As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal, and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.

    A series of terror attacks. An elusive mastermind. A prolonged chase. When RAW agent Samprit Sodhi is deputed to investigate three consecutive bomb blasts in three separate locations in India, he has little idea that he is about to become part of a much bigger and horrifying narrative. Thus begins the saga of international chases, anonymous phone calls, murders, false starts, more terror attacks, and betrayal. Samprit also runs into his old flame and fellow agent, Radhika, who had mysteriously disappeared a few years ago, and who joins him in his pursuit of an elusive terror mastermind who has designs evil beyond imagination—and who constantly dares Samprit to catch him if he can. Is Radhika telling the truth about her disappearance? Will she and Samprit rekindle their love? Will Samprit catch up with the terrorist who has eluded the world’s biggest intelligence agencies?

    From the moment we lay eyes on an adorable puppy or a wonderful adult dog who becomes part of our life journey, we share innumerable moments of pure joy with our furry best friends.With forty-five original pieces by some of India's leading writers, outstanding new voices and individuals who have dedicated their lives to animal welfare, The Book of Dog is a testament to how deeply dogs touch us, to the special bond we have with them and the unique place they hold in our hearts and our lives. Through a series of unforgettable real-life stories-funny, poignant, warm and joyous -- the authors celebrate the remarkable dogs they have known and loved.This book is a must-read for everyone who cherishes dogs and the perfect gift for a dog-lover friend. It will engross and delight readers of all ages as they go through one memorable story after another.--The Book of Dog is a project to which the editor and all the authors have contributed for free. All royalties will go to registered animal welfare charities.CONTRIBUTORSAanchal Malhotra, Abhishek Joshi, Amitava Kumar, Ananya Vajpeyi, Anindita Ghose, Anita Nair, Anuja Chauhan, Arunava Sinha, Ashok Ferrey, Ashwin Sanghi, Atul Sarin, Bulbul Sharma, Cyrus Broacha, Devdutt Pattanaik, Divya Dugar, Fiona Fernandez, Geetan Batra, Gillian Wright, Gulzar, Jai Arjun Singh, Jerry Pinto, Keshava Guha, Mahesh Rao, Maneka Gandhi, Manjula Narayan, Manu Bhattathiri, Mark Tully, Meenakshi Alimchandani, Naomi Barton, Nilanjana S. Roy, Orijit Sen, Paro Anand, Prerna Singh Bindra, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ruskin Bond, Sarnath Banerjee, Shobhaa De, Shrutkeerti Khurana, Sian Morton, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, Sooni Taraporevala, Sumita Mehta, Tandrali Kuli, Tishani Doshi, Vikas Khanna.

    

    Part of the Not Our War series, the book is a sensitive insight into the ravages of war seen through the eyes of an unnamed young boy.Set against the backdrop of the two-decade long civil war and specifically the 1966 bombing of Aizawl, this book is a primer for young adults to a part of Indian history that has been long sidelined.

    

    The question is, why do so many people across divisions of caste, religion and gender vote for a party with unapologetically aggressive Hindutva politics? Are its much-publicised development schemes, whatever their flaws, the big pull factor? Or the active mobilisation of the RSS cadre to its cause?In this fascinating revisionist history, political scientist and journalist Nalin Mehta examines how the BJP became the world’s largest political party. He goes beyond the usual narrative of the party’s Hindutva politics to explain how, under Narendra Modi, it reshaped the Indian polity using its own brand of social engineering. This reconstruction was cleverly powered by new caste coalitions, the claim of a new welfare state that focused on marginalised social groups and the making of a women-voter base.Based on data from three unique indices—the Mehta–Singh Social Index, which studies the caste composition of Indian political parties; the Narad Index, which calculates communication patterns across topics and audiences; and PollNiti, which connects and tallies hundreds of political and economic datasets—The New BJP is full of startling insights into the way both the party and the country function. Previously untapped historical records, exclusive interviews with party leaders and comprehensive reportage from across India provide a fresh understanding of the BJP’s growth areas, including the Northeast and south India.A lucid and objective study of the BJP and India today, this is a book that demands engagement and debate from every side of the political divide.

    S.R. Ramaswamy is a renowned littérateur, journalist, art critic, environmentalist, and social activist. He has written more than sixty books and over two thousand essays on literary, cultural, developmental, and nationalist themes. Since 1979, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of Rashtrotthana Sahitya publications and of the Kannada monthly 'Utthana.' He is the recipient of several awards including 'Nadoja' from Hampi University, honorary 'D. LITT.' from the Karnataka State Open University, and Karnataka Rajyotsava Award' for outstanding contri bution to literature and journalism.An anthology of nineteen analytical essays on the history of pre independent India, A Passage Through India is both riveting and revealing. Written in an eminently readable style, these narrative and interpretative pieces have at their root a mix of rigorous research spanning decades and insightful observations based on varied experiences in public life. The learned author examines the cultural-social-political-economic life of India in the two centuries leading up to 1947 and gives us a true account of the history of that era. To cut through the dangerous web of lies and deceit woven by the spin doctors of mainstream discourse, a work such as this serves as an invaluable rapier.These episodic essays on some turning-points in recent times, originally written in Kannada, have been ably translated into lucid English by Prof. Vedavyas M G and Paresh Nadig, with the fervent hope that they attain a wider readership, particularly among the youth of India.

    Their stories twine together to give us an unsettling look into the lives that take place on the peripheries of our vision.These are people you may encounter on the Metro, glimpse from the window of your car, or read about in brief items on the inside pages of the newspaper. They might be among those who watch as you hurry past, from silent balconies, under flyovers, and behind the glass partition at the bank: people who don’t particularly interest you until a fragile moment shatters.The lives of the characters in City of Incident coalesce into a great darkened lens that presents an unnerving view of a great city and its most powerless inhabitants.

    We were waiting for things to be all right. And one day, they will indeed be all right. But the dead will never come back. The businesses that have closed and will not reopen; the dreams dashed; the families and relationships that could not withstand the strain. This is why it is important to note down all the changes in our lives. Write them down in a journal. When we do that, we are recording our own history.'-Drawing as a way of keeping a diary, writing down thoughts in a journal as a way of maintaining a historical record - in watercolours and also in words.These were resources that Amitava Kumar had been using even before the pandemic arrived. But the task gained urgency just when he felt most isolated and afraid. The Blue Book is a writer's artistic response to our present world: one that has bestowed upon us countless deaths from a virus, a flood of fake news, but also love in the face of loss, travels through diverse landscapes, and - if we care to notice - visions of blazing beauty.From one of the acclaimed and accomplished authors of our time, this writer's journal is a panoramic portrait of the experience, both individual and collective, of the pandemic.-'To mull over a beautiful line while looking upon a beautiful painting is the sublime pleasure offered by Amitava Kumar's The Blue Book. This painted diary is a collage of the personal and the political, of terrifying news, the fleeting seasons, everyday pleasures, precious conversations, families and friendships-and on every page, the solace of art.' -- KIRAN DESAI'A lovely homage to--and extension of--the tradition of writer-artists such as John Berger.' -- GEOFF DYER'It's not good to read another person's diary. But Amitava Kumar makes the experience so intimate in The Blue Book that you don't feel guilty. You feel like it is your own.' -- GULZAR

    The gateway to a future of immense possibilities from hydrocarbons to regional trade over land and water that could create a new Silk Route. A bulwark against China. A cradle of climate change dynamics and migration. ‘Northeast’ India, the appellation with which India’s far-east is known, is all this and more.Alongside hope and aspiration, it is also home to immense ethnic and communal tension, and a decades-old Naga conflict and the high-profile peace process that involves four gateway states—Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam—and several million people. It’s among the most militarized zones in the world. It’s a playground of corruption and engineered violence. Only real peace, and calm in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, will unlock this Eastern gate.A keen observer and frequent chronicler of the region, Sudeep Chakravarti has for several years offered exclusive insights into the Machiavellian—Chanakyan—world of the Naga and other conflicts and various attempts to resolve these. He now melds the skills of a journalist, analyst, historian and ethnographer to offer inside stories and a ringside view to the tortuous, no-holds-barred attempts at resolving conflict.Employing a ‘dispatches’ style of storytelling, and interviews with rebel leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, policymakers, security specialists and operatives, gunrunners, ‘narcos’, peace negotiators and community leaders, Chakravarti’s narrative provides a definitive guide to the transition from war to peace, even as he keeps a firm gaze on the future. The Eastern Gate is a tour de force that captures this story of our times.