-
India in Love : Marriage and Sexuality in the 21st
India in Love: Marriage and Sexuality in the 21st Centuryis a ground-breaking look at the sexual revolution that is beginning to sweep through urban India. Bestselling author Ira Trivedi travelled from Shillong in the northeast to Chennai in the south, Konark in the east to Mumbai in the west, and over a dozen other cities and towns, in order to gain unprecedented insights into changing sexual mores, marriage and love in the 21st century. The book explores the mating habits of young Indians on college campuses and in offices; examines the changing face of Indian pornography and prostitution, probes Indias gay revolution; and delves into history, economics and sociology to try and understand how the nation that gave the world the Kamasutra could have become a closed, repressed society with a shockingly high incidence of rape and violence against womenthe dark underside to the greater sexual freedom that men and women in our cities have begun to enjoy today. Trivedi goes deep into one of the most enduring institutions of Indian society-marriage and investigates how it is faring in modern times. She interviews marriage brokers, astrologers, lawyers, relationship counsellors, love commandos, parents and nervous young brides and grooms, amongst others, to present a nuanced picture of the state of marriage in the country. She discovers that love marriages are skyrocketing and even the age-old arranged marriage is undergoing a transformation. Also on the rise are divorces, extra-marital affairs, open marriages, live-in relationships and the like. Supporting her eye-opening reportage with hundreds of interviews, detailed research, authoritative published surveys and discussions with experts on various aspects of sexuality and marriage, Trivedi has written a book that is often startling, sometimes controversial, but is always entertaining and original. India in Lovewill change the way urban Indians view themselves and one another.
-
The King's Harvest
Just before midnight on New Years Eve, in a village above the Rangeet river in Sikkim, a woman called Kamala hacks her husband, Police Constable Puran, into forty-seven pieces, then walks to the nearby police station and turns herself in. At first, the murder seems an open-and-shut case to Dechen, the tough, foul- mouthed, prickly lady cop in charge of the investigation. But as she begins to delve into the lives of Kamala and Puran, she discovers a world of lies, deceit and love gone wrong, where nothing is as it seems, and the guilt of murderers is difficult to establish. On a day of endless rain, a man emerges from thirty-two years of isolation to meet his king, whom he owes a share of the harvest from his fields. Journeying across leech-infested forests and forbidding valleys, he tells his children the story of his life one that has been full of drama and magic. But the biggest miracle of all awaits him in Gangtok... These two novellas, united by their strong sense of place, showcase Chetan Raj Shresthas enormous gifts as a storyteller. Magical, gritty, nerve-wracking and stylish in equal measure, this is an exceptional debut.
-
The Solitude of Emperors
Unflinching. Unsentimental. Deeply moving. I loved it - Kiran Desa. We do not know what to do with one of our most precious resources, solitude, and so we fill it up with noise and clutter, Suffocating in the small-town world of his parents, Vijay is desperate to escape to the raw energy of Bombay in the early 1990s. His big chance arrives unexpectedly when the family servant, Raju, is recruited by a right-wing organization. As a result of an article he writes about the increasing power of sectarian politicians, Vijay gets a job in a small Bombay publication, The Indian Secularist. There he meets Rustom Sorabjeethe inspirational founder of the magazine who opens Vijays eyes to the damage caused to the nation by the mixing of religion and politics. A year after his arrival in Bombay, Vijay is caught up in violent riots that rip through the city, a reflection of the upsurge of fundamentalism everywhere in the country. He is sent to a small tea town in the Nilgiri mountains to recover, but finds that the unrest in the rest of India has touched this peaceful spot as well, specifically a spectacular shrine called The Tower of God, which is the object of political wrangling. He is befriended by Noah, an enigmatic and colourful character who lives in the local cemetery and quotes Pessoa, Cavafy and Rimbaud but is ostracized by a local elite obsessed with little more than growing their prized fuchsias. As the discord surrounding the local shrine comes to a head, Vijay tries to alert them to the dangers, but his intervention will have consequences which he could never have foreseen. The Solitude of Emperors is a stunningly perceptive novel about modern India, about what motivates fundamentalist beliefs, and what makes someone driven, bold or mad enough to make a stand. A master storyteller - Time. Brings the art of grand narrative back to the Indian novel India Today. David Davidar is one of the most remarkable people in publishing - Scotland on Sunday. In the best sense, he knows how to tell a good story Independent on Sunday. Davidars writing is a joy - Glamour
-
Rabindranath Tagore for the 21st Century Reader
Rabindranath Tagore is the second most popular literature laureate of all time (after John Steinbeck) according to the official website of the Nobel Prize. Writers ranked below him on the popularity chart include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda and Ernest Hemingway. Tagore won the prize in 1913, but a hundred years later readers continue to flock to his work because it possesses all the qualities essential to keep it fresh and relevant despite the passage of time big ideas, complex themes, stylistic brilliance, a deep engagement with nature, beauty, family, love, passion and above all, a profound timelessness. Keeping the 21st century reader firmly in mind, this volume brings together some of Tagores most celebrated works. In The Home and the World, perhaps his most popular novel, intricate issues of devotion to the motherland and to the family are explored through a story of two friends and a woman coming into her own. The Monk-king, with its devious priest and marauding armies, is also about the power of sacrifice and loyalty. In The Laboratory, Tagores last short story, he creates a world that is materialistic and amoral with a light yet ruthless touch. In poems like Camilla and An Ordinary Girl he describes the sadness of unrequited love, his drama. Chandalika, is about the angst and helplessness of being in love with an unattainable ideal. Brilliantly translated by Arunava Sinha, this selection of Rabindranath Tagores fiction, poetry, lyrics and drama is evidence of his position as one of the worlds greatest writers and reinforces the enduring nature of his words, emotions and beliefs.
-
Accidental India: A History of the Nation's Passag
Accidental India: A History Of The Nation’s Passage Through Crisis And Change, published in 2012, takes an in-depth look into the major changes in India post-independence. The author has shortlisted seven game changers, and he deconstructs each one of them to explain to readers that India has missed many opportunities in every decade. Furthermore, he says that the most important decisions ever taken in the last sixty years have always been in the wake of a crisis. Each chapter of Accidental India: A History Of The Nation’s Passage Through Crisis And Change begins with a date. In The Bonfire Of The Vanities, Aiyar points out that despite popular belief, Dr. Manmohan Singh was in fact not the sole architect of the liberalization in the 90s. The book also covers a very interesting story about the Green Revolution that took place in the 1960s. Titled Hunger Games, this chapter describes how Dr. G. V. Chalam, along with the help of IAS officer secretary S. Venkitaramanan, managed to transport a kilogram of paddy seeds in spite of being stopped at the Palam Airport. These smuggled grains became the seeds of a revolution. Readers will also learn about the political drama enacted by PM Indira Gandhi in order to nationalize banks in 1969. Accidental India: A History Of The Nation’s Passage Through Crisis And Change also covers Operation Flood, the Mid-day Meal scheme, software revolution in the 1990s, and the Right to Information Act. This book has been written after intensive research. The author met leading personalities of the past and the present, collected facts and figures, and looked into India’s controversies. He has also incorporated many stories about how individuals have successfully transformed India while fighting against all odds. This book is for anyone who thinks that India deserves much better than just waiting for a crisis to solve a problem.