Did you ever ask yourself: “Who am I? What am I? Why am I?”You are a mystery.The world about you is a mystery.Now, you can understand!

    Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians takes you behind the scenes of India’s most popular sport—going from early tours in 1886 to the more contemporary IPL, offering a complete understanding of the evolution of the game both on and off the field. Featuring material that has never-been-released, this book sheds new light on cases like Monkeygate, the suspension of Lalit Modi, match-fixing scandals, and more. Weaving together personal interviews, photographs, and letters, Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians unflinchingly asks the questions that need answering, among them: Has internal conflict impacted the on- field performance of the Indian cricket team? Did some icons fail the country and the sport by trying to conceal important facts during the spot-fixing investigation? And does it matter to the ordinary fan who heads the BCCI as long as there is transparency and accountability in the system? Chronicling the history of cricket throughout colonial and post-colonial Indian life, Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians offers fascinating insight into those who patronize, promote, play, and watch the sport, as well as the entire nation now considered the global hub of the world of cricket.

    Benjamin Lorr walked into his first yoga studio on a whim, overweight and curious, and quickly found the yoga reinventing his life. He was studying Bikram Yoga (or "hot yoga") when a run-in with a master and competitive yoga champion led him into an obsessive subculture a group of yogis for whom eight hours of practice a day in 110- degree heat was just the beginning.So begins a journey. Populated by athletic prodigies, wide-eyed celebrities, legitimate medical miracles, and predatory hucksters, it's a nation-spanning trip from the jam-packed studios of New York to the athletic performance labs of the University of Oregon to the stage at the National Yoga Asana Championship, where Lorr competes for glory.The culmination of two years of research, and featuring hundreds of interviews with yogis, scientists, doctors, and scholars, "Hell-Bent" is a wild exploration. A look at the science behind a controversial practice, a story of greed, narcissism, and corruption, and a mind-bending tale of personal transformation, it is a book that will not only challenge your conception of yoga, but will change the way you view the fragile, inspirational limits of the human body itself."