Bangalore


Peter Colaco - 2003
    He discovers that between his mother's ancestral home on Great Road, where he was born and his father's house in Fraser Town, his experiences represent a century of Bangalore's cultural history.The book is a sequence of loosely connected essays and anecdotes. It often borders on social comment, might even pass as pop-sociology, but is even more enjoyable simply for it's humour, superbly complemented by Paul Fernandes' water colour sketches.

The Torch Betrayal


Glenn Dyer - 2018
    A missing battle plan. Will he find redemption or damage the Allies beyond repair? London, 1942. OSS Agent Conor Thorn is desperate for a second chance. After a botched mission in Tangier, Thorn knows failure is not an option. When confidential directives for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, go missing, the agent must recover the plans before the Nazis thwart the crucial mission. Thorn teams up with MI6 agent Emily Bright to seek out the traitor in their midst. Untangling the web of suspects leads them to Nazi sympathizers, double-crossing Soviet spies, and Vatican clergymen with motives of their own. As their mission grows more and more dangerous, Thorn and Bright have one chance to retrieve the document before it falls into enemy hands, leaving countless Allied troops in danger. The Torch Betrayal is a high-stakes WWII thriller inspired by true events.

Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton


William F. Buckley Jr. - 2000
    Founder of U.S. counter-intelligence, hunter of moles and foes of America, his name has become synonymous with skulduggery and subterfuge. Angleton pursued his enemies, real and imagined, with a cool, calculating intelligence. Eventually convinced that there was a turncoat within the highest reaches of the U.S. government, Angleton turned all of his considerable skills to finding and exposing him. The result was a near-victory for U.S. Intelligence-and total defeat for himself. A brilliant re-creation of a world that included Soviet defectors, the infamous traitors Burgess, MacLean, and Philby, and American presidents from Truman to Carter, Spytime traces the making-and unmaking-of a man without a peer and, at the end, a man without a country to serve.

The Swastika Killer


Mahendra Jakhar - 2017
    A MANIC JEW. OR A NEO-NAZI...2006, GERMANY, FIFA WORLD CUP.In Berlin, a killer begins targeting the most dangerous criminals and brands his victims with the symbol of the swastika. The day of each murder coincides mystically with the navagrahas, the days sacred to the nine planetary gods in Hindu mythology. And the dates correspond to hidden horrors of the historical past.Only one man can decipher and look beyond symbols — the unassuming Bala, the sharpest sleuth in the Indian Intelligence Bureau.The chase of a lifetime begins!7/11, MUMBAI EXPLODESThree friends who were born and grew up in the city's brothels, thrown apart by riots, are brought together by the swastika.The killer takes them into the streets of Mumbai, to the den of underworld kings, inside prison complexes, terrorist cells and the snake pit called Bollywood.They will need more than friendship, love, and luck to survive.Is the swastika killer a self-proclaimed vigilante, out to end evil?To find out, and put an end to the killings, Bala will have to go to the beginning. The past that lies hidden in the streets of Old Delhi.KILLING FIELDSThe killer moves through Afghanistan and Pakistan to target the world’s most guarded man. It will change the course of our history.Friendship will be tested with blood and death.Can Bala stop the killer?Can the blood-thirsty navagrahas be pacified?

Mom Says No Girlfriend


Subhasis Das - 2010
    Unhappy with her constant interference in his life, Danny’s music classes become his only solace and as the years go by, make him realize that music is his true calling.There’s just one glitch: his parents have already planned his entire life for him, and it involves science and engineering. Music has no place in it. Now sixteen, and a rebel, Sam joins a new school far away from home and out of his mother’s reach. Life takes a hedonistic turn for him, with parties, alcohol, love and sex.A coming-of-age novel, Mom Says No Girlfriend is the heart-warming story of a boy trying to find his place in the world.

The 365 Days


Nikhil Ramteke - 2016
    What unfolds is a stirring story of distilled hardship, exploitation, identity, and friendship, and the heartbreaking choices Shiju is often forced to make.So what he sees is not what he experiences when he lands in a world of glimmering towers, fast-paced life, and unabashed opulence. For what he was not prepared for was the dark underbelly of Dubai beyond the shimmering mirage.Shiju’s life is no more the same. But he holds his ground, drawing on ancient instincts of his seafaring ancestry. As things settle down around him, he is inexorably pulled into the canyon of recession…Will Shiju be able to hold on to his dreams? Will he able to pull out himself from the whirlpool? Will he survive against all odds? Will he redeem himself?The 365 Days weaves a captivating tale about the countless Indians and other South-East Asian migrant laborers, who, in seeking to forge their destinies on that gleaming promontory of dreams, end up colliding with forces beyond their reckoning.Nikhil Ramteke unfolds an extraordinary saga about Indian expatriates, their struggles, their alienation, and their dreams. The 365 Days is more than a story of a year in Shijukutty’s life.About the AuthorNikhil Ramteke is an M-Tech in Chemical Technology .He is currently working as a Production Manager in a leading multinational FMCG giant –IFFCO, since 8 years. Born & brought up in Nagpur Maharashtra, he currently stays in Sharjah, UAE. Apart from his passion of writing, he is a qualified painter, nominated photographer & an avid traveller. Intrigued by Indian labor’s situation in gulf, he narrates a heartbreaking story & his experience in UAE. The 365 days is his debut novel.

The Skinning Tree


Srikumar Sen - 2012
    When Sabby is sent to a boarding school in northern India, he witnesses a strict regime in which the schoolboys are beaten and brutalized by the teachers.The boys themselves take on their abusers' cruel traits, mindlessly killing animals and hanging their skins on a cactus, before their thoughts turn to even more sinister schemes. Conspiratorial whisperings and plans of revenge spiral into a tragedy engulfing Sabby in a chilling exploration of human nature's darkest facets.

The Peshwa: The Lion and the Stallion


Ram Sivasankaran - 2015
    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?

The List


Michael Brissenden - 2017
    Part of the Australian Federal Police's K block, a unit doing whatever it takes in order to stop terrorist attacks on home soil. But when young Muslim men on the Terror Watchlist start turning up dead, Sid and his partner, Haifa, have to work out what's going on. Sectarian war? Drugs? Retribution? For Sid, there's nothing unclear about a bullet to the head and a severed hand. Someone is sending a message. Deciphering that message reveals a much wider threat and Sid and the agency have to decide just how far they'll go to prevent a deadly attack. Time is running out ... for them and Australia. From the brutal battlegrounds of Afghanistan, to the western Sydney suburbs and the halls of power in Canberra, THE LIST is a page-turning thriller where justice, revenge and the war on terror collide.

Caste as Social Capital


R. Vaidyanathan - 2019
    The establishment and running of businesses tap into caste networks, both in terms of arranging finance and providing access to a ready workforce.By and large, caste has only been studied from a religious, social and political angle. Though it is widely accepted that caste has economic ramifications, any study of this aspect has been limited to looking at caste groups in terms of their per capita income, their representation in various professions, and other statistical details.Caste as Social Capital examines the workings of caste through the lens of business, economics and entrepreneurship. It interrogates the role caste plays in the economic sphere in terms of facilitating the nuts and bolts of business and entrepreneurship: finance, markets and workforce. Through this qualitative view of caste, an entirely new picture emerges of caste which forces one to view this age-old institution in new light.

On the Open Road: Three Lives. Five Cities. One Startup.


Stuti Changle - 2017
    Kabir wonders what life would be to build on his own. Sandy drops out of college to work on the next big startup idea. Ramy inspires millions of his generation on his travel blog - On the Open Road. On the Open Road - Three Lives. Five Cities. One Startup, revolves around the lives of these restless and dreamy 20-somethings as they battle their inner demons and the societal taboos to live life on their terms. It is an emotional journey of following one’s heart. The journey entails undying friendship, love and loss, happiness and depression, fear and conquest, dreaming and achieving. Will they be able to embark on the hard yet empowering journey to startup a company? Or succumb to the hardships on their road to freedom?

When Loss is Gain


Pavan K. Varma - 2012
    

The Rape Trial


Bidisha Ghosal - 2020
    Nearly a decade has passed since Rahul Satyabhagi, heir to the mega Satyabhagi business empire, had raped Avni Rambha, bested her in court, and gone on to become a men’s rights activist, and the who’s-who of Badrid Bay had breathed a sigh of relief that the sordid mess was over. But now a sting operation proves what many, the three friends included, had suspected all along – he’d been lying. Furious that he has been exposed, Rahul plans to sue the media as well as his long-suffering victim. Now, Rhea, Hitaishi and Amruta find themselves at a crossroad - can they carry on doing nothing? DC Virendra Dixit was among those who’d believed that the Rambha rape case had been a ‘false allegation’, but now the sting tape brings him to a case that promises to be a turning point in his career. Just as he thinks he is nearing a resolution, he finds himself at a crossroad of his own. Rhea, Hitaishi and Amruta have carved out a path that has already affected DC Dixit’s, but do their paths cross? Who is the hunter, and who is the hunted? Can a story of hard questions and difficult choices have an easy resolution?

The King's Harvest


Chetan Raj Shrestha - 2013
    At first, the murder seems an open-and-shut case to Dechen, the tough, foul- mouthed, prickly lady cop in charge of the investigation. But as she begins to delve into the lives of Kamala and Puran, she discovers a world of lies, deceit and love gone wrong, where nothing is as it seems, and the guilt of murderers is difficult to establish.On a day of endless rain, a man emerges from thirty-two years of isolation to meet his king, whom he owes a share of the harvest from his fields. Journeying across leech-infested forests and forbidding valleys, he tells his children the story of his life one that has been full of drama and magic. But the biggest miracle of all awaits him in Gangtok...These two novellas, united by their strong sense of place, showcase Chetan Raj Shresthas enormous gifts as a storyteller. Magical, gritty, nerve-wracking and stylish in equal measure, this is an exceptional debut.

A Lovesong for India: Tales from the East and West


Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - 2011
    Set in India, England, and New York City, A Lovesong for India reveals what unites us across oceans, cultures, and lifetimes.In “Innocence,” an older couple, whose social standing is marred from a decades-old scandal, rent out rooms in their Delhi home for both companionship and income. Isolated and battling blame and guilt, the couple becomes deeply invested in the lives of their two tenants. With the addition of a third renter—a beautiful and provocative woman from India—tensions in the household push the story to its feverish conclusion.The story “Talent” finds Jhabvala in New York City reflecting on the friction between family and societal expectations. Magda is a talent scout whose entire life is her work until she meets Ellie, a singer whose immense ability and unguarded personality captivate Magda. Soon Ellie is integrated into Magda’s extended family for better or worse.Remarkable and unwavering, this collection is the hallmark of Jhabvala’s celebrated career and a testament to her “balance, subtlety, wry humor, and beauty” —The New York Times.