of incumbents to this change. Rather than being unduly judgemental and moralistic, the stories sketch out the opportunism, self-doubt, snobbery, and need for validation that characterizes such a churning society.
I do no not wish to burden the general reader with all the above baggage. The book should be read purely for fun at the first instance. As for me, I am glad to have finally dragged it to the finishing line. After carrying around the manuscript for years, a full draft was done by end-2016. It should normally have been published in 2017 but the editing was delayed by a full year as I took up a challenging new job. So, now that it is finally in print, I feel oddly lighter and emptier at the same time.
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Five Areas Where India Has Witnessed Immense Growth In The Past Seven Decades
Has democracy in India fulfilled the aspirations of its people? Is the country secure on its external borders? Will India become an economic powerhouse?
All these and many more integral questions loom large as India completes seven decades of independence. The book, Seven Decades of Independent India, edited by Vinod Rai and Amitendu Palit, reflects on the India of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, by gathering rare and candid insights from some of the most distinguished experts, practitioners and scholars on India.
Here are five areas where India has progressed notably-
