This book provides an account of the life of LTTE chief Prabhakaran, who led an armed struggle against the Sri Lankan state to create Eelam, a separate nation for the Sri Lankan Tamils.The book begins from Prabhakaran’s childhood days in the aftermath of India’s and Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain. The Sri Lankan Tamils were following Gandhi’s non-violent methods to fight for their rights as citizens of Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran, an ardent fan of Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose, felt that non-violence would not work against a Sinhala dominated government and began experimenting with violent acts against the Government to send a message. His initial success became the nucleus for the formation of LTTE, which became the quintessential guerrilla organization fighting the State.The book details various incidents of Prabhakaran’s life including terror attacks, assassination of politicians, heads of States and militant leaders; India’s role in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict; Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka; the Eelam wars, negotiations, betrayals and elections; through to his killing in May 2009.

    Years later, now a newspaper reporter, she returns to gain a deeper understanding of the lives of sex workers.Daughters of the Red Light is a searing look at the poverty, injustice and stigma that keep entire families from escaping India's notorious sex industry. Seervai takes readers to Mumbai’s grittiest alleyways to discover the stories of these women and girls. As she unravels the brutal web entangling them, she finds an unexpected reason for hope. ABOUT THE AUTHORShanoor Seervai is an Indian writer and journalist. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Guernica Magazine, The Caravan and The Indian Express. Born and raised in Mumbai, she now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is pursuing an advanced degree in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.EARLY PRAISE FOR DAUGHTERS OF THE RED LIGHT"This is a meaningful and important piece of writing that contributes in a significant way toward understanding the lives of sex workers and their families and how we might help alleviate their marginalization and suffering. Shanoor Seervai's book shows you the humanity of the mothers and children in the red light district, as she takes you on her journey of discovery into their world and her place in the world at large. It gave me new insight into the lives of the sex workers and their children, and how the tireless work of some offers real hope—the greatest gift of all."— Geeta Anand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Cure"Most writing about India's underbelly treats people as passive victims. It is far too easy to find stories of misery in Indian cities and hold them up as one-dimensional examples of the country's uneven progress. Shanoor Seervai does not do cutouts. She dives into the world of Mumbai's sex workers, introducing us to real women with families and dreams we recognize. She brings the reader along for her journey, which is journalistic as well as personal, as she navigates the gender norms and class divides of urban India with sharp observations and true empathy. I've been visiting Mumbai all my life and feel I understand it better having read this heartfelt work."— Shashank Bengali, South Asia bureau chief, Los Angeles Times"A thought-provoking headlong dive into a little known culture."— Sonia Faleiro, Award-winning author of Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars."With this honest and insightful memoir, Shanoor Seervai peels back a tattered curtain to reveal the complex and brutal world of Mumbai’s commercial sex trade. Through her eyes, we begin to really see the women — and children — behind the makeup. Through her journey we are challenged to consider our common humanity; and our own, personal response to the injustices that land (and keep) millions of the world’s most vulnerable children in the hell we call the 'Red Light.'"— Laura Entwistle, Founder and CEO of EmancipAction, an international non-profit organization working to end child sex trafficking around the world

    In The Lost Generation, Nidhi Dugar Kundalia narrates the unforgettable stories of eleven professionals—from the hauntingly beautiful rudaalis to the bizarre tasks of a street dentist—uncovering the romance, tragedy and old-world charm of India’s ageing bylanes and its incredible living history.

     Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswati promise nothing short of a grand transformation of humanity with the birthing of a new joy-centered consciousness on Earth at this time. They take us on a grand spiritual journey by weaving new insights into ancient teachings, correcting what has been altered in scriptures by their "male" authors, and revealing new secrets about Buddhas, and Gods and Goddesses who have walked on Earth. Whether it is Eve's original sin or the closing of magnificent Goddess Temples or Sita's Fire Test or Mary Magdalene's depiction as a prostitute, "enlightened women" have been portrayed as sinners by numerous kings, emperors, writers, popes, and other religious heads for millennia. The messages of Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati correct many misconceptions and misrepresentations about the "patriarchal" stories from Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. These profound messages by the two ascended Goddesses will delight you, surprise you, transform you, and even enlighten you.  Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati also reveal new information and intimate secrets about their many incarnations on Earth with Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and other divine beings. They reveal how the transformation of many souls from their ancient tribe created two of the major world religions known as Hinduism and Buddhism.  This book is not only about spirituality, but also about history, philosophy, religion, and psychology. Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswati provide new insights on mind, body, soul, chakras, elements, contrast, time, destiny, karma, sensuality, tantra, higher self, heavenly realms, expanding levels of enlightenment, ascension, and of course the author’s favorite – a new way of experiencing the “divine feminine” within oneself.  This is the first book in the Ascended Goddesses Series. Future books in this series will have conversations with Goddesses Parvati, Mother Mary, Kuan Yin and Tara, among others.  JOIN OUR TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS  The Path of Joy Organization is donating 5,000 copies of this book to uplift disempowered girls, women, and mothers, elderly living in old age homes, handicapped people, young adults with challenges, patients in hospitals, and numerous NGOs all over the world. Send an email to join our team of volunteers to distribute the 5000 copies.  The author recently signed an MOU with RENEW (Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women - http://renew.org.bt/) to donate 600 copies of this book to their 600 active volunteers, who provide help to the disempowered girls and women in Bhutan.  Another 100 copies of this book were sent to the volunteers and interns of Apne Aap Women Worldwide (http://apneaap.org/), an organization that saves girls and women from sex trafficking and other forms of exploitation.  Even a Buddhist "nunnery" in Punakha founded by the Queen Mother of Bhutan took 120 copies for their 120 resident nuns. The many stories of enlightenment of Eve, Sita, Radha, Yasodhara, Yeshe Tsogyal and other women help in undoing the widely-held Buddhist belief that incarnating as a woman is inferior to incarnating as a man for spiritual attainment.

    He is Lord Rama’s most trusted ally who embodies the virtues of a sincere devotee, the fearless fighter who sets the city of Lanka ablaze with his burning tail, the humble messenger who informs Mother Sita of Lord Rama’s victory over Ravana, the noble fellow warrior who uproots Dronagiri, a mountain of herbs, to save Lakshmana’s life. Above all, he is a perfect blend of intelligence and humility. The Chronicles of Hanuman, an engaging and inspiring bildungsroman of the Monkey God, is also replete with interesting folk tales, local lore about Hanuman temples across India and Hanuman prayers, making this book a reader’s delight.

    

    However, as is perhaps not very politically correct to point out, Islam as a religion calls Muslims to be a part of Ummah, which is to say, that all Muslims belong to the same theological ‘country’ regardless of political borders.That coupled with the intrinsic need of the Left to forever consider the Muslims as the victims, even under imaginary circumstances led to massive riots and violence in India. The perceived wrong here was that CAA left Muslims out, however, the truth was the CAA had nothing to do with Indians at all, let alone Indian Muslims.Another excuse for the rampant violence was that the proposed NRC would snatch away the citizenship of Muslims. That too, was a shameless canard. The NRC, when implemented and drafted, would be aimed to identify and deport Illegal Immigrants, and not Indian Citizens. No country in the world wantonly accepts indiscriminate influx of illegals, but the Left and Islamist nexus burnt the country because that is exactly what it expected of India.While many people wish to look at the Delhi Riots 2020 in isolation, the events that started right from the 1st December 2019 proves otherwise. It proves that the violence was a concerted effort to push Anarchy and Chaos in India. It proves that the Delhi Riots was no anti-Muslim pogrom, it was indeed, a well-oiled plan to tame ‘kafirs’.

    Each chapter presents personal stories of women living in cities, small towns and villages in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the three lands to which Nighat Gandhi belongs. In writing their stories, she attempts to break the silence enshrouding Muslim women's sexuality and the ways in which they negotiate the restrictions placed on their freedoms within the framework of their culture. Women like Ghazala, who prefers the life of a second wife, 'living like a married single woman', to being bound within the ties of a conventional marriage, Nusrat and QT who believe theirs is a normal marriage, except that they are both women. Nisho, who refuses to accept that her trans-sexuality should deny her the right to love and Firdaus, writer and feminist, who can walk out of a loveless marriage but not give up on love, with or without marriage. Nighat also explores her own story as a woman who dared to make choices that pitted her against her family and cultures. Alternative Realities is her jihad or struggle to deconstruct the demeaning stereotypes that prevail about all Muslim women. It is a reflection of the myriad ways in which, despite these misogynistic forces, they continue to weave webs of love and peace in their own lives and in the lives of those they live with.

    David Headley: the dashing, intriguing Pakistani with one brown and one green eye, a man who could pass himself off as an American quite easily, a charmer of men and women alike.Headley inveigled his way into Rahul’s simple world and, in no time, swept him off his feet. It is only when ten men made a mockery of Mumbai in a well-planned act of terrorism that Rahul realized how close he had come to being a part of the careful plotting and the innumerable recces that Headley had carried out.This is a complex tale of human relationships and the deceit therein. It is the story of Rahul Bhatt, an aspiring Bollywood actor, and his encounter with David Coleman Headley, the man who was responsible for a ruthlessly executed carnage in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured in 59 hours that brought Mumbai to despair and shook India.A pulse-racing narrative told in the voices of Bhatt and Headley, HEADLEY AND I traces the months leading up to the horrors of 26/11 and the interrogation that followed.Author BIOS. Hussain Zaidi is a veteran of investigative, crime and terror reporting. He has worked for The Asian Age, Mumbai Mirror, Mid-Day and The Indian Express. His previous books include bestsellers like Black Friday, Mafia Queens of Mumbai and the more recent Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia. Zaidi is also associate producer for the HBO movie, Terror in Mumbai, based on the 26/11 terror strikes. He lives with his family in Mumbai.

    Their clockwork precision and incredibly low error rate has got the world to sit up and take note of this awesome army of 5000 men, who make sure office-goers get a hot, home-cooked meal every day, come rain or shine. It is a stupendous feat of coordination, efficiency, honesty and sheer hard work that could teach many a corporate honcho a lesson or two in running a business successfully. The humble dabbawalas of Mumbai shot into fame when Prince Charles requested a meeting with them on a visit to the city in 2003, after having seen a BBC documentary on them. It was a meeting that the heir to the British throne did not forget. In April 2005, the Dabbawalas Association received an invitation to the wedding of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles. A few days later, Sopan Rao Rao Mare and Raghunath Medge attended the royal wedding as representatives of the Dabbawalas Association. The story is narrated alternately by the man who has made it happen – Raghunath Medge, president of the Dabbawalas Association, and the author Shobha Bondre. .

    

    Marking the pinnacle of his public life; it reflected his popularity among ordinary people who revered him as Anna; or elder brother. This rich biography illuminates his many lives—as a charismatic leader of modern India; as a stalwart of the Dravidian movement; as the founder of the DMK; as spokesman for the South—besides documenting his abilities as an acclaimed orator and littérateur in Tamil and English; and as a stage actor.Born into a weaving caste family in Kanchipuram; Anna was exposed to the non-Brahmin politics of the Justice Party during his college years and this interest led him to become a protégé of the radical thinker Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in 1935. Anna promoted his mentor’s ideas of Self-Respect and Tamil identity but not his atheism. Like him; he attacked Brahminism and ‘Aryan’ values as the cause of Tamil political and cultural decadence and opposed the imposition of Hindi as the official language. In 1962 Anna took his independent Dravida Nadu demand to the Rajya Sabha; threatening the nation’s unity. Importantly; he used public speaking; journalism; theatre; cinema and agit-prop to broaden the base of the party; which drew renowned film actors into its fold; a bond that endures to this day.The book does not shy away from the controversies that surrounded the Dravidian movement and candidly examines Anna’s complex relationship with Periyar. It records Anna’s move to form the DMK in 1949; his split with Sampath in 1961 over the party’s strategy and course; and his disillusionment with the corruption and power politics he witnessed as chief minister.Kannan draws on Anna’s considerable body of writing; the memoirs of other leaders and authors in Tamil; including critics like the poet Kannadasan; Jayakanthan and P. Ramamurti; apart from secondary sources. Featuring luminaries like Rajagopalachari and Kamaraj; Kalaignar Karunanidhi and MGR; among many others; Anna offers a warm and rounded portrait of a man who showed the way for the democratic expression of regional aspirations within a united India.

    What led to this swing? Is it possible to trace the path to this point? Is there a way back to the just, secular, inclusive vision of our Constitution-makers?This country has long been an outlier in its South Asian neighbourhood, with its inclusive Constitution and functioning democracy. The growth of Hindutva, in some sense, brings India in line with the other polities here. In Our Hindu Rashtra, writer and activist Aakar Patel peels back layer after layer of cause and effect through independent India’s history to understand how Hindutva came to gain such a hold on the country. He examines what it means for India that its laws and judiciary have been permeated by prejudice and bigotry, what the breach of fundamental rights portends in these circumstances, and what the all-round institutional collapse signifies for the future of Indians.Most importantly, Patel asks and answers that most important of questions: what possibilities exist for a return? Thought-provoking and pulling no punches, this book is an essential read for anyone who wishes to understand the nature of politics in India and, indeed, South Asia.

    Some of the country s finest theatre and film talents all at key stages in their careers participated in its creation, but the journey was anything but smooth. Among other things, it involved bumping off disco killers and talking gorillas, finding air-conditioned rooms for dead rats, persuading a respected actor to stop sulking and eat his meals, and resisting the temptation to introduce logic into a madcap script. In the end, it was worth it.Kundan Shah s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is now a byword for the sort of absurdist, satirical humour that Hindi cinema just hasn t seen enough of. This is the story of how it came to be despite incredible odds and what it might have been. Jai Arjun Singh s engaging take on the making of the film and its cult following is as entertaining as the film itself.

    To some, the numbers of Modi's victory came as something of a surprise; for others, the BJP's triumph was a vindication of their belief in the government and its policies. Irrespective of one's political standpoint, one thing was beyond dispute: this was a landmark verdict, one that deserved to be reported and analysed with intelligence - and without bias. Rajdeep Sardesai's new book, 2019: How Modi Won India, does just that. What was it that gave Modi an edge over the opposition for the second time in five years? How was the BJP able to trounce its rivals in states that were once Congress bastions? What was the core issue in the election: a development agenda or national pride? As he relives the excitement of the many twists and turns that took place over the last five years, culminating in the 2019 election results, Rajdeep helps the reader make sense of the contours and characteristics of a rapidly changing India, its politics and its newsmakers. If the 2014 elections changed India, 2019 may well have defined what 'new India' is likely to be all about. 2019: How Modi Won India takes a look at that fascinating story, which is still developing.