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Operation Bamboo Garden
The world order, as we knew it, is fast changing. Emerging powers are clamouring to claim and cement their positions in the ever-evolving geopolitical landscape. The battle arena has long shifted to nondescript rooms filled with harmless seeming computer equipment. But don’t let appearances fool you. The innocuous looking cyber-soldiers glued to these screens are capable of altering the course of history by a few simple clicks. The suicide of a successful and politically connected C.E.O in Mumbai, India, sets off a series of disparate but alarming events. Are these events linked? Could they be a precursor to something even more vile and sinister? Will Ronit, an A.I. expert who, driven by a sudden patriotic surge, has left a high-paying corporate job to serve his nation, be able to piece together the full puzzle in time? Who is Noor Sabah, the mysterious Malaysian secret agent? Why are most covert command centres of South Asia terrified of the name, Zhiming? And yet, why does no one know what she looks like? Operation Bamboo Garden is a pacy geopolitical thriller that will open your minds to veiled possibilities that could be shaping the inexplicable global events you read about.
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Polarised Times: Living in India Today
Throughout India's long and chequered history, Hindus, Muslims, and other communities have consistently adapted while preserving their shared identity. India has long stood as a sanctuary for its diverse minorities, allowing them to nurture their faith and culture. However, contemporary India faces a profound distrust between its major communities. Centuries of mutual suspicion have given rise to new terms like 'persecution complex,' 'self-denial,' and 'victimhood.' Even more disconcerting are phrases such as 'holocaust,' 'massacre,' 'pogrom,' and 'genocide.' The need for dialogue is undeniable, but the ground reality tells a different story. This book also casts a spotlight on the role of left-liberals in perpetuating this divide. Polarised Times is an essential exploration of the pressing issues that demand our attention, urging us to rekindle the bonds of unity and diversity, for India's future stands at a crossroads.
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Love Has No Age
This refreshing collection of unusual stories reflects the kaleidoscope of experience that seniorhood entails—there’s the single mother overtaken by sudden guilt at the thought of never having told her teenage daughter about her missing father; a 50-something woman who advises her young niece to go ahead and be with her married lover just like she, herself had done all those years ago. Read about the friends who find love again and broach the topic of friends becoming lovers to their respective children, or the mother who slips away to mourn the emptiness of her life, never to return...Each story is a testament to the courage, resilience, and the vibrancy of life that seniors strive to grasp with its myriad twists and turns.
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Amitabh Bachchan As The Other
Amitabh Bachchan As The Other' by Shoma A Chatterji is not a biographical study of the actor. Beyond the persistent ‘angry young man’ label, Chatterji contends that Bachchan's cinematic prowess defies stereotypes, aligning him more closely with the intriguing concept of ‘The Other.’ This ‘Other’ challenges norms, demands our attention, holds us responsible for our actions, and prompts a reconsideration of our understanding of the world. To substantiate this thesis, Chatterji meticulously examines fifteen of Bachchan’s classic performances spanning two decades, from Anand to Agneepath. The other films in this study include Parwana, Zanjeer, Saudagar, Namak Haram, Abhimaan, Deewaar, Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Don, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Shakti, Coolie, and Main Azaad Hoon. In the chapter titled ‘Othering the Other,’ we witness a mellow Bachchan embracing roles he never thought possible in his youth.
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Rajiv Gandhi:The Flight of the Scion
On the flip side, Rajiv proved a poor judge of the company he kept. His minister VP Singh deserted his on the Bofors kickback issue. A whole lot of other colleagues in his cabinet abandoned him before the 1989 elections. He was also impatient for peace, signing accords in rapid succession with the respective secessionist groups of Mizoram, Assam and Punjab, and going on to persuade Sri Lanka to allow the deployment of Indian Peace Keeping Force in its territory. India and Rajiv too had to pay a heavy price for this last accord. In Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, the country lost a great leader. No doubt he made some mistakes, but he also had the uncanny ability to learn from them. What would have been the fate of the nation if Rajiv Gandhi were living? It is for the reader to draw this conclusion.
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The Two Kashmirs
There has been a steady and incessant campaign by Pakistan against India with effective use of the media and diplomacy. This has corrupted the imagination of impressionable minds in J&K and raised an architecture of violence, which some call the ‘terror industry.’ The Two Kashmirs is an attempt to compare Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) with the rest of Kashmir in India. It discusses the hypothesis advanced by advocates of violence and resistance in J&K about the state being on the receiving end as far as Indian economic and developmental policies are concerned. The data is collected and analysed on the indices of development—ranging from the very basic ones—like life-expectancy and literacy to healthcare and education.
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Government Doesn't Want You To Know This
From fraudulent forensic reports to dodgy Parliament replies, our Government has resorted to an array of dark maneuvers to block the truth about SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE’s fate. Now, powered by years of unrelenting research, CHANDRACHUR GHOSE and ANUJ DHAR bring you the cold truth. The man who freed India was alive long after his reported death, a victim of cruel circumstances. Here are the heartbreaking facts Government would not like you to know.
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Tribes Of India Realities And Representations
The term ‘tribe/tribal’ is at the heart of several contentious issues of contemporary Indian society. For centuries the tribal communities have been subjected to domination and control by the outsiders and been victims of cultural genocide. As a result, their relationship with forests has been violated, their lifestyle that epitomised harmony with Nature, stands denigrated causing colossal disruption of the everyday practices. Does the process of subjugation and assimilation imply a complete disintegration of tribal practices and tradition? What are the challenges posed by modernisation, sankritisation, and globalisation on linguistic realities and its effect on tribal identity and culture? What happens when the indigenous language faces threat from the outside world? Does it succumb to the pressure and becomes extinct? This book offers critical insights into questions that are fundamental as well as contemporary in the field of tribal research. From oral cultures and language issues to the radical aspects in tribal Ramayanas and Mahabharatas, to ethnographic studies on tribal monetary traditions, textile, and handicrafts, not to mention the chapters on literary studies of authors like Mamang Dai, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, and Mahasweta Devi, the book encompasses a variety of research work that is multidisciplinary, heterogeneous in scope and yet, incisive in argumentation.
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Parents At War
Parents at War shares real-life stories of children caught up in the warfare between litigating parents, bringing to the fore the plight of children who bear the brunt of such contests and undergo deep trauma due to parental bickering and tug of war. The book also shares the predicament the judges face while balancing delicately the interests of all the stakeholders and ensuring the welfare of children. It brings to light how unknowingly, the parents, in their zeal to win custody, scar the children forever. Children not only suffer psychological trauma, but also have physical manifestations like stunted growth, obesity, nausea, aches and pain etc. Whether the mother lands the custody or the father, there is no winner here because it is the child who loses on love, affection, and care of a parent and also the extended family. The book also touches upon the issue of insincere custody litigation with hidden agenda.
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K File- The Conspiracy Of Silence
The conflict in Jammu and Kashmir is one of the biggest internal security challenges for the Indian state. 2001 saw over 4, 500 terror-related deaths in the state.This figure has steadily declined in the last 18 years, making the world wrongly believe this reduction in violence is a sign that Kashmir is moving towards conflict resolution., bashir assad argues, there is never going to be a resolution of conflict in Kashmir and return to peace unless all stakeholders --- The Kashmiris themselves, the Indian state and the political parties in Kashmir get together and negotiate peace with the militants.The ideology of holy jihad and the aspiration for the kingdom of God has now coopted women and teenagers as their strongest campaigner in Kashmir, turning paradise into hell. The change from a political problem to a religious matter needs to be understood and strategically challenged, the activist-journalist says in his brave book, K file-the conspiracy of silence.
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Only in darkness can you see the stars-Martin Luth
He called his India visit a ‘pilgrimage’ the American Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr spent one long month in India, calling it the land that demonstrated the efficacy of non-violence as a successful tool of resistance against bondage, injustice and the power of the gun. Gandhi was the world’s Guru who showed the way, leading the common man into contributing in a struggle out of colonialism. He made Civil disobedience a household word. Martin Luther King Jr gave Civil liberties a new meaning, ending apartheid in the USA, at a time when it became the world’s strongest nation. In the last 50 years, there has been no more powerful voice against war in the world, It is still Martin Luther king’s stand against American war on Vietnam that shines as an example against military might. He is the voice of American conscience, still reverberating. Only in darkness can you see the stars is an mlk biography reminding a young India that looks askance at non-violence, what a struggle America waged to give itself equal rights, including sitting rights and voting rights, not so long ago. King’s life is an example of what is doable at the time of utter darkness. That what Gautama Buddha taught India nearly 3, 000 years ago still holds good. At the end of Darkness is light.
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Backfire In Nepal-How India Lost The Plot To China
Backfire in Nepal explores how China has become the ultimate beneficiary of India’s democracy-promotion agenda in Nepal. New Delhi had made a bold bet in 2005, but one that contained two mutually fortifying flaws: the abolition of the monarchy and the empowerment of the former Maoist rebels. The world’s only Hindu monarch and kingdom were bound to India in a special relationship that neither country needed to define or assert. True, Indians had been put off by successive Nepalese monarchs playing New Delhi off against Beijing. In retrospect, a little more compassion for Nepal’s compulsions might have put things into sharper relief. Nepalese Maoists, being communists first, were trained to denounce Indian ‘expansionism’ before American ‘imperialism’. Experience may have impelled the senior leadership to make practical compromises. It was a leap of faith for New Delhi to trust the leadership to rein in their cadres’ radicalism. More broadly, since India had also enlisted Western democracies, it needed to address their often-contradictory concerns throughout Nepal’s turbulent transition. The Chinese could act purely on their national interests. India continues to misread how Beijing sees Nepal – both in terms of China’s visions of the past and the future. This complicates the core trilateral challenge: ensuring that Nepal is not sucked deeper into the Sino-Indian vortex, only to be scorned for aggravating the Asian giants’ rivalry.
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Identity Politics In Jammu And Kashmir
Highlighting the internal dimensions of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, the book deals with overlapping, multi-layered and multiple identity politics of this state. While focusing on identity politics of Kashmir, which remains at the root of conflict, it goes beyond its homogenized exterior and points to various internal tensions. More importantly, it goes beyond the Kashmiri identity politics and focuses on various other manifestations of identities including religious, regional and sub-regional identity politics within the state. It seeks to draw attention to the sociocultural diversity and political divergence within Jammu and Kashmir and talks about multiple contexts of deprivation and neglect including those defined by the categories of gender, caste and tribe. The book is divided into five sections: identities and politics in Kashmir; religion, identities and inter-community relations; exodus and identity politics of Kashmiri pundits; identity politics of women and Dalits and; the other Kashmir.
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Brahmacharya Gandhi & His Women Associates
Brahmacharya Gandhi and His Women Associates is a psychobiography and study of man woman relationship involving one of the greatest men in world history. There was a definitive attration in Gandhiji that brought womenfolk close to him. And Mahatma Gandhi was not shy of speaking about his relationship with his women associates, except in a few cases. He wanted the world to know of his tryst with brahmacharya [celibacy]in which women constituted an integral part. He kept a meticulous record and tried to make the players keep the records too. However, most of them tried to either destroy the records or refused to disclose the intensity of their feelings. A construct is still possible based on Gandhiji's writings and on the basis of writings of some of them who were involved.It was the revulsion from sex that forced Gandhiji to take a vow of celibacy in in 1906. Then onwards, till the laboratory experiments in Noakhali, during the height of the Indian freedom movement,Gandhiji kept trying to find out if it was possible to overcome desire and remain a brahmachari[one who practices celibacy]. There were more than a dozen women who came to be closely associated with him at one time or the other. Some of them were foreigners - Millie Graham Polak, Sonja Schlesin, Esther Faering Nilla Cram Cook, Margarete Spiegel and Mirabehn.Gandhiji's closeness to women created a storm in the ashram and exposed him to public glare. However, the mahatma was sure of his actions.
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Battlefield India- 25 Years of Politricks and Econ
Battlefield India is a chronicle of the near past which tells us how the cycle of chaos repeats itself. The story starts in 1997 on the eve of India’s 50th year as an independent nation, and ends in 2022 as free India celebrates its 75th birthday. The political, economic, and social events of the last 25 years are recounted through the voices of people the author has interviewed over the years. These voices include many who shall go down in the history books as legends of this period in India’s long history: among others, the man behind the Green Revolution and a member of independent India’s Constituent Assembly C Subramaniam, the former President of India R. Venkataraman, the eminent agronomist Dr M S Swaminathan, the acerbic cartoonist Abu Abraham, the inimitable political commentator Cho Ramaswamy, and the ever eloquent MP Shashi Tharoor.
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The School On the hill
Have you ever wondered why the bonding among boarders is much stronger than the bonding among classmates? Have you ever thought about first crushes, midnight feasts, robbing guavas and eating berries? The boy had his right arm across his belly, as he bowed and asked ‘May I have the pleasure of this dance’. The girl held the corners of her dress and curtsied daintily, ‘Yes, sure’. That’s the way you are supposed to ask a lady for a dance; this too was taught at Barnes, apart from boxing, swimming and many other games. The school on the hill, with its massive stone buildings, is history retold by its legendary teachers and mischievous students. The management of Christ Church school, Mumbai, thought that the city was too crowded and unhealthy in 1917 and suggested a boarding school in Devlali. Wonder what would they say about today’s Mumbai? Life in a boarding school comes alive through the eyes of an 11-year-old and you grow up with him through his teens. A book that you will not put down and recommend to every boarding school student.
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Kautilya on Moral Hazard, Poverty and Systemic Ris
The first Population Census in the world. Statistical Economics, Mathematical Economics. The factoring in of Moral Hazard, the question of Ethics, acknowledging the fact that economics is about people. Including Systemic Risk into accounting for costs and profits and alleviating poverty.These are some of Kautilyas observations some 2,500 years ago. They are all valid today, for the modern world. According to Abraham Seidenberg (1962), mathematics originated in India earlier than Babylonia, Egypt or Greece. Sidney Weintraub argues that the image of economics in the western world changed as the image of mathematics changed but without realising that the image of mathematics in the west might have changed with the change in the theology/philosophy of the church. CK Raju points out that theology or philosophy did not change constantly in the Indian subcontinent. Mathematical measurements are pre-Vedic here, beginning with the early Indus Valley inhabitants which have continued through generations. Kautilya was the first economist who established economics as a separate discipline, developed a score of concepts and understood economy as a system with its inter-linked elements. Kautilyas Arthashastra contains two parts: the exchange theory and the conflict theory but both use mathematics to enhance clarity of expression and statistical analysis for arriving at the best possible policy-decisions under risky situations and evaluations afterwards. This book argues why Kautilya is relevant to modern-day policy-makers and why Ethics should be a part of the Indian education content.
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The Lady Of Two Nations
He was an Oxford-educated scion of a Nawabi family. She, a comely young woman from a Brahmin turned second-generation Christian family. While he rose to become the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Shaheed-e-Millat Liaqat Ali Khan, she came to be known as Gul-e-Ra’ana. Theirs was a beautiful story of love transcending the boundaries of nationalism and religion—a story worth telling. Raj Gopal Singh Verma narrates the fascinating story of this famous couple in the style of a fast-paced historical novel set against the complexities and violent upheavals of the Partition. After Liaqat’s assassination, the Begum brought up their two children alone and made a stellar contribution to Pakistan’s political, social, and cultural domains. She also served as the country’s finance minister and a diplomat to several Western countries. On her return, she continued to work for the empowerment of Muslim women of the country. Born and brought up in an undivided India, this is a story of the lady of two nations and three religions: Begum Ra’ana Liaqat Ali Khan.
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What Happened To Netaji
From the best selling author of India’s Biggest Cover-up In 2013, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court described as ‘genuine and based on relevant material’, Anuj Dhar’s writings regarding the controvey surrounding the fate of Subhas Chandra Bose So, what really happened to Netaji? What is the factual position with regard to the air crash that reportedly killed him in 1945? Is there any truth behind Subramaniun Swamy's belief that Netaji was killed in Soviet Russia at Jawaharlal Nehru's behest? How do the biggest names of the past and present, from Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel to President Pranab Mukherjee and Atal Bihari Vajpayee fare in India's longest running controvey? Who was Gumnami Baba of Faizabad and if indeed he was Netaji, why did he not surface? Above all, what is preventing the Narendra Modi government from declassifying the Netaji files? the answer would make you believe that truth is stranger than fiction