The Whispering Tree of Bengaluru

The Whispering Tree of Bengaluru

Author: Sridhar Pai Tonse

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2020-12-04

Total Pages: 77

ISBN-13: 1636697100

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On a summer afternoon in 2015, I was driving alone by car along the west coast from Mangalore to Goa. As I revelled at the scenery, I suddenly felt something odd. The next minute, the landscape changed tremendously. A massive wave of emotion took over forcing me to stop. The street was silent. The tree in front of me was ablaze with something I had never seen before. It beckoned. Every leaf, branch, and the trunk lit up with an unimaginable radiance. I was stunned. It was a transformative moment for me. Trees speak. And this Neem tree, growing up along the Margosa Road in the mid-1950s in Malleshwaram, has a story of her own. She develops a special affection for Balu, a child next door. A wonderful relationship develops between them. Till one day, young Balu leaves the city. She misses the little boy. Decades later, she narrates her life, their daily battles for survival, an incredible ‘social web’ that keeps the planet alive. And life in old Bengaluru. What happened to Balu? And to the tree? Did they meet again? What was her life like? What message does she share for humanity? Hear from the whispering tree.


Endlessly Green

Endlessly Green

Author: Savita Hiremath

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 8195131735

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Endlessly Green looks at the history, the science and the art of composting and sustainable waste management through a kaleidoscope of philosophical, moral and ethical intricacies. The author digs into her rich pool of experiential learnings and raw inputs gathered through a decade of research, legwork and fearless execution. This engaging field guide equips community volunteers, activists, students, SWM practitioners and professionals with practical inputs on segregation, composting and organic gardening/farming, making sustainability imaginable in a concrete jungle. In doing so, it helps individuals discover the possibilities of bringing about a change in their environment by engaging their own environmental sensibilities. Endlessly Green is an extraordinary celebration of things small and significant and the fight against waste, culminating in a replicable and scalable end-to-end solution.


Analog/Virtual

Analog/Virtual

Author: Lavanya Lakshminarayan

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 9389253098

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We are a Meritocratic Technarchy. We are the future of the human race.’ The world’s nations have collapsed, and a handful of city states form the remains of civilization. Erstwhile Bangalore is now rebranded, ruled by the insidious Bell Corporation. Welcome to Apex City. Here, technology is the key to survival, productivity is power, and the self must be engineered for the only noble goal in life: success. With the right image, values and opinions, you can ascend to the ranks of the Virtual elite and have the new world at your feet. The price of failure is deportation: you are marked an Analog, with no access to electricity, running water or your humanity. Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s extraordinary debut sinks its teeth into this dystopian future, offering a glimpse into a world we may be dangerously close to inheriting. Brilliant, searing and imaginative, the stories in Analog/Virtual will make us question our choices and rethink who we want to be.


The Valley of Flowers

The Valley of Flowers

Author: Frank Smythe

Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing

Published: 2015-08-25

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 191024032X

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In his delightful The Valley of Flowers, mountaineer Frank Smythe takes you on a botanical expedition to the Garhwal Himalaya. Alongside the author, scale the steep craggy mountains and bathe in crystal clear pools; breathe in the scented foothills of the Himalaya and their carpets of peonies, roses, rhododendrons and gentian. Experience 'the keen, biting air of the heights and the soft, scented air of the valleys'. Climber and adventurer Smythe journeys through the Himalaya's Byundar Pass, climbs the Mana Peak, descends into the Byundar Valley, and comes terrifyingly close to an encounter with The Abominable Snowman. The Valley of Flowers is a pleasurable escape for any climber, walker, mountain lover or gardener, or indeed anyone who needs reminding of the beauty and serenity of the natural world.


Language and Society in South Asia

Language and Society in South Asia

Author: Michael C. Shapiro

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

Published: 2008-09-30

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9788120826076

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During the past two decades there has been a significant amount of research and publication concerning the sociolinguistics of South Asian languages. Language and Society in South Asia is the first major attempt to assess the impact of this new literature. It exposits the methodological and theoretical assumptions of sociolinguistic descriptions of south Asian languages, and contrasts them with the assumptions of earlier characterizations of these languages. An important feature of this book is its detailed examination of numerous schools of linguistic analysis within which most past descriptive work on South Asian languages has been carried out. This is done in language accessible both to the professional linguist and to non-linguists interested in social aspects of language use in South Asia. Among the topics treated in this book are traditional taxonomies of South Asian languages, South Asia as a linguistic area, social dialectology, bi- and multilingualism in South Asia, pidginization, creolization, and South Asian English, ethnographic semantics, and the ethnography of speaking. The work also contains an extensive bibliography of the scholarly literature pertinent to the study of South Asian languages in their social contexts.


Turning Into Art

Turning Into Art

Author: Viveka Sahasrani

Publisher:

Published: 2021-12-22

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13:

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Turning into Art is all about turning yourself into art. Through emotions, Through body and Through life. Everytime we walk through the crisis, it is our emotions that happens to react first, followed by the body and life. Even if the crisis happens to the body or life, our emotions tend to show up first as in order....


Great Stories for Children

Great Stories for Children

Author: Ruskin Bond

Publisher: Rupa Publications

Published: 2011-11

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 9788129118929

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Great Stories for Children is a collection of some of Ruskin Bond's most delightful children's stories. It stars Toto, the monkey, who takes a fancy to the narrator's aunt, much to her dismay, a python besotted by his own appearance, a mischievous ghost who enjoys stirring up the house when things get dull, three young children stranded in a storm on the Haunted Hilland Ruskin Bond himself, who happens to make the acquaintance of a ghost at a resort late one night.


How India Works

How India Works

Author: Aarti Kelshikar

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2018-08-01

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 9352777727

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An article in the Harvard Business Review once said that the most valuable skill for the 21st century manager is the ability to work across cultures. Around the world, it is increasingly recognized that an understanding of a country's work culture plays a significant part in success at one's job. Every group of people has subtle drivers of behaviour, values and beliefs, an understanding of which could help you navigate your way around the workplace. Indians are no exception. We have some innate strengths that we seldom take credit for. Like the uncommon capacity to deal with ambiguity and to think on the fly; the emphasis we place on forming and sustaining relationships at work; and the willingness to go beyond the call of duty as we see our jobs as an extension of our personal lives. And then there are traits that may confuse the uninitiated at first and need some getting used to - such as saying 'yes' to an assigned task when we actually mean 'no', our flexible attitude to time, and the famous Indian head wag. Based on extensive interviews with corporate leaders - Indians as well as expatriates and repatriates, who offer insider and outsider perspectives on the psyche of the Indian in the workplace - How India Works is a guide to the cultural nuances and complexities of working in India. It will make your life in office a little easier.


Sita Under The Crescent Moon

Sita Under The Crescent Moon

Author: Annie Ali Khan

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 9386797496

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In present-day Pakistan, in the far corners of Lyari in Karachi, or Hingol in Balochistan, or Thatta in Sindh, tightly knit groups of women keep alive the folklore, songs and legends of Sati—their name for Sita in the Ramayana. The way they sustain the attendant rituals and practices in a nation state with a fixed idea of what constitutes citizenship and who gets to be a primary citizen is at the heart of this book. In Sita under the Crescent Moon, author Annie Ali Khan travels with women devotees—those without resources, subject to intense violence—who, through the bravest and simplest act, that of a pilgrimage, retrace what they remember of the goddess. Who are these pilgrims? How did this relationship with Sati start, and why is she so significant? How do their oral mytho-histories compare to colonial narratives or mainstream definitions of Sati? Even while retelling the stories of these pilgrims, Sita under the Crescent Moon studies how worship has altered the mores of a land—and how the sacral site, made up of clay and thread and tumble weed, grants a woman power to fight against her circumstances.


Where I'm from

Where I'm from

Author: Steven Borsman

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13:

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"In the Fall of 2010 I gave an assignment in my Appalachian Literature class at Berea College, telling my students to write their own version of "Where I'm From" poem based on the writing prompt and poem by George Ella Lyon, one of the preeminent Appalachian poets. I was so impressed by the results of the assignment that I felt the poems needed to be preserved in a bound document. Thus, this little book. These students completely captured the complexities of this region and their poems contain all the joys and sorrows of living in Appalachia. I am proud that they were my students and I am very proud that together we produced this record of contemporary Appalachian Life" -- Silas House