Indian Writings

Rabindranath Tagore reinvented the Bengali novel with Farewell Song; blurring the lines between prose and poetry and creating an effervescent blend of romance and satire. Through Amit and Labanya and a brilliantly etched social milieu; the novel addresses contemporary debates about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ writing; the nature of love and conjugality; and the influence of Western culture on Bengali society. Set against the idyllic backdrop of Shillong and the mannered world of elite Calcutta society; this sparkling novel expresses the complex vision and the mastery of style that characterized Tagore’s later works.

A young man from Jalandhar longs to become a writer but fails at every turn. Upendranath Ashk's 1947 novel explores in great detail the trials and tribulations of Chetan. From the back galis of Lahore and Jalandhar to Shimla's Scandal Point, Falling Walls offers a rich and intimate portrait of lower-middle-class life in the 1930s and the hurdles an aspiring writer must overcome to fulfill his ambitions.

His ideas and his contribution to Indian literature were . . . revolutionary’ —The Hindu Divya leads a blissful life within the secure walls of the palace even as the world outside rages with caste politics and religious strife, until one night of pleasure changes her entire world. She gets pregnant only to be spurned by her lover. To preserve her high born family’s name she leaves her sheltered existence and trudges through life on her own, first as a slave and then as a court dancer. Adversity finally opens her eyes to the truth—a woman of a high family is not free. Only a prostitute is free. Divya decides that, by enslaving her body, she will preserve the freedom of her mind. Set in the first century BC against a background of the conflict for supremacy between Hindu and Buddhist ideologies, Divya is a poignant tale that combines vivid imagination with rich historical details. ‘Reminiscent of George Orwell . . . Here too is the biting satire of society as seen through the savage eye of an uncompromising non-conformist’—Dawn

Tagore wrote Shey to satisfy his nine year old granddaughter's demands for stories. Even as Tagre began to create his fantasy, he planned a story that had no end, and to keep the tales spinning he employed the help of 'Shey', a 'man constituted entirely of words' and rather talented at concoting tall tales. So we enter the world of Shey's extraordinary adventures, encountering a bizarre cast of characters, grotesque creatures and caricatures of contemporary figures and events as well as mythological heroes and deities - all brought to life through a sparkling play of words and illustrations in Tagore's unique style.

A restlessness born of guilt and despair leads Ravi to embark on a journey that ends in the remote village of Khasak in the picturesque Palghat countryside in Kerala. A land from the past, potent with dreams and legends, enfolds the traveller in a powerful and unsettling embrace. Ravi is bewitched and entranced as everything around him-the villagers; their children whom he teaches in a makeshift school; the elders who see him as a threat; the toddy-tappers; the shamans-takes on the quality of myth. And then reality, painful and threatening, begins to intrude on the sojourner's resting place and Ravi begins to understand that there is no escape from the relentless dictates of karma... Often poetic and dark, always complex and rich, The Legends of Khasak, O.V. Vijayan's much-acclaimed first novel, translated into English by the author, is an extraordinary achievement.

"Set in the backdrop of the uprising against the
armed forces in Kashmir in the late 1980s, Lost in Terror
is the tale of a young, educated, career-conscious woman
who finds herself sucked into a maelstrom of death and
destruction. She also cherishes the dream of Azadi and plays
strong to face the wrath of the security forces. But when she
uncovers her husband's discreet links with gunmen who have
become obsessed with the dream of Azadi at the expense of
the family's security, she becomes fragile and begins to lose
her hold on her home, her relationships and Azadi itself.

When her dreams for a perfect family and a thriving
career are turned upside down and her life comes to
a standstill, fate offers her a leap of faith-but will she take it?"

"Moti Nandy
Moti Nandy was an eminent Bengali writer and sports journalist. He was born in Kolkata in 1931, and was an alumnus of the University of Kolkata. He worked as a sports editor for Anandabazar Patrika. His first short story was published in Desh magazine in 1957. Moti Nandy was awarded the Ananda Puraskar in 1974, for his contribution to Bengali literature. In 1991, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Sada Kham (The White Envelope). Nandy died in Kolkata in 2010."

One of the best storytellers of contemporary India' "Tribune Momentous things happen elsewhere, in the big cities of Nehru's India. In dull and dusty Pipalnagar, each day is like another, and -there is not exactly despair, but resignation'. Even the dreams here are small: if he ever makes it to Delhi, Deep Chand, the barber, will open a more up-to-date salon where he might, perhaps, give the Prime Minister a haircut; Pitamber will trade his cycle-rickshaw for the less demanding scooter-rickshaw; Aziz will be happy with a junk-shop in Chandni Chowk. None, of course, will make that journey to Delhi. Adrift among them, the narrator, Arun, a struggling writer of detective novels in Urdu, waits for inspiration to write a blockbuster. One day he will pack his meagre belongings and take the express train out of Pipalnagar. Meanwhile, he seeks reassurance in love, and finds it in unusual places: with the young prostitute Kamla, wise beyond her years; and the orphan Suraj, homeless and an epileptic, yet surprisingly optimistic about the future. Few authors write with greater sensitivity and skill about little India than Ruskin Bond. Delhi Is Not Far is a memorable story about small lives, with all the hallmarks of classic Ruskin Bond prose: nostalgia, charm, underplayed humor and quiet wisdom.

H.H. is the spoilt, selfish, beautiful widow of the Maharaja of Mastipur. She lives with her dogs and her caretaker, Hans, in an enormous old house in Mussoorie, taking lovers and discarding them, drinking too much and fending off her reckless sons who are waiting hungrily for their inheritance. The seasons come and go, hotels burn down, cinemas shut shop and people leave the hill station never to return, but H.H. remains constant and indomitable. Observing her antics, often with disapproval, is her old friend Ruskin, who can never quite cut himself off from her. Melancholic, wry and full of charm, Maharani is a delightful novella about love, death and friendship.

The Sensualist is the story of a man enslaved by his libido and spiraling towards self-destruction. Gripping, erotic, even brutal, the book explores the demons that its protagonist must grapple with before he is able to come to terms with himself. In this fascinating account of the pleasures and perils that attend a young man's coming of age, Ruskin Bond displays his felicity in exploring the dark aspects of the human psyche. Bold and powerful, The Sensualist is a compelling read.

Mala’s home in Delhi is empty, save for a lifetime of sketches left behind by her late husband Asad and the memories they conjure. Sifting through them on restless afternoons and sleepless nights, Mala summons ghosts from her childhood, relives the heady days of love and optimism when Asad and she robustly defied social conventions to build a life together —and struggles to understand how events far removed could so easily snatch away the certainties they had always taken for granted. As their story unfolds, others emerge: Of Sara, Mala and Asad’s daughter, who, unable to commit to a cause that will renew her faith in her parents’ ideals and her own, embarks on a search for purpose that brings her from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, the venue of recent carnage. Of Yasmin, whom Sara meets across a lately created ‘border’, a survivor of mayhem secretly dreaming of college and the miraculous return of her missing brother, Akbar, as she navigates menacing by-lanes to reach her school safely every day. Of innumerable other lives trapped in limbo—some caught in a mesh of memory, anguish and hate; others seeking release in private dreams and valiant hopes. Marked by an astonishing clarity of observation and deep compassion, Fugitive Histories exposes the legacy of prejudice that, sometimes insidiously, sometimes perceptibly, continues to affect disparate lives in present-day India. In prose that is at once elegant, playful and startlingly inventive, Githa Hariharan portrays with remarkable precision the web of human connections that binds as much as it divides.

The powerless must have a dream or two, dreams that break walls, dreams that go through walls as if they are powerless.’ A magical tour de force by a writer at the height of her powers, When Dreams Travel weaves round Scheherazade—or Shahrzad of the thousand and one nights—a vibrant, inventive story about that old game that’s never played out: the quest for love and power. The curtain opens on four figures, two men and two women. There is the sultan who wants a virgin every night; there is his brother, who makes an enemy of darkness and tries to banish it; and there are their ambitious brides, the sisters Shahrzad and Dunyazad, aspiring to be heroines—or martyrs. Travelling in and out of these lives to spellbinding effect is a range of stories, dark, poetic and witty by turns, spanning medieval to contemporary times. With its sharp and lively blend of past and present, its skillful reworking of the historical tradition, and its controlled use of evocative language, Githa Hariharan’s multi-voiced narrative assumes the significance of modern myth.

Twenty stories of contemporary Indian life that demonstrate a remarkabel originality The range of Githa Hariharan's writing, executed with a precision of style and magical imagery, is vividly revealed in this striking collection. Sometimes comic (yet tinged with sadness) as in the much-anthologized 'The remains of the Feast' where and old woman near the end of her life suddenly feels the urge to sample all the food she has been forbidden; sometimes with a twist as in 'Gajar Halwa' where Chellamma, a servant girl from the small-town family, finally understands what makes a big city work; sometime moving as in 'The Reprieve', these stories never fail to surprise and delight.

What makes a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother? What makes a good Indian woman? Devi returns to Madras with an American degree, only to be sucked in by the old order of things—a demanding mother’s love, a suitable but hollow marriage, an unsuitable lover who offers a brief escape. But the women of the hoary past come back to claim Devi through myth and story, music and memory. They show her what it is to stay and endure what it is to break free and move on. Sita has been the ideal daughter-in-law, wife and mother. But now that she has arranged a marriage for her daughter she has to come to terms with an old dream of her own. Mayamma knows how to survive as the old family retainer, bending the way the wind blows. But, through Devi, she too can see a different life. 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.

A profound meditation on the human quest for faith and inner peace The early 1960s, also known as the golden age of Indian cinema. Satyan Kumar, reigning screen god, moves from Mumbai to the Madras film industry. There he meets Gopalan, a middling studio writer. An inexplicable connection forms between the two men across the chasms of class and language. But just as an enduring bond springs up, tragedy intervenes. Gopalan’s son mysteriously dies and his wife’s dementia acquires homicidal overtones. Both men flounder as they try to understand their roles in these seemingly random events that radically transform their lives. In spare unburnished prose, Ashokamitran examines the finite human capacity to deal with pain and sorrow and the need for redemption if life is to go on. And in so doing, he etches a fascinating portrait of the times, with a cast of characters that includes, among others, Pandit Nehru and Meher Baba, the silent mystic. Brilliantly translated from the Tamil original by N. Kalyan Raman, Manasarovar establishes Ashokamitran as one of the most outstanding writers of contemporary Tamil literature.

Skims the murky world of dispossessed youth while sporting a spare, swift style’—The Hindu Sathi is a young soda-seller in a run-down cinema hall in a small town. Ill-paid and always weary, he finds relief from everyday tedium in marijuana and his friends—vulnerable, desperate young men who work around the movie hall. An intense and tender friendship with one of the men sustains Sathi, until a train of events casts the meagre certainties of his days and nights into disarray. Slick, visceral and startlingly inventive, Current Show unfolds in a manner that simulates rapid cinematic cuts. Murugan’s keen eye and crackling prose plumb the dark underbelly of small-town life, bringing Sathi’s world and entanglements thrillingly to life.

Nadia and Saeed are two ordinary young people attempting to do an extraordinary thing—to fall in love—in a world turned upside down. Theirs will be a love story but also a story about how we live now and how we might live tomorrow, of a world in crisis and two human beings travelling through it. Civil war has come to the city that Nadia and Saeed call home. Before long they will need to leave their motherland behind—when the streets are no longer useable and the unknown is safer than the known. They will join the great outpouring of people fleeing a collapsing city, hoping against hope, looking for their place in the world

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. They are likely to make one exclaim, ‘This couldn’t have happened!’ even as the narrators swear they are nothing but pure fact. 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.

It was death at first sight . . . Miss Ripley-Bean was sitting on a bench beneath the deodars, having a quiet moment to herself, when suddenly two shadows, larger than life, appeared on the outside wall; they were struggling with each other. Only afterwards, when a dead body was discovered, did Miss Ripley-Bean realize she had witnessed a murder – and that the murderer had seen her . . . In this marvelous collection of brand-new stories set in the Mussoorie of a bygone era, Ruskin Bond recounts the deliciously sinister cases of a murdered priest, an adulterous couple, a man who is born evil, and the body in the box bed; not to forget the strange happenings involving the arsenic in the post, the strychnine in the cognac, a mysterious black dog, and the Daryaganj strangler. As the elderly Miss Ripley-Bean, her Tibetan terrier Fluff, her good friend Mr Lobo, the hotel pianist, and Nandu, the owner of the Royal, mull over the curious murders, the reader will be enthralled and delighted – until the murderer is finally revealed.

Jaya's life comes apart at the seams when her husband is asked to leave his job while allegations of business malpractice against him are investigated. Her familiar existence disrupted, her husband's reputation in question and their future as a family in jeopardy; Jaya, a failed writer, is haunted by memories of the past. 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. In her small suburban Bombay flat, Jaya grapples with these and other truths about herself-among them her failure at writing and her fear of anger. . . 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

The friendship between Renuka, a Bengali poet, and Rachel, an American missionary, lies at the heart of this novel. Two women from entirely different backgrounds, they share a bond that overcomes the barriers of nationality, race and religion. Both are exiled to a hill station, which is populated with provincial and prudish memsahibs, who adjust their recipes to compensate for the altitude and substitute ingredients from home. While Rachel's husband works at a psychiatric hospital in the plains, in Ranchi, she looks after their sons who attend a mission school in the hills. While editing a cookbook, Rachel begins to realize the contradictions within her community. She also discovers the seductive voice of Renuka's poetry ... Renuka, Stephen Alter's fourth novel, builds to a startling climax, while uncovering hidden truths about love, sexuality and passion.

In 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab died and his empire was plunged into chaos. Less than a decade later, weakened by internecine rivalry, Punjab fell into the hands of the British. The ruler who signed away the kingdom and its treasures, including the famed Koh-i-noor diamond, was the eleven-year-old Duleep Singh, the youngest of Ranjit Singh’s acknowledged sons. In this nuanced and poignant novel, tion of his lost legacy turned Duleep into a rebel. He became a Sikh again and sought to return to and lead his people. Navtej Sarna tells the unusual story of the last Maharaja of Punjab. Soon after the British annexed his kingdom, Duleep was separated from his mother and his people, taken under British guardianship and converted to Christianity. At sixteen, he was transported to England to live the life of a country squire—an exile that he had been schooled to seek himself. But disillusionment with the treatment meted out to him and a late realizahe attempt would drag him into the murky politics of nineteenth-century Europe, leaving him depleted and vulnerable to every kind of deceit and ridicule. His end came in a cheap hotel room in Paris, but not before one last act of betrayal and humiliation.

We are not here without a purpose,’ the shaman explained. ‘Our purpose is to fulfil our destiny…All life is light and shadow.’ Like any other place on earth, the territory of the Adis in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh is ‘Pensam’—the ‘in-between’ place. Anything can happen here, and everything can be lived, and ‘the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather’. A mysterious boy who fell from the sky is accepted as a son of the village and grows up to become a respected elder. A young woman wounded in love is healed by a marriage of which she expected little. A mother battles fate and the law for a son she has not seen since she lost him as an infant. A remote hamlet gets a road, but the new world that comes with it threatens upheaval. And as villages become small towns and towns approximate cities, the brave and patient few guard the old ways, negotiating change with memory and remembrance. An intricate web of stories, images and the history of a tribe, The Legends of Pensam is a lyrical and moving tribute to the human spirit. With a poet’s sense for incident and language, Mamang Dai paints a memorable portrait of a land that is at once particular and universal.

Description

"Achieving High Performance seeks to answer a key question: ‘Are leaders getting the same performance out of their “followers” at work as coaches get out of their athletes in sports?’ If not, why? By combining current ideas of leadership in business with relevant elements of modern coaching in sports, the book shows that high performance is not the preserve of the the highly sourced or the elite few. With the help of examples, it describes how this approach can help average people take the leap to high performance.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Murray Eldridge is a businessman with forty years of experience in a variety of sectors like shipping, oil & gas, water and telecom industries. He is a qualified, practicing rowing coach and a keen sailor."

Specification

• Product Code : BK8665
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
• Edition : February 28, 2018
• Pages : 270
• Weight : 290 gm.
• Size : 5.1 x 0.5 x 7.8 inches
• Binding : Paperback
• Author : Murray Eldridge
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129150859
  ISBN-13: 978-8129150851