Prithvimahadevi’s journey is uphill. Having been married off to her father’s enemy in a peace-making gesture, she finds herself betrayed by those closest to her, and ends up alone in an unknown kingdom, alienated among people who are disdainful towards her. Yet her resolve only strengthens. Read an excerpt for a glimpse into Devika Rangachari’s powerful protagonist:
A carriage sent by the Bhaumakara king waits for me in the palace courtyard. It is plain and square with none of the embellishments that my father’s royal carriages routinely bear. Its horses, too, have clearly been selected more for their hardiness than their beauty.
It is hot and bright, and the entire court has assembled to see me off. The silence all around deafens me—this is a parting that signifies defeat and submission. And this is the silence of anger and grief.
The Bhaumakara attendants wait by the carriage, impassive.
I have already bid farewell in private to my father and brother. Yayati does not say much but clings to me as if he is remembering a time when we meant so much more to each other. The ties of blood are the strongest of all bonds, after all, and who are we to gainsay it?
‘Will you come to see me soon?’ I ask, my voice rough with unspilled tears.
Queen of Earth||Devika Rangachari
He nods but glances towards our father as if seeking permission from him. He is increasingly afraid to hold a single original thought or opinion in his head—and this is what has driven a wedge between us.
My father holds me close. ‘Be well. And do not lose hope. I will make it worth your while.’
I am puzzled. What can he possibly mean? I search his face for an answer and open my mouth to frame a question. He silences me with a look.
I am drawn away into a round of weeping goodbyes with my attendants.
His words will eventually make sense to me but for now, I let them slip and walk towards the carriage, resolute. Whatever happens, I will face the future with courage and fortitude. I will be true to my name.
The journey is a nightmare. The carriage has been built more for service than comfort. The wood is hard and digs into my body and the entire frame jolts unbearably. I am repeatedly sick and seem incapable of holding down the smallest morsel of food or even a sip of water.
Both sets of attendants are distressed, mine and the ones that the Bhaumakaras have sent. They can do little to alleviate my discomfort.
I see nothing of the landscape we pass; my eyes are shut tight. I finally huddle down on the hard bench, insensible to the hours that pass, floating in and out of a state of consciousness.
I am dimly aware of someone—my aunt, by
the sound of her voice—coaxing me to suck a slice
of lemon that makes me retch all the more and of someone—her again—stroking my forehead and murmuring soothing words that ultimately lull me into a spell of blessed sleep.
When I eventually wake, it is with the knowledge that the worst has passed. I am weak but whole, and it is a relief to know this. My aunt is by my side, her face full of travel weariness and deep concern in the dim light of approaching darkness.
‘Two days,’ she says in response to my unspoken query. She shakes her head. ‘You have never been this ill before. Perhaps you are not used to the rigours of travel. Or perhaps you have worried yourself into this state.’
A Bhaumakara soldier hastens by to tell us that we are nearing journey’s end.
I look out at the unfamiliar landscape. I have seen nothing of the forests that we have travelled through to reach the coast, but we seem to have emerged from them into an area of tall trees brushing against the sky, palm and coconut by the look of them. A cool breeze blows in, reminding me that we are near the water. A river shimmers by and I can see the dim outlines of boats
on it. This must be the Vaitarani, I think. I know that Viraja nestles between the Mahanadi and the Vaitarani, and that the latter runs closer to the city. My spirits lift slightly and the wind eases the ache in my head.
I see the pallor on my face in the small jewelled mirror that my aunt hands me. There are lines of exhaustion around my eyes and I can taste the sour tang of sickness in my mouth. This is not a propitious time for my new family to view me, but it is not in my hands. Let them know how arduous the journey has been and how much I have endured just to meet their peremptory demands.
When the carriage eventually stops, my head swims. I close my eyes to steady myself.
***
Queen of Earth is a complex and beautiful story of a young woman who holds her own in the most hostile of circumstances.
‘Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.’
― Leonard Cohen
Time and again, in many known and unknown ways, poetry has saved the world. Singing in the Dark does the same. We want to share with you some poems that keep us going through the worst of days:
Dawn of Darkness – Ngugi wa Thiong’o
I know, I know,
It threatens the common gestures of human bonding
The handshake,
The hug
The shoulders we give each other to cry on
The neighborliness we take for granted
So much that we often beat our breasts
Crowing about rugged individualism,
Disdaining nature, pissing poison on it even, while
Claiming that property has all the legal rights of personhood
Murmuring gratitude for our shares in the gods of capital.
Oh how now I wish I could write poetry in English,
Or in any and every language you speak
So I can share with you, words that
Wanjikũ, my Gĩkũyũ mother, used to tell me:
Gũtirĩ ũtukũ ũtakĩa:
No night is so Dark that,
It will not end in Dawn,
Or simply put,
Every night ends with dawn.
Gũtirĩ ũtukũ ũtakĩa.
This darkness too will pass away
We shall meet again and again
And talk about Darkness and Dawn
Sing and laugh maybe even hug
Nature and nurture locked in a green embrace
Celebrating every pulsation of a common being
Rediscovered and cherished for real
In the light of the Darkness and the new Dawn.
Singing in the Dark||Nishi Chawla, K. Satchidanandan
Apocalypse – Annie Zaidi
Waves do not come dashing against the noontide
They tiptoe in
and out with the smallest dose of pain
taken from the cabinet you left dusty
on purpose
so nobody guesses how much you hoard
The wretched manage to show up
across the shatterproof glass of time
to class office factory godown
boat ocean horizon end time
with a slouch and a glower of expectation
Your eyes are fleet
testing
weighing
catlike
on nights when the tide rises
and rises and the rain quietly falls,
as promised, it comes
It sits
gleaming on the roof
with creature eyes
offering no sign
no pause for breath
no cause or rules
about arks: no ones or twos
it offers no map
A thing
squealing its lack of defence
mouse like, it comes to nibble
the cheese of your world
It arches
head and back
now signals: here
I am
Take me at this flood
or there I go
~
Bumblebees – Amanda Bell
There was no need to fret about the bees—
their fragile nest, unlidded
as I pulled weeds beneath the apple tree,
their squirming larvae naked
to my gaze and to the sun.
They watched me from the border
while I hastily replaced the roof,
before returning to rethread
the fibres of their grassy home.
In the cleared weeds I see
their entrance and their exit,
how their flightpaths sweep
the garden in an arc, stitching up
the canvas of this space, as if
they could remake the world
which lies in shreds around us.
The dome moves, as I watch it,
the stretching of an inchoate form—
when morning comes
it glistens with white dew.
~
Singing in the dark is a beautiful anthology of poetry that comes at a time when we need poetry more than ever.
It’s a new month, and we all know what that means. A whole new reading list with brand new books!! These fun new reads are a ride through friendship, inclusivity and even entrepreneurship. Fasten your seatbelts!
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When Adil Speaks, Words Dance
When Adil Speaks, Words Dance||Lavanya Karthik
by Lavanya Karthik
Everyone wants to be friends with Adil. But how do you make friends with someone when you can’t hear the music their words dance to?
‘When Adil Speaks’ is a heart-warming tale of friendship and inclusivity, and of how sometimes, it takes more than words to start a conversation. Written and illustrated by award-winning author Lavanya Karthik, this is a sweet yet an evocative story of two friends, and their willingness to understand each other better.
Bim And The Town Of Falling Fruit
by Arjun Talwar
Bim and the Town of Falling Fruit||Arjun Talwar
In Poondy, fruits are always falling on people’s heads-from the jackfruit, coconut and toddy trees-causing many injuries. So all the Poondizens wear fruit-helmets invented by the legendary Falwala. Bim loves Poondy, but one day, Miss Chitty, Bim’s mother, who drives a coffee-coloured taxi, decides to move away from Poondy. Bim’s last two weeks in his home town are full of strange and exciting adventures-from a bat attack to a bike theft- that can only happen here!
Become A Junior Entrepreneur
Become a Junior Entrepreneur||Vrunda Bansode
Vrunda Bansode
What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor, an engineer, a chef, a musician, an IAS officer?
That’s a question adults never tire of asking kids.
It’s time to recognize a profession where people invent, innovate, sell, barter and build: entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are bringing education online, connecting families at the touch of a button and changing the way we live. ‘Become a Junior Entrepreneur’ accompanies the reader through every stage of turning a nascent dream into a commercially viable start-up.
Unfair
Rasil Ahuja
Unfair||Rasil Ahuja
Auditions are on for the seventh-grade annual play. Lina sets her heart and
sights on the lead role, but the drama teacher seems to think Lina isn’t the
right shade for the part. Will Miss Deepa derail Lina’s dream?
Meher finds math far more interesting than Macbeth. When her BFF Lina suddenly becomes distraught and withdrawn, Meher wonders why Lina would shut her out.
Something’s just not adding up. Will this friendship fade or will Meher find a solution to this problem and score #friendshipgoals?
Grandparents’ Bag Of Stories
Grandparents’ Bag of Stories||Sudha Murty
Sudha Murty
From stitching masks, sharing household chores, preparing food for workers to losing themselves in timeless tales, the lockdown turns into a memorable time for the children as they enter the enchanting world of goddesses, kings, princesses, serpents, magical beanstalks, thieves, kingdoms and palaces, among others. Following the trail of the best-selling ‘Grandma’s Bag of Stories’, Sudha Murty brings to you this collection of immortal tales that she fondly created during the lockdown period for readers to seek comfort and find the magic in sharing and caring for others. Wonderfully woven in her inimitable style, this book is unputdownable and perfect for every child’s bookshelf!
~
It’s time to add these wonderful reads to your young readers’ bookshelves!
Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Ogd, a Messiah was born … with her foot in her mouth.
This might be her story.
Her position of foetal gaffe allows her to eat her toenails, which nourish her and make her toenails grow so that she can eat them. Apart from the practicality of the situation, this also is the basis of her profound teachings. As the Messiah travels through many dimensions, her followers learn the importance of bells, nirvana, clean feet, Klein bottles and phonetics, among diverse other things.
Following in the tradition of Lewis Carroll, Anushka Ravishankar writes nonsense, which addresses complex issues of the modern-day world with a deep and abiding meaninglessness.
Here’s an excerpt from this profoundly nonsensical enquiry into various aspects of the world that details the genesis of the Kingdom of Ogd.
**
Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Ogd there was a nuclear holocaust.
The explosion blasted the Kingdom out of shape and it became a strange looking thing that had no inside or outside.
This was an evolutionary necessity because the only way not to have a nuclear holocaust inside Ogd was by not having an inside of Ogd.
The geographical transformation of Ogd led to many developments. It was, for instance, the origin of the famous saying:
ALL ROADS LEAD TO OGD
since any road that led outside Ogd also led inside Ogd.
There were of course, dissidents, who by the same logic claimed that:
ALL ROADS LEAD OUT OF OGD.
But Ogdians who listened to both the assertions got extremely confused. If they believed that all roads led to Ogd and that all roads led out of Ogd then they had to conclude that all roads led everywhere and that all roads led nowhere which was not possible unless everywhere was the same as nowhere.
These were the people who inhabited the insane asylums of Ogd.
However, what was of Ogd was also of not-Ogd.
Xenophobia was eradicated because all Ogdians were non-Ogdians. And so forth.
But when the cartographers came to draw maps of the New Post-apocalyptic World, they were shocked. Never in the history of cartography has there been such a thing as an unbounded kingdom, they declared, delicately drawing a line between infiniteness and unboundedness.
So they drew an imaginary line and said this side is Ogd and that side is not-Ogd.
Be as infinite as you please, they said, but you have to be bounded.
The Kingdom of Ogd was thus placed on the map and people were let out of the insane asylums, which were renamed CACCs* by the newly formed PaPoCC.**
Once upon a time, the same time as the last time upon which once was, a Messiah was born in the Kingdom of Ogd.
Her feet were in her mouth.
This position of foetal gaffe caused her to resemble a paisa-worm or an infinite loop that ate toenails so that the toenails could grow long and strong so she could eat them.
Ogd || Anushka Ravishankar
What is this, her mother asked the doctor, not being able to distinguish between a paisa-worm and a newborn Messiah.
This is an outcome, the doctor replied.
**
Ogd is a delightful offering belonging to the genre of literary nonsense that will compel you to ponder the nature of things.
We are loving the onset of sweater weather and the slight nip in the air. With the days becoming shorter, spending time indoors is looking even more tempting. To keep you company on your cozy nights in, we are bringing you a fresh list of our November releases. Keep that warm blanket and hot cuppa ready and you’re all set for a heavenly reading session!
Cross Your Heart, Take My Name
Novoneel Chakraborty
Cross You Heart, Take My Name || Novoneel Chakraborty
Garv Roy Gill and Yahvi Kothari meet at an airport lounge by chance. Six months later they find themselves consumed by the proverbial once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. Bored with their mundane daily routine, their adventurous streak makes them decide, one day, to escape the present and begin a new reality somewhere far, far away.
Cross Your Heart, Take My Name is a beguiling tale about urban loneliness, fickle relationships and our need for companionship as depicted by the twisted journey of two individuals, caught up in their own emotional plight, blurring the lines between crime and sin.
Reporting India
Prem Prakash
Reporting India || Prem Prakash
Reporting India is a fascinating account of the life and times of Prem Prakash, a pioneer in the field of journalism. Providing a detailed account of his personal and professional life, it includes his reminiscences of the most impactful stories that he covered-including the 1962 Indo-China war, the 1965 and 1971 wars against Pakistan, the Emergency, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. An intriguing read, the book brings to life some of the defining moments in the history of this country.
Balance
Deanne Panday
Balance || Deanne Panday
We go about our lives in a rush-always busy, always tired. Often, we find our joy diminished and our health affected. Through her wheel-of-life programme, Deanne Panday focuses on the thirteen vital elements that each individual needs to be happy, healthy and successful-including physical wellness, career, home environment, joy, financial stability, understanding the effects of climate change, and more. The book doesn’t aim to provide a quick-fix to your issues, but promises to guide you to evaluating your life holistically.
Homecoming and Other Stories
Sri M
The Homecoming || Sri M
Padma Bhushan awardee and bestselling author Sri M sees the world in a different light. He sees the good, the bad and sometimes the supernatural. From horror stories to tales that will shock you out of your wits and pull at your heartstrings, there is something for everyone in this eclectic collection. In his quintessential no-holds barred style, Sri M’s The Homecoming and Other Stories urges you to delve deep into the human spirit and get a glimpse of why people do the things they do.
Jugalbandi
Vinay Sitapati
Jugalbandi || Vinay Sitapati
Narendra Modi has been a hundred years in the making. Vinay Sitapati’s Jugalbandi provides this backstory to his current dominance in Indian politics. It begins with the creation of Hindu nationalism as a response to British-induced elections in the 1920s, moves on to the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980, and ends with its first national government, from 1998 to 2004. And it follows this journey through the entangled lives of its founding jugalbandi: Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.
50 Toughest Questions of Life
Deepak Ramola
50 Toughest Questions of Life || Deepak Ramola
50 Toughest Questions of Life invites people to have a conversation about themselves with themselves. Deepak Ramola’s quest began after he was inspired by the life lesson of a young girl who said, ‘Life is not about giving easy answers, but answering tough questions.’ Over the years, Ramola has amassed life lessons from inspirational sources across the world: from the women of the Maasai tribe to young girls in Afghanistan and sex workers in Kamathipura; from the lessons of earthquake survivors in Nepal to Syrian refugees in Europe, among many more. Strikingly fresh, tender, yet searing, these questions will make you reflect and inspire you to push beyond your boundaries.
Hamid
Hamid Ansari, Geeta Mohan
Hamid || Hamid Ansari, Geeta Mohan
In November 2012, Hamid, a 27-year-old Mumbai-based techie, disappeared into thin air. What happened? Where did he go? All his parents knew was that he had gone to Kabul, Afghanistan, to explore a job opportunity. Upon some investigation, they found out that their son had been chatting online with some Pakistani friends, in particular a girl, across the border.
Authored by Hamid Ansari and Geeta Mohan, this is the definitive insider account of the man who saw no boundaries when it came to saving a girl from forced marriage under the wani custom. Nothing scared or stopped him; until he was betrayed by his friends in Pakistan.Gritty, heart-wrenching and moving, this is a story of humanity, love, betrayal and hope against all odds.
The Economics of Small Things
Sudipta Sarangi
The Economics of Small Things || Sudipta Sarangi
In The Economics of Small Things, Sarangi using a range of everyday objects and common experiences like bringing about lasting societal change through Facebook to historically momentous episodes like the shutting down of telegram services in India offers crisp, easy-to-understand lessons in economics. Through disarmingly simple prose, the book demystifies economic theories, offers delightful insights, and provides nuance without jargon.
A Promised Land
Barack Obama
A Promised Land || Barack Obama
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Extraordinarily intimate and introspective, A Promised Land is the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage.
Women, Dreaming
Salma
Women Dreaming || Salma, Meena Kandasamy
Mehar dreams of freedom and a life with her children. Asiya dreams of her daughter’s happiness. Sajida dreams of becoming a doctor. Subaida dreams of the day when her family will become free of woes. Parveen dreams of a little independence, a little space for herself in the world. In a tiny Muslim village in Tamil Nadu, the lives of these women are sustained by the faith they have in themselves, in each other, and the everyday compromises they make. Salma’s crystalline storytelling enters this interior world of women, held together by love, demarcated by religion, comforted by the courage in dreaming of better futures.
Let’s Build a Company
Harpreet Grover, Vibhore Goyal
Let’s Build A Company || Harpreet Grover, Vibhore Goyal
Harpreet Grover and Vibhore Goyal met in college and then spent the next decade of their lives building a company before exiting successfully. One way to tell their story is this: they had a dream, they followed it and, then, through perseverance, they made it come true. But that’s not really the truth. Like everything in life-at least everything worth having-it wasn’t that simple. There was blood, sweat and tears, there was loss of capital, loss of friendship and even a loss of faith along the way. In this book, the duo reveals the story behind the scenes, the story that you don’t always hear. But if you want to be an entrepreneur, and you prefer straight talk to sugar-coating, it’s one you should read.
Humour, Seriously
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas
Humour, Seriously || Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas
Drawing on behavioural science, advice from world-class comedians and stories from top leaders, Humour, Seriously will show you how to harness the power of humour every day. Based on the popular Stanford Business course, this book will show you how to mine your life for material, explore the Four Deadly Humour Myths and help you figure out which style of humour you fall into – The Magnet, The Sweetheart, The Sniper or the Stand Up.
The Girl and the Goddess
Nikita Gill
The Girl and the Goddess || Nikita Gill
Meet Paro. A girl with a strong will, a full heart and much to learn. Born into a family reeling from the ruptures of Partition, follow her as she crosses the precarious lines between childhood, teenage discovery and realising her adult self. Navigating different cultures, religions and identities, The Girl and the Goddess is a mesmerising poetic tale of where we come from, how we grow and how we become who we are.
Invent and Wander
Jeff Bezos
Invent and Wander || Jeff Bezos
In this collection of Jeff Bezos’s writings—his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas—you’ll gain an insider’s view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Vaclav Smil
Numbers Don’t Lie || Vaclav Smil
From earth’s nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energize them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world – and how all of this affects the planet itself – in Numbers Don’t Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking. Urgent and essential, the book inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true in these significant times.
Cook, Eat, Repeat
Nigella Lawson
Cook, Eat, Repeat || Nigella Lawson
Cook, Eat, Repeat is a delicious and delightful combination of recipes intertwined with narrative essays about food, all written in Nigella’s engaging and insightful prose. Whether asking ‘What is a Recipe?’ or declaring death to the Guilty Pleasure, Nigella’s wisdom about food and life comes to the fore, with tasty new recipes that readers will want to return to again and again.
Love Your Life
Sophia Kinsella
Love Your Life || Sophie Kinsella
Ava is sick of online dating and she wants a break from it all. So when she signs up to a semi-silent, anonymous writing retreat in glorious Italy, love is the last thing on her mind. Until she meets a handsome stranger and they pledge their love without even knowing each other’s real names. But when they return home, reality hits. They’re both driven mad by each other’s weird quirks and annoying habits. Can they overcome their differences to find one life, together?
The Lost Spells
Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris
The Lost Spells || Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris
Written to be read aloud, painted in brushstrokes that call to the forest, field, riverbank and also to the heart, The Lost Spells summons back what is often lost from sight and care, teaching the names of everyday species, and inspiring its readers to attention, love and care.
Surrounded by Psychopaths
Thomas Erikson
Surrounded by Psychopaths || Thomas Erikson
In the book, Thomas Erikson shows you how your weaknesses and personality traits can be exploited by other people and how you can stop them in their tracks. Witty, engaging and informative, this book will give you everything you need to handle life’s most skilled manipulators and identify the psychopaths in your life… before it’s too late!
The Archer
Paulo Coelho
The Archer || Paulo Coehlo
In The Archer we meet Tetsuya, a man once famous for his prodigious gift with a bow and arrow but who has since retired from public life, and the boy who comes searching for him. The boy has many questions, and in answering them Tetsuya illustrates the way of the bow and the tenets of a meaningful life. Paulo Coelho’s story suggests that living without a connection between action and soul cannot fulfill, that a life constricted by a fear of rejection or failure is not a life worth living. Instead, one must take risks, build courage and embrace the unexpected journey fate has to offer.
Troy
Stephen Fry
Troy || Stephen Fry
The story of Troy speaks to all of us. It is the kidnapping of Helen. It is Zeus, the king of the gods, who triggers war when he asks the Trojan prince Paris to judge the fairest goddess of them all. It is a terrible, brutal war with casualties on all sides. In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today.
Time’s Monster
Priya Satia
Time’s Monster || Priya Satia
For generations, the history of the British empire was written by its victors. In this brilliant work, Priya Satia shows how the historians not only interpreted the major political events of their time but also shaped the future that followed. Time’s Monster reveals the dramatic consequences of writing history today as much as in the past.
Be Water, My Friend
Shannon Lee
Be Water, My Friend || Shannon Lee
Bruce Lee is a cultural icon, world renowned for his martial arts and film legacy. But Lee was also a deeply philosophical thinker, believing that martial arts are more than just an exercise in physical discipline – they are a perfect metaphor for personal growth. In Be Water, My Friend, his daughter, Shannon Lee shares previously untold stories from her father’s life along with the concepts at the core of his teachings.
The Sentinel
Lee Child
The Sentinel || Lee Child
Jack Reacher gets off the bus in a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along. But his plan is thrown off track when he finds out that the town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the centre of it all is Rusty Rutherford, an average IT guy but he knows more than he thinks. As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them.
A new normal has replaced the established order. Distant relationships, virtual work, blurred futures and measuring our way back to this reality occupy us every day. Negotiating these changes, Sanil Sachar’s And… Perhaps Love will work as your companion. It is a silent observer for when you want to read it, and a patient listener when you wish to communicate with it. Capturing the ideas of love, darkness and the attempt to find balance in life, this is a book for now and forever.
Today, we have with us Sanil Sachar, the author of this poetic expedition into the realms of love, sharing with us how the book came into being.
By Sanil Sachar
Love is often romanticised and put on a pedestal
When we think of love, stereotypically, we think of songs with background dancers, serenaded surrounding, flowers blooming, and what not! Why not think of love in ways that don’t put such immense pressure on it? How about love as the reason to feel dismay? Love as the tool to success and failure? Love is more than just a feeling, it is a way of life.
Love is associated almost a hundred percent with people
And…Perhaps Love || Sanil Sachar
When we think of love, we subconsciously associate people with it. When we think of passion, we think of an endeavour. When we think of places, we think of escape. Now, the passion to do something and the feeling of calmness and escape are, in truth, enhanced by the same parts of our body that fuel the feeling of love. So, the next time when someone says love, weigh your options because they all might hold the same weight. In fact, if one diminishes, it directly impacts the other, so hold on to love, in all forms.
Love is given too much responsibility
What is love? Energy. What does energy do? It gets passed on. Who passes on this energy? We, the humans, do. What happens when energy isn’t passed on correctly? Well, love is not passed on. So, who is to blame? Love or us, the people? You see, we make love responsible for much more than it is capable of on its own. It is given too much responsibility, just so we can pass ours onto it. In truth, we aren’t let down by love, we let love down.
To prevent this from happening, we need to acknowledge love in all its avatars.
Books can speak too and they have a lot to share
When we read, we are inspired to speak, write and communicate. To make this experience come to life, it was critical to write in a manner that is uncommon. A book with spaces, in order to make it seem less naked, needed words that were left undone, unless it inspired the reader to fill the remaining spaces with their experiences. Utilising all forms of literature, with a sequencing leading to several endings to the book, helped establish that books can speak too. They have a lot to share and the best bit about them is, we can say anything we want to them and they don’t tell anyone.
Researched the hardest subject on earth, love
I believe And… Perhaps Love when read in the correct permutation by each reader is biographical in nature, simply because hundreds of minds led to what is penned within. Over the course of my writing, I have researched subjects through facts, figures and here, the research is inspired by feelings and facts of lives that I met over a conversation shared between strangers, or those that are now strangers.
Indian culture has been greatly marked by foreign arrivals. As trade turned into colonial settlements, India would forever carry the remnants of that imperial history. This excerpt from The Incredible History of The Indian Ocean explores how some of these colonial advents set up European strongholds on Indian lands:
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In 1580, the English sea captain Francis Drake returned to England after circumnavigating (travelling all the way around) the world. He brought back two things: one, a ship filled with Spanish booty and spices from the Indies, and two, information that the Portuguese hold on trade in the Indian Ocean region was not as secure as widely believed.
The English now decided that it was time to stake a claim on the spice trade. A fleet of three ships was sent out under the command of James Lancaster in 1591. The ships bypassed India and made directly for the Straits of Malacca. The English did not even pretend to trade but simply plundered Portuguese and local ships before heading back. On the way home, however, two of the three ships were wrecked in a storm and all the ill-gotten cargo was lost. The smallest of the three ships somehow limped back with just twenty-five survivors, including Lancaster himself.
In the meantime, the Dutch also sent out a number of fleets, which brought home much valuable cargo. Spurred on by this, English merchants decided to take another shot at sailing eastwards. Queen Elizabeth I was petitioned for a royal charter, a document that granted a right or power to a person or a group. On New Year’s Eve in 1600, the merchants set up as ‘The Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies’; we know this now as the East India Company (EIC). Dutch merchants similarly banded together to form the United East India Company (also known by its Dutch initials, VOC).
Both of these entities would grow to become among the largest and most powerful multinational companies the world
The Incredible History of The Indian Ocean||Sanjeev Sanyal
has ever seen.
… The English soon set up modest warehouses in Machilipatnam on the Andhra coast, Hugli in Bengal and Surat in Gujarat. As business grew, the EIC decided that it was necessary to build fortified settlements that could be defended against both Indian rulers as well as European rivals. The first of these was Madras (now Chennai). A small strip of coastline was acquired from the local ruler in 1639 by the EIC agent Francis Day. It was an odd choice as it was neither easily defensible nor did it have a sheltered harbour. Ships had to be anchored far from the shore and boats had to ferry people and goods through heavy surf. It was not uncommon for boats to overturn and cause the loss of life and property. Nonetheless, the English built a fortified warehouse here and christened it Fort St George.
The next major settlement was Bombay, which was acquired from the Portuguese as part of the dowry when King Charles II married Catherine of Braganza. The group of small islands was leased to the EIC in 1668 for ten pounds per annum. Unlike Madras, it already had a small but functioning settlement and also a good harbour. As a naval power, the English would have found its island geography easier to defend and a more substantial fort was built on the main island, in the area still known as ‘Fort’. A series of smaller fortifications were also maintained at various strategic points.
The third major EIC settlement was built in Bengal. Yet again, the decision was taken because the English found their position in the old river port of Hugli untenable due to conflicts with the Mughal governor. When peace was finally declared after an abject apology from the English, they were allowed to return and set up a new establishment. In 1690, the EIC’s agent Job Charnock bought the rights to three villages from the local landlords for 1300 rupees. This is how Calcutta (now Kolkata) was founded. The English soon built Fort William—this is not the star-shaped eighteenth- century fort that is used today as the Indian Army’s eastern headquarters but its predecessor, which was built on the site now occupied by the General Post Office. Nonetheless, the proximity of the Mughals and later the Marathas made the EIC directors in London nervous. The humid, swampy terrain, moreover, took a heavy toll on the Europeans and even Job Charnock died within three years of founding the outpost. It is worth mentioning that each of the above EIC settlements soon attracted a sizeable population of Indian merchants, clerks, labourers, sailors, artisans, mercenaries and other service providers. Thus, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta each developed a thriving ‘black town’ where the Indians lived.
The English were not the only Europeans building trading posts during this period. The French East India Company, a relative latecomer, would build a number of outposts including a major settlement in Pondicherry (now Puducherry). This was established right next to the Roman-era port of Arikamedu. Pondicherry would remain a French possession till the 1950s and still retains a strong French flavour.
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Through The Incredible History of The Indian Ocean, Sanjeev Sanyal has created a comprehensive channel into understanding the maritime history of our country, and the events that have shaped its culture.
What drove you to write children’s fiction in particular?
I have always believed that stories are a great tool for disseminating ideas. When you read a good book, the story grips you and you sponge in the concepts the writer weaves in. Children are receptive, they are open to ideas. Adults are hardened versions of children and stories – as a means for influencing the reader– grow less effective. This is why I find writing for children far more rewarding.
Apart from this I empathise with children and I enjoy spending time with them. By no means can I call myself young, yet I like to believe that there are a lot of childlike qualities in me.
Ladakh Adventure || Deepak Dalal
Your books may fall under the broad genre of ‘children’s fiction’, but the themes you highlight deserve urgent attention. What attracted you to these fragile ecosystems?
The threat to the well-being of our planet is very real. Across land, freshwater and the oceans, human activities are forcing species populations and natural systems to the edge.There have been 5 mass extinction events in the 4.5 billion years that the earth has existed. Each of them due to natural causes. It is the current belief that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction and this one is entirely due to humans and our activities.
Most children live in cities today, entirely disconnected from the natural world. Through stories set in wilderness destinations I try to connect children with wildlife, forests and the great beauty of our planet. My hope is that if at a young age they can be drawn to the natural world, they will help in saving what remains of it.
Ranthambore Adventure || Deepak Dalal
How would you describe the wildlife conservation efforts in India at the moment?
We have some of the best wildlife scientists and conservationists in the world. Several species have been brought back from the brink through their efforts. These include animals like the tiger, the snow leopard, the rhinoceros, and birds like vultures and the amur falcon. But it isn’t all hunky dory. In spite of our best efforts, we are about to lose the Indian bustard and with the shrinking of wildlife habitats many more creatures will disappear. The loss of forests and wildlife isn’t for lack of effort on the part of conservationists. Rather it is the absence of political will and the apathy of our public – for most of whom wildlife is inconsequential – that is at the root of the problem.
You describe the moments of encounters between human beings and animals with great detail and intimacy. Are these based on your own experiences with animals?
I spend a lot of time researching my books. I travel to the destination where the story is set and hook up with wildlife conservationists who are studying animals there. This could be people who are studying tigers, or snow leopards, or marine scientists researching oceanic creatures.These researchers take me into wilderness areas where others can’t visit and it is my experiences with them that provide the backbone to my stories and help me describe animals and landscapes with clarity and detail.
In this moment, do you think it is possible for human beings and animals to really live in harmony without impinging on each other’s spaces?
One can’t do away with human-animal conflict. It will always exist. But we can significantly reduce the conflict. Today wildlife exists in isolated forests, most of them small and inadequate for species like elephants that roam in search of food. Wildlife scientists are campaigning for building corridors (stretches of jungle) that will connect the forests and allow animals to move unhindered from one forest to another. These corridors are vital for reducing tragic encounters between animals and humans.
‘We often think of the serious artist as one who is difficult or contrary, who struggles in anonymity. Ravi Shankar does not fit this description: he was a charismatic extrovert who earned and loved the limelight, a polished performer who brought a new professionalism to Indian music. There was something irresistible about him, as millions of fans (and dozens of lovers) would attest.’
– Oliver Craske
Oliver Craske’s captivating biography Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar is a labour of love. Born out of over 130 new interviews and unparalleled research and access into the legendary musician’s life and works, this is the first biography of Pt. Ravi Shankar. It immortalises an already unforgettable man by transposing his mesmerizing body of work and the rhythms of his life into the written word. Going a step further,Craske has also curated a playlist of Pt. Ravi Shankar’s work, a combination of short and long pieces that enhance our insight into the maestro through the medium of his genius – music. Here areCraske’s notes on some of these tracks, explaining in his own words why he chose these particular pieces:
An Introduction to Indian Music [from Sounds of India (1957)]
‘A short spoken introduction, with demonstrations on sitar, tanpura and tabla. Recorded on Ravi’s first US album. Gives us a sense of how earnestly and engagingly he played the role of pioneer, educating his new audiences but trusting them to listen with open minds. (4:08)’
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Dhun Kafi [from In London (1962)]
‘Kafi is a springtime raga, associated with the Holi festival and the romance between the gods Krishna and Radha, a favourite theme of Ravi’s. Here he plays it in thelight classical thumri style, with tabla accompaniment by Kanai Lal. This recording, one of Ravi’s own favourites, is the likely inspiration for George Harrison’s Beatles song “Love You To” (on Revolver), which was based on the same raga and recorded shortly before the two met in 1966. Both tracks open with an arpeggio on the sitar’s sympathetic strings, and the melodic resemblance is closest between 2:30 and 3:05 here. (12:38)’
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Tabla Dhwani [from Portrait of Genius (1965)]
‘This album Portrait of Genius is a fine example of how Ravi raised the profile of percussionists, previously the poor relations of Indian classical music. Under Ravi’s direction, “Tabla-Dhwani” features three tabla players, the masterful AllaRakha taking the lead and improvising freely, with flute accompaniment by Paul Horn. Absorbing in its deceptive simplicity. (4:53)’
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Raga Kedara[from The Living Room Sessions, Part 1 (2012)]
‘Aged 91, he recorded his last two albums at home, “fooling around” on sitar along with Tanmoy Bose, latterly his regular touring tabla accompanist. The result was an intimate, close-miked snapshot of his late-period inventiveness, the fruits of a lifetime. His fingers may not have moved quite as adroitly as in his heyday, but this playful rendition of Raga Kedara, from the Grammy-winning first volume, shows how fertile his mind was to the last. (4:47)’
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Dhun [from Ravi Shankar at the Monterey International Pop Festival (1967)]
‘Playing Monterey Pop in 1967 marked the arrival of Indian music into the Western mainstream. Ravi’s three-hour set, accompanied on tabla by AllaRakha, closed with this dhunin one of his own ragas, Pancham Se Gara. It has an emotional crescendo and such an ecstatic climax that when D. A. Pennebaker cut his famous documentary of the festival, he realised that the only place to put this sequence was at the end of the film. Nothing could follow it. (19:41)’
Indian Sun || Oliver Craske
What Ravi Shankar has left behind is inimitable and irreplaceable. Through his magnificent literary homage, Oliver Craske ensures that the genius lives on through the pages of history.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is one of the world’s best-known voices for the poor and the downtrodden, and an inspiration for the proponents of justice across the globe. He has contributed almost without peer to the study of economics, philosophy and politics, transforming social choice theory, development economics, ethics, political philosophy and Indian political economy, to list but a few. This book offers a much-needed introduction to Amartya Sen’s extraordinary variety of ideas. Lawrence Hamilton provides an excellent, accessible guide to the full range of sen’s writings, contextualizing his ideas and summarising the associated debates. In elegant prose, Hamilton reconstructs Sen’s critiques of the major philosophies of his time, assesses his now famous concern for capabilities as an alternative for thinking about poverty, inequality, gender discrimination, development, democracy and justice, and unearths some overlooked gems.
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What can we draw from Sen’s ideas as we struggle to deal with the present crisis and try to remake our world following it? In bringing out Sen’s main contributions to economics, politics and philosophy, this book distills his groundbreaking framework for a new form of political economy, the need for which a crisis like Covid-19 brings sharply into focus. This political economy would be based on freedom-enhancing capabilities’ analysis and public action focused on specific injustices within revitalized democracies. Sen’s work, and that of his collaborators, especially Jean Drèze, is thus vital for the future of democracy in India (and elsewhere).
The best way to ‘read’ Amartya Sen, I suggest, is as a series of courageous theoretical and practical innovations regarding how better to solve instances of injustice via the support, revitalization and reform of democracy, especially in India.
India, the largest democracy on the globe and the oldest in the developing world, is rightly proud of its postcolonial achievements in terms of formal democracy. Yet, this record has not translated into substantive democracy, that is, the kind of achievements in quality of life across the board that would empower all of its residents to take advantage of both its growth in GDP terms and the successful maintenance of formal democracy.
How to Read Amartya Sen || Lawrence Hamilton
The Covid-19 situation in India is a powerful illustration of this lack of empowerment. India’s associated abrupt and severe lockdowns have accentuated the inequalities and deprivations of its massive population. Although the highest infection and death rates are still in the wealthier megacities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, the virus is now spreading fast in more rural areas in the east and south of the country. And it is the urban and rural poor who feel the full force of the three-pronged crisis. The abrupt loss of livelihood due to associated job losses is creating a very dangerous mix of viral spread and impoverishment. The poor, migrant workers, for example, who make up a huge proportion of the Indian population and economy, come from historically disadvantaged classes and castes and work very low-paying jobs without legal contracts. They live hand to mouth. The original decision to abruptly lockdown India left them marooned far from home, without shelter, work and sustenance, bar the incomplete coverage provided by the public distribution system (PDS) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Overnight, this generated a mass migrant exodus, which has been compared to the great migration during Partition (Deshingkar 2020). And, as the disease spreads east, for example, it is those who eke out basic subsistence in the poorest states, such as Bihar and Jharkhand, with high population density and much weaker medical infrastructure, who will be under the most severe threat of food insecurity and infection (Drèze 2020).
All told, the poorest, most precarious and least powerful sections of India’s population have been largely abandoned by the Indian state in their time of need. The arrogance and indifference to the plight of these lower caste, uneducated, labouring people brings into sharp relief the extreme inequities Sen has fought for more than half a decade to overcome (Mander 2020).
In the second edition of Drèze and Sen’s magisterial account of the various things that have plagued public policy for development in India, especially in areas such as health, education, social security, environmental protection, economic redistribution and so on, they argue convincingly that these components of development depend on public action. Effective public action is not possible without significant change to how it is thought about and implemented in India. It depends on high standards of governance both in the determination of where and why extreme deprivations exist and how best to keep corruption at bay and accountability to the fore. It is an indictment on successive Indian governments over the last two decades or so that, despite high levels of growth, its latest social indicators are still ‘far from flattering’. China may have been less successful at keeping famines at bay, but in terms of social progress – from ending poverty to the provision of decent education and functional toilets – it has been far more successful than India. Moreover, as regards most relevant social indicators, India is still worse off than many of its much poorer south Asian neighbours, such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. With the sole exception of Pakistan, India has the lowest life expectancy, the highest child mortality rate and the highest fertility rate. In terms of sanitation and child nutrition, India fares worse than all of its neighbouring countries. Its rates of female literacy are amongst the lowest in the region. And, staggeringly, over 40 per cent of India’s children are underweight, compared to 25 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa (Drèze and Sen 2020).
