Munshi Premchand's Godaan
Munshi Premchand's Godaan

Author: Premacanda

Publisher: Pustak Mahal

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 8122310672

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Godaan is one of the most celebrated novels of Munshi Premchand. Set in pre-independence India, the novel captures social and economic conflict in a north Indian village. The story revolves around Horiram, a poor village farmer, and the struggle of his family to survive and maintain their self-respect. Horiram does everything in his capacity to fulfil his sole desire to own a cow, which is considered a farmer's source of wealth and happiness. One of the classics of Indian literature, the book offers an insight into the colonial history of India, captures the ethnic flavour of the Indian villages and also catches the human emotions in all their rawness.

A Singular Hostage
A Singular Hostage

Author: Thalassa Ali

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2008-12-10

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0307490998

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In a land of exotic splendor, a young Englishwoman finds herself guardian of an orphan child believed by a dying maharajah to be endowed with magical gifts. It is a role that will take her on a perilous journey into a kingdom’s walled city to protect a child she doesn’t know from a culture she doesn’t understand... A Singular Hostage The year is 1838. Mariana Givens, a spirited young woman of twenty, has been sent to India to find a suitable husband. Traveling as a translator, she joins the entourage of Lord Auckland, the British Governor-General, as he journeys across India with an army ten thousand strong to meet the fabled Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of the Punjab. Eager young officers compete for Mariana’s favor, but it is with India that she falls in love: the baggage elephants tramping through country vast and wild; the scent of exotic foods at remote campsites; the enigmatic tutor who is her guide to native languages and ways. Lord Auckland must forge an alliance with Ranjit Singh that will deliver Afghanistan into British control, but as he negotiates his crucial treaty, Mariana is drawn into a perilous conspiracy surrounding the one-eyed Maharajah’s baby hostage--a child of mystical repute named Saboor.

Under an Indifferent Heaven
Under an Indifferent Heaven

Author: Sharad Keskar

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2016-01-13

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1504994973

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In 1881, in the village of Pali, a seven-year-old boy, forced to make sense of his fathers desertion and mothers early death, finds himself expelled from family and community. An outcast, he is taken on a bullock-cart journey to an orphanage, where Das Gupta, its clerk, aware of the boys high-caste, takes him to meet Jacob Rivers, Agnes, and their daughter, Esther. Soon he learns that as an infant, he was secretly baptised and named Michael and that Rivers knew his father. Esther tutors Michael in English, while her father, aware that British Rule in India must in time end, prepares his boys for that future. He is supported by Nawab Ali Baig, who, when Rivers is unfairly sacked, helps ease the hardships of the familys journey back to Assam. At Calcutta they disperseEsther to school in England, Michael to a College run by British philanthropists, and Rivers to the wilds of Assam. Near his eighteenth birthday, Michaels friend Philip invites him home. He meets and is immediately infatuated by Philips sister, Lily. Her rich Bengali father, impressed by Michael, has plans for him. But these are shelved by news of the horrific murders of Jacob and Agnes Rivers and by Michaels need to visit the graves of those he dearly loved. Philips father funds his trip on the understanding he returns to marry Lily. In Assam, Michael finds a grieving Esther and discovers she had never forgotten him. Something in their encounter prevents him from telling her about Lily but promises to visit her in England, a promise hell soon keep, because Lily has eloped with her college tutor. Philips proud but superstitious father tells Philip, about to leave for Oxford, to give Michael the ill-fated wedding dowry and wants never to see it or Michael again. But Philip remains true, and when Michael arrives in England, he sees a new man, one bent to win Esther and take her back with him to India.