Keyword : Literature

Never mind Anil Vij and KVIC, Obama still finds inspiration from Gandhi

Haryana minister Anil Vij believes Gandhi is a not an impressive brand (Modi is), and

Good governance is actually a cooperative, collective endeavour: Jerry Pinto

Prolific writer and acclaimed journalist Jerry Pinto has edited and written many literary works in different genres. His work ranges from children’s fiction and magazine columns to poetry

Contemporary India in MoUH: a journalistic guide

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy’s new novel in two decades, reads like non-fiction at time – in a welcome sense, in a non-post-truth kind of way. Its characte

Hindi’s narrow readership is a concern: Nikhil Sachan

Nikhil Sachan is one of the most promising names among contemporary Hindi writers. His first book, Namak Swadanusar, a collection of short stories published in 2013, was praised widely in liter

How Sahitya Akademi promotes India lit abroad

Sahitya Akademi, the autonomous organization under the ministry of culture, has been silently promoting Indian literature abroad through a host of activities, including promotion of translations.

Vanni: In struggle of memory, pictures complement words

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the new president of Sri Lanka, won the November elections that were held amid continued polarization in the island nation. As defence secretary, he had led the government&rsquo

‘Always write (or live life) with all passion and heart in it’

Did India’s nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1974 affect the local population? That is the starting point for a new novel, Uday Singh`s `Pokhran` (published by Srishti). It expertly blends rea

How RBI officer Giridharan wrote his debut mystery

The first mystery about the mystery writer R Giridharan is this: how does he manage to accomplish much in the same 24 hours? He, as the publishers’ note says, “churns out murder mysteri

Gems, rare and otherwise, of Indian-English prose, finally in one place

The Book of Indian Essays: Two Hundred Years of English Prose Edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Black Kite in association with Ashoka University and Hachett

If Bharata Muni watched European thrillers…

Cinema Through Rasa A Tryst with Masterpieces in the Light of Rasa Siddhānta By Prachand Praveer Translated by Geeta Mirji Narayan from the Hindi original

An anthropologist on moral life in a Delhi colony

Textures of the Ordinary: Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein By Veena Das Orient BlackSwan, 410 pages, Rs 1,350 Veena Das, a well-know

I owe much in my life to writing: Rajesh Talwar

Rajesh Talwar’s new fiction, ‘How to Kill a Billionaire’, explores crime, law and redemption in a deeply flawed world. It’s a story of a billionaire’s son going mi

A portrait of Mahatma as a young man

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: Restless as Mercury: My Life as a Young Man Edited by Gopalkrishna Gandhi Aleph, xvi+377 pages, Rs 999 The Collect

Was more nervous ahead of 2nd, 3rd book launch, not 1st: Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat, the best-selling author and columnist who is launching his tenth novel, ‘400 Days’, on October 8, has said that he had maximum nervousness ahead of the launch of his seco

Reading ‘Meghaduta’ in the times of climate change

Kalidasa’s Meghaduta: The Cloud Messenger Translated by Abhay K. Bloomsbury / 114 pages / Rs 399 ‘Meghduta’, a &lsq

A counter-terrorism thriller that’s also insider story beyond headlines

OPERATION TROJAN HORSE By D.P. Sinha and Abhishek Sharan Paperback | Rs 399 | 372 pages Espionage thrillers closely resembling tomorrow’

A deeply felt meditation on girlhood

GIRLHOOD By Melissa Febos Bloomsbury / 336 pages Melissa Febos wowed readers and critics with her ‘Whip Smart: A Memoir’ (2010). I

Five Ws of Gandhi assassination

The Murderer, the Monarch and the Fakir: A New Investigation of Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination By Appu Esthose Suresh and Priyanka Kotamraju HarperColl

The inimitable life and times of Nandshankar

Nandshankar: A Portrait in Nineteenth-century Surat By Vinayak Nandshankar Mehta Translated from the original Gujarati by Radhika Jayakar Herzberger

What Ramayan and Mahabharat teach us about modern times

When I was a young child, I used to read the Panchtantra and the English stories and fairy tales. They taught me many things, like never to speak to strangers, never to trust anybody blindly, alway

An inquisitive reader’s guide to Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas

Essence of the Fifth Veda By Gaurang Damani Divine

Bill Gates, charity and the dilemma of already successful people

Mantra and the meaning of Success By Rajesh Talwar Bridging Borders, 288 pages Rajesh Talwar, who works as Deputy Legal Adviser to the Uni

‘Classified’, a scintillating expose of the ISRO spy story

Classified: Hidden Truths in the ISRO Spy Story By J. Rajasekharan Nair Srishti Publishers, 280 pages, Rs 350 The Indian Space Research Organisation (

The first user-friendly pictorial field guide to the trees of Arunachal Pradesh

‘Trees of Arunachal Pradesh: A Field Guide’ is a first-of-its kind pictorial guide for a wide audience. A visually rich book that will help you to efficiently and easily identify trees

Reading Kalidasa in the time of climate change

Being a diplomat is a fulltime job, in which Abhay K., an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, spends most of his working hours. Like all diplomats and indeed the rest of us, he manages to make ti

How the 99 percent live – and die

Faces of Inequality Stories of the Poor and underprivileged from India’s grassroots By Pradeep Baisakh Notion Press, Rs 350, 310 pages [

Bangladesh at fifty: An anthology for scholars and readers alike

Bangladesh: Writings on 1971, Across Borders Edited by Rakhshanda Jalil and Debjani Sengupta

On Women’s Day, reading for a more equal world

A World of Equals: A Textbook on Gender Edited by Susie Tharu, A. Suneetha and Uma Maheswari Bhrugubanda

Teen Choto Chamuch

Nautanki Saala and Other Stories

Vishwanath, cricketers’ cricketer, is “human being first, cricketer next”

Wrist Assured: An Autobiography By Gundappa Vishwanath with R. Kaushik Rupa, 280 pages, Rs 595 Before there were masters, there was Gund

Mahabharata: Ways of reading the epic in our times

Mahabharata: The Epic and the Nation By G.N. Devy Aleph Books, 150 pages, Rs 499 The Mahabharata is one of the greatest literary masterpie

Why Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu are the two most joyful people on the planet

“Deep down we grow in kindness, when our kindness is tested.” ‘The Book of Joy’ (first published in 2016) introduces two prominent personalities, the

‘The Man Who Turned into Gandhi’: Story by Shovon Chowdhury

Truth Digger: The Best of Shovon Chowdhury Edited by Urmila Chowdhury and Sandipan Deb Aleph Books, 270 pages, Rs 499 When Shovon Chowdhur

A century-old swashbuckling page-turner is an ‘amazing find’

The First World War: Adventures of Nariman Karkaria Translated by Murali Ranganathan With a Foreword by Amitav Ghosh HarperCollins, xxv+230 pages, Rs

Not just another Manto anthology

The Collected Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto: Volume 1: Bombay and Poona Translated by Nasreen Rehman Aleph Book Company, 548 pages, Rs 999 The

Gandhi’s letters to his youngest son also hold his aspirations for nation

Scorching Love: Letters from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to his son, Devadas By Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Tridip Suhrud Oxford University Press, 528 page, Rs 14

‘India’s robust security apparatus has withstood the test of time’

Prabhakar Aloka (IPS 1986), with a three-decade stint at the Intelligence Bureau, has now turned to penning thrillers. First there was ‘Operation Haygreeva’. Now there is the sequel

“India is the only ancient civilisation that still survives and thrives”

Aman Singh Maharaj, a South African author of Indian origin, is making a literary debut with ‘A Dalliance with Destiny’ (Austin Macauley), which takes us on a mystical journey to India

A great literary feast (that could’ve been even more sumptuous)

A Case of Indian Marvels: Dazzling Stories from the Country’s Finest Writers Edited by David Davidar Aleph, 390 pages, Rs 999 Change is

Why K.R. Meera’s ‘Jezebel’ is not exactly a ‘good bad book’

Jezebel By K.R. Meera (Translated from the Malayalam by Abhirami Girija Sriram and K.S. Bijukumar) Hamish Hamilton, 400 pages, Rs 599 &

Where the true sadhana of Vedanta is to be found

Somewhere Among the Stars: Reflections of a Mystic By Adi Varuni Kali/BluOne Ink, 282 pages, Rs 395

The Boy Who Became the Mahatma

This year, as the nation commemorates the 75th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, Rajesh Talwar, a prolific author who is also a legal advisor to the UN, is all set to release a

A sacred offering of the beauty of ‘Saundarya Lahari’ – in English

Saundarya Lahari: Wave of Beauty Translated from the Sanskrit by Mani Rao HarperCollins, 218 pages, Rs 399 ‘Saundarya Lahari’, usu

Making sense of the ‘crisis of political representation’

Imprints of the Populist Time By Ranabir Samaddar Orient BlackSwan, 352 pages,

What exactly is new in ‘A New History of India’

A New History of India: From Its Origins to the Twenty-First Century By Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Shobita Punja and Toby Sinclair Aleph Books, pp 480, Rs 999

How Jain values lead us to the path of inner peace

What is ahimsa or non-violence? Is it only an absence of violence or is it something more? Is ahimsa even possible in today’s world? How does one interpret the meaning of war from the lens of

Rama beyond Ramayana: Stories from other sources

Untold Stories of Ramayana By Gaurang Damani 194 pages, Rs 300

Gandhi’s Triumph over the Fear of Death

The Essential U. R. Ananthamurthy Edited by N. Manu Chakravarthy and Chandan Gowda Aleph Books, Rs 899, 312 pages

Tales of valour, from Indian Para Special Forces

BALIDAN: Stories of India’s Greatest PARA Special Forces Operatives By Swapnil Pandey HarperCollins, xviii+228 pages, Rs 299 ‘Bal

Fifty reasons to read ‘The Greatest Indian Stories Ever Told’

The Greatest Indian Stories Ever Told Edited by Arunava Sinha Aleph, 528 pages, Rs 999 What is it about the short-story form that makes it so

Have you read ‘Sharlak Homz kā Pahlā Kārnāma’?

Urdu Crime Fiction, 1890–1950: An Informal History By C. M. Naim Orient BlackSwan, 304 pages, Rs 875

Diamonds are Forever: A Saturday story

Saturday Stories By Rashmi Bansal HarperCollins, 176 pages, Rs 250

The Art of Empathy and Compassion

The Happiness Story By Savi Sharma HarperCollins, 304 pages, Rs 299

Is this thriller India’s answer to ‘The Day of the Jackal’?

The Cabinet Conspiracy By Jigs Asher Srishti, 227 pages

2024 in books: Sudhir Kakar and Upendra Baxi, diplomacy and climate change...

In 2024, readers can look forward to selected writings of two of the pre-eminent intellectuals of our times, Sudhir Kakar and Upendra Baxi. Also on offer are essays by S. Jaishankar, a collection o

Netaji, ‘The Boy Who Fought an Empire’

The Boy Who Fought an Empire By Rajesh Talwar Ponytale Books, 166 pages

Mahabharata: The (really) greatest story ever told

Dwapar Katha: The Stories of the Mahabharata By Sudipta Bhawmik HarperCollins, 608 pages, Rs 599.00

Bringing alive Mizoram’s history, weaving facts and fiction

If I Have to be a Soldier By Nikhil J. Alva HarperCollins India, 336 pages, Rs 499

Charming tales of the Snakeman’s early years

Snakes, Drugs and Rock ’N’ Roll: My Early Years By Romulus Whitaker with Janaki Lenin HarperCollins, 400 pages, Rs 699

A kaleidoscopic view of Urdu literary landscape

Urdu: The Best Stories of Our Times Edited and translated by Rakhshanda Jalil HarperCollins, 200 pages, Rs 399

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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