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Daiva: Discovering the Extraordinary World of Spirit Worship
The famous Kola performances of Tulu Nadu involve dancers who invite powerful, sacred spirits to possess them. Through the performers, and surrounded by vibrant colours and striking visuals, these spirits - known as Daiva - may settle disputes, provide guidance, grant blessings and pass judgement. However, there is so much more to it than art and devotion. From Panjurli, the benevolent boar spirit to Bobbarya, guardian of the sea, this book explores it all: the kinds of Daiva, their stories, their individual natures and the ways in which they come to inhabit the devout. In Daiva, bestselling author K Hari Kumar, brings you stories of powerful immortals along with details of their worship through mystifying rituals - all of which are known to leave onlookers awe-struck.
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People We Love
In these tender yet piercing stories, Preeti Shenoy returns to some of her most beloved characters to reveal who they were before they appeared in her bestselling novels It's All in the Planets and The One You Cannot Have. Aniket, a coder, carries the weight of a longing for Trisha that he cannot bring himself to act on. Nidhi abandons her corporate life to teach pottery, only to discover that clay is far more forgiving than the people she loves. A quiz competition sparks an unlikely romance between Aman and Shruti, one that must withstand parental disapproval and class divides. And Anjali, a journalist, is so busy chasing stories that she almost misses the one unfolding in her own life. Set against the pulse of contemporary India, People We Love explores the tug-of-war between duty and desire, family and freedom, who we are and who we dare to be. Intimate and deeply felt, these are stories about love that stays, leaves and almost slips away ... love that quietly and irrevocably shapes the people we become. For fans of Preeti Shenoy's It's All in the Planets and The One You Cannot Have
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Lost Secret
A razor-sharp thriller that fuses ancient history with high-stakes espionage, Lost Secret: The Hidden Truth of Nalanda will leave you breathless. When intelligence officer Kabir is sent to Rajgir to recover from a personal tragedy, he doesn’t expect to be thrust into a conspiracy that could rewrite the global power structure. A sniper’s bullet, a cryptic inscription, and a murdered archaeologist catapult him into a perilous chase across India’s ancient sites. Teaming up with fiery historian Reeya Ghosh, Kabir uncovers secrets buried for millennia: the legendary wootz steel and its lost connection to the clean and abundant thorium energy. Hunted by mercenaries and mistrusted by their own, they must race against time to stop a forgotten technology from igniting a new era of domination and chaos. Thrilling, intelligent and disturbingly plausible, Lost Secret unearths the forgotten past to confront the future and keeps you turning pages long into the night.
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Thunder Point
A dramatic thriller, combining the sunlit seas of the Caribbean with the dark world of international terrorism, threaded through with the powerful, brooding presence of past battles and old quarrels which still have the power to destroy. By the author of "Eye of the Storm".
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Day of Judgment
A classic thriller from Jack Higgins, the undisputed master of adrenalin packed adventure and the bestselling author of ‘The Eagle has Landed’ It’s 1963 and the eve of John F.Kennedy’s historic visit to Berlin. Locked away inside the impregnable fortress of Schloss Neustadt, Father Sean Conlin, survivor of Dachau and lifelong champion of human freedom is fighting to deny his jailers their ultimate goal. On this momentus day, when the whole world is watching they must make him admit to being a CIA hireling. But the West is determined to save him, and gambling with their lives a small band of men begin a daring rescue mission that could change the course of history.
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Bloody Passage
A classic thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Eagle Has Landed. Oliver Grant is a decorated soldier, Military Intelligence Major and a case-hardened mercenary. So when the stepson of a Mafia boss is kidnapped and taken to a Libyan prison fortress, Grant is the perfect choice to carry out the rescue. Except for one detail: he doesn’t want the job. In an attempt to change his mind, Grant’s young sister is snatched and he is forced to comply – he knows that the Mafia don’t make idle threats. But then Grant’s beautiful, innocent lover also disappears, and he realises that he is involved in a game that will be played to the death…
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If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir
If Truth Be Told is a memoir of Om Swami’s extraordinary pursuit to understand spirituality and find God. As an eight-year-old boy he dreamt of God and this experience left him filled with exhilaration and deep peace. Thus began his quest to meet the Divine power, for which he delved in the science of astrology, tantra and extreme meditation, with no success. Agitated and emotionally frustrated he decided to dive into the materialistic world, head first. As an 18 year old, Om Swami left for Australia to distract himself of the spiritual pandemonium. After two years of dedicated hard work, he was earning $250,000 annually and by the age of 26 he was a multimillionaire. Living the idyllic good life as quoted by the modern tainted society was never his goal and when his inner commotion could no longer be overlooked he left all worldly pleasures and left for Himalayas. Living the life of a monk in the solitude of Himalayas, Om Swami practiced meditation and fought against the fierce environment, wild animals and starvation. In the lap of Himalayas and the intense solitude he found the answer that he sought after, ‘I am what I have been seeking’. Through this book, readers can experience the spiritual journey of this monk who broke all preconceived notions of the world to search for spiritual bliss.
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12 Years My Messed Up Love Story
He's a struggling stand-up comic. She's a rising star in private equity. He's divorced. She's never had a boyfriend. He's Punjabi. She's from a conservative Jain family. They shouldn't be together. But they can't stay apart. Welcome to 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story. Saket and Payal couldn't be more different—age, background, beliefs. Yet, they're drawn to each other in ways they can't explain. Is it just chemistry, or something deeper? Is it madness and lust, or is it love? Unputdownable and thoroughly entertaining, 12 Years tries to answer the eternal question: How do you know if someone is the one—especially when everything says they're not? From India's top-selling writer Chetan Bhagat comes a powerful new love story that will make you laugh, cry and rethink everything you know about love.
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The Ayodhya Alliance
An ancient secret. A forgotten science. A battle for the future of humanity. Seven thousand years ago, as he lay dying on the battlefield of Lanka, Ravana whispered a secret to Lakshmana about a mysterious technology that held the key to Ayodhya's prosperity and the world's destiny. For centuries, desperately sought by explorers, marauders and emperors alike, it has been kept hidden, safeguarded by warriors bound by an ancient oath. Now, as tensions escalate along India's volatile borders and a crucial defence project teeters on the brink of failure, Indian industrialist Aditya Pillai and South Korean technocrat Somi Kim are thrust into a mission that will upend everything they know. The two realize they must act fast, but never once do they anticipate that they will stumble upon startling revelations about a miraculous force that once connected Ayodhya to Kailasa, the Pandyan Empire, Rome, Damascus, Thailand and Korea. As the forces of past and present collide, a question looms large: who will harness the power of the ultimate enigma, and at what cost? The Ayodhya Alliance spans continents and centuries, seamlessly weaving together science, legend and history in a breathless race against time. In this sweeping, unputdownable story of intrigue, betrayal, survival and love, master storyteller Ashwin Sanghi casts his web wider than ever before, spinning once again a riveting, edge-of-the-seat thriller.
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Stars Will guide You Home
Would you take a second chance at love if an app matches you up? As teenagers, Kiana and Nirvaan were inseparable-until family expectations tore them apart. A decade later, despite having successful careers, their hearts are empty. Then, AILENA, a cutting-edge AI dating app, matches them with a near-perfect compatibility-without revealing their true identities. As their virtual bond deepens, past wounds resurface but love makes its way through their hearts until AILENA deems them incompatible and cuts their connection forever. What will they do: Trust the app or follow their hearts? Can their love survive the test of time and reality? Set in India and the US, this is a story of love reimagined in the digital age. In a world where we are constantly connected yet feel lonely, Stars Will Guide You Home is a love story for everyone-the ones who overthink, the ones who let go too soon and the ones still hoping for a sign.
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Mumbai's Most Wanted
It is the 1970s. Mumbai is in the underworld's vice grip. Film stars, businessmen, traders and the common man-no one is safe from the mafia's greed and wrath. But a determined, intelligent and no-nonsense policeman is about to bring them to justice ... without ever firing a single bullet. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Retd) Madhukar B. Zende is best-known for his sensational arrest of the serial murderer Charles Sobhraj, aka the Serpent. He is also lauded for successfully managing the violent riots in Mumbai that broke out in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1993, and ushering in an era of peace. But Zende has many more stories of crime and justice under his belt, and in this book, he gives readers a glimpse into what it meant to be a cop in the seventies and eighties. From the puzzling case of the murder of Shanta Devi to the kidnapping of a famous movie mogul to the capture of dark luminaries like Arun Gawli, Karim Lala, Haji Mastan and Babu Reshim, Mumbai's Most Wanted is a riveting account of a supercop who brought some of the city's most dreaded villains to their knees.
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Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Much of the advice we’ve been told about achievement is logical, earnest…and downright wrong. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker reveals the extraordinary science behind what actually determines success and most importantly, how anyone can achieve it. You’ll learn: • Why valedictorians rarely become millionaires and how your biggest weakness might actually be your greatest strength • Whether nice guys finish last and why the best lessons about cooperation come from gang members, pirates and serial killers • Why trying to increase confidence fails and how Buddhist philosophy holds a superior solution • The secret ingredient to “grit” that Navy SEALs and disaster survivors leverage to keep going • How to find work-life balance using the strategy of Genghis Khan, the errors of Albert Einstein and a little lesson from Spider-Man By looking at what separates the extremely successful from the rest of us, we learn what we can do to be more like them—and find out in some cases why it’s good that we aren’t. Barking Up the Wrong Treedraws on startling statistics and surprising anecdotes to help you understand what works and what doesn’t so you can stop guessing at success and start living the life you want.
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The Essenital Rumi
Rumi is one of the most popular spiritual poets ever in the world. The Sufi mystic was a 13th century poet, theologian, jurist and Islamic scholar. He has been described as one of the bestselling poets in numerous regions. His poems, mostly written in Persian, have been translated in a number of languages. In Essential Rumi, the spiritual and ecstatic poetry by this legendary poet have been comprehensively listed with a new introduction by Coleman Barks. 81 poems that have never been published before are included in this new revised edition of the one-volume edition. Translations of the poems by Coleman Barks, who has taught English and poetry in University of Georgia, have been included in this edition. The translations of the poems bring to life the poet?s spiritual essence. The book can make understanding the complex meanings and deeper conjectures of some of Rumi?s poems easy for readers by describing the texts in a lucid fashion. About the Author Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, popularly known as only Rumi, was 13th a century mystic Sufi poet. He was also a scholar, a jurist and an Islamic theologian, whose poems and writings have crossed borders to influence people and societies among Iranians, Turks, Greeks, Central Asian Muslims and many other nationalities. Considered as the greatest Persian poet, his works have been translated into many languages and is as one of the most popular poets in America.
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Thanks for the Memories
A compelling and perceptive tale of intimacy, memory and relationships from the bestselling author How can you know someone you’ve never met? Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn't. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair. Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It's the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of déjà vu is overwhelming her and she can't figure out why
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When Darkness Falls
In the latest novel from the bestselling author whom critics have called "the thriller writer to watch," lawyer Jack Swyteck tackles a case in which the life of his best friend hangs in the balance—and in which nothing is as it seems. Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck isn't looking for a new client, at least not one who is homeless and in jail for threatening to jump off a bridge. But from the moment Jack is called to defend the man, who goes by the name Falcon, something is amiss. For one thing, Falcon comes up with the $10,000 bail—in cash. Then the body of a brutally murdered woman is found in the trunk of the abandoned car in which he is living. Panicked and on the run, Falcon takes Jack's best friend, Theo, hostage. They end up barricaded in a motel room, and Theo isn't the only one at Falcon's mercy. Jack must work with the cops and their crackerjack negotiator to free Theo and the other captives before Falcon decides he has nothing to lose by killing them all. What Jack doesn't know is that Falcon has a much bigger agenda, and that there are people behind the scenes who will stop at nothing to keep their dangerous secrets. Thus unfolds a riveting, lightning-paced story, as only James Grippando can tell it.
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Cards On The Table
A flamboyant party host is murdered in full view of a roomful of bridge players…Mr Shaitana was famous as a flamboyant party host. Nevertheless, he was a man of whom everybody was a little afraid. So, when he boasted to Poirot that he considered murder an art form, the detective had some reservations about accepting a party invitation to view Shaitana’s private collection.Indeed, what began as an absorbing evening of bridge was to turn into a more dangerous game altogether…
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Storm Warning
In the end all roads lead to hell. It’s 1944 and Germany is facing its final defeat. Five thousand miles across the Allied dominated Atlantic, twenty-two men and five nuns aboard the Barquentine Deutschland are battling home to Kiel. Among them are a U-boat ace captured in a raid on Falmouth. A female American doctor caught in the nightmare of flying bombs. A gunboat commander who’s fought from the Solomons to the Channel and a rear admiral desperate to get some of the action. Allies and enemies, men and women, the hunters and the haunted all drawn into the eye of the storm.
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Air Battle Force
Maverick pilot Patrick McLanahan takes aerial warfare into unknown territory in an explosive new adventure from the bestselling author of FLIGHT OF THE OLD DOG, WARRIOR CLASS and WINGS OF FIRE. On America’s newest combat base McLanahan and his crew are devising the air combat unit of the future – the Air Battle Force. An elite team backed by leading-edge technology, they control an armada of unmanned planes that can reach any spot on the globe within hours, and they will have their first target when an oil dispute turns Turkmenistan into an international battleground. But can a handful of commandos and an unproven force of experimental warplanes fight and win a war in which seemingly everyone – even ‘friendly’ forces at home – wants them to fail?
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Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium Vol.6
The Simpsons bring big laughs in a colossal compendium that’s too big to fail! Discover the reason why Homer Simpson seems to have a new job every week. Then, power mad powerbroker Mr. Burns makes a power grab with his newest power-propelled product. And Marge is back on "the beat" when she teams up with Chief Wiggum to find out why all the donuts in Springfield have gone missing! Throw in Lisa’s bout of synesthesia, a McBain matinee, a rapturous event that leaves Ned Flanders behind, and Bart’s bilingual battle with a piñata, and you have another comic cornucopia of colossal proportions. And music lovers, look no further for that shiny new saxomaphone or tubamaba with your very own paper construct of King Toot’s Music Store.
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Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium Vol.5
Matt Groening, the creator and executive producer of the Emmy® Award-winning series The Simpsons, as well as creator of the cartoon strip "Life in Hell" and the animated FOX television series Futurama, is the man responsible for bringing animation back to primetime and creating an immortal nuclear family. In addition, Groening formed Bongo Comics Group in 1993 and currently serves as publisher of The Simpsons Library of Wisdom, Simpsons Episode Guides, Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson Comics, Radioactive Man Comics, Simpsons Comics Treasure Trove, the annual Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, Futurama Comics and more than 36 comic compilations, as well as many instant classics including Bart Simpsons Guide to Life, The Simpsons Handbook and The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album.