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Archives: Books

The Last Speaker

Agha Shahid Ali created poems that mesmerize and dazzle as they embrace his aesthetics and capture his landscapes of the heart.

The poems in The Last Speaker allow the reader to be immersed in history, memory, and nostalgia that Agha Shahid Ali wove into the tapestries he created as he evolved as a poet. Ranging from free verse to traditional poetic forms, his poetry encompasses canzones, sestinas, sonnets, sapphics, pantoums, villanelles, prose poems, and, of course, ghazals in English.

Since his death in 2001, scholarly articles and dissertations continue to delve into the craft of Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry. This selection offers a new lens that, while highlighting what are now his ‘classic’ poems, also brings to the forefront other poems that are even more haunting.

Transform Your Life with Rudraksha | Practical Techniques to Enhance One’s Life Through the Use of Rudraksha

Discover the power of Rudraksha—the sacred seed long revered for its ability to restore balance and elevate consciousness. This guide invites you on a journey into the deep spiritual and practical significance of real Rudraksha. Uncover its historical roots and learn how to use Rudraksha to enhance clarity of thought, grow your emotional resilience, expand your spiritual awareness, and transform your life.

Through simple yet powerful techniques, you’ll learn to align your chakras, cleanse your energy, reconnect with your true self, and understand your purpose. Whether you’re seeking inner peace, direction, or deeper spiritual insight, this book offers a clear path forward. Let Rudraksha become your tool for transformation, bringing clarity, purpose, and harmony to every aspect of your life.

Kaayaa

A skilled plastic surgeon is like a master sculptor whose material is the human body. That’s the credo the protagonist of this novel, Dr Bheem Malik, lives by. Among his clientele are the who’s who of Manhattan, keen to submit themselves to the doctor’s knife for the sake of fuller lips, sleeker jawlines, bigger breasts.

Dr Malik has it all: a successful career as New York’s topmost plastic surgeon, a beautiful wife whose body he
has sculpted himself and a mother-in-law, Kasturi, who is a senator. But when his name surfaces in a MeToo scandal, Malik’s life is turned upside down. His career is at stake, and so is Kasturi’s future in American politics. In order to emerge from this crisis, both must revisit their past and rediscover the true meaning of love.

A Kannada novel mostly set in the United States, Kaayaa (which translates to ‘body’) touches upon various
contemporary themes, from sexuality and disease to politics and marriage, and lays bare characters who are torn between their real and imagined selves, each chasing after their own version of the American dream. A searingly honest rumination on the old metaphor about beauty being only skin-deep, this novel by the acclaimed Kannada writer Guruprasad Kaginele is a satirical masterpiece that doesn’t lose sight of the underlying tragedy of being human.

Hanuman: Sacred Words for Modern Minds

A complete and comprehensive collection of the sacred texts of Hanuman
Hanuman is revered across India and is the deity in whom people place the greatest faith, honouring him as Sankatmochan, the one who liberates from all kinds of hardships and suffering. In moments of distress, his name is the first to be invoked.
This book brings together all major sacred texts related to Hanuman in one place, offering both their Hindi and English translations and the phonetic transliterations of the original texts. An index of the dohas and chaupais of the Sundarkand is provided to help readers locate references.
Additionally, this book explores fascinating questions about Hanuman, such as why Rama declared him greater than himself, the stories behind when and why Tulsidas composed the Hanuman Chalisa and Hanuman Bahuk, the number of Sundarkands Tulsidas wrote, why it is called Sundarkand and the significance of performing aarti after prayer, among others.

Murder in Moonlit Square: A Cozy Crime Mystery Set in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk | Quirky Detective Duo a streetwise nun and a hotelier | For Fans of Richard Osman and Vaseem Khan

“A pacy, charming thriller that mixes the romance of old Delhi with the energy of the modern megacity it has become. Can’t wait for the next one.”
— Amish Tripathi, broadcaster and author of The Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra Series

In the bustling heart of Chandni Chowk, where lanes glitter by day and hide shadows by night, murder has come to the Delhi Haveli Hotel.

When semi-retired Irish nun Sister Agatha Murphy meets hotelier Avtar Mehta round the back of his historic haveli hotel, they strike up an instant bond over a sneaky smoke and sharp gossip. Neither expects to become detectives — but when a street robbery, a dead body, and a missing pilgrim collide, the hotel is suddenly crawling with police, the Indian secret service, and a hidden killer determined to strike again.

Sister Agatha and Avtar must race to stay one step ahead of the police, the Indian secret service and a hidden killer – as well as keeping their sense of humour through a terrorism scare in the run up to Christmas on the colourful streets of old Delhi.

Witty, atmospheric, and refreshingly original, Murder in Moonlit Square introduces a quirky new detective duo readers will not forget. A cozy crime with bite, full of humour, intrigue, and clever twists, this is perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Vaseem Khan, Tarquin Hall, and Alexander McCall Smith.

Why you’ll love it:
• A cozy crime mystery set in Delhi, alive with the sights, sounds, and flavours of Chandni Chowk.
• Features a memorable new partnership: Sister Agatha, the sharp-tongued nun, and Avtar Mehta, the suave hotelier.
• Blends humour, suspense, and atmosphere into a compelling whodunnit.
• Explores the shadows of colonial history and modern Delhi life.
• Endorsed by leading writers including Amish Tripathi, Robert Thorogood, and Vaseem Khan.

Step into Delhi’s Moonlit Square — where every street hides a secret, and every shadow conceals a story.

“I loved it!” — Robert Thorogood, The Marlow Murder Club

“Takes us to the colour and crowds of modern Delhi, in pursuit of a killer. A charming start to a vibrant new mystery series.” — Vaseem Khan

Voices in the Wind

The Himalaya has always been a land of folklore, carried across generations in the voices of its people. Villagers by a bonfire, grandmothers at the hearth with grandchildren at their knees, wandering bards, fakirs and mystics have all shaped a vast oral tradition. This is a world where rivers sing, animals speak, demons and tricksters lurk, and gods walk among mortals. In Voices in the Wind, celebrated authors Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal gather this living inheritance from across the length and breadth of the mountains—Kashmir and Ladakh, Himachal and Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan, and the sister states of the Northeast—into a single, enchanting volume.

This collection of folktales, fairytales, spirit stories, legends and fables encompasses generational wisdom and contains within it traditional beliefs, local knowledge systems and a deep understanding of the contradictions of human nature. The tales span the spectrum of human and non-human experience: stories of lovers separated by fate and reunited by magic; of crows who nurture abandoned children; of serpent kings and shape-shifting brides; of feisty heroines, tricksters, and goddesses who challenge injustice; of the everyday courage and wit of villagers negotiating harsh but enchanted landscapes. Rooted in ecological memory, these narratives are also reminders of the delicate Himalayan balance between humans, animals, rivers and forests.

Enriched with traditional woodcut illustrations, the volume has contributions from a vast repertoire of scholars, storytellers and folklorists. This collection preserves and resonates with voices that have travelled centuries and continents, and speak urgently to the present. At once an anthology of marvels and a cultural history, Voices in the Wind is a definitive treasury of myth and memory, as enduring and transformative as the mountains themselves.

The Last of Earth

1869. Tibet is closed to Europeans, an infuriating obstruction for the rap­idly expanding British Empire. In response, Britain begins training Indians—permitted to cross borders that white men may not—to undertake illicit, dangerous surveying expeditions into Tibet.

Balram is one such surveyor-spy, an Indian schoolteacher who, for several years, has worked for the British, often alongside his dearest friend, Gyan. But Gyan went missing on his last expedition and is rumored to be imprisoned within Tibet. Desperate to rescue his friend, Balram agrees to guide an English captain on a foolhardy mission: After years of paying others to do the exploring, the captain, disguised as a monk, wants to personally chart a river that runs through southern Tibet. Their path will cross fatefully with that of another Westerner in disguise, fifty-year-old Katherine. Denied a fellowship in the all-male Royal Geographical Society in London, she intends to be the first European woman to reach Lhasa.

As Balram and Katherine make their way into Tibet, they will face storms and bandits, snow leopards and soldiers, fevers and frostbite. What’s more, they will have to battle their own doubts, ambitions, grief, and pasts in order to survive the treacherous landscape.

A polyphonic novel about the various ways humans try to leave a mark on the world—from the enduring nature of family and friendship to the egomania and obsessions of the colonial enterprise—The Last of Earth confirms Deepa Anappara as one of our greatest and most ambitious storytellers.

Rebellion in Verse

Why chant the Vedas, follow Vedic karma?
Why preach day by day the books of dharma?
Why learn the six Vedangas by rote?
One thing alone will to your rescue come—
thinking always of the Lord Supreme.

In the Tamil region in medieval times, a quiet revolution unfolded. It came to be known as the Bhakti movement. Appar’s hymn above exemplifies its spirit of rebellion against Vedic rigidity and ritual.

Rebellion in Verse unfolds a journey that goes back to the sixth century CE—a time when many yearned for a reprieve from the constraints of Vedic orthodoxy and caste hierarchies. The Tamil Bhakti movement emerged as their clarion call, a grassroots surge of devotion that redefined spirituality and the social fabric itself.

The saints of this movement were poets of the people, composing their hymns in Tamil and their verses, brimming with simplicity and profundity, wrestled divine wisdom from the elite grip of Sanskrit and handed it to the masses.

Change had dawned. It would soon ripple through history with the force of a tidal wave.

The Art of Being Fabulous

In The Art of Being Fabulous elegance meets passion, and glamour begins from within. In this memoir, Shalini Passi speaks of the celebration of living beautifully and with dignity. Blending style and soulful philosophy, she distills a lifetime of art, fashion and spiritual wisdom into ten rules for a life lived on your own terms. From couture and creativity to karma and courage, Shalini reveals how true fabulousness isn’t about perfection, it’s about presence, purpose and power. With her signature mix of grace and grit, she invites readers to embrace individuality and nurture inner strength. Introspective and instructive, The Art of Being Fabulous is a larger-than-life canvas that calls on the reader to own beautiful mind and life.

The Alphabets of Africa

The Alphabets of Africa is an ode to a continent that continues to define the human journey. Through time, space and memory, these poems map Africa, celebrating its vast and vibrant tapestry. From the splendour of its ancient civilization to the pulse of contemporary African cities, to inspiring icons and leaders, this book summons Africa in all its depth and glory. Drawn from Abhay K.’s travels across the continent, these poems are an invitation to shed the inherited stereotypes and see Africa afresh.

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