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A House for Mr. Misra
‘Whatever came over me? Agreeing to move to the other side of the world was mad enough but to build a house slap bang against one of the widest, wildest oceans in the world?’ And so begins a journey of hope and anxiety as the author and her husband, the phlegmatic Mr M, set off to build their beachside home in Kerala. The obstacles are many and mostly unexpected, like neighbours waving cutlasses over the wall, venomous snakes and mercenary union men at the gate, not to mention a large and complicated piece of legislation called the Coastal Regulation Zone. Obstacles, however, are meant to be overcome and so they are, with some quick thinking and a few helpful friends, an honest cop and an equally straight-talking scientist, and Excel sheets pulled up on demand to outwit corrupt builders. All of which make for a great story, filled with laughter and despair, and sharp yet good-humoured insights into the Malayali way of life.
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You are the Best Friend
Ajay has lost his wife and is deep in depression. No amount of medication or therapy seems to help him as he struggles with his grief. He has only one wish—he wants to immortalize his wife. Then, he meets Anisha, who is shocked at Ajay’s hatred towards God. How can a person hate God? Where would that hatred lead him? Anisha is ready to judge Ajay harshly, when a simple, caring and guileless gesture changes her perception of him. So begins the journey of two people who are poles apart. A journey which will change their outlook towards life. A bittersweet tale, told very simply, by a man who lost everything, except his ability to find humour in the world. This is the story of Ajay who finds a second lease of life. What helps him? A friend? Or the love that he finds again?
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The Indigo Sun
Home—neither a place you live in, nor a place you arrive at. It’s where you belong, and ultimately return—a return to the beginning, a return within. The Indigo Sun is an enchanting tale set amidst the deserts of Rajasthan where Maya, a young NRI woman is led on a transformative journey by a young boy Ananda; a mystic gypsy woman named Leela; and Veer, a well-respected, socially driven entrepreneur from London. Together, they embark on a colourful odyssey encompassing culture, heritage, simplicity and celebration of life. In this unknown and distant land surrounded by strangers, Maya’s past, present, and future come together as do her body, mind and soul. She discovers another meaning of life, forms incredible bonds, meets the man of her dreams, and finally comes face-to-face with her truth—the indigo sun, a treasure that lay buried in her heart all along. She is finally home.
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Hit for a Six
Thirteen-year-old Laila is mad about cricket, but ever since her favourite player admitted to match-fixing, she wonders if she could love the game again. All this is complicated further when she discovers that her school is going to be home to the town’s first ever girls’ cricket club. Can her hero’s betrayal and her love for the game coexist? Meanwhile, working on a school project about their town’s historical spots, Laila and her friends stumble upon a series of apparently unrelated questions that point to a mystery just begging to be solved. What is the secret behind the new owners of Laila's erstwhile secret hideout, old mister Marshall's house? Who are the anonymous benefactors who have sponsored the renovation of Laila's school? What is the secret behind the new girl jasmine’s grumpiness and why is she so good at cricket? Laced with a niggling mystery, some nail-biting cricket and a few precarious friendships, this book is sure to leave you asking for more.
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The Midnight Bell
In Ulster, Northern Ireland, a petty criminal kills a woman in a drunken car crash. Her sons swear revenge. In London, Sean Dillon and his colleagues in the ‘Prime Minister’s private army’, fresh from defeating a deadly al-Qaeda operation, receive a warning: ‘You may think you have weakened us, but you have only made us stronger.’ In Washington, D.C., a special projects director with the CIA, frustrated at not getting permission from the President for his daring anti-terrorism plan, decides to put it in motion anyway. Soon, the ripples from these events will meet and overlap, creating havoc in their wake. Desperate men will act, secrets will be revealed – and the midnight bell will toll.
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A House For Happy Mothers
Priya Rao left India when she was twenty to study in the U.S., and now seven years later she has to return to give her family the news: She’s engaged to Nick Collins, an American man. It’s going to break their hearts. Returning to India is an overwhelming experience for Priya. Her mother and father, her grandfather and grandmother, her aunts and uncles, they all insist that it’s time they arranged her marriage to a “nice Indian boy.” As Priya’s extended family gets together to make mango pickle, she knows this is her chance to tell them the truth. Will she have to choose between the love of her family and Nick, the love of her life? As sharp and intoxicating as fresh sugarcane juice, The Mango Season is a delightful trip into the heart and soul of both contemporary India and a woman on the edge of a profound life change.
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Odyssey Of Courage
`Do not be afraid of making mistakes, but never repeat them.' With these words of paternal advice, Habil Khorakiwala set forth to create one of India’s most respected, research-based pharmaceutical companies—Wockhardt Limited. In Odyssey of Courage, Khorakiwala narrates a saga of Indian enterprise, talent and creativity. Hailing from Palanpur, Gujarat, the Khorakiwalas arrived in Bombay in 1896 to build one of the city’s iconic retail chain stores—Akbarallys. Opting to strike out on his own, Khorakiwala entered the pharmaceutical business in 1967. Despite fierce competition at home and abroad, Wockhardt has emerged as a global firm with subsidiaries in the US and Europe. The pharma giant is now ready to launch an antibiotics ‘super drug’ that will mark a new stage in the evolution of the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Odyssey of Courage is more than just the story of Wockhardt. It offers invaluable insights into the making of a knowledge-based Indian multinational. Policymakers, business executives, students of management and public policy will relate to Khorakiwala’s experiences in ‘learning by doing’, taking risks and handling crises and in managing change—within the industry, within India’s policy environment and within the world of global pharma.
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The Evolution of Ghalib
One of the most oft-quoted poets of the nineteenth century, Ghalib was an intellectual colossus, whose poetry is imbued with timelessness and universality. Born and brought up in North India, he wrote both in his mother tongue, Urdu and in Persian, the established and privileged language of literature and officialdom. He wrote exquisite prose, but is better known for his poetry, particularly his Urdu ghazals. In The Evolution of Ghalib, the author, Hasan Abdullah, provides a detailed introduction that describes Ghalib’s life history and brings out his persona and situates his work in time and space. He briefly discusses the Urdu language and ghazal as a literary form and familiarizes the reader with the words, symbols and concepts crucial for understanding Ghalib’s poetry. Based on a chronological reading of Ghalib’s Urdu ghazals, the author identifies the different stages and phases of the poet’s development and from each of these phases, selects and interprets verses, including those that differ from the dominant trend, in order to reveal Ghalib’s intellectual evolution. The book aims to make reading and understanding of Ghalib’s Urdu ghazals a pleasurable and enlightening experience.
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KAUTILYA’S ARTHASHASTRA: AN INTELLECTUAL PORTRAIT
‘Kautilya who?’ In India itself, Kautilya is mentioned for reasons that are more sentimental and nationalistic than analytical and comparative with respect to the theoretical significance of his contributions to statecraft. In academic circles, Kautilya is labelled as the ‘Indian Machiavelli’, even though the Arthashastra was written some 1800 years prior to Machiavelli’s Discorsi and Principe, and is much broader in scope. This book brings the wisdom of Kautilya’s text—a tour de force in strategic thinking—to the present political discourse, emphasizing the relevance of this ancient text to contemporary world affairs. Brilliant scholarly analysis complemented with in-depth academic enquiry gives this work an edge over all that has been written on Arthashastra so far. Mitra and Liebig move beyond romanticizing Kautilya, and present to the reader one of the sharpest minds in history, unmatched in its knowledge of statecraft, and a theory unparalleled in strategic thinking. A must-have guide to understanding both Kautilya and the intricacies of governance.
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The Burning Queen Rani Padmavati
Padmavati is the most beautiful queen Chittor has ever had. Everyone who sees her is enthralled by her grace and goodness. When the greedy gaze of the Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khalji, falls upon Chittor and its queen, Padmavati's flawless beauty turns against her, because it inspires both love and hate in equal measure. Beset by the threat of an invasion and scheming political rivals who are envious of her immense popularity, Rani Padmavati must rise to the demands of war and fight for everything she believes in. This is the story of a remarkable woman who lived gently, loved passionately, and embraced her destiny with unmatched courage.
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The Boy with the Broken Heart
You're asking me to hold your hand. And now you're turning away from me. You are saying something but I can't hear you. It's too windy. You're crying now. Now you're smiling. I'm done. I love you . . .' It's been two years since Raghu left his first love, Brahmi, on the edge of the roof one fateful night. He couldn't save her; he couldn't be with her. Having lost everything, Raghu now wants to stay hidden from the world. However, the annoyingly persistent Advaita finds his elusiveness very attractive. And the more he ignores her, the more she's drawn to him till she bulldozes her way into an unlikely friendship. What attracts at first, begins to grate. Advaita can't help but want to know what Raghu has left behind, what he's hiding, and who broke his heart. She wants to love him back to life, but for that she needs to know what wrecked him in the first place. After all, the antidote to heartache is love.
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Road to Success
Are you lacking a sense of direction? Unable to chart a course for success in your life? Uneasy about whether you are following the correct route to your destination? Study this guidebook for your life's journey. This book provides time-tested advice for you to follow. In fact, Napoleon Hill created the first GPS system decades ago in the form of billboards that positioned his students on the road to success. What was true then is true now, and you will benefit immediately by applying his success coordinates in your life. When you have the 'how to', it becomes easy to follow the signposts that deliver you to your destination right on time. Are you ready to begin? Open this book for your success itinerary and travel the footsteps he has placed on the pathway. You will not lose your way!
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Love Curry
Three flatmates in London begin to see how different their lives are and at the same time how similar their backgrounds. And when life begins to deal its rough cards, how easy things become when they are all together!Ali is a Pakistani chef with the dream of setting up his own nihari restaurant. Shehzad is a cool tattoo artist from Bangladesh with a broken past, and Rishi is an Indian with nondescript skills and trying to hide himself from the world.They all make one mistake - that of falling in love - with the same girl. They become arch-rivals. But when their worlds turn topsy-turvy, they have no one but each other to turn to, learning that love is as much about letting go as it is about possessing.Equally thoughtful as it is entertaining, sensitive as it is quirky, Love Curry is a glimpse of life truly to its fullest!
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The Rooster Bar
John Grisham's newest legal thriller takes you inside a law firm that shouldn't exist. Law students Mark, Todd and Zola wanted to change the world - to make it a better place. But these days these three disillusioned friends spend a lot of time hanging out in The Rooster Bar, the place where Todd serves drinks. As third-year students, they realise they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specialising in student loans, the three realise they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. So they begin plotting a way out. Maybe there's a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they have to leave law school, pretend they are qualified and go into battle with a billionaire and the FBI. Ingenious, immersive and page-turning, The Rooster Bar is a John Grisham legal thriller bar none.
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Commando....
Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal return with the intensely absorbing, fast-paced story of thirty of the boldest missions of the Israeli Special Forces. Packed with electrifying battles, raids in enemy territory and death-defying commando missions, Commando follows the lives and accomplishments of some of Israel’s most prominent figures. Captivating and eye-opening, it offers an opportunity to understand how these crucial missions shaped Israel and the world at large.
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Hema Malini Beyond the Dream Girl
One of the most enduring divas of Hindi cinema, a producer and director for films and television, dancer and choreographer par excellence, magazine editor, an active member of Parliament and now a singer, Hema Malini wears many hats with admirable ease. No other industry name comes close to matching the breadth of her achievements. In an industry where the male star has traditionally driven the commercial success of films, Hema was an exception, with her name alone sufficing to ensure a film's box-office glory. She was, arguably, India's first female superstar. Apart from starring in mainstream super-hits like Johny Mera Naam, Jugnu, Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and, more recently, Baghban, she received critical acclaim for her performances in Lal Patthar, Khushboo, Kinara, Meera, Ek Chadar Maili Si and Razia Sultan. But there is much more to her than just her Bollywood journey. From her efforts at reviving and sustaining classical dance to her graceful handling of her personal life and the controversies that have plagued her in her political avatar, from her relationships to her religious beliefs and her recent tryst with singing, Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl covers it all. With detailed interviews and exclusive anecdotes from her family, friends and co-actors, this is an inside look at the remarkable life of one of our greatest cinema icons, someone who has truly lived life on her own terms.
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Fairytale
Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with nearly a billion copies of her novels sold. Her recent many international bestsellers include The Apartment, The Mistress and Dangerous Games. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; and the children's books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood. Danielle divides her time between Paris and her home in northern California.
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Monster In The Closet
The Sunday Times bestselling author of Every Dark Corner returns with an exclusive novel celebrating ten years of Karen Rose's thrillers in the UK. MONSTER IN THE CLOSET reunites readers with characters from Karen Rose's bestselling Baltimore series. A mother is dead, and now her killer hunts the child that witnessed the brutal crime...Private Investigator Clay Maynard locates missing children for clients, but has nearly given up hope of finding his own daughter, cruelly stolen from him by his ex-wife twenty-three years ago. Equine therapist Taylor Dawson has chosen to intern at Daphne Montgomery-Carter's stables so that she can observe the program's security director - her father, Clay Maynard. Trying to reconcile the wonderful man she's getting to know with the monster her mother always described, Taylor never expects to become the target of a real monster, the man who murdered the mother of the little girls she works with at the stable. Neither does she expect to fall for Ford Elkhart, Daphne's handsome son, who is dealing with his own demons. As family and friends gather for a wedding, Taylor starts to imagine a permanent life in Baltimore. But not if the real monster gets to her first...