This book examines the extraordinary contribution of Sardar Patel,from his unflinching support to Gandhi's satyagrahas and the Indian freedom struggle,to his farsighted and courageous approach in a strong,integrated India

    Singh has been a formidable civil servant, an empathetic politician, a keen chronicler of India’s socioeconomic history and the quintessential academic that academia never got. His life’s work, as chronicled in this book has indeed been intertwined with the progress India has made. In many such cases, Singh has been not just an active contributor but has also given shape to those many momentous decisions—whether through the use of diplomacy or the rigours of understanding the mechanism of the levers of power or, for that matter, by consensus building.Portraits of Power is not just an autobiography of a man, who for several decades has played an active role in India’s march towards becoming a formidable economy; it is indeed, on multiple levels, a book that profiles myriad institutions that work in harmony to make things happen. And in everything that N.K. Singh has done, so in this book too, there is both incisive clarity and insightful anecdotal heft.This book helps readers navigate the vast complexities of India but in a way that is stark and yet elegant.From personal happenings to national movements, Portraits of Power covers it all.

    

    Over the next 3 centuries, it would grow to become one of the mightiest empires in the world, the Vijayanagara Empire. An empire dazzling in it's achievements, in it's riches, in it's arts. From it's founding, to it's fall after the Battle of Tallikota to the heights it achieved under Sri Krishna Deva Raya, City of Victory aims to recreate the splendor and glory of one of the most magnificent empires ev

    But after sending every man she meets to the hospital, she finds herself falling for the one she cannot stand. This is the intriguing and hilarious love story of Naina Kashyap and her arch enemy.

    She has lost her family in a landslide and flash floods. But the people in the hamlet look out for one another and she is not alone. She starts helping the vaidya (the doctor practicing native medicine) and learns the uses of medicinal herbs and roots. During the harsh winters, many residents leave the hamlet for the plains. Daksha stays back and her skills are put to use in the most unexpected way. This brings about a change in Daksha's life. The problem is, Daksha doesn't want her life to change. She is happy living in the mountains, among the deodar trees, gathering and distilling herbs. Excerpt: Sarsati told Hamid about Daksha. Even during the summer months, where she went with the other children to put the animals to graze, she never had much to say. While the children played something or the other, she was apt to drift away to some secluded part and watch the animals frolicking around. She was especially fond of studying the lambs. Very often she'd hold a lamb in her lap and hand feed it. While it nibbled at the grass, she'd trace its bones with her hand. She was always curious to know the bone structure of animals. The way the lambs moved, the play of muscle and bone fascinated her. She moved her own slim hands and arms and tried to imagine the way the bones meshed.

    This book tells gripping stories of death-defying operations and daring surgical strikes, the intense training soldiers have to undergo to become battle-fit, what life is really like on the LoC and the lives of the young men who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Page-turning, thrilling and heart-breaking, you will see the Indian Army and our soldiers close up, like you have never seen them before.

    Sometimes we are the architects of our own fall.Akash Choudry wants a love for all time, not an arranged marriage. Still, under the weight of parental hopes, he agrees to one. He and Jaya marry in a cloud of colour and spice in Bombay. Their marriage has barely begun when Akash embarks on an affair. Jaya cannot contemplate sharing her husband with another woman, or looking past his indiscretions as her mother suggests. Cornered by sexual politics, she takes her fate into her own hands in the form of a lit match.Nothing endures fire. As shards of their past threaten their future, will Jaya ever bloom into the woman she can be, and will redemption be within Akash’s reach?

    But after a minute or two, they too walked away, because looking at the two any longer became unbearable.’A woman who won’t let the shadow of death disrupt her love life, another who falls irrevocably in love with a dead police officer, a devoted wife who steps out twice a week for Narcotics Anonymous meetings, friends who should have been lovers, the woman who offers all her pent-up love to a railway announcer’s voice … Annie Zaidi’s stories are at once warm and distant, violent and gentle – and, above all, untroubled by cynicism. This is a look at love, straight in the eye, to understand the alluring nature of the beast.

    The poet Donald Davie writes: 'Vikram Seth's poems should have an impact far beyond much noisier pieces; for when did we last see a volume in which the poet's eye is on what is objectively before him, rather than on the intricacies of his own sensibility?'

     Built on a deep body of Vedic knowledge, the ancient system of social structure and spiritual duty known as Dharma has modern applications for people seeking their life’s purpose. Author Simon Chokoisky explains the five Dharma archetypes--Warrior, Educator, Merchant, Laborer, and Outsider--and how your life’s purpose goes hand-in-hand with your Dharma type. Providing tests to determine your type, he outlines the benefits, challenges, emotional and learning styles, and social, interpersonal, and health dynamics associated with each type. Chokoisky reveals how the Dharma types function as an operating system for your identity, helping you map your life and play to your innate strengths, whether in choosing a prosperous career or field of study or in facing health challenges and meeting fitness goals. By accepting and understanding the nature of your type, you begin to align with your true purpose and, regardless of fate, find joy and meaning in life.

    

    The short stories included in this selection are representative not only of Tagore's range, but they also enable us to revise the conventional view of Tagore as a short story writer. Writing them at a time when the form was not yet popular, Tagore eschewed the romantic strain prevalent in his day. His stories are fables of modern man, where fairy tale meets hard ground, where myths are reworked, and the religion of man triumphs over the religion of rituals and convention, where the love of a woman infuses the universe with humanity. He writes with concern about such issues as the Hindu revivalism in the late nineteenth century and the bondage of women. The rhythms of daily life, his rural encounters and childhood reminiscences, unfold in his tales, as does a sense of history, the reality of the political situation and its impact on individual lives. Tagore wishes to see the world of humanity not only reflected in his own life but also actualized in Bengali literature. His profound sensibility led him beyond the merely regional, his humanity stretching across east and west, fulfilling the purpose of his Jibandebata, his life's deity, Edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, a well-known scholar and translator, this is an authoritative and readable translation of Tagore's short stories. An essential Tagore for the collector, it is one that will find its place on every discerning reader's shelf.

    The stories recounts the life of times of the hero Domrudhar in colonial India. The protagonist Domrudhar is portrayed as a dishonest man who rises from a lowly shop-assistant to a land owner.

    There's more to Milind Soman than meets the eye (although, as his legions of female fans will agree, what meets the eye is pretty delish).Combining in himself the passion of an entrepreneur, the mind of a nerd, the discipline of an athlete, the curiosity of an explorer, the heart of a patriot and the soul of a philosopher, Milind has made the stunning-and apparently seamless- transition from champion swimmer to supermodel to actor to extreme sportsperson to women's fitness activist, enabler and proselytiser, all in one lifetime.How does he do it? What makes him tick? On the twenty-fifth anniversary of 'Made in India', the breakout pop music video of the 1990s that captured the apna-time-aagaya zeitgeist of post-liberalization India and made him the nation's darling across genders and generations, Milind talks about his fascinating life-controversies, relationships, the breaking of vicious habits like smoking, alcohol, rage, and more-in a freewheeling, bare-all (easy, ladies-we're talking soul-wise!) memoir.Co-authored with bestselling author Roopa Pai, MADE IN INDIA is a rare glimpse into the mind and heart of a very unusual man that will leave you thoughtful, awed and inspired.