From the creator-producer of Savdhaan India, the producer of Crime Patrol, and the bestselling author of The Deadly Dozen: India's Most Notorious Serial Killers, comes the true story behind one of India's biggest and most sensational bank heists 31st December 2007. New Year's Eve. A sleepy town in Kerala called Chelembra finds itself in the national headlines for India's biggest bank heist to the tune of a whopping Rs 8 crore which included 80 kg of gold. A crime that was supposedly inspired by a Bollywood blockbuster, this is the sensational story of that heist seen from both sides of the coin-the planning and execution by the mastermind criminals, and the difficult, yet thrilling, investigation by the Kerala police team led by P. Vijayan. Constructed from extensive first-person interviews of the police team that solved the crime and the confession details of the criminals, this is the true story of how India's biggest bank heist was executed and the cat-and-mouse game that ensued.
From the creator-producer of Savdhaan India, the producer of Crime Patrol, and the bestselling author of The Deadly Dozen: India's Most Notorious Serial Killers, comes the true story behind one of India's biggest and most sensational bank heists 31st December 2007. New Year's Eve. A sleepy town in Kerala called Chelembra finds itself in the national headlines for India's biggest bank heist to the tune of a whopping Rs 8 crore which included 80 kg of gold. A crime that was supposedly inspired by a Bollywood blockbuster, this is the sensational story of that heist seen from both sides of the coin-the planning and execution by the mastermind criminals, and the difficult, yet thrilling, investigation by the Kerala police team led by P. Vijayan. Constructed from extensive first-person interviews of the police team that solved the crime and the confession details of the criminals, this is the true story of how India's biggest bank heist was executed and the cat-and-mouse game that ensued.
A schoolteacher who killed multiple paramours with cyanide; a mother who trained her daughters to kill children; a thug from the 1800s who slaughtered more than 900 people, a manservant who killed girls and devoured their body parts. If you thought serial killers was a Western phenomenon, think again! These bone-chilling stories in The Deadly Dozen will take you into the hearts and heads of India's most devious murderers and schemers, exploring what made them kill and why?
Vimal never wanted to get involved in the heist. Now that he's been roped in, he just hopes he can finish the job without getting caught. His partners have other plans, however, and soon Vimal finds himself playing a deadly game with the kingpin of the Punjab underworld... First published in 1977 and reprinted over fifteen times, Painsath Lakh ki Dakaiti is the fourth book in Surender Mohan Pathak's hugely popular 'Vimal' series, the book that launched a whole genre of anti-hero Hindi crime fiction. This is the first time SMP's work has been translated into English.
This book will look at digital popular cultures in the post-millennial Indian context and trace patterns of consumption and forms of agency that it engenders thus offering an interpretative analysis of digital content on different platforms. The book consists of three sections. The first section centres around novel practices such as transnational consumption of digital popular content. The second section deals with influencer marketing and the ways in which mediated personalities get transformed. The third section includes textual analysis of OTT and other digital content in order to understand its effects on refashioning social identities such as class caste and gender.
Monsoons are around and like the water flows, creativity also flows out in the form of thoughts. Thoughts are free and so does creativity which is limitless. So to keep the ideas flowing, we kept the theme for this month's issue of Storizen as Open. We are super glad to have The Only Indian Legal Thriller Writer in the World, Vish Dhamija on the Cover. Do check out the exclusive cover feature on page 8. Women, you need to take extra care of your health, especially after the age of 40. This month in Storizen Health, we have covered the topic of improving Women's Health in India. Do check it out on page 26. Are you afraid of getting married or it's just a perception of Gen Z? Do check out the take on the subject by Ankur R Gupta on page 18 inside! This issue is power packed with lovely articles, poetry, interviews and of course a lot of books and we are sure that you can't miss this issue.
WhatsApp is used by over half a billion people in India today in all fields – in business, corporate and informal sectors, in government, for education and among friends, families and acquaintances. This book critically explores the social messaging app’s rapid expansion in India and its growing influence and looks at whether, as a form of horizontal communication, it poses a challenge to more traditional structures of communication. The book examines WhatsApp’s spread in the personal and professional lives of Indians and the myriad ways in which people in India are using the app in social and business interactions, including among people living with disabilities. Using case studies, interviews, surveys and in-depth research, it analyses key aspects of WhatsApp’s massive popularity and its impact on how people communicate. It also explores its impact on the psycho-social dynamics in India, including the dissemination of fake news and politically motivated content, and the consequent need for media regulation in the country. One of the first books to analyse the pervasiveness of WhatsApp and social media apps in different areas of Indian society, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of media studies, communication studies, digital media, cultural studies, cyberculture studies, sociology and social policy and media law.
“Spine chilling … written with flair and clear-eyed acidity.” — The New Yorker Based on actual events, The Story of My Assassins tells the story of a journalist who learns that the police have captured five hitmen on their way to kill him. Landing like a bombshell on his comfortable life, just as he’s started a steamy affair with a brilliant woman, the news prompts him to launch an urgent investigation into the lives of his aspiring murderers—a ragtag group of street thugs and village waifs—and their mastermind. Who wanted him dead, and why? But the investigation forces him to reexamine his own life, too—to confront his own notion of himself, his job, and his treatment of the women in his life, as well as his own complex feelings about the country that crafted his would-be killers. Part thriller and part erotic romance, full of dark humor and knife-edged suspense, The Story of My Assassins is a piercing literary novel that takes us from the lavish, hedonistic palaces of India’s elite to its seediest slums. It is a novel of corruption, passion, power, and ambition; of extreme poverty and obscene wealth. It is an awesome adventure into the heart of today’s India.
India is a lumbering, elephantine State that cannot be expected to pivot around its heels, irrespective of the capability, intentions and skills of its present mahout. That may explain why it took 67 long years to resurrect prime minister-ship by electing for the first time a deserving astute down to earth eminently-suited politician who had tasted poverty and hard work and seems to be the one to relate to citizens’ aspirations and needs. He possesses vision and necessary will to transform a fledgling country into a mega economy and world power. Narendra Modi, as a truly nationalistic politician, may be taller than Nehru. He became the first ever PM to visit INA Memorial in Singapore. And the first Indian in four centuries to inspect a ‘Guard of Honor’ from the British Army in London! However, thanks to Congress party’s dirty politics, he inherited a deeply divisive polity, rusted three pillars of democracy muddled with long-nurtured anti-nationalistic media. Modi earned kudos whichever nation he visited. His maiden American trip four months after taking over was a raving success hitherto not achieved by any of his predecessors that included three trips each by Nehru and Indira and double that number by Modi’s incompetent and ineffectual immediate predecessor – a puppet in the hands of his Italy-born white Catholic lady boss! During the 18 months, Modi has been showing promise by undoubtedly raising the stature of the country globally. Back home, deeply and widely pervading corruption, divisiveness, illiteracy and lack of nationalism are sinister and life-threatening ailments needing drastic cure. We are corrupt and, therefore, elect corrupt politicians. The latest is Bihar's humongous mandate on communal lines: First-time MLA sons of a convicted (for corruption) politician become ministers – the ninth class-fail deputy CM and 12th class as health minister. Till the time we become dutiful, nationalistic and sincere the status quo is not going to change. We must ‘educate’ our masses in general but our youngsters who are the future custodians of the country in particular but not up to the mark in many ways. The generations born after independence have to understand the true account/value of the hard-won freedom and imbibe our civilization and culture. Only then the misconceptions on created ‘fictional’ heroes can be rectified. Only then our younger folks can appreciate the importance of their duties to their motherland. Our politicians must become Hindustanis first and foremost, start working for the benefit of their compatriots rather their own families. They must forthwith stop eschew vote-bank politics. Only when all of us are patriotic enough we can offer a united front against biggest threat to us from terrorism incited and inflicted by Pakistan for decades; aided and abetted by so many anti-nationalistic political parties who also will have to mend their nasty ways and allow the parliament to function smoothly so that agenda on economic reforms can move forward. All of us have to contribute whole-heartedly for progress and development. Every citizen irrespective of caste/creed must exhibit an apparent firm and free will to work towards the betterment of the land. We must weed out the mindset where people live here but their loyalty lies elsewhere as dictated by the leaders of their faith. No religious law can take priority over the national law. There has to be common civil code so that everyone is treated equally. The way things stand today, we are only going down and down. This will continue unless we correct our mindset and course radically! Hindus’ extreme tolerance during last millennium led to rise of intolerant Islam aided and abetted by Congress and its cronies and like-minded parties. Hindustan has been looted and marauded by foreigners and bled high and dry of its richness and natural resources. Alas! This loot continued after independence by parties in power. Modi has somehow disturbed the looters’ political thought process by challenging it with their ideology and hence has been declared 'Intolerable' since they see no future if Modi continues the good work for his motherland. I do hope that our people wake unitedly to become truly democratically independent nation. Our paid, purchased and partisan media will have to become neutral, non-biased and nationalistic. If not contained, our electronic media, left liberals and pseudo-seculars wil ruin the country. The anti-nationalistic politicians must shun their derogatory practices of belittling the country in every forum and seriously consider their duty and debt to their motherland as their primary function. Otherwise, we are not far from our doomsday. Thus it is now or never for us Hindustanis to rise and stand erect steadfast!
