Book picks similar to
Strangers No More: New Narratives From India’s Northeast by Sanjoy Hazarika
india
non-fiction
northeast-india
libg
Finding Your G-Spot
Geetika Saigal - 2018
The Chance that they had you and not another genetic version of you: one in 4 million billion. (yeah, that's a number too!) The Number of moments you have lived (knowing that any of us could pop-off any moment): ~9.4 million in our lifetime.You, Yes YOU, are a miracle.Do you not then deserve to lead a miraculous life?A life that you know is meaningful to you, that doesn't leave you feeling like you are simply running, not knowing where to and why so. So go on, give yourself and your life the best shot.How?By ceasing this race to 'somewhere' for just a few hours; Re-discovering Your Real Self, Re-aligning Your Thoughts, Revamping Your Life - All in (nothing worthwhile is simple!) 4 STEPS + 15 Do-it-for-Yourself EXERCISES.This book is written for all of us, whether you're just starting out your life or wishing to change it.About the AuthorGeetika Saigal is an MBA and Economics grad by education, a Corporate Leader turned Entrepreneur turned Writer by profession, an observer of the common place, an explorer of the unknown and a believer in self-created destiny. She chose the path of a life lived fully, explored globally, experienced intimately...before she took a pause, and started to write. This is her debut book.Explore her daily inspirations via the posts and stories on her Instagram handle @gstorytimeInvite her over for a conversation to your organization, educational institute, or an eager bunch of buddies by sending her an email on imgeetikasaigal@gmail.com
Forgiving The Unforgivable
Sherry Johnson - 2013
Pregnant and married at the age of 11 to cover-up this horrible tragedy she shares how she overcame it all to be a successful business woman, mother and friend. This is a must read for anyone who suffer with forgiven people who have abused you as well as stopping the cycle of abuse in your life.
MSD: THE MAN, THE LEADER
Biswadeep Ghosh - 2015
Born in the lap of poverty and having battled against unimaginable adversities, Dhoni’s rise from being just another small-town boy to captain of Team India is a case study in B-schools. With grit, guts and matchless self-belief, Dhoni led India to an ICC World Twenty20, an ICC 50-over Cricket World Cup and an ICC Champions Trophy triumph, as well as the number one ranking in Tests. Although he’s had his fair share of disappointments, for MSD, failure has been yet another motivation to work hard and succeed.MSD: The Man, the Leader unveils Dhoni’s struggles during his growing-up years, analyses his career as a cricketer and captain par excellence, and reveals his innate leadership abilities by speaking to luminaries from different walks of life including Harsh Goenka, Vineet Nayar and Dhanraj Pillay in a jargon-free, easy-to-read style. Replete with examples of Dhoni’s strong personality and inspiring leadership, and marking one decade of his entry into the Indian cricket team, MSD: The Man, the Leader will reinforce the belief: Yes, I CAN.
Still Loved…Still Missed!
Mridula മൃദുല - 2019
These stories span characters and emotional states with canny details that touch the depths of your soul. Picturing the complexities of love, misery and mystery, the stories try to gnaw your heart like never before.• What does a flower teach us we often fail to see?• “The belly is an ungrateful wretch.” Is it true?• Ever wondered about the sparseness and illusions in life?• Does death put an end to true love?• Have all the ascetics won over their emotions?With the power of simple language, this book transports the readers to a world scarcely thought of in our bustling lives. The allegories maintain an intense rhythm of life prompting the readers to perceive things from a unique angle.“A whole bookful to make you think, cry, think again and move on.”
Infinite Variety: A History of Desire in India
Madhavi Menon - 2018
Not one answer, but many. Not a single history, but multiple tales cutting across laws and boundaries.’ In Bhakti poetry, Radha and Krishna disregard marital fidelity, age, time and gender for erotic love. In Sufi dargahs, pirs (spiritual guides) who were married to women are buried alongside their male disciples, as lovers are. Vatsyayana, author of the world’s most famous manual of sex, insists that he did not compose it ‘for the sake of passion’, and remained celibate through the writing of it. Long hair is widely seen as a symbol of sexuality; and yet, shaved off in a temple, it is a sacred offering. Even as the country has a draconian law to punish homosexuality, heterosexual men share the same bed without comment. Hijras are increasingly marginalized; yet gender has historically been understood as fluid rather than fixed. Menon navigates centuries, geographies, personal and public histories, schools of philosophy, literary and cinematic works, as she examines the many—and often surprising—faces of desire in the Indian subcontinent. Her study ranges from the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho to the shrine of the celibate god Ayyappan; from army barracks to public parks; from Empress Nur Jahan’s paan to home-made kohl; from cross-dressing mystics to androgynous gods. It shows us the connections between grammar and sex, between hair and war, between abstinence and pleasure, between love and death. Gloriously subversive, full of extraordinary analyses and insights, this is a book you will read to be enlightened and entertained for years.About the AuthorMadhavi Menon is professor of English at Ashoka University, and writes on desire and queer theory. She is the author of Wanton Words: Rhetoric and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama; Unhistorical Shakespeare: Queer Theory in Shakespearean Literature and Film; and Indifference to Difference: On Queer Universalism. She is also the editor of Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
Lunatic In My Head
Anjum Hasan - 2007
It’s raining in Shillong. Eight-year-old Sophie Das has just realized she is adopted, but there is also the baby kicking inside her mother’s stomach whom she is dying to meet. IAS aspirant Aman Moondy is planning a first-of-its-kind Happening and praying the lovely Concordella will come. College lecturer Firdaus Ansari is going to finish her thesis, have a hard talk with her boyfriend, and then get out.Poetic, funny, tender and reflective, Lunatic in My Head is a moving portrait of a small town. And of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small-town destinies.
Aimless in Banaras: Wanderings in India's Holiest City
Bishwanath Ghosh - 2019
A few years later, he returns to Banaras to write that book.Plunging into its timeless aura, he roams its ghats and galis, sails through the cool breeze of the Ganga, walks through the heat of funeral pyres. One moment he is observing a sadhu show off his penile strength, in the next he is on a boat with a young woman who has been prophesied to marry seven times; one moment he is in conversation with the celebrated writer Kashinath Singh, who is an atheist, and in the next he is having tea with a globe- trotting priest and a god-fearing doctor ... Ghosh finds a story in every bend as he engages with quintessential Banarasis—their paan-stuffed mouths spouting expletives and wisdom with equal flair—and discovers why they are among the happiest people on earth. Then one evening at Manikarnika, as he emerges from a temple, wearing ash from the cremation ground on his forehead, he finds a bit of Banaras in himself. Aimless in Banaras is not only a sensuous portrait of India’s holiest city but also a meditation on life—and death.
The Mountain of Light
Indu Sundaresan - 2013
It is the “Mountain of Light”—the Kohinoor diamond—and its facets reflect a sweeping story of love, adventure, conquest, and betrayal. Its origins are the stuff of myth, but for centuries this spectacular gem changes hands from one ruler to another in India, Persia, and Afghanistan. In 1850, the ancient stone is sent halfway around the world where it will play a pivotal role in the intertwined destinies of a boy-king of India and a young queen of England—a queen who claims the Mountain of Light and India itself for her own burgeoning empire, the most brilliant jewels in her imperial crown.The Mountain of Light is a magnificent story of loss and recovery, sweeping change and enduring truth, wrapped around the glowing heart of one of the world’s most famous diamonds.
BITING THE BULLET: Memoirs of a Police Officer
Ajai Raj Sharma - 2019
He was handpicked to lead the Delhi Police Force at a time when India’s capital was in a crisis. He also stood at the helm of the world’s largest border force, which secures India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.In the pages of this searing memoir, readers will be treated with the inside story of the creation of Special Task Force, of the elimination of the dreaded Shri Prakash Shukla, the exposing of the match-fixing scandal, the hunting down of ISI terrorist Ghazi Baba and the dynamic response to the 2001 Parliament attack, amongst many others.Biting the Bullet is a trailblazing account of a life full of tackling dacoits, encounters, shootouts and terror attacks, all the while giving an insight into the mind and heart of this police officer as he makes life-changing decisions.
Return to India
Shoba Narayan - 2011
Following in the tradition of her first book, Monsoon Diary: a memoir with recipes, award-winning author, Shoba Narayan explores themes of family, culture and identity. In vivid and heartfelt prose, Shoba Narayan describes the trajectory of her immigrant life from the salty plains of South India to the high rises of New York and Boston. From the exhilarating thrill of being a new immigrant to becoming an angst-ridden mother grappling with hyphenated identities, Narayan describes the life of an immigrant with humour and insight. She talks about why she yearned for America and became a citizen of the land she would ultimately leave. Return to India is about love and loss; about family and identity; and about the quest for a place called home. Return to India is about the costs of chasing the American dream and the complications of returning to your homeland. Rich in detail and empathetic in tone, this book will resonate with immigrants and diaspora from all cultures.
The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple's Guide to Bharat
Saurav Jha - 2015
We were life-going-to-seeders.' Living in a sunny barsati in south Delhi, Saurav Jha and Devapriya Roy are your average DINK couple, about to acquire a few EMIs and come of age in the modern consumerist world. Only, they don't. They junk the swivel chairs, gain a couple of backpacks and set out on a transformational journey across India. On a very, very tight budget: five hundred rupees a day for bed and board. And the Heat and Dust project begins.Joining the ranks of firang gap-year kids and Israelis fresh out of compulsory army service, they travel across a land in which five thousand years of Indian history seem to jostle side by side. It is, by turns, holy and hectic, thuggish and comic, amoral and endearing. In buses that hurtle through the darkness of the night and the heat of the day, across thousands of miles, in ever new places, the richness of this crowded palette spills over into their lives. From rooms by the hour to strange dinner invitations, from spectacular forts to raging tantrums, this is a youthful account of wanderlust and whimsy, of eccentric choices that unfold into the journey of a lifetime ... and a supreme test of marriage.
Gandhi: Naked Ambition
Jad Adams - 2010
Jad Adams offers a concise account of Gandhi's life: from his birth and upbringing in a small princely state in Gujarat during the high noon of the British Raj, to his assassination at the hands of a Hindu extremist in 1948 only months after the birth of the independent India which he himself had done so much to bring about.
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Salman Rushdie - 1991
Containing 74 essays written over the last ten years, this book covers a range of subjects including the literature of the perceived masters and of Rushdie's contemporaries, the politics of colonialism and the ironies of culture, film, politicians, the Labour Party, religious fundamentalism in America, racial prejudice and the preciousness of the imagination and of free expression.
Culture Shock: India
Gitanjali Kolanad - 1993
Get the nuts-and-bolts information you need to survive and thrive wherever you go. "Culture Shock " country guides are easy-to-read, accurate, and entertaining crash courses in local customs and etiquette. "Culture Shock " practical guides offer the inside information you need whether you're a student, a parent, a globetrotter, or a working traveler. "Culture Shock " at your Door guides equip you for daily life in some of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. And "Culture Shock " Success Secrets guides offer relevant, practical information with the real-life insights and cultural know-how that can make the difference between business success and failure.Each "Culture Shock " title is written by someone who's lived and worked in the country, and each book is packed with practical, accurate, and enjoyable information to help you find your way and feel at home.
Knee Deep in Life: Wife, Mother, Realist… and why we’re already enough
Laura Belbin - 2020