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Sambhaji
Even as a child, Sambhaji has known he must stand alone. His mother died when he was barely two, and his father was always absent—chasing his own dream of ‘Swaraj’, fighting to keep the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at bay. As the eldest son, Sambhaji is the true heir to Shivaji. He is valorous, wise and has the makings of a capable statesman. But there are dark forces at play in the palace. Shivaji’s other queen, Soyrabai, is scheming to place her son Rajaram on the throne, and she has the support of several ministers whose misdemeanours Sambhaji is determined to expose. On 3 April 1680, Shivaji dies unexpectedly, and it is finally time for Sambhaji to rise to the challenge. He must now fight Aurangzeb, who has spent twenty years trying to smoke out the ‘mountain rat’, and whose presence in the Deccan poses an increasingly grave threat to the Maratha empire. And what could be better than the enemy’s own brother-in-law willing to hand him the rat on a platter. A moving portrait of an often misunderstood braveheart, Vishwas Patil’s Sambhaji is a massive bestseller that has sold over a 100,000 copies in Marathi. Cinematic and ambitious in its scope, this is a keenly researched and splendidly executed period drama about one man’s struggle to preserve his father’s legacy and of the price extracted by the throne and the homeland.
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Mahasagar Manthanachaa (महासागर मंथनाचा)
Sanjeev Sanyal is the principal economic advisor to the Government of India and an internationally acclaimed economist and urban theorist. He writes on a range of topics ranging from economics to history and is the author of the bestselling books 'Land of the Seven Rivers' and 'The Indian Renaissance'. In 2014, he was given the inaugural International Indian Achievers Award for contributions to literature. He has been a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, visiting scholar at Oxford University, adjunct fellow at Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore and a senior fellow of the World Wide Fund for Nature. Sanjeev spent two decades working in international financial markets and was named Young Global Leader 2010 by the World Economic Forum. In 2007, he was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship for his work on urban issues. Sanjeev attended Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi and St. John's College, Oxford, where he was Rhodes Scholar. He lives in Delhi.
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Life over Two Beers and other stories
An entertaining and surprising ride through an India you thought you knew Sanjeev Sanyal, bestselling author of Land of the Seven Rivers, returns to enthral readers with a collection of unusual stories. Written with Sanjeev's trademark flair, the stories crackle with irreverence and wit. In 'The Troll', a presumptuous blogger faces his undoing when he sets out to expose an Internet phenomenon. In the title story, a young man loses his job in the financial crisis and tries to reset his life over two beers. In 'The Intellectuals', a foreign researcher spends some memorable hours with Kolkata's ageing intellectuals. From the vicious politics of a Mumbai housing society to the snobberies of Delhi's cocktail circuit, the stories in Life over Two Beers get under the skin of a rapidly changing India-and leave you chuckling.