Book picks similar to
An Unexpected Gift by Ajay K. Pandey
fiction
romance
ajay-k-pandey
novels
Yayati: A Classic Tale of Lust
Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar - 1963
Yayati was a great scholar and one of the noblest rulers of olden times. He followed the shastras and was devoted to the welfare of his subjects. Even the King of Gods, Indra, held him in high esteem. Married to seductively beautiful Devyani, in love with her maid Sharmishtha, and father of five sons from two women, yet Yayati unabashedly declares, My lust for pleasure is unsatisfied. His quest for the carnal continued, sparing not even his youngest son, and exchanging his old age for his son s youth.
My Brother's Wedding
Andaleeb Wajid - 2013
Sabas brother, Y, is to get married and, since the day her mother and sister began scanning the horizon for prospective brides, theres never been a dull moment at home. Saba, though, just cannot understand what the fuss is all about. A literature student pulled away from her beloved books, she finds the blogosphere a good place to rant in and to share with the world how a wedding can make everything around you go haywire.Join Saba and her family as they quarrel over shopping, expenses and responsibilities, and as they realize gradually that theres nothing like a wedding to bring a family together.
Madras on Rainy Days
Samina Ali - 2004
At nineteen, her parents inform Layla that a marriage has been arranged for her. Her wedding will be in India, to Sameer, a handsome, ambitious Indian engineer, who knows nothing of Layla's American self and who has some potent secrets of his own. A stunned Layla submits reluctantly, but not before she commits a dangerous, final act of defiance. In the heat and noise of Hyderabad, as her wedding looms, her behaviour becomes more erratic. Her mother, fearing demonic possession, takes Layla on a series of visits to alims - Muslim faith healers - hoping to exorcise all traces of rebellion. To Layla's surprise, the ancient and elaborate wedding rituals, her groom's physical beauty, and the warm welcome of her new family fill her with a sense of belonging she has never known before. outside, the full horror of the devil's bargain she has made is revealed, forcing her to make painful decisions about her roles as a Muslim, a wife and a woman. Set against the backdrop of the ancient walled city of Hyderabad and mounting Hindu-Muslim tensions, MADRAS ON RAINY DAYS, lyrically evokes the complexities of life behind the chador. It is a gorgeously written novel by an original new voice in international fiction.
Love without a story
Arundhathi Subramaniam - 2019
Circling themes of intimacy and time, they return to the urgency of conversation: that fragile bridge across the frozen attitudes that divide our world. But at the heart of the collection is a deeper preoccupation, with those blurry places where humans might walk with gods, where the body might touch the beyond, where the enchanted might intersect effortlessly with the everyday. Where one stumbles upon what the poet simply calls ‘love without a story’.
Life... Love... Kumbh...
Aporva Kala - 2011
is told from the perspective of the three main characters- Annant, Agastaya, and Aditi. Their paths cross on January 13, 2010. It is the day before the first of the eleven sacred baths of the Haridwar Maha Kumbh.The three characters meet each other and exchange their stories. They remember the days gone by and are unsure about what lies ahead.As the Kumbh Mela draws towards an end, all three of them are thrown into a challenging situation that they have to face. The book then follows their journey as they try and find answers for their personal quests all at the same time - on life, love, and the thirst for knowledge.
The Alchemy of Desire
Tarun J. Tejpal - 2005
Obsessed with each other, they move from a small town to the big city, where the man, who dreams of being a writer, works feverishly on a novel, stopping only to feed his ceaseless desire for his beautiful wife.A chance occurrence allows the lovers to abandon the city for a mist-shrouded spur of the lower Himalayas and move into a sprawling old house, which they hope will embody their love. At first they pursue their deep physical need with a reckless intensity. But during renovations of the house, a set of diaries written by the original inhabitant—a glamorous American adventuress—is unearthed, and the narrator finds himself irresistibly drawn away from his wife and thrust into another world and time, into the hole of history. As his life and love fall apart, he slowly begins to uncover the dark secrets at the heart of her story, until the shocking truth is laid bare and all certainties are overturned.Inventive, playful, heartbreaking, brimming with ideas and memorable characters, The Alchemy of Desire celebrates the chaotic spirit of a country during a time of great change. It also offers, in searing, lucid prose, a deeply sensual and moving meditation on the nature of desire, history, truth, and art. This is a major novel by one of the most significant new voices of his generation.
निजधाम [Nijdham]
Ratnakar Matkari
A call from the final adobe, 'Nijdham'; all these short mystic stories have created a new way in the history of Marathi literature.
The Girl in the Red Lipstick
Ajay K Pandey - 2021
While on a book promotion tour, he is injured and agrees to call a masseuse. Little did he know that the masseuse would turn out to be someone with a secret!Arun sees a story in her, and in digging deeper, is amazed to discover her strength of character. Even though Lalita is a young survivor of human trafficking, she has unmatched determination.A single encounter with her makes Arun take decisions that he had never even thought of. He is willing to risk everything for her, his own life too.But the more he tries to help her, the deeper he drowns in the swamp.Will two broken people be able to heal each other? Will society ever accept a girl from the forbidden alleys of the city?The Girl in the Red Lipstick is a charming story of friendship, life and finding love where we least expect to.
Ancient Promises
Jaishree Misra - 1999
Years later, she is miserable, having been gradually shut out by the coldness of her husband’s family and his indifference to her and her daughter’s needs.Finally she flees to England to escape the loveless union—but at what price to herself and those she loves? The moving story of one woman’s painful journey of self-discovery, Ancient Promises is about a marriage, a divorce, and motherhood. It is about why we love and lose, sometimes seeming to have little control over our destinies.About the AuthorJaishree Misra is the best-selling author of Ancient Promises, Accidents Like Love and Marriage and Afterwards. She lives in the United Kingdom.
Bodies of Water
T. Greenwood - 2013
Summers spent with the girls at their lakeside camp in Vermont are her one escape--from her husband's demands, from days consumed by household drudgery, and from the nagging suspicion that life was supposed to hold something different.Then a new family moves in across the street. Ted and Eva Wilson have three children and a fourth on the way, and their arrival reignites long-buried feelings in Billie. The affair that follows offers a solace Billie has never known, until her secret is revealed and both families are wrenched apart in the tragic aftermath.Fifty years later, Ted and Eva's son, Johnny, contacts an elderly but still spry Billie, entreating her to return east to meet with him. Once there, Billie finally learns the surprising truth about what was lost, and what still remains, of those joyful, momentous summers.In this deeply tender novel, T. Greenwood weaves deftly between the past and present to create a poignant and wonderfully moving story of friendship, the resonance of memories, and the love that keeps us afloat.
Those 7 Days
Anmol Rana - 2014
Stories that are innocent, beautiful, colourful and different in their own way.This is one such story of friendship and its journey to love.A Journey in which they were not together.A typical middle class lad, and a mealy-mouthed mummy-papa boy, Vishwas never imagined that in just seven days life will twist his roads and leave him at place he had never dreamt of. A typical middle class girl, a go-getter, and indefatigably correct when it’s between the two, Shailja always believed that one day her life will be at crossroads.Wreathed in smiles, with his bag of dreams, aspirations and youthful reveries, Vishwas sets off on his dream journey from his small world in the tranquil foothills of the Himalayas. But soon the small town boy’s dreams and fantasies are hijacked by the pace and character of the big city he lands in. The roller coaster called life derails from the path he chooses and goes amok refusing to stop, until he discovers a truth he hadn’t imagined.What happened in those seven days that changed his life forever?Will he accept what the destiny unfolds? Will he fight? Will he run?Or fate has something else in store for him?
Koi Good News?
Zarreen Khan - 2018
The size of the Deol family – it put any Sooraj Barjatya movie to shame.2. The fertility of the Deol family – they reproduced faster than any other species known to mankind.It’s been four years since their wedding, and Mona and Ramit have done the unthinkable – they’ve remained childless. Of course, that also means that they’ve battled that one question day in and day out: ‘Koi Good News?’It doesn’t matter that they have been happy to be child-free – they are married; they are expected to make babies. After all, there are grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts and even colony aunties in waiting.Now, the truth is, Ramit and Mona had been trying to conceive for the past one year. But having a baby isn’t as easy as it’s made out to be.Finally, aided by the wine at their highly glamorous neighbours’ party, Mona gets pregnant. And so begins a crazy journey – complete with interfering relatives, nosy neighbours, disapproving doctors, and absolutely no privacy!Honest, relevant and thoroughly irreverent, Koi Good News? is the funniest book you’ll read this year.
രണ്ടാമൂഴം | Randamoozham
M.T. Vasudevan Nair - 1984
T. Vasudevan Nair. It was translated into English as Second Turn in 1997. M. T. Vasudevan Nair won Vayalar Award, given for the best literary work in Malayalam, for the novel in 1985. Later, in the year 1995, Mr. Nair was awarded the highest literary award in India, Jnanpith Award, for his overall contribution to Malayalam literature.The novel is set as a retelling of the Indian epic Mahabharata, from the view of Bhima, the second Pandava.