Showing Books By Publisher : Aleph Book Company

A Country Called Childhood

A Country Called Childhood is a beautifully told memoir of growing up in Amritsar in the tumultuous 1950s and 60s by award-winning actress Deepti Naval. In extremely visual and evocative prose, Naval describes an unforgettable childhood filled with love, adventure, mystery, tragedy, and joy. She uncovers, in great detail, life in an unconventional Punjabi family while plunging the reader into the distinctive sights, smells, and sounds of a fast-vanishing India. Starting at the moment of her birth on a rainy night, she tracks her journey to adulthood, a path punctuated by many personal turning points as also momentous events of national importance, such as the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Indo-Pak War of 1965. Moving and illuminating, A Country Called Childhood shows how Naval’s early love affair with cinema and the experiences of her childhood shaped her career as one of the country’s most admired actors.

Birdwatching

When American ornithologist Guy Fletcher stumbles upon a dead body near Chanakyapuri, New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave, he does not realize that his life is about to change drastically. Soon, he is recruited into the CIA and sent straight into the heart of a secret war raging in the Himalaya. Alongside him are his two unlikely partners—the enigmatic Captain Imtiaz Afridi of the Indian Military Intelligence, whom he meets on a hunting trip in Kashmir, and the mysterious but alluring Kesang Sherpa, who saunters into his world in Kalimpong. Their missions and emotions inextricably entwined, the three must learn to trust their own instincts, and one another, to uncover what lies beneath the dazzling Himalayan snow. Set against the backdrop of the Sino–Indian war of 1962, Birdwatching is a gripping tale of high intrigue and mystery.

The Greatest Kashmiri Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Kashmiri Stories Ever Told spans almost a century of work by some of the finest writers of short fiction in the language. The storytellers included here range from the earliest practitioners of the craft of short story writing—Dinanath Nadim, Somnath Zutshi, Ali Mohammad Lone—to more contemporary writers like Dheeba Nazir. Some stories in this collection are realistic dramas that hold up a startlingly clear mirror to society, such as Sofi Ghulam Mohammad’s ‘Paper Tigers’, or lay bare the pain of losing one’s homeland, as Rattan Lal Shant does in ‘Moss Floating on Water’. Then there are others like Ghulam Nabi Shakir’s ‘Unquenched Thirst’ and Umesh Kaul’s ‘The Heart’s Bondage’, that look beyond the exterior and focus on the complex inner lives of the women of Kashmir. Selected and translated by Neerja Mattoo, the twenty-five stories in this volume, all born out of the Kashmiri experience, will resonate with readers everywhere.

The Shotgun Wedding

When Dita Roy is appointed as an English lecturer in a college in the sleepy little village of Phulpukur, she puts aside all her doubts about the institution’s dubious credentials and accepts the position. In Phulpukur College, she meets the mysterious Raja, a tall, handsome man with startling grey eyes, who serves her tea on her first day on the job. For Raja, Dita is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise claustrophobic environment. What the two do not know is that their chance encounter will soon gain them, and Phulpukur College, lifelong notoriety A comic, hilarious tale about romance tangled up in the complex politics of rural Bengal, The Shotgun Wedding is a sparkling debut showing us, once again, the power of love.

Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Manageme

Business Sutra: A very Indian Approach to Management is a radical, nuanced approach to management, business and leadership in a progressively polarized world. In this landmark book, bestselling author, leadership coach and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik shows how, despite its veneer of objectivity, modern management is rooted in Western beliefs and obsessed with accomplishing rigid objectives and increasing shareholder value. By contrast, the Indian way of doing business, as apparent in Indian mythology but no longer seen in practice accommodates subjectivity and diversity and offers an inclusive, more empathetic way of achieving success. Great value is placed on darshan, that is, on how we see the world and our relationship with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Business Sutra uses stories, symbols and rituals drawn from Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology to understand a wide variety of business situations that range from running a successful tea stall to nurturing talent in a large multinational corporation. At the heart of the book is a compelling premise: if we believe that wealth needs to be chased, the workplace becomes a rana-bhoomi - a battleground of investors, regulators, employers, employees, vendors, competitors and customers, if we believe that wealth needs to be attracted, the workplace becomes a ranga-bhoomi - a playground where everyone is happy.

Become Your Best Self Right Now:Life Lessons From

The men and women whose life lessons feature in this volume are among the modern world’s greatest supergurus. Their books have collectively sold over a hundred million copies. They have changed the lives of their readers and followers in every corner of the globe. Some of their finest insights are to be found in Become Your Best Self Right Now. Read the book and transform your life!

Song Of Draupadi

The Mahabharat is renowned for its great battles, heroic men, and gods walking the pathways of mortals. However, the beating heart of the epic is often forgotten—the stories of its women. Many of these exceptional women appear in Song of Draupadi—the indomitable Satyavati, the otherworldly Ganga, the indestructible Kunti, and the tenacious Gandhari—but the passionate and fiery Draupadi rises above them all to grip the imagination of the reader. Born of a dangerous sacrifice, Draupadi and her brother Drishtadumna are called forth to avenge Drona’s insult to their father. While Drishtadumna is expected to kill Drona on the battlefield, Draupadi’s role is not set out, but she dreams of fire and blood. From beloved daughter and princess of Panchala to wife of the brave Pandavas and queen of Indraprastha, Draupadi finds herself exiled to the forest, humiliated and determined on vengeance. The novel is a symphony, in several keys, of her voice and those of the other women around her—arguing, pleading, reasoning, and often raised in righteous anger.

A Shadow Of The Past

Over the centuries, Indo-Islamic and European ideas merged with Hindu traditions to make Lucknow a powerhouse of creativity and the centre of what was known as Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, the evocative Awadhi phrase for Hindu–Muslim syncretism. A city known for its art and artisans, the courts of the nineteenth–century rulers of Lucknow swarmed with people from all over the subcontinent as well as European painters and photographers. In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, poets from Delhi’s Mughal court migrated to Lucknow in the hope of better emoluments. Lucknow’s legendary status as a city of culture waxed with every new influx of creative geniuses. A Shadow of the Past celebrates the people responsible for the city’s fame—its nawabs, painters, writers, revolutionaries, and freedom fighters. At a time when Uttar Pradesh has been reduced to one of the most backward states of the country, Mehru Jaffer shows us how Lucknow’s glorious cultural heritage ensures that it remains a city of substance.

It's A Wonderful Life

The Book Of Indian Ghosts

The Oracle of Karuthupuzha

With two cows and four mouths to feed, Nareshan can barely make ends meet selling milk to the inhabitants of Karuthupuzha. That is, until his daughter, Sarasu, is possessed by the demon-god, Chaathan. Now, the faithful from all over Karuthupuzha and beyond visit Nareshan with money and gifts to receive Chaathan’s blessings. The sceptics of the town, meanwhile, believe that Nareshan is fooling everyone to make money. However, when one of the leading sceptics in town, Dasappan, member of the Communist Party, rationalist and atheist, loses his mind after loudly proclaiming that Chaathan is a farce, the people’s belief in a divine power residing in Sarasu is reinforced.With the number of faithful only growing as each day passes, Nareshan realizes that his daughter’s possession might be the best thing to have happened to him. When the rich widow Ponnamma comes to his house to seek help from Chaathan for her son, Nanu, the fate of Nareshan and his family is set to change forever. In The Oracle of Karuthupuzha, Manu Bhattathiri revisits the town of Karuthupuzha that was immortalized in The Town That Laughed and Savithri’s Special Room and Other Stories.

RAJINIKANTH

Superstar Rajinikanth defies all conventional analyses—no one has reigned Supreme for as long as he has in the world of Indian cinema. With over 150 films under his belt, many of them blockbusters, he still plays the hero at seventy, and the devotion of his legions of fans has not waned during the forty-odd years of his stardom. In a state that saw the Dravidian self-respect movement propagate atheism, fans worship his cut-outs and bathe them with milk and beer, as if he were their God. In a society famous for its pride in its language, It is curious that a Kannadiga whose family hails from Maharashtra, an outsider, should emerge as a ‘thalaivar’, or leader. With the death of the charismatic J. Jayalalithaa, a former actor, and M. Karunanidhi, who was a scriptwriter for films—leaders of the AIADMK and DMK respectively (The two main Dravidian political parties that have been ruling Tamil Nadu for more than sixty years)—rajinikanth’s fans believed there was a political vacuum that only he could fill. While the actor has been dabbling in politics, by making pronouncements on certain issues, including jayalalithaa’s policies, the Cauvery water sharing problem between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, bomb attacks in the state and so on, it was only in 2017 that he promised to form his own party and contest all 234 seats in the 2021 assembly elections. For decades, his fans had been awaiting this moment, believing that he could solve all their problems and give them a life free from strife and governance free of corruption. His fan clubs went into high gear to turn themselves into the foundation of their thalaivar’s political party, attracting more members and working on the ground all over the state. For three years, every utterance of rajinikanth’s was analysed and debated even more vociferously than anything he has said in the past. Political opponents questioned his experience and pointed out that (even after forty years) he was an outsider who did not understand the undercurrents of Tamil Nadu politics; his detractors criticized the lack of a clear ideology behind his promise of ‘spiritual politics’; political analysts who saw that rajini was close to the BJP anticipated that he might enter into an alliance with them, allowing the right-wing party a foothold in the state. Ultimately, however, the seventy-year-old superstar withdrew from the political arena citing health concerns. The fans were hugely disappointed but understanding. With their continuing support and excitement for the next rajini-starrer, he remains a giant in the field of entertainment. Rajinikanth: a life is the best account yet of the man who was born Shivaji Rao gaekwad—once a Coolie and a bus conductor in Bangalore and now virtually a God in Tamil Nadu.

The Fourth Lion

Teaching A Horse To Sing

India The Last Super Power

The Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told

Finding Meaning In Life With The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita, also known as the Gita, is one of the world’s oldest and most influential spiritual texts. Part of the Mahabharata, composed by Ved Vyasa anywhere between the fifth and second centuries BCE, the 700 verses of the Gita are set in the form of a dialogue between Arjuna, one of the five Pandavas, and Lord Krishna, his charioteer, on the great battlefield of Kurukshetra. Arjuna is filled with despair about the violence and death the imminent war between the Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas, will cause, and is also grappling with other moral dilemmas. The Krishna–Arjuna dialogues cover a broad range of topics, touching upon ethical concerns and philosophical issues that go far beyond the eighteen-day war that is about to take place. In this beautifully illustrated book, Neema Majmudar, Nandini Mirani, and Saloni Jhaveri give us profound insights into the teachings of Lord Krishna by translating, analysing, and explaining forty-five key verses of the Gita especially chosen for their logic, wisdom, and practicality. Finding Meaning in Life with the Bhagavad Gita will enable us to address the larger challenges of life that we have little control over, such as pandemics, wars, and economic crises, as well as concerns that are unique to each one of us—the search for meaning in our daily existence, success in our careers, happiness in our personal lives, as well as our longing for personal fulfilment.

Padmavati The Harlot And Other Stories

One of the pioneers of feminist writing in India, Kamala Das is known for her provocative writing on female sexuality and desire. Padmavati the harlot and other Stories includes some of her very best fiction. In ‘a little kitten’, a newly married woman finds her life turning dull and insipid as the tedium of marriage begins to settle in. An old woman believes she is a princess and is delighted to be courted by three suitors in ‘the princess of avanti’. a man realizes, too late, that he is in love with the woman he is breaking up with in ‘the sea lounge’. in these and other Stories, Kamala Das is bold and unflinching in her exploration of themes such as violence, desire, sex, marriage, family, communalism, and death. Foreword by jaisurya Das.

Ways Of Dying Stories And Essays

One of the meanings of the word ‘olio’ is ‘a miscellany’. The books in the Aleph Olio series contain a mélange of the best writing to be had on a variety of themes, and present aspects of India and Indian life in ways that have seldom been seen before. Ways of Dying comprises stories and essays of deep insight into an inevitable part of life—death. The pieces in the book include Amitav Ghosh on the assassination of Indira Gandhi and its aftermath, Ruskin Bond on memories of his father’s funeral, Amitava Kumar on how it is necessary to find comfort and solace in the midst of profound grief, Mahasweta Devi on murder and revenge in rural India, and Atul Gawande on assisted suicide and what doctors fear the most when faced with the mortality of their patients. Elsewhere in the anthology, the reader will find one of Munshi Premchand’s greatest stories, ‘The Shroud’, a peerless meditation on the hypocrisies and feigned grief of dysfunctional families on the death of a family member, balanced by Khushwant Singh’s poignant essay on the death of his beloved grandmother. Rounding out the selection are George Orwell on the complex reasons that often lead to innocent blood being shed, David Davidar on the sadness and turmoil that whirls through a family upon the death of a patriarch, and Kolakaluri Enoch on the tragic death of a young girl.

My Son's Inheritence A Secret History Of Lynching

My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Lynching and Blood Justice in India is a provocative and disturbing examination of the history of lynching in the country. Aparna Vaidik’s investigation traverses several centuries and offers powerful insights into the phenomenon. She demonstrates how violence is secretly embedded in our myths, folklore, poetry, literature, and language, and is therefore invisible. She delves deep into family history to further illuminate how widespread violence is in Indian society. Framing her narrative as a message to her son, she acquaints him with his ancestors—those who abet and carry out lynching as well as those who are lynched. In this way, her son embodies both the violator and the violated, much like the country in which he will come of age. She lays bare the heritage of violence bequeathed from generation to generation and disabuses us of the myth that non-violence and tolerance are the essence of Indian culture. She argues that the perpetrators of violence are not just the state, the rulers, the police or the army but all of us who, through our silence and indifference, foster and perpetuate violence in India. My Son’s Inheritance is a groundbreaking exploration of the phenomenon of lynching and the larger culture of violence that invests the social and political fabric of the country.

The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told

The greatest Odia stories ever told showcases odia’s greatest storytellers ranging from literary masters such as fakir Mohan Senapati, Gopinath Mohanty, Reba Ray and man's Das to contemporary stalwarts like Pratibha Ray and nrusingha Tripathi, among others. A young woman who was dragged away by a crocodile mysteriously resurfaces after a decade in Manoj das’s ‘Mrs crocodile’; a pet goat let loose in a government Office causes amusement and chaos in Gopinath Mohanty’s ‘the solution’; Godavari's mahapatra’s ‘maguni’s bullock cart’ deals with the anxieties of a bullock cart driver stuck between the trappings of traditions and modernity stories in this anthology traverse an exciting range of themes from fantasy to reality and bone-chilling horror to rib-tickling humour. Timeless, evocative and striking, the greatest Odia stories ever told offers a rich selection of stories that are unrivalled in their range, style and complexity. Selected and translated by leelawati Mohapatra, Paul st-pierre and K. K. Mohapatra, the twenty-four stories in this volume showcase the finest short fiction in Odia literature.

The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told

The twenty-five stories in The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told represent the finest short fiction in Hindi literature. Selected and translated by editor, writer, and translator Poonam Saxena, and ranging from early literary masters of the form such as Premchand, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, BhishamSahni, HarishankarParsai, Mannu Bhandari, and Shivani to contemporary greats such as AsgharWajahat, Uday Prakash, Sara Rai, and others, the collection has stories of darkness, hope, triumph, anger, and irony. In Premchand’s ‘The Thakur’s Well’, ‘low-caste’ Gangi struggles to find drinking water for her ill husband; in ‘The Times Have Changed’ by Krishna Sobti, the matriarch Shahni bids a heart-breaking farewell to her village during Partition; Krishna BaldevVaid’s ‘Escape’ is a telling story about women’s yearning for freedom; Yashpal’s ‘Phoolo’s Kurta’ is a sharp commentary on child marriage and notions of female modesty; in BhishamSahni’s ‘A Feast for the Boss’ and Usha Priyamvada’s ‘The Homecoming’, ageing parents find themselves tragically out of sync with their family; Amarkant’s ‘City of Death’ looks at the fragile thread that holds together communal peace; PhanishwarnathRenu’s ‘The Third Vow’ features the lovable bullock-cart driver Hiraman; Bhagwaticharan Varma’s ‘Atonement’ and HarishankarParsai’s ‘The Soul of Bholaram’ are scathing satires; and ‘Tirich’ by contemporary writer Uday Prakash is a surreal tale—these and other stories in the collection are compelling, evocative, and showcase an unforgettable range of brilliant styles, forms, and themes.

Plassey The Battle that Changed the Course Of Indi

The Battle of Plassey, fought on 23 June 1757, changed the course of Indian history forever. When the short, sharp hostilities between the forces of the nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah, and East India Company troops led by Robert Clive, an ambitious soldier of fortune, ended, Britain was on its way to becoming the dominant force in the region. The eighteenth century was a time of great political churn in the subcontinent. After the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughal empire began to slowly fracture. In the east, the nawabs of Bengal, who ruled in the name of the Mughals, took the opportunity to break free. By the middle of the century, Siraj-ud-daulah succeeded his grandfather, Alivardi Khan, to the throne of Bengal. The young nawab clashed frequently with the Company as it looked to aggressively expand and safeguard its interests. Their skirmishes led inexorably to Plassey, a decisive battle in a mango orchard by the banks of the Bhagirathi-Hugli. But what was Plassey all about, besides a young nawab who stood in the way of a company’s business plans and a country’s dreams of conquest? Was it really a battle or was it won before it began? What were the politics of the time that permitted Plassey? Why did the British so desperately want Bengal? Who were the faces beyond a callow Siraj and a crafty Clive, the two main combatants? What are the stories behind the spurned general, the ambitious and hateful aunt, the rude and covetous cousin, the insulted banker, the grasping merchant? And how was—is—Plassey seen? By the victors and the vanquished? The colonizer and the colonized? Why does Plassey remain such a fascinating story even today? Using multilingual sources and a multidisciplinary approach, Sudeep Chakravarti answers all these questions and a myriad others with great insight and nuance. Impeccably researched and brilliantly told, Plassey is the best account yet of one of the turning points in Indian history.

Akbar The Great Mughal

Abu’l Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, is widely regarded as one of the greatest rulers in India’s history. During his reign, the Mughal Empire was one of the wealthiest in the world, and covered much of the Indian subcontinent. Although there are dozens of books on the empire, there are surprisingly few full-length accounts of its most remarkable emperor, with the last major study having been published over two decades ago. In Akbar: The Great Mughal, this outstanding sovereign finally gets his due, and the reader gets the full measure of his extraordinary life. Akbar was born on 15 October 1542 and after a harrowing childhood and a tumultuous struggle for succession following the death of his father, Humayun, became emperor at the age of thirteen. He then ruled for nearly fifty years, and over the course of his reign established an empire that would be hailed as singular, both in its own time and for posterity. In this book, acclaimed writer Ira Mukhoty covers Akbar’s life and times in lavish, illuminating detail. The product of years of reading, research, and study, the biography looks in great detail at every aspect of this exceptional ruler—his ambitions, mistakes, bravery, military genius, empathy for his subjects, and path-breaking efforts to reform the governance of his empire. It delves deep into his open-mindedness, his reverence towards all religions, his efforts towards the emancipation of women, his abolishing of slavery and the religious tax—jiziya—and other acts that showed his statesmanship and humanity. The biography uses recent ground-breaking work by art historians to examine Akbar’s unending curiosity about the world around him, and the role the ateliers played in the succession struggle between him and his heir, Prince Salim (who became Emperor Jahangir). Beautifully written, hugely well-informed, and thoroughly grounded in scholarship, this monumental biography captures the grandeur, vitality, and genius of the Great Mughal.