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Gazing Eastwards Of Buddhist Monks And Revolutiona
Gazing Eastwards is a lively and arresting account of Romila Thapar’s first visit to China in 1957. She went as a research assistant to the Sri Lankan art historian Anil de Silva, and worked on two major Buddhist sites in Maijishan and Dunhuang. It was a period of deceptive calm in the country, just prior to traumatic events such as the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward that churned and transformed Chinese society. Although China was changing with Mao’s rise to power, much of the old ways remained. This being her first visit to East Asia, the author was greatly intrigued by the country, its culture, and its people during the months she spent there. Besides her work on the Buddhist sites that brought her to China, the author was able to travel to the historically important cities of Beijing, Xi’an, Nanking, and Shanghai, as also some small cities and villages of the Chinese hinterland. She travelled by plane, train, truck, and automobile. Her curiosity led her to many meetings with a variety of people, great and small, as well as forays into the country’s art, music, culture, and religion. She ate the most unusual and delicious Chinese meals, and endorsed the claim that Chinese food is one of the world’s great cuisines. She delved into Chinese history, learnt how to play the erhu, heard the operas of diverse regions, shook hands with Chairman Mao, admired the grace and beauty of Chinese women, and tried to experience as much of Chinese society as she could. Her observations of her time in China provide the reader with a profound, funny, original, and constantly insightful look at one of the world’s oldest and most complex countries.
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Rhododendrons In The Mist My Favourite Tales of th
n his new collection of stories, many of which have never been published before, bestselling writer Ruskin Bond collects together his finest tales of the Himalaya, the mountains he has called home for over fifty years. One half of the book is devoted to unsettling, sometimes terrifying stories of murder, mystery, and the supernatural. Kicking off with the sinister ‘Rhododendrons in the Mist’, a brand-new story, this section assembles chilling stories like ‘A Face in the Dark’, ‘Eyes of the Cat’, ‘Panther’s Moon’, and ‘The Skull’. The second section comprises tales that concern themselves with the everyday drama of life in the Himalaya. Starting with the autobiographical ‘Breakfast at Barog’, which has never before appeared in print, this section includes timeless stories like ‘The Blue Umbrella’, ‘The Cherry Tree’, and ‘A Long Walk for Bina’. The book concludes with an enthralling new story, ‘The Garden of Dreams’. Singular and unforgettable, Ruskin Bond’s new collection shows us once again why he is the country’s most addictive writer.
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Courage and Conviction
General V.K. Singh served in the Indian Army for forty-two years, retiring as Chief of Army Staff on 31 May 2012. His distinguished career saw him on the front lines of combat, in the Indo-Pak War of 1971 which led to the creation of Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. Considered one of the world's foremost experts in counter-insurgency operations, he is also known for the principled stand he took on many issues during his tenure, from arms procurement to the deployment of the army against the Maoists. Trained at the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy, V.K. Singh served in regions (and in roles) crucial to India's security. From his early days as company commander on the Line of Control in Poonch, to commanding elite formations, Victor Force in Jammu and Kashmir and the vast Eastern Command that shares international boundaries with Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, to his experience of military operations and exercises such as Blue Star, Brasstacks and Trident, General Singh's story makes for fascinating reading. Candid, compelling and occasionally controversial, this is the story of a straight-talking soldier not afraid to stand by his convictions.
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A Gallery of Rascals
Ruskin Bond is the most addictive and entertaining writer in modern Indian literature. The author of over a hundred novels and short-story collections, his fiction is especially celebrated for the unforgettable misfits, Dreamers, small-time con artists, rapscallions, thieves and drifters who populate it. For the first time ever, a gallery of rascals brings together the most memorable rogues to feature in Ruskin Bond’s fiction. A few brand new stories—‘a man called brain’, ‘Sher Singh and the hot-water bottle’, ‘crossing the road’— headline this collection and rub shoulders with much-loved tales like ‘the thief story’, ‘The boy who broke the Bank’, ‘tigers for dinner’ and ‘a case for Inspector Lal’. thrilling and effortlessly readable, the thirty stories in this book show exactly why Ruskin Bond’s fiction is irresistible.
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Grey Sunshine Stories from Teach For India
India is battling an educational crisis of unprecedented proportions. Half of the country standard 5 students cannot read a standard 2 level text in their native language. Seventy-six per cent of Indian students don’t make it to college. The list of alarming statistics doesn’t end there. But who are the faces behind these statistics? What are their stories? What would it take to alter their futures and subsequently, the future of India? Grey sunshine tells the human stories behind the National crisis we see—and yet don’t see— every single day: the state of Indian Education. It is an invitation to walk in the shoes of hundreds of thousands of children from less privileged backgrounds. Battling the injustices of poverty alongside them are 4, 000 unlikely leaders from teach for India, a two-year Fellowship programme that places young people as full-time teachers in government classrooms across the country. The stories of these students and teachers represent the struggle to reform a failing education system and the hope for a brighter sun to shine tomorrow.
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Mahabharata..
Few works in classical literature have reached as vast an audience as the Mahabharata. The story of the dynastic struggle between the Pandavas and Kauravas culminating in the great battle in the fields of Kurukshetra is a moral, religious and philosophical tale like no other. In this brilliantly original retelling of Vyasa’s epic, William Buck gives us a Mahabharata of great beauty and insight.
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Life Lessons from Lal Ded
ndia has produced some of the world’s greatest religious leaders, sages, saints, philosophers and spiritual thinkers. They were monks, nuns and renunciates, nationalists and reformers. No one religion had a monopoly on them. They range from Mahavira and Buddha, who lived over 2,500 years ago, to medieval saints like Chishti, Avvaiyar and Guru Nanak, to more recent philosophers and religious icons such as Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Saint Teresa and many others. The spiritual and philosophical heritage they left behind is India’s gift to all Indians and the world. In the ‘Life Lessons’ series we publish the essential teachings of some of India’s best-known spiritual teachers, along with commentaries and biographical notes. Each book will be a handy companion to help the reader along the difficult pathways of life. *** Lal Ded (Granny Lal), as Lalleshwari was known, was a Shaiva mystic saint who lived in Kashmir, probably in the fourteenth century. Born into a Brahmin family of Pandrethan (near Srinagar), she is said to have had an early bad marriage and faced many domestic hardships, prompting a turn to spirituality. She renounced her marriage and material life and became a wandering mystic. She shared her wisdom in the form of vaakhs (sayings or utterances). These vaakhs (originally in the Kashmiri language) have seeped far and wide into popular usage and are part of the collective memory—through songs, proverbs and hymns—of Kashmiris of all stripes, through the generations. In these vaakhs, Lal Ded talked about the woes of the human condition, her disillusionment with the world, her anguished search for God, and, ultimately, her realization of God as pure consciousness. She rejected outward rituals, ostentation and extreme asceticism as paths to reach the truth. Her observations on the transience and futility of material pursuits and the emotions they generate, like greed, anger, pride and fear, apply to us all. While her sayings are deeply profound, her humanism makes it easy to relate to Lal and her teachings. Translated and edited by Shonaleeka Kaul, the aphorisms in ‘Looking Within’ represent Lal Ded’s core teachings.
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Ramayana..
William Buck’s retelling of the story of Prince Rama composed by Valmiki—with all its nobility of spirit, courtly intrigue, heroic renunciation, fierce battles, and triumph of good over evil—is distinctive and accessible without compromising the spirit and lyricism of the original
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Which Of Us Are Aryans
Romila Thapar is Emeritus Professor of History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Michael Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and editor of the Harvard Oriental series; Jaya Menon is Head of the Department of History at Shiv Nadar University; Kai Friese is a managing editor at India Today; Razib Khan is a geneticist who writes extensively on a broad range of topics. He has worked within the personal genomics industry for the past five years, and consults for PBS’s Finding Your Roots.
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Questioning Paradigms Constructing Histories
KUMKUM ROY teaches ancient Indian social history at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her publications include The Emergence of Monarchy in North India (1994) and The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power (2010). She is interested in gender, political institutions, histories of marginalized groups as well as in pedagogical issues pertaining to the teaching of history, and has worked with teams involved in the production of school textbooks at the state and national level. Naina Dayal teaches history at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. Her research interests include the period c.320 bce–300 ce, during which the Sanskrit Ramayana and Mahabharata took shape.
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Tiger Fire
Valmik Thappar has spent several decades serving the wild tigers of India. During this time, he has written more than twenty books and made or presented nearly a dozen films for the BBC and several other television networks on the tiger and Indian flora and fauna. He has also created a major non-governmental organization dedicated to conserving wildlife, the Ranthambhore Foundation. Although he has served on hundreds of government panels and committees relating to nature conservation, he is today a fierce critic of government policy. He continues to campaign and fight for new ways to save wild tigers and nature in India.
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The Town that Laughed
Change is coming to the tranquil town of Karuthupuzha, nestled deep within the lush Kerala countryside. The mighty black river, after which the town is named, is now no more than a trickle. People have begun to listen to weather forecasts on the radio rather than looking out of the window to see if it's going to rain. The jackfruit tree in the middle of town has suddenly started fruiting. And, most seismic of all, Paachu Yemaan, the Inspector of Police, who has terrorized the town for decades has retired. Desperate to find him something to do, his wife, Sharada, and the good-hearted Barber Sureshan decide that ex-Inspector Paachu's post retirement project will be the reforming of the town drunk, Joby. What the two good Samaritans haven't counted on is the chain of extraordinary events that their project is about to set in motion.
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Why I Am A Hindu
In Why I Am a Hindu, one of India’s finest public intellectuals gives us a profound book about one of the world’s oldest and greatest religions. Starting with a close examination of his own belief in Hinduism, he ranges far and wide in his study of the faith. He talks about the Great Souls of Hinduism, Adi Shankara, Patanjali, Ramanuja, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and many others who made major contributions to the essence of Hinduism. He delves deep into Hinduism’s most important schools of thought (such as the Advaita Vedanta). He explains, in easily accessible language, important aspects and concepts of Hindu philosophy like the Purusharthas and Bhakti, masterfully summarizes the lessons of the Gita and Vivekananda’s ecumenism, and explores with sympathy the ‘Hinduism of habit’ practised by ordinary believers. He looks at the myriad manifestations of political Hinduism in the modern era, including violence committed in the name of the faith by right-wing organizations and their adherents. He analyzes Hindutva, explains its rise and dwells at length on the philosophy of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, its most significant ideologue. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremist ‘bhakts’, and unequivocal in his belief that everything that makes India a great and distinctive culture and country will be imperiled if religious ‘fundamentalists’ are allowed to take the upper hand. However, he also makes the point that it is precisely because Hindus form the majority that India has survived as a plural, secular democracy. A book that will be read and debated now and in the future, Why I Am a Hindu is a revelatory and original masterwork.
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The Demon Hunter Of Chottanikkara
Deep within the peaceful land of Kerala lies a small village called Chottanikkara that is infested with horrifying demons—towering brahmarakshasas, former priests who have become demons after committing abominable sins; kollivaipei, devils that have torches of fire in place of mouths; mohini pisaacha, who seduce men by taking the form of beautiful women, and suck the breath out of their victims; vethaalam who cling to the backs of those they prey on, making them hunch over in agony; jalpisaacha, who lurk in old, disused wells waiting for unsuspecting humans to dive into the water so they may possess them; pretha, who are covered in hyena-like fur, and specialize in feasting on the bodies of half-burnt corpses in cremation grounds, and many others more. All these demons crave the sweet blood of humans and their herds of cattle, goats and chickens. The only defence the terrified villagers have against these monsters is Devi, a demon hunter skilled in all the arts of war and exorcism. Every time the demons creep out of their accursed haunts, she and her faithful companion, an enormous lion called Ugra, hunt them and slay them ruthlessly. Until now. For a creature out of her worst nightmares is spreading terror throughout Chottanikkara, a monster so evil and powerful that it is immune to every weapon and magic art that Devi possesses. For the first time in her life, as she prepares for her final showdown with the demon, Devi is wracked with fear, and indecision, for this one battle she knows she might lose… Part supernatural thriller, and part horror story, The Demon Hunter of Chottanikkara announces the arrival of a ferociously gifted storyteller.
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The Secret Life Of Fat
We lose it. We gain it. We hate it. We hide it. We shame it. We suck it in and we even suck it out. Fat is an international obsession, a dirty word and our least understood body part. A groundbreaking combination of historical, cultural and cutting-edge scientific research, The Secret Life of Fat reveals everything we need to understand fat—how it influences our appetite and willpower, how it defends itself when attacked and why it grows back so quickly. Find out how our genetics and hormones determine how much fat we have and where exactly it will show. Fascinating and surprising in equal measure, this book will give you a powerful new understanding of fat.
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MAID IN INDIA
We eat first, they later, often out of food portioned out for them; we live in the front, they in the back; we sit on chairs and they on the floor; we drink from glasses and ceramic plates and they from ones made of steel set aside for them; we call them by their names, and they address us by titles: sir/ma’am, sahib/memsahib... Every year, thousands of poor, illiterate, unskilled women flock to Delhi from villages across the country to work as domestic help. This is how Fullin from Athgama in rural Jharkhand, Lovely from a tiny settlement in Malda, Golbanu bibi from Doparia, Mae from Kokrajhar and a Santhali girl from Annabiri, in the heart of Maoist country—find themselves in the nation’s most powerful city, working for its richest people. This is how tycoons and refugees, politicians and orphans—India’s one per cent and her 99 per cent—rub shoulders every day, under the same roof. In the not so distant past, everyone’s place— whether maid, ayah or cook, sahib or memsahib— was well understood. There were clear rules for negotiating (and maintaining) the vast chasm between the two sides. Today, it’s a little different. There are housekeepers who are part of the middle class who ensure their children join white-collar India. There are teenage girls brought to the city by ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ to serve as ‘24-hour’ help, who find themselves virtually, and sometimes literally, caged. There are employers who wrestle with the guilt of spending more on an Italian meal in a fancy hotel than on those who clean their homes— and other employers who insist ‘these people’ are all thieves. With in-depth reporting in the villages from where women make their way to upper-class homes in Delhi and Gurgaon, courtrooms where the worst allegations of abuse get an airing, and homes up and down the class ladder, Maid in India is an illuminating and sobering account of the complex and troubling relations between the help and those they serve.
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This Unquiet Land
One of the most remarkable books ever published about contemporary India, arguably the most complex society on earth, This Unquiet Land tells the truth about the country's secrets and lies, its torments and triumphs and its heroes and villains. This is the first book by Barkha Dutt, India's best known journalist. India's fault lines run wide and deep. Some of them go back centuries, others are of comparatively recent origin. The myriad villains these fault lines have spawned include rapists, murderers, terrorists, prophets of religious hatred, corrupt politicians, upholders of abhorrent caste traditions, opponents of free speech and dissent, apologists for regressive cultural practices and external adversaries who try to destabilize our borders.
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The Public Intellectual in India
The public intellectual in India is an endangered species. Should we care? In this well-argued book, Romila Thapar and others tell us why we should. Thapar begins by defining the critical role that such individuals play in our societies today. Collectively, they are the objective, fearless, constructive voice that asks the awkward questions when government, industry, religious leaders and other bulwarks of society stray from their roles of ensuring the proper functioning of a country whose hallmarks are (or should be) social and economic equality, justice for all, and the liberty to say, think and profess the fundamental requirements of good citizenship. Through the lens of history, philosophy, science, and politics, she shows us the key role enlightened thinkers and activists have played in India, Europe and elsewhere. Today, as the liberal space in India is threatened by religious fundamentalism, big business, and, worryingly, a government that appears to be tacitly (and sometimes overtly) encouraging the attack on freedom of expression, secular values and rational readings of history, there could be no book as timely as this one. With contributions from writers and scholars in the fields of philosophy, science, history, journalism and social activism, The Public Intellectual in India shows us why it is important to have independent voices to protect the underprivileged, ensure human rights and social justice, and watch over the smooth functioning of our liberal, secular democracy.
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Birds In My Indian Garden
Out of print for three decades, this new, completely reset edition will delight a fresh set of readers. �One of my favourite birds is the white-eye. It is a dapper little creature measuring only four inches long from the tip of its beak to the end of its tail, and its colouring is pleasing. Its upper body is golden-yellow tinged with green, parts of its wings are dark brown, its chin and throat are bright yellow, its breast is light grey, and the yellow motif is repeated on its abdomen. But its most distinguishing mark is a white ring round each eye, which gives it the appearance of wearing a pair of white horn-rimmed spectacles�. Malcolm MacDonald�s description of the bird which appears on the cover of this book is fresh and arresting. These qualities mark his accounts of Delhi�s birds in Birds in my Indian Garden, and made it an instant classic when it was first published. Readers will learn about the drama of the lives of the city�s avian residents and visitors�their quirky courtship and mating rituals, the industriousness and skill with which they build their nests, the hatching and training of their young, their desperate efforts to fend off ruthless predators who hunt their eggs and hatchlings, and much more. The numerous birds described include mynahs, flycatchers, drongos, white-eyes, hoopoes, sunbirds, shikras, crows, sparrows, kites and koels; all of them come gloriously alive in the pages of MacDonald�s masterpiece.