Reviews & Musings

  Image Source: Amazon.com Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pan Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages  ISBN : ‎ 978-9390742172  Price: INR 350/- About the Book Kunti, a rare matriarch in the Mahabharata and one of the revered Pancha Satis, holds an unforgettable position in the Indian literary imagination. Yet, little is known about the fateful events that shaped her early life. Taking on the intricate task, Koral Dasgupta unravels the lesser-known strands of Kunti’s story: through a childhood of scholarly pursuits to unwanted motherhood at adolescence, a detached marriage, and her ambitious love for the king of the devas. After the remarkable success of Ahalya, the first book in the Sati series, Kunti presents a brilliant and tender retelling of a story at the heart of our culture and mythology.  In the Sati series, Koral Dasgupta explores the lives of the Pancha Kanyas from Indian mythology and reinvents them in the modern context with a feminist consciousness. 

  Image Source: Amazon.in ISBN: 978-9389305678   Publisher: Jaico Publishing House Price: INR 499/- Genre: Fiction, Fantasy About the Book  Patience is a Drawn Bow. Rage, its Relentless Arrow.  Shukracharya’s plan to break the unity of Vikramaditya’s Council has borne bitter fruit. Friends have become sworn enemies, and brother has turned against brother, setting Avanti on the path to self-destruction. Even as Vikramaditya prepares to counter a Huna invasion, a rebellion brews within Ujjayini, while a devious conspiracy is hatched to humiliate him. With Indra’s spies swarming the palace and Shukracharya making a bold bid to take the Halahala, the king is dangerously close to the brink of defeat. Alone and abandoned by those dear to him, fighting to protect his people, trying his best to keep his promise to Shiva, will the samrat rise one last time to defend his love, his city and his honour? As the asura and deva forces muster in a final, desperate gamble to cla...

Image Source: Amazon.in Publisher : Aleph Book Company  Release Date: 31 October 2020 Genre: Non-fiction, Indian History, Political Structure, Political Ideology ISBN-13 : 978-8194735380 Price: INR 799/- Now available on About the Book There are over a billion Indians alive today. But are some Indians more Indian than others?  To answer this question, one that is central to the identity of every man, woman, and child who belongs to the modern Republic of India, eminent thinker and bestselling writer Shashi Tharoor explores hotly contested ideas of nationalism, patriotism, citizenship, and belonging. In the course of his study, he explains what nationalism is, and can be, reveals who is anti-national, what patriotism actually means, and explores the nature and future of Indian nationhood. He gives us a clear-sighted view of the forces working to undermine the ‘idea of India’ (a phrase coined by Rabindranath Tagore) that has evolved through history and which, in its moder...

  Image Source: Amazon.in ISBN : 978-9390183661  Publisher : Fingerprint! Publishing Release Date: 1 August 2020  Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Murder Mystery  Price: Rs. 250/-  About the Book “HAPPY HANGING!” Saralkar growled with all the spite in his system and stormed out of the cell. Weeks before serial killer Dharmesh Solanki is to be executed, he wickedly burdens Senior Inspector Saralkar with a macabre secret Saralkar would’ve been better off not knowing. Impelled to verify Solanki’s disturbing claim, Saralkar and PSI Motkar reopen the sixteen-year-old case, for which the senior inspector had won a police medal. And out tumble intriguing leads and shocking facts that had fallen through the cracks back then. Worse, only a motley group of elusive characters might form the shaky bridge to the murky truth—a missing ex-constable, a gluttonous witness who had narrowly escaped being murdered by Solanki, Solanki’s biographer, the serial killer’s own son, an...

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About the Book When the devilishly handsome, legendary Bollywood superstar Rajvir Kapoor is found dead in the thirtieth-floor study of his swanky new home, Xanadu, the entire country is aghast.  Barely hours before his death, Xanadu, had been teeming with the pick of the country's elite: hot-shot celebrities, business magnates and close friends and family of the iconic actor - all of whom had come together for the grandest party Mumbai had ever seen. Investigations reveal that Rajvir Kapoor was murdered, and now everyone is a suspect. Professor Shantanu Bose, eminent nano-expert and part-time sleuth, a house-guest at the time, is willy-nilly forced to join the investigation. He finds himself in an alien world of the glitterati and their idiosyncrasies, where murky secrets are revealed and facts muddled. As Shantanu struggles to piece together the puzzle amidst the confusing moral codes adopted by the people of this starry realm, glamorous Mumbai seduces him and h...

About the Book Say hi to Rumana. A freshly minted (baked?) chef who decides to trade her powersuit for chef’s whites to live her dream of owning a cafe. Cut to six months later and there is not too sweet, a gorgeous little cafe with a burgeoning clientele. This is home and heart and everything in between. But Rumana's Banker’s bliss is cut short when competition drives in not only right into her street but parks itself right next door! What the... Enter Daniyal—rock star chef, too good-looking, and annoyingly charming. With him around, Rumana flits between being putty in his hands—giving away a cherished recipe to him when he asks nicely!—and getting mad at herself for her actions. But battle lines get drawn when Daniyal decides to present her recipe to the world with his take on it. Attracted towards the wild-haired Rumana, whose sweet kisses are a complete contradiction to her angry personality, Daniyal has no idea what’s about to hit him. At Daniyal’s Desserts, he can’...

About the Book Raghu Mehta is a desperate man. His handicraft imports business has unexpectedly collapsed and cash is drying out quickly, his wife thinks he is a loser and society considers him irrelevant. Meanwhile, his closest friends and family all seem to be running flourishing businesses and living luxurious lives in Surat, the diamond capital of India. A trip to China to scout for a new consumer goods business offers a glimmer of hope. But Raghu instead gets sucked into the black-market trade in the back alleys of Beijing. Everything about this new opportunity goes against his god-fearing, vegetarian, middle-class mindset - can he quash his natural instincts to make a success of it? Darkly comical, 'Made in China' is a soul-stirring and thrilling entrepreneurial journey of a man willing to do anything he can to make it big.

About the book Do you know what you really are? Or has life not tested you yet! 8 stories 8 situations 8 emotions 

About the Book Ghublistan. An island resplendent with the divine herb. A country rich in bat Guano. A society where people are content, happy to serve their Prophet. But the country is experiencing a surge in emigration, and the Prophet is getting restless.  Image Source: Goodreads.com

About the Book In these three stunningly original, lush and provocative novellas, award-winning writer K. R. Meera explores the tragedy, betrayal and violence that rise out of the dark heart of love. ‘ The Angel’s Beauty Spots ’ is a disquieting story about Angela’s repeated infidelities and the trauma of failed love; in ‘ And Forgetting the Tree, I… ’ Radhika tries to come to terms with a former love that refuses to leave her; and ‘ The Deepest Blue’ uses magic and metaphor to tell the story of a wife who yearns for a love that transcends lifetimes. Esteemed as one of the country’s finest storytellers, K. R. Meera’s The Angel’s Beauty Spots: Three Novellas will serve to embellish her already considerable reputation as a writer of strikingly original fiction. These novellas have been translated from the Malayalam by J. Devika.

                                           About the Book ISBN: 978-9388292764 Genre: Translations/ Fiction/ Short Stories Price: Rs. 399/- Publisher: Aleph Book Company The Hindi short story is one of the most exciting genres in modern Indian literature. The fifteen stories in this volume, by some of the most prominent writers in the field, provide a unique picture of the country today.  Most of the stories focus on urban middle-class individuals and especially those whose lives are marked by alienation and loneliness. They highlight the disruptions caused in a society that is modernizing at a rapid pace while still being blessed and burdened by a strong sense of traditional morality, duty and family ties. Among the writers included in this volume are Kamleshwar, Nirmal Verma, Phanishwarnath 'Renu, Krishna Baldev Vaid and Mohan Rakesh.

Source: Goodreads.com Blurb 1998. Twenty-two-year-old Mina is moving to the US from Bangalore to begin a new life with her husband. Then there’s a horrific murder and her life is turned upside down. Mina’s best friend Neelu helps her out of the abyss. Mina gradually leaves her past behind and settles into a new life in the US. Years later, she is forced to return to India and is confronted by the demons from her past. In her fragile mental state, she is unable to support Neelu in her time of need. Their friendship hits rock bottom. Mina goes back to the US and faces further hurdles, this time on the work front. She tries to make amends with Neelu, but their friendship ends with Neelu accusing Mina of something unimaginable related to the murder. Something, that deep down, Mina knows is true... Will Mina redeem herself? Will the people she loves forgive her for what she did? Alternating between flashbacks and the present day, What Mina Did explores how one...