Savitri – The Golden Bridge, the Wonderful Fire


Book Description

Almost all of the essays collected in this volume were written for and first published as monthly instalments in Next Future, the e-journal of the Sri Aurobindo Society Pondicherry. The 47 instalments ended with the passing of Dr. Nadkarni in September 2007, and cover Savitri Book by Book, Canto by Canto, from the beginning up to the climactic point in the middle of Book Eleven, where Savitri is offered four boons of merger with the Supreme, and asks instead for the Supreme Peace, Oneness, Energy and Bliss ‘for Earth and Men’. Dr. Nadkarni has written other essays on Savitri as well as giving many other talks, but this collection represents a masterly ‘Introduction’ (as he modestly called it) to the revelatory poem which he loved so much and understood so well. It has been compiled and published at the request of his family, and we feel sure that it will be welcomed by Savitri readers and students all over the world, and to a certain extent make up for the great loss that his many admirers experienced when he passed away in September 2007 at the age of 74.




Meet Savitri


Book Description

A biography of Savitri Bai Phule, a 19th century matriarch of feminism whose efforts paved the way for educating and empowering millions of Indian women.




Savitri


Book Description

Study of Savitri, a philosophical poem, by Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950.




A Summary of Savitri


Book Description

Sri M. P. Pandit goes through Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol and provides us a systematic prose summary of the poem with its key issues, points and organization, opening up Sri Aurobindo’s master work in a useful and concise way.




The English of Savitri


Book Description

Since 1980, Shraddhavan has been teaching English in Auroville through close readings of Sri Aurobindo’s revelatory epic Savitri: a legend and a symbol. In August 1998 these classes were resumed at Savitri Bhavan, with a growing number of students, including young Tamil teacher-trainees from the Arul Vazhi School located in Promesse, Auroville. These classes were given the name ‘The English of Savitri’ and they concluded in May of 2009 as this group reached the end of the poem. This book is based on the transcripts of a new series of classes given by Shraddhavan between August 2009 and October 2010, which have been edited for conciseness and clarity, while aiming to preserve some of the informal atmosphere of the course. Edited transcripts of these classes began to be published serially in the Bhavan’s journal of Study Notes on Savitri, ‘Invocation’, from issue 32 onwards, since it was felt that they may be of interest to a wider audiance. They are now being published in book form in several volumes by Yukta Prakashan publishers of Vadodara. This suggested the idea of collecting the original English articles into a book form as well. This is the first such volume, covering all the five cantos of Book One of the poem, ‘The Book of Beginnings’.




GODMAN


Book Description

Guru Brahmanand was born Vikas Chand Patekar in a small village near Pune, as the only child of a small-time farmer. Compelled to flee after molesting his mentor’s daughter, who financed his education, Vikas found himself at the ashram of Guru Rameshwaranand at Rishikesh, where he mastered the scriptures. His exceptional oratory skills brought him to the forefront and into the notice of Guru Rameshwaranand, who elevated his position and christened him Swamy Brahmanand. Rising up the ranks, he became the youngest head of Nandanvan Ashram at 25 years, after the demise of his Guru. Immediately after accession, he incorporated revolutionary changes in the ashram, including opening the doors of the ashram to women and allowing sex. With rising international popularity and bank balance, Guru Brahmanand was being branded as an addition to the Galaxy of Gods by his devotees. But destiny had something else in store. The young, attractive, admired intellectual found himself deeply attracted to the graceful Savitri, the 18-year-old daughter of a disciple. With intensifying love came the mounting desire to possess her and with it the hatching of an anti-spiritual, devilish plan that twisted the course of his affluent celebrated status and life.




Women Refugee Voices from Asia and Africa


Book Description

This book presents experiences of women refugees in a variety of contexts across Asia and Africa and builds a framework to ensure robust and effective mechanisms to safeguard refugees’ rights. It highlights the structural challenges that women who are forcibly displaced face and the inadequacies of the response of governments and other stakeholders, irrespective of the country of origin, ethnicity, and religion of the refugee community. This volume: ● Focuses on contemporary issues such as the Rohingya and the Syrian crisis. ● Brings first-person accounts of women refugees from Asia and Africa. ● Draws on an interdisciplinary approach to analyse a host of issues, including public policy, cultural norms, and economics of forced migration. Bringing together first-hand accounts from women refugees and interventions by activists, academics, journalists, filmmakers, humanitarian workers, and international law experts, this book will be a must read for scholars and researchers of migration and diaspora studies, development studies, sociology and social anthropology, and politics and public policy. It will be of special interest to NGOs, policymakers, and think tanks.




Building Bridges


Book Description

Building Bridges is the inspiring true story of Rudrapratab and his team of engineers, whose dedication and talent lead to the ideation and development of India’s first bridge management system. Witnessing early on in life the tragic and wasteful loss of lives that bridge collapses cause sparks in Rudrapratab a burning passion for bridge safety. He devotes his life to creating a comprehensive, state-of-the-art digitised system that can inspect and repair bridges, as well as offer timely interventions to prolong the lives of the structures across the length and breadth of the country. Along with associate Ajit, Rudrapratab builds an able team of engineers whose meticulous research forms the basis of the beta inventory module of the Indian Bridge Management System. Rudra’s journey, however, is fraught with bureaucratic hurdles. When a reticent administration repeatedly turns down his proposals for a bridge management system, he nearly gives up on his dream before Minister Gadkari’s office steps up to the plate. This eye-opening book looks back on the bumpy yet rewarding journey of a bunch of tenacious engineers who aspire to create a modern India with the most advanced bridge surveillance and management system and envision a future where no life would ever be lost again because of faulty bridges.




Elephants with Headlights


Book Description

An encounter with Elephants with Headlights is a collision between east and west, modernity and tradition — between driverless cars and ancient lore — and a world that needs revolutionary reappraisal. In this world, Savitri, named after a Goddess, refuses outright to marry anyone. Her brother, Neel is intent on marrying an Australian girl called Mae, much to the displeasure of their mother, Tota, and father, Siddarth. But do they have the power to command love or destiny? Only the family astrologer, Arunji, knows, yet his truth is tempered by obligations to the family that transformed his life. Characters we come to love and care for teeter on the brink of a radically altered future, leaving questions in their wake. What is the generative legacy of tradition? Can spiritual values survive amidst personal challenges, the tragedy of a death foretold, and the momentous changes of our times? A warm and engaging novel touched with love, wisdom and soulfulness, Elephants with Headlights is a breathtaking story for the threshold era we all navigate. ‘Bem Le Hunte is quite simply, a wonderful novelist.’ — Geraldine Brooks




I Am An Executioner


Book Description

An explosive, funny, wildly original fiction debut: nine stories about the power of love and the love of power, two urgent human desires that inevitably, and sometimes calamitously, intertwine. In I Am an Executioner, Rajesh Parameswaran introduces us to a cast of heroes—and antiheroes—who spring from his riotous, singular imagination. From the lovesick tiger who narrates the unforgettable opener, “The Infamous Bengal Ming” (he mauls his zookeeper out of affection), to the ex-CompUSA employee who masquerades as a doctor; from a railroad manager in a turn-of-the-century Indian village, to an elephant writing her autobiography; from a woman whose Thanksgiving preparations put her husband to eternal rest, to the newlywed executioner of the title, these characters inhabit a marvelous region between desire and death, playfulness and violence. At once glittering and savage, daring and elegant, here are wholly unforgettable tales where reality loops in Borgesian twists and shines with cinematic exuberance, by an author who promises to dazzle the universe of American fiction. This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.