The Legend of Virinara
The Legend of Virinara

Author: Usha Alexander

Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 9353050154

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A lone woman travels fearlessly into the jungle to confront the enemy. She holds the fate of an entire world in her hands. The year is 120 ce. The Ashwamedha Yagna has established young Vijay the ruler of Virinara, a mighty city-state of south India. Soon after the kingdom starts to expand into the surrounding forests, its glittering capital, Dandavrut, is attacked in a brazen act of terror. Even as Raja Vijay unleashes his forces against the nomadic forest dwellers, his beloved sister Shanti treks secretly into the wilderness-and falls in love with the handsome warrior Narun. Will love triumph over hubris, and Shanti forge a new destiny for her people? A thrilling tale of adventure and political intrigue, The Legend of Virinara stirs up timeless questions about war and peace. This is a powerful parable of our times.

Only the Eyes Are Mine
Only the Eyes Are Mine

Author: Usha Alexander

Publisher: Booksurge Publishing

Published: 2008-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781419684401

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A mesmerizing tale of betrayal, survival, spirit, and endurance, this engrossing novel presents a nuanced look at the power of love, integrity, and self-knowledge.

Indians
Indians

Author: Namit Arora

Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

Published: 2021-01-18

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 9353052874

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What do we really know about the Aryan migration theory and why is that debate so hot? Why did the people of Khajuraho carve erotic scenes on their temple walls? What did the monks at Nalanda eat for dinner? Did our ideals of beauty ever prefer dark skin? Indian civilization is an idea, a reality, an enigma. In this riveting book, Namit Arora takes us on an unforgettable journey through 5000 years of history, reimagining in rich detail the social and cultural moorings of Indians through the ages. Drawing on credible sources, he discovers what inspired and shaped them: their political upheavals and rivalries, customs and vocations, and a variety of unusual festivals. Arora makes a stop at six iconic places -- the Harappan city of Dholavira, the Ikshvaku capital at Nagarjunakonda, the Buddhist centre of learning at Nalanda, enigmatic Khajuraho, Vijayanagar at Hampi, and historic Varanasi -- enlivening the narrative with vivid descriptions, local stories and evocative photographs. Punctuating this are chronicles of famous travellers who visited India -- including Megasthenes, Xuanzang, Alberuni and Marco Polo -- whose dramatic and idiosyncratic tales conceal surprising insights about our land. In lucid, elegant prose, Arora explores the exciting churn of ideas, beliefs and values of our ancestors through millennia -- some continue to shape modern India, while others have been lost forever. An original, deeply engaging and extensively researched work, Indians illuminates a range of histories coursing through our veins.

Half of What I Say
Half of What I Say

Author: Anil Menon

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-30

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9385436511

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Conflicted over his sinister duties with the Lokshakti, Vyas writes a confessional love-letter to his wife. But how did the letter end up with the scholar-politician, Durga Dhasal? And when the Lokshakti murders Dhasal, Vyas has to find the incriminating letter before it's too late. The trail leads Vyas to various people, including: the passionate scientist torn between exit and loyalty; the businessman who collects ruins; the beguiling actress who was once Shahzadi Jahanara; the eunuch poet fond of Jewish jokes. It leads him to a powerful, subversive new myth. The lost letter leads Vyas to himself.

The Indian Ideology
The Indian Ideology

Author: Perry Anderson

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2021-07-13

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1788732715

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The historiography of modern India is largely a pageant of presumed virtues: harmonious territorial unity, religious impartiality, the miraculous survival of electoral norms in the world’s most populous democracy. Even critics of Indian society still underwrite such claims. But how well does the “Idea of India” correspond to the realities of the Union? In an iconoclastic intervention, Marxist historian Perry Anderson provides an unforgettable reading of the Subcontinent’s passage through Independence and the catastrophe of Partition, the idiosyncratic and corrosive vanities of Gandhi and Nehru, and the close interrelationship of Indian democracy and caste inequality. The Indian Ideology caused uproar on first publication in 2012, not least for breaking with euphemisms for Delhi’s occupation of Kashmir. This new, expanded edition includes the author’s reply to his critics, an interview with the Indian weekly Outlook, and a postscript on India under the rule of Narendra Modi.

Paro
Paro

Author: Gokhale Namita

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780143100997

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Paro Is A Heroic Temptress, Alluring And Rapacious, The Stuff Of Legend. As She Wanders Through The World Of Privilege And Scotch Whisky That The Urban Rich Inhabit, She Is Constantly Observed By The Acid Priya, Eternal Voyeur And Diarist& This Is A Dazzling Moral Tale, Sharp, Sexy And Funny.

Desperate in Dubai
Desperate in Dubai

Author: Ameera Al Hakawati

Publisher: Random House India

Published: 2011-11-20

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 8184002319

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Oozing with men, money, and Maseratis, Dubai is the ultimate playground for the woman who knows her Louboutins from her Louis Vuittons. But for some, there’s a lot more at stake than a Hermes Birkin. Leila has been in search of a wealthy husband for over a decade. Nadia moves to Dubai to support her husband’s career, only to have her sacrifices thrown in her face. Sugar escapes the UK in an attempt to escape her past. Lady Luxe, the rebellious Emirati heiress, scoffs at everything her culture holds sacred. Until the day her double life starts unravelling at the seams. Set against a backdrop of luxury hotels and manmade islands, Desperate in Dubai tells the tale of four desperate women as they struggle to find truth, love, and themselves.

An End to Suffering
An End to Suffering

Author: Pankaj Mishra

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2010-08-24

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1429933631

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An End to Suffering is a deeply original and provocative book about the Buddha's life and his influence throughout history, told in the form of the author's search to understand the Buddha's relevance in a world where class oppression and religious violence are rife, and where poverty and terrorism cast a long, constant shadow. Mishra describes his restless journeys into India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, among Islamists and the emerging Hindu middle class, looking for this most enigmatic of religious figures, exploring the myths and places of the Buddha's life, and discussing Western explorers' "discovery" of Buddhism in the nineteenth century. He also considers the impact of Buddhist ideas on such modern politicians as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. As he reflects on his travels and on his own past, Mishra shows how the Buddha wrestled with problems of personal identity, alienation, and suffering in his own, no less bewildering, times. In the process Mishra discovers the living meaning of the Buddha's teaching, in the world and for himself. The result is the most three-dimensional, convincing book on the Buddha that we have.

The Social Conquest of Earth
The Social Conquest of Earth

Author: Edward O. Wilson

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2012-04-09

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0871403307

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New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Book of the Year (Nonfiction) Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence (Nonfiction) From the most celebrated heir to Darwin comes a groundbreaking book on evolution, the summa work of Edward O. Wilson's legendary career. Sparking vigorous debate in the sciences, The Social Conquest of Earth upends “the famous theory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first” (Discover). Refashioning the story of human evolution, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to demonstrate that group selection, not kin selection, is the premier driving force of human evolution. In a work that James D. Watson calls “a monumental exploration of the biological origins of the human condition,” Wilson explains how our innate drive to belong to a group is both a “great blessing and a terrible curse” (Smithsonian). Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, the renowned Harvard University biologist presents us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition and why it resulted in our domination of the Earth’s biosphere.

The Truth About Me
The Truth About Me

Author: A Revathi

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2010-07-10

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 8184752717

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We got stared at a lot. People asked out loudly—some out of curiosity, others out of malice—whether we were men or women or ‘number nines’ or devadasis. Several men made bold to touch us, on our backs, on our shoulders. Some attempted to grab our breasts. ‘Original or duplicate?’ they shouted and hooted. At such moments I felt despair and wondered if there would ever be a way for us to live with dignity and make a decent living. Revathi was born a boy, but felt and behaved like a girl. In telling her life story, Revathi evokes marvellously the deep unease of being in the wrong body that plagued her from childhood. To be true to herself, to escape the constant violence visited upon her by her family and community, the village-born Revathi ran away to Delhi to join a house of hijras. Her life became an incredible series of dangerous physical and emotional journeys to become a woman and to find love. The Truth about Me is the unflinchingly courageous and moving autobiography of a hijra who fought ridicule, persecution and violence both within her home and outside to find a life of dignity.