Book picks similar to
Selected Fiction by Manoj Das
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The Seal of Surya
Amritanshu Pandey - 2014
The Solar tribes are without a ruler, and the return to Aryavarta has resulted in a confederation where hitherto there was a united clan-hood. Rakshasas, Gandharvas and Yakshas threaten the nascent cities of Aryavarta, and if their rise is not checked the Solar tribes may lose all they have gained.And thus rises Ikshvaku, the son of Manu and descendant of Surya. He forms Aryavarta’s first Kingdom and unites the Solar strength against the Anaryas- Rakshasas, Gandharvas and Yakshas.But the Seal of Surya is still missing, and Ikshvaku will need to find it to put his claim and authority beyond all doubt. This is the tale of Aryavarta’s first dynasty, the Suryavansha, and its first King- Ikshvaku Manava.
Mistress of Honour
Bhaavna Arora - 2015
. . only to realize you will always come a close secondWhen Potnis, a captain in the Indian Army, meets Pansy during Operation Blue Star, he knows he has found the love of his life. Their passionate romance leads them to the altar and blossoms into a beautiful child, Rihana.History repeats itself when Advik, a wayward boy from a broken family, catapults into Rihana’s heart as smoothly as he conquers the skies as an Indian Air Force pilot. What follows is a night of unabashed love, transporting the couple to heavenly bliss. Where will their unbridled love lead them? Will Rihana remain a mistress to Advik, for whom the love for his country comes first, or will she be able to make a place in his heart that is second to none? This heartbreaking saga of love, courage and sacrifice will leave you asking for more.
I Will Go With You: The Flight of a Lifetime
Priya Kumar - 2015
Take your seat aboard SK502 on row 26 among four evolved souls, who through their life and living take you through an escapade that will change the way you see your own life - forever. The story is a fast paced adventure aboard a flight with a pilot who has decided to end his life by committing suicide, endangering every passenger on board. Every twist and turn leaves you gasping. On another level, the book brings you face to face with questions that linger in your consciousness long after you have turned the last page. Come aboard a suspense filled drama of life and death woven by master storyteller Priya Kumar as she takes you on a ride that you will never forget.
Love, life & all that jazz....
Ahmed Faiyaz - 2010
It’s about where they go from here, the changes they see in themselves and in other people in their lives and the choices they make. The choices make affects their relationships and shapes their personality.
The Front Page Murders
Puja Changoiwala - 2016
Over 21 days five murder cases were discovered that led to the unravelling of a spine-chilling tale of cold-blooded crime. Half-naked bodies; missing suspects; a desperate manhunt; connections with the underworld, police and Bollywood; and a seductress who lured victims - all led to a man named Vijay Palande.Palande, who targeted dreamers, mainly Bollywood aspirants in Mumbai, had an uncomplicated modus operandi - he would befriend the target, gauge his wealth, murder him, hack his body into pieces, and abandon the remains in the Western Ghats. Equipped with the sophistication of Charles Sobhraj, the nonchalance of serial-killer Raman Raghav and the cruelty of Jack the Ripper, Palande had the country hooked.In The Front Page Murders, Puja Changoiwala, who covered the story as it came to light, recounts in gripping detail one of the most sensational cases in India’s recent history and the personalities involved in it. In doing so, she delves into the functioning of daily crime reporting and police investigations, providing startling insights into the worlds of journalism and crime
The Adivasi Will Not Dance
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar - 2015
It establishes Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar as one of our most important contemporary writers.
Bombay Balchao
Jane Borges - 2019
Looking for safe harbour, livelihood, and a new place to call home. Communities congregated around churches and markets, sharing lord and land with the native East Indians. The young among them were nudged on to the path of marriage, procreation and godliness, though noble intentions were often ambushed by errant love and plain and simple lust. As in the story of Annette and Benji (and Joe) or Michael and Merlyn (and Ellena).Lovers and haters, friends and family, married men and determined singles, churchgoers and abstainers, Bombay Balchão is a tangled tale of ordinary lives – of a woman who loses her husband to a dockyard explosion and turns to bootlegging, a teen romance that drowns like a paper boat, a social misfit rescued by his addiction to crosswords, a wife who tries to exorcise the spirit of her dead mother-in-law from her husband, a rebellious young woman who spurns true love for the abandonment of dance. Ordinary, except when seen through their own eyes. Then, it’s legend.Set in Cavel, a tiny Catholic neighbourhood on Bombay’s D’Lima Street, this delightful debut novel is painted with many shades of history and memory, laughter and melancholy, sunshine and silver rain.
The Toss of a Lemon
Padma Viswanathan - 2008
Hanumarathnam, a village healer with some renown as an astrologer, has approached her parents with a marriage proposal. In keeping with custom, he provides his prospective in-laws with his horoscope. The problem is that his includes a prediction, albeit a weak one, that he will die in his tenth year of marriage. Despite the ominous horoscope, Sivakami’s parents hesitate only briefly, won over by the young man and his family’s reputation as good, upstanding Brahmins. Once married, Sivikami and Hanumarathnam grow to love one another and the bride, now in her teens, settles into a happy life. But the predictions of Hanumarathnam’s horoscope are never far from her new husband’s mind. When their first child is born, as a strategy for accurately determining his child’s astrological charts, Hanumarathnam insists the midwife toss a lemon from the window of the birthing room the moment his child appears. All is well with their first child, a daughter, Thangam, whose birth has a positive influence on her father’s astrological future. But this influence is fleeting: when a son, Vairum, is born, his horoscope confirms that his father will die within three years.Resigned to his fate, Hanumarathnam sets himself to the unpleasant task of readying his household for his imminent death. Knowing the hardships and social restrictions Sivakami will face as a Brahmin widow, he hires and trains a servant boy called Muchami to help Sivakami manage the household and properties until Vairum is of age.When Sivakami is eighteen, Hanumarathnam dies as predicted. Relentless in her adherence to the traditions that define her Brahmin caste, she shaves her head and dons the white sari of the widow. With some reluctance, she moves to her family home to raise her children under the protection of her brothers, but then realizes that they are not acting in the best interests of her children. With her daughter already married to an unreliable husband of her brothers’ choosing, and Vairum’s future also at risk, Sivakami leaves her brothers and returns to her marital home to raise her family.With the freedom to make decisions for her son’s future, Sivakami defies tradition and chooses to give him a secular education. While her choice ensures that Vairum fulfills his promise, it also sets Sivakami on a collision course with him. Vairum, fatherless in childhood, childless as an adult, rejects the caste identity that is his mother’s mainstay, twisting their fates in fascinating and unbearable ways.
Six Acres and a Third: The Classic Nineteenth-Century Novel about Colonial India
Fakir Mohan Senapati - 1897
A text that makes use—and deliberate misuse—of both British and Indian literary conventions, Six Acres and a Third provides a unique "view from below" of Indian village life under colonial rule. Set in Orissa in the 1830s, the novel focuses on a small plot of land, tracing the lives and fortunes of people who are affected by the way this property is sold and resold, as new legal arrangements emerge and new types of people come to populate and transform the social landscape. This graceful translation faithfully conveys the rare and compelling account of how the more unsavory aspects of colonialism affected life in rural India.
A Christmas in London
Preethi Venugopala - 2018
She has a bucket list of things to do before she leaves London. One of them is to enjoy a Christmas in London. And she is about to tick that off her list as well because she is the maid of honour at the Christmas Eve wedding of her colleague. A Christmas themed wedding.Nathan, the best man at the wedding, is intrigued by the pretty Indian girl and is delighted when he recognises her as his long-lost childhood friend. Will Nathan be able to fulfil the promise he made to Raina years ago? Can they fight the incredible attraction they feel for each other?Or will his painful past come in the way of their love?Do they need a Christmas miracle?
Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer
Cyrus Mistry - 2012
Segregated and shunned from society, often wretchedly poor, theirs is a lot that nobody would willingly espouse. Yet thats exactly what Phiroze Elchidana, son of a revered Parsi priest, does when he falls in love with Sepideh, the daughter of an aging corpse bearer...Derived from a true story, Cyrus Mistrys extraordinary new novel is a moving account of tragic love that, at the same time, brings to vivid and unforgettable life the degradation experienced by those who inhabit the unforgiving margins of history.
Yama and His Book of Accounts: (Penguin Petit)
Devdutt Pattanaik - 2018
Only actions remain in our control while the reactions are simply to be borne. How one handles those reactions is believed to be the real test of one's existence on earth according to Hindu mythology. Desire and Destiny are the governing principles of the universe. What we desire, what we do to fulfill those desires and how we act upon our destinies—they all add up as credits and debits in our life's ledger, maintained by none other than Yama, the God of death. And he maintains this ledger for a reason: to determine what happens to us after we die. Read on as Devdutt Pattanaik unravels the various beliefs associated with death in Hindu mythology in Yama and His Book of Accounts.
The Nidhi Kapoor Story
Saurabh Garg - 2014
Left behind is a mysterious letter threatening Nidhi and her family.Nishant Kapoor, Nidhi’s father and a superstar of the yesteryears is confined to a retirement facility in the hills. Tormenting him are his recurring dreams of someone trying to hurt him and his family. A film set where Nidhi Kapoor is shooting for her much anticipated film goes up in flames. Trapped inside are Nidhi and her sister, Payal.ACP Prakash Mohile is forced to take up the investigation. Rujuta Singh, a photojournalist chronicling the lives of policemen in Mumbai and shadowing Prakash, gets embroiled in the case.Unwarranted incidents continue to happen and in absence of any real clues or motive, Prakash and Rujuta are forced to dig deeper in the past of the Kapoors. They unknowingly stumble onto a violent tale of lies, betrayal, treachery, infidelity and murder.Time is running out fast and the unknown assailant is adamant on taking away from Nidhi everything that she holds dear - her career, her home, her reputation, her family and her life. With each move, he seems to be getting close. The answers however continue to elude Prakash and Rujuta.What is it in their past that Kapoors are hiding from the world? What grudge does the assailant hold against the Kapoors?And, can they save Nidhi?
A Strange and Sublime Address
Amit Chaudhuri - 1991
This novel tells the story of the atmosphere in the small house where they live. Chaudhuri writes precisely and carefully trying to capture in the rhythms of his prose the faded happiness of things, the strange, pure remembered moments
Murder at Moonlight Cafe and other stories
Ishavasyam Dash - 2019
Made-to-order for those with a taste for inventive idiosyncrasy, this book promises to provoke and entertain in equal measure. About the author: Ishavasyam took a sabbatical from her career in marketing to fulfil her childhood dream of writing a book. Besides weaving tall tales, she loves playing board games and belly dancing. She is a hoarder of art supplies, and has an alarming number of incomplete DIY projects. Ishavasyam lives with her husband, whom she adores to bits, to the point where she may soon give in to his incessant plea to get a dog.