Just into his twentieth year, Akbar readies himself to emerge from behind the veil and stake his claim to the Mughal throne. But the figure of his regent, Bairam Khan, looms large in his path. After an exchange of blows and wits, Bairam Khan is subdued. Akbar forgives him, and forces upon him a pilgrimage to Mecca. On the eve of his departure, Bairam Khan is found murdered in his chamber. With the help of Mahesh Das — a Brahmin who Akbar has befriended — Akbar must find out who killed Bairam Khan. But in the insidious Mughal court — a hotbed of intrigue and suspicion — danger lurks at every step. One false step could cost them their lives.

    Apart from this, many a times each state of each nation has role models from the past but not forgotten history. Maharashtra has its own idols. The greatest and most loved of them all is shivaji maharaj.

    for Aditya is the boy from Pataliputra, the boy who was once a reckless and carefree aristocrat, but who has now been forced to become a man with a purpose to fight for honour and love.With a sweeping narrative and interesting everyday characters like the smelly old dhaba owner Tanku, Philotas the unlucky Greek soldier, the no-nonsense medical student Radha, Pandi the hard drinking mercenary and the lovely Devika, the Boy from Pataliputra is the mesmerizing story of a young man’s growth to maturity, but also, equally, a story about the rise of a nation.

    A quest to know the origin of the stone brought him to the distant part of the country. Chandannagar, December 2016: A young vivacious historian woman read an old book on a century-old secret story about a little known part of the country. Her curiosity got the better of her as the book disappeared mysteriously before she could complete it. She reached a sleepy quaint state of the country to satiate her curiosity. Eventually they both met and their search began from the city museum to a far-flung rock mountain which revealed a century-old story of a seductive danseuse, her enigmatic lover, a string of her admirers, a painter with a photographic memory, a bird that could speak in many voices, a benevolent king and a gruesome conspiracy. And the most important clue to decode the final secret was with the missing part of "The Speaking Stone" But in the process of unearthing old secrets, their life was also in danger… To know more read... The Speaking Stone.********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* About the Author: Ratnadip Acharya is the author of two successful novels, Life is Always Aimless... Unless you love it and Paradise Lost & Regained. He is a columnist for the Speaking Tree in The Times of India. He contributed many write-ups in different collections of Chicken Soup for the Soul. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Sophia and son, Akash. He can be contacted via the following channels Website: www.ratnadipacharya.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheRatnadip Facebook: www.facebook.com/ratnadip.acharya.5, Instagram: www.instagram.com/ratnadipacharya Twitter: www.twitter.com/RatnadipAcharya

    At fourteen she is pressed into the service of the temperamental sage Durvasa who grants her a boon. Its first use, however, only brings her adversity and a shameful secret. With marriage to Pandu, Kunti dreams of a better future, but a curse makes him leave the throne of Hastinapur to his sibling, the blind Dhritarashtra, and retreat to the forest. The births of the five Pandavas rekindle Kunti’s hopes of returning to Hastinapur, but these are destroyed once again when Pandu dies suddenly. Kunti journeys to the kingdom, no longer its queen but a widow, a dependant as are her sons. She must now take up the task of guiding them through the long struggle to get their inheritance, a struggle made harder by the discovery that the illegitimate child she had abandoned long ago is alive and a sworn enemy of the Pandavas. Recasting the Mahabharata from the viewpoint of Kunti, The Kaunteyas replaces the idealized mother figure with a fully three-dimensional woman, providing new insights into the epic.

    His life shaped by a fate that failed to be just—neglected by his own, stripped of his birthright—he was raised to be lost in an abyss of desires and disappointment.Cursed by his guru, hurt by the only woman he loved, ostracised from society for being the son of a suta. With his only armour—hope—he ventured on an unforgettable journey. Alone.This is Vasu’s tale of survival, of endurance, of abiding courage in the face of all adversities. And eventually, of blossoming into the greatest warrior of all time… KARNA.In an ultimate battle against his archenemy—the insidious, dishonourable and all-powerful, Jarasandha, for a title he knew he deserved.From a sutaputr to a leader of the people, this is a saga of betrayal, lost love, and glory.This is the story of the King of Anga.

    The fragile peace between the two powers is threatened when Balaji Vishvanath Bhat, Peshwa of the Confederacy, foils the plans of Nizam Ul Mulk of the Mughal Empire, and asserts the power of the Marathas. However, little does the Peshwa know that he has dealt the Nizam an unintended wound—one with roots in his mysterious past and one that he would seek to avenge till his last breath.When the Peshwa surrenders his life to a terminal illness dark clouds gather over the Confederacy as it is threatened by a Mughal invasion as well as an internal rebellion.All the while a passive spectator, the Peshwa’s son, Bajirao Bhat, now needs to rise beyond the grief of his father’s passing, his scant military and administrative experience, and his intense love for his wife and newborn son to rescue everything he holds dear. Will the young man be able to protect the Confederacy from internal strife and crush the armies of the Empire all while battling inner demons? Will he live up to his title of Peshwa?

    Men of peace are spreading the message of the Buddha even as monks are being tortured in the dungeons of Pataliputra. In Magadha, all talk is about the impending war against Kalinga. While King Ashoka plots the movements of his ships and cavalry, Queen Asandhimitra broods over the growing unrest in the kingdom. There is only one man they can both trust to take them through this period of uncertainty and looming danger: the enigmatically named Brahmin, skilful spymaster and custodian of Magadha’s best-kept secrets. Lush with historical detail and unforgettable characters, The Brahmin is an intricately plotted novel that seeks to recreate a near-mythical period in India’s past.

    The book starts during the reign of Emperor Ashoka and ends in 1947, when India gains independence.The core of The Tenth Unknown revolves around a race between different individuals to acquire a set of nine books. The books are some of the world’s best kept secrets, and it is believed that the person who gets the entire set will gain information that can lead to unlimited power and wealth.The books mentioned in this novel have been protected down the ages by a secret society of men appointed by Emperor Ashoka. They are scattered around the world and hidden, and the clues about their location are hidden in the ruins of the ancient Nalanda University.The attempts to trace the books take on a new pace when the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler manages to lay his hands on one of the books. This causes panic across the world. The British are worried at the prospect of empowering the dictator with unlimited wealth and power.The task of tracing the remaining books and ensuring their safety falls on Prithvi Rathore, who is more English than Indian. Prithvi is quite happy with his comfortable existence and his regular game of cricket. However, his grandfather, who was a member of the secret society formed to protect the books, insists that it is Prithvi’s duty to trace the remaining books and keep them safe. A reluctant Prithvi agrees to take up the task. His main opponent in this task is Joseph Heidler, a rather untypical Nazi officer who has been ordered by Adolf Hitler to get the remaining books.As the two men try to fulfill their assigned tasks, the race becomes intensely action packed. Will the good men win over the bad? Who will be able to decrypt the clues hidden amidst the broken ruins of Nalanda?

    They are the Avatari.An Ancient Artefact: When Henry Ashton, a retired British Army officer settled in the Yorkshire dales, receives a letter from a monk entreating him to prevent a hidden treasure stolen from a Laotian monastery from being misused, he finds himself honour-bound to respond. Assisted by a retired Gurkha Sergeant, a high-strung mathematician from Oxford with a Shambhala fixation of her own and an American mercenary on the CIAs hit list, Ashtons mission leads to an ancient map that dates back to the time of the great Mongol, Kublai Khan.A Secret that Must Not be Revealed: The group follows the trail, risking the perils of the inhospitable deserts of Ladakh, turmoil in Pakistan and the rugged mountains of Northern Afghanistan, where the Afghan War is at its height. But they are up against a deadly adversary with seemingly unlimited resources, who will stop at nothing to get possession of the anicent secret a secret that, if revealed, could threaten the very fabric of human civilization.

    Caught in the crossfire is Raam, the son of rishi Yamdagni and scion of the Bhargava clan.Will the machinations of Asura, Naga and Urag tribes affect the Brahmin boy and his family? Will the political intrigues of Nabhi-varsh let Bhargava Raam find his destiny or push him towards a future he never envisioned?This is the story of a man who rose to the level of divinity to establish a fair and just society; the story of the making of a legend. This book is best understood with 'Viswamitra', the first book by Vineet Aggarwal to establish the context within which it is written.

    The definitive one-volume Urdu text by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami appeared toward the end of the nineteenth century, but English translations of this text have always been censored and abridged-until now.In Musharraf Ali Farooqi's faithful rendition, "The Adventures of Amir Hamza" is captured with all its colorful action, ribaldry, and fantastic elements intact. Here is the spellbinding story of Amir Hamza, the adventurer who loves Mehr-Nigar, the daughter of the Persian emperor, Naushervan. Traveling to exotic lands in the service of his emperor, Amir Hamza defeats many enemies, loves many women, and converts hundreds of infidels to the True Faith of Islam before finding his way back to his first love. Guided by a Merlin-like clairvoyant called Buzurjmehr, protected by legendary prophets, and accompanied by his loyal friend, the ingenious trickster Amar Ayyar, Amir Hamza rides his devoted winged demon-steed, Ashqar, into combat against a marvelous array of opponents, from the deadly demon, Sufaid Dev, to his own rebellious sons.Appreciated as the seminal Islamic epic or enjoyed as a sweeping tale as rich and inventive as Homer's epic sagas, "The Adventures of Amir Hamza" is an extraordinary creation and a true literary treasure.

    Gulzar witnessed the horrors of Partition first-hand and it is a theme that he has gone back to again and again in his writings. Footprints on Zero Line brings together a collection of his finest writings - fiction, non-fiction and poems - on the subject. What sets this collection apart from other writings on Partition is that Gulzar's unerring eye does not stop at the events of 1947 but looks at how it continues to affect our lives to this day. Wonderfully rendered in English by well-known author and translator Rakhshanda Jalil, this collection marks seventy years of India's Independence. Footprints on Zero Line is not only a brilliant collection on a cataclysmic event in the history of our nation by one of our finest contemporary writers, it is also a timely reminder that those who forget the errors of the past are doomed to repeat them.

    The sequel to Adi Parva, which was chosen as one of 2012's Best Graphic Novels by comic book historian Paul Gravett, this book combines breath-taking art with classic storytelling. Based on the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the tradition of oral storytellers, Sauptik is also very contemporary. The narrative, with its lush visuals, emphasizes, over and over, our forgotten connection with the soil, with rivers, with forests, with fire. In book one, Adi Parva: Churning of the Ocean, the celestial river Ganga narrates events from the beginning of time and in its sequel, Sauptik: Blood and Flowers, Ashwatthama carries the story forward after surviving the Kurukshetra battle.

    Until one December dawn, when the ducks and the little duck girl, not so little any more, return to the village after several years of absence and light up Maash's life again.The year is 2019, the Indian Parliament has passed the Citizenship Amendment Act and the question of identity-- especially religious identity--is at the forefront of everything. Suddenly, everyone wants to know: who is this duck girl, where does she come from, who does she pray to? In a matter of days, Maash finds himself in the middle of a conflict he couldn't have foreseen.Set in Kaikurussi - the near idyllic village which Anita Nair introduced to readers worldwide in her first novel The Better Man, The Little Duck Girl is a state-of-the-nation story that sensitively but unflinchingly explores the idea of who we are as a people.