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Indira - India's Most Powerful Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi is fondly remembered as the Durga who won India its first decisive military victory in centuries and the strong stateswoman who courageously took on American bullying. Equally, she is remembered as the dictator who imposed the Emergency and tried to destroy institutions including her own party and the judiciary. Even so, for politicians Indira is the very definition of strong leader, and a role model on both sides of the aisle. In this spellbinding story of her life, journalist Sagarika Ghose has excavated not just Indira the iron lady and politician but also the flesh-and-blood woman. Growing up in a family home that was a hub of the national movement, Indira marinated in a political environment from an early age. But she also saw politics of another kind. Her sickly mother and she were the targets of her aunts unkind attacks. And she simply couldn't keep up with her celebrated father's expectations. Despite Nehru's dismissiveness, Indira rose to become the unquestioned high command of the Congress and, indeed, the most powerful prime minister India has ever had. This no-holds-barred biographical portrait of Indira looks for answers to lingering issues: from why Indira revoked the Emergency to her son Sanjay's curious grip over her; and from her bad marriage and love affairs to her dangerous religious politics. This is the only book you need to read about Indira Gandhi.
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The Gin Drinkers
New Delhi's liquid colonialism is on its way out. The old social order is crumbling. Those born into English-speaking privilege - Uma, the England-returned graduate; Madhavi, the academic, and journalist Dhruv; Shantanu, the civil servant, and his wife Anasuya; Deekay, the middle-class revolutionary; Pamela Sen, the dedicated teacher; Ikram Gilchrist, the famous author - are slowly but surely yielding ground to the subaltern. In the roil and rustle of this change, a mysterious gang of thieves is stealing old and rare books from the houses of the well-heeled. Who are these people? Where are they taking these books? And who is the mysterious Jai Prakash? What is his secret? The Gin Drinkers is a tragicomedy of manners and a true mirror to the class and caste conflicts that define modern India.
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Blind Faith..
When Mia, acutely depressed by the suicide of her father, meets Karna, a young Indian guru who seems to have walked straight out of her father’s painting of the Kumbh Mela, she feels compelled to follow him all the way from London to India. And if marrying Vik, the suave corporate, will help her reach him, then so be it ... In India, Mia hears of Indi, Vik’s accomplished, inordinately attractive mother who cannot cease raging against the limits imposed on her, by her blindness, her beauty, and her clinging son. To make sense of Indi’s anguished attempts to break free, and her own journey chasing a duplicitous love, Mia must travel to the Kumbha, to the heart of her father’s painting, where life, she learns, allows another perspective…