Dasuram's Script


Book Description

Sixteen stories from award-winning contemporary Odia writers A jobless graduate returns home one day and smothers his faultless wife to death; a ten year old girl is sold off by her parents to an eighty year old man; a newlywed woman discovers that her husband was married to a tree before she arrived; a tribal poet creates a script for his dialect while in jail; a young girl falls hopelessly in love with her boyfriend's father. These are stories of human struggle and of the moral dilemmas people and societies are faced with. Marked by the singular yearning of man to rise above his conditions, they are set in a disturbed landscape both abject in its deprivations and intriguing in its beliefs.




Writing Language, Culture, and Development


Book Description

Writing Language, Culture and Development has 2 essays, 6 stories, 63 poems, 2 plays, and 50 translations into 13 languages; Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Kiswahili, Shona, Hausa, Idoma, Igbo, Akan Twi, and of course, English, from Authors and poets who reside in these among other countries: South Africa, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, China, Korea, Rusia, Tunisia, Nigeria, India, USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya, and the UK, who are connected to these two continents, Asia and Africa. Nurturing South-South interactions and interlocutions, spiritually is an open ended discourse and praxis. It is envisioned that this ground-breaking idea will serve as a testament to future cooperations between the two continents. It is hoped Africa and Asia can use their competencies, i.e., human capital, culture, and langauges, histories, and deconstructionist agendas, to create developmental competences and this book highlights and explore a number of pathways that creatives of the two lands can explore and exploit as they march into a future of Weltliteratur. The cast and nature of the book and its content is a product of thought, imagination and environment. We invite you to it’s offerings that individually, and collectively, accentuate our allied artistic commitment to the Humanities as an arena of thought on identities, languages, cultures, histories and epistemologies of postcolonial posture.




India


Book Description

A veteran Intelligence official's account of the Emergency and other important events in independent India's history India: The Crucial Years is an incisive look at a key period in independent India's history, informed by the six decades T.V. Rajeswar spent in the thick of affairs of national importance. In the course of his long career in the Intelligence Bureau, Rajeswar looked after the border check posts in Sikkim and was a fly on the wall in the entourages of presidents and prime ministers. As one of Indira Gandhi's trusted aides, he played an important role during the Emergency, providing her regular feedback. He was shunted out by the Janata regime but bounced back as the spy agency's chief two years later. During his stint, he was deeply involved in revamping the IB, was part of crucial controversies like the Samba Spy Case, and strove to clamp down on intelligence elements compromising national interest. When Bhindranwale was at the peak of his power in Punjab, Rajeswar tried to broker a settlement with a top Akali Dal functionary, but Mrs Gandhi turned down the proposal and waded deeper into the quagmire. Towards the end of his career, Rajeswar was successively appointed governor of four states. India: The Crucial Years is an examination of the nation's most decisive moments, with a focus on the 1970s and early '80s. Rajeswar rings a cautionary note on several international and domestic matters -- be it India's conflict with China, the question of the real mole in Mrs Gandhi's government, or the issue of political authoritarianism. Forthright, often prophetic and packed with revelations, this is a compelling chronicle of India.




Spark of Light


Book Description

Spark of Light is a diverse collection of short stories by women writers from the Indian province of Odisha. Originally written in Odia and dating from the late nineteenth century to the present, these stories offer a multiplicity of voices—some sentimental and melodramatic, others rebellious and bold—and capture the predicament of characters who often live on the margins of society. From a spectrum of viewpoints, writing styles, and motifs, the stories included here provide examples of the great richness of Odishan literary culture. In the often shadowy and grim world depicted in this collection, themes of class, poverty, violence, and family are developed. Together they form a critique of social mores and illuminate the difficult lives of the subaltern in Odisha society. The work of these authors contributes to an ongoing dialogue concerning the challenges, hardships, joys, and successes experienced by women around the world. In these provocative explorations of the short-story form, we discover the voices of these rarely heard women.




Sugandhi Alias Andal Devanayaki


Book Description

'Takes the Malayalam novel to new heights and fresh possibilities.' - The HinduWhen Peter Jeevanandam arrives in Sri Lanka to shoot a movie about a human rights activist ostensibly murdered by the LTTE, the government is more than willing to help. What they don't know is that he is also searching for Sugandhi - an LTTE member, and the love of his life.As Peter stumbles upon and becomes part of a plot to kill the president, reality, history, myth and fiction collide in explosive, illuminating ways.Sugandhi Alias Andal Devanayaki is a daring novel that portrays the violence inherent in both fascism and revolution.Winner of the 2017 Vayalar Award and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.




Shifting Perspectives in Tribal Studies


Book Description

This book brings together multidisciplinarity, desirability and possibility of consilience of borderline studies which are topically diverse and methodologically innovative. It includes contemporary tribal issues within anthropology and other disciplines. In addition, the chapters underline the analytical sophistication, theoretical soundness and empirical grounding in the area of emerging core perspectives in tribal studies. The volume alludes to the emergence of tribal studies as an independent academic discipline of its own rights. It offers the opportunity to consider the entire intellectual enterprise of understanding disciplinary and interdisciplinary dualism, to move beyond interdisciplinarity of the science-humanities divide and to conceptualise a core of theoretical perspectives in tribal studies. The book proves an indispensable reference point for those interested in studying tribes in general and who are engaged in the process of developing tribal studies as a discipline in particular.




Citadel of Love


Book Description

Based on folklore, legends and myths, and backed by meticulous research, Citadel of Love is set in Odisha of the thirteenth-century-considered the state's golden age, when the Konark temple was being built under King Narasimha Deva's patronage. A modern-day foreigner, Charles, arrives with his fiancée to study the Konark region. As he discovers palm leaf manuscripts and records tales that were handed down generations, he begins to have strange experiences. A woman's statue, in particular, haunts him till he is transported to a time when she was alive and the Konark complex was under construction. Two mystical love stories of the past unfold, even as new romance blooms in Charles' life. Surreal, mysterious and often bordering on the magical-real, this is a tale of passion that spans centuries.




Muhnochwa


Book Description

Excerpts from stories:Muhnochwa the face scratcher:But there was a person in the village who was unafraid of Muhnochwa. He was drinker Sadanand. He remains intoxicated 24 hours. In fact Sadanand is happy with Muhnochwa because due to Muhnochwa he is getting his wine easily. If some villager has some urgent work outside in night, he sends Sadanand or takes Sadanand with him. And in back Sadanand gets wine. Thus Sadanand was taking benefit from Muhnochwa. But there were some more peoples, who were taking benefit of Muhnochwa. Like Pandit Sahiram; He was afraid of Muhnochwa, but sells 'Muhnochwa safety amulet' to innocent villagers. Like moneylender Dukhiram; He begins to take double interest on given loan as 'Muhnochwa risk tax' saying that if the person is killed by Muhnochwa then his money will be lost. Local thug Gulathi and Lukathi begin to plunder peoples by appearing in Muhnochwa's getup. Police station in-charge Sherkhan too begins to take benefit of Muhnochwa. Sherkhan is too much scared of Muhnochwa. Brave constable Madhaw tries to encourage him to catch Muhnochwa. But Sherkhan exits police station in the name of catching Muhnochwa and comes to village with Madhaw. And he starts troubling villagers by demanding chicken, mutton, wine and money saying that he will free them from Muhnochwa's terror. Madhaw heartily wants to catch Muhnochwa. But Sherkhan doesn't allow him to go because Muhnochwa can kill sharekhan in alone.Shivanand:10 years old boy Aditya was in the crowd at that moment. Shivanand's words had set fire inside him too. Aditya picked a stone and hit the police officer. To see this small rebellion, smile had appeared on Shivanand's bleeding lips.Shivanand says that he won't commit the mistake again, what he had committed 15 years back. He will fight his battle, he will continue his mission, but this time he won't become the hero, he will make the citizens heroes. If there is one hero, he can be ruined easily. But if whole citizens become the hero, then none can defeat them.The Truth:Sometimes, when he sits for meditation, he feels that something reaches on the back part of his brain by passing through his back bone from lower end and suddenly he feels a flow of some peculiar energy in to his whole body and his flowing existence towards meditation just returns back with a great frustration.Antas:Till now Antas had reformed innumerous thieves, goons, loafers, pickpockets, murderers, terrorists... Till now Antas had reformed innumerous corrupt police officers, corrupt public servants and corrupt politicians... and had made them honest, dutiful and loyal to country. Antas' hypnotism was so wonderful that if once someone comes in his clutch; it was quite impossible for him or her to return without reformation!And it was the reason that criminals, corrupt officers and corrupt politicians were scared even of Antas' shadow! Because they were fearful that if once Antas got the chance to hypnotize them, he will reform them. And nobody wants to get reformed!U R MINE...!Joy fears from a lizard but if there is a danger on Julie, he can fight with dinosaur. He can't go alone in darkness but for Julie he can visit the graveyard in no-moon night. He can't face the local baddy but for Julie he can challenge mafia. Yes, he loves Julie... He keeps trying to express his love to Julie but fails. And Julie, she uses to call Joy 'Gogo'....Buka can't face the power of monks. And so is with Joy. Buka says to Joy -'I know that you want to rescue Julie from Monks because you love her. And you know that I want to rescue Julie from Monks so that I would take her to jungle and would murder her for my beloved Maya... Later you can try to rescue Julie's life from me, but our initial mission is same -'rescuing of Julie from monks'. We can't do it individually because being a ghost, I have limitations, and being a human, you have limitations. But if we are together, we can do it.' Joy agrees.







Songs for Siva


Book Description

'[Vinaya Chaitanya shows] an acute awareness of textual issues that never bothered earlier translators.' - From the foreword by H.S. Shivaprakash Hailed as an early feminist literary voice, Akka Mahadevi was born in twelfth-century Karnataka. As a child she was initiated into the worship of Channamallikarjuna, her village's version of Siva. She was forced to marry her region's ruler, but because she had become so ardently devoted to the god, Akka abandoned her husband and all her possessions and wandered alone - a naked poet-saint covered only by her long hair. Her vacanas, a new populist literary form meaning literally 'to give one's word' - demonstrate both her radical devotion to Siva and the commitment to equality her Virasaiva poetry embodied.