Princess Mandira - Destiny’s Child


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“She will marry someone from outside the Rajput clan,” Raj Guru says in a soft, low but clear tone, every word falling like pebbles in the stillness of water. Shock waves reverberate inside the walls of the Raj Mandir. Everyone is dumbstruck as this is unthinkable and unacceptable. The Raj Guru shakes his head slowly and replies, ”I have done my calculations many times and the same reading keeps coming out every single time. She will not marry anyone from Hindustan! The person she marries will come from across seven seas.” Queen Shwetambari gets up from her throne in part shock and part excitement. If she plays her cards properly, then she could remove the last trace of Queen Serenova’s memories from their lives and get back her glory and power once again…. Eighteen years later, Princess Mandira marries Sir Victor, the Duke of Cornwall to gain independence for her country from the British rule. The story is set in the early eighteenth century and moves from the exotic terrain of the Himalayas across seven seas to the all-powerful Great Britain. What follows is a nail biting interaction when the grandeur and valour of the Rajput culture meets the cool elegance of the British nobility. Through the beautiful Mandira, the author in her two series explores the effect that the Hindu philosophy has when it is placed against the backdrop of a British landscape and brings out some interesting comparisons between two very diverse cultures!




Baedeker Nepal


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Why Gandhi Still Matters


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Close to 150 years after he was born, how relevant is Mahatma Gandhi? In our country, he is revered as the Father of the Nation; his face still adorns currency notes, postage stamps and government offices; streets and welfare schemes continue to be named after him but has he been reduced to a mere symbol? Do his values, message and sacrifice have any meaning for us in the twenty-first century? In Why Gandhi Still Matters, the Mahatma's grandson and award-winning writer and scholar Rajmohan Gandhi, appraises Gandhi and his legacy by examining some of his most famous (and often most controversial) ideas, beliefs, actions, successes and failures. He analyses Gandhi's commitment to democracy, secularism, pluralism, equality and non-violence, his gift to the world of satyagraha, the key strategies in his fight for India's freedom, his opposition to caste discrimination, and his equations with Churchill, Jinnah and Ambedkar, as also his failings as a human being and family man. Taken together, the author's insights present an unsentimental view of aspects of Gandhi's legacy that have endured and those that have been cast aside by power-hungry politicians, hate groups, casteist organizations, venal industrialists, terrorists, and other enemies of India's promise.







Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema


Book Description

The largest film industry in the world after Hollywood is celebrated in this updated and expanded edition of a now classic work of reference. Covering the full range of Indian film, this new revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema includes vastly expanded coverage of mainstream productions from the 1970s to the 1990s and, for the first time, a comprehensive name index. Illustrated throughout, there is no comparable guide to the incredible vitality and diversity of historical and contemporary Indian film.




Modern South Asia


Book Description

A wide-ranging survey of the Indian sub-continent, Modern South Asia gives an enthralling account of South Asian history. After sketching the pre-modern history of the subcontinent, the book concentrates on the last three centuries from c.1700 to the present. Jointly written by two leading Indian and Pakistani historians, Modern South Asia offers a rare depth of understanding of the social, economic and political realities of this region. This comprehensive study includes detailed discussions of: the structure and ideology of the British raj; the meaning of subaltern resistance; the refashioning of social relations along lines of caste class, community and gender; and the state and economy, society and politics of post-colonial South Asia The new edition includes a rewritten, accessible introduction and a chapter by chapter revision to take into account recent research. The second edition will also bring the book completely up to date with a chapter on the period from 1991 to 2002 and adiscussion of the last millennium in sub-continental history.




Poems by Emily Dickinson


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Bose Or Gandhi


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Shadows in the Sun


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As a young girl in Bangalore, Gayathri was surrounded by the fragrance of jasmine and flickering oil lamps, her family protected by gods and goddesses. But as she grew older, demons came forth from dark corners of her idyllic kingdom—with the scariest creatures lurking within her tortured mind. Shadows in the Sun traces Gayathri’s courageous battle with debilitating depression that consumed her from adolescence through marriage and a move to the United States. Her inspiring memoir provides a first-of-its-kind cross-cultural view of mental illness—how it is regarded in India and in America, and how she drew on both her rich Hindu heritage and Western medicine to find healing.




The Wrestler's Body


Book Description

The Wrestler's Body tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.