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In this lucid and enlightening account, Nityananda Misra takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through the modern Kumbha Mela, the largest pilgrimage and the biggest festival in the world attended by crores of people. The book details the origin and symbolism of the Kumbha Mela, its dates and venues, and its awe-inspiring organization that has been called a wonder of modern-day management. It provides a personal close-up view of the visitors at the largest human gathering on earth-the sadhus, the kalpavasis, the tirthayatris, and members of new-age Hindu movements. The author sheds considerable light on the cultural aspects (literature, arts, and music) of the Kumbha and argues how the mela is perhaps the most diverse and inclusive human gathering and how the tradition is immortal, as if made so by the nectar of immortality which is believed to have spilled on the sites of the Kumbha Mela. Throughout the book, the author shows how diverse participants come and work together at the Kumbha Mela following the spirit of samgacchadhvam ("come together")-a spirit that permeates the mela in his view.The author captures his personal experience too in Prayaga, Nashik, and Ujjain, leaving an anecdotal touch to the narrative. The final chapter presents an overview of the upcoming Ardha Kumbha Mela in Prayaga in 2019.

'The Bitcoin Saga: A Mixed Montage' is an exciting story about the birth and growth of bitcoin and the blockchain technology underpinning it. The book takes the untutored reader on a thrilling rollercoaster ride through the complexities and myriad facets of cryptocurrencies. The sub-prime crisis of 2008 and the Cypherpunk movement sets the stage for the advent of the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto and the release of the first cache of bitcoins. The narrative takes on a Houdini like magical quality as it unravels the skeins of the Dark Web and the secret of the Silk Road. The story of the Mt Gox heist and Nostradamus like prophecies of bitcoin doom add a generous dollop of intrigue to the crypto story. The cryptocurrency regulatory-tax tales of countries like USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, China, India etc give the narrative an intellectual slant. The bitcoin saga ends on an introspective note. The blockchain technology has enormous power to change the world. Whether it will be a benevolent Titan or a Frankenstein monster, only time can tell.

Locating World Cinema argues for the importance of understanding the local context of a film's creation and the nuances that it conveys to the spectator. It examines the sociocultural contexts intrinsic to cinema from milieus like the USSR/Russia, China, Japan, France, the US, Iran and India. The book analyses the works of some of the more celebrated but, at times, less than fully understood auteurs, such as Kenji Mizoguchi from Japan; Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette and Éric Rohmer from France; Abbas Kiarostami from Iran; Martin Scorsese from the US; Zhang Yimou from China and Aleksei German from Russia.Further, it examines how the conditions of exhibition for art house cinema has transformed into the 'global art film' that attempts to bypass the local by addressing international audiences.The book deals with complex ideas but is lucidly written, making it accessible to film students and lay persons alike.

The thinkers and philosophers of ancient India contemplated intensively and extensively about all aspects related to life, and art was one of the major domains they touched upon. A profound and intense analysis of the art experience in literature naturally led to the evolution of one of the most sophisticated and long-standing poetic systems in the world.An Introduction to Indian Aesthetics: History, Theory, and Theoreticians offers a comprehensive historical and conceptual overview of all the major schools in Sanskrit poetics-one of the most sophisticated and long-standing traditions of literary criticism in the ancient world. The book, despite its primary focus on the major exponents of each school, also aims to give the reader a good idea as to how these concepts were treated before and after their major practitioners. An important part of Sanskrit poetics that often intimidates a modern reader is its seemingly difficult terminology. This book particularly addresses this issue by using contemporary idioms for readers who have no background of Sanskrit. It also aims to draw points of comparison, wherever relevant, between certain concepts in Sanskrit poetics and their western counterparts.

The Sikhs have been a people in transition. Unwanted displacements, willing movements and a changing world have led them through demographic, occupational and experiential shifts. While this has led to the evolution of new facets within the community, it has also evoked mixed responses from outside.As new generations of Sikhs engage with the world through sensibilities defined by their contemporary contexts, they find themselves constructed in images dissonant with their lived realities. The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition traces these changes while also making an incisive analysis of old stereotypes-some heroic, some menacing and some farcical.It simultaneously brings into focus the real people behind these images, their varying social stances and their collective commitment to a common religious identity.The work attempts to reframe the Sikhs, bending a few existing narratives and offering an impetus for a more nuanced understanding of the community.

This book intends to motivate non-regular readers to overcome previously held inhibitionsabout reading and not let past experiences keep them away from the gift of reading. There is a deliberate attempt at illustrating the book with plenty of illustrations to tempt word-phobic readers. It helps simplify the reading process and urges the reader through simple techniques to approach reading in a manner that enhances comprehension.This entails giving up some deeply entrenched old habits that are counterproductive and equipping ourselves with better skills. To achieve this, beyond just tips, the book also provides physical tools that help the reader overcome old habits like regression, lack of preview, subvocalizing, slow reading, and self-doubt.It also helps the reader to rise above the bare minimum reading limited to their subject and become flexible readers capable of changing gears when required.The benefits of being well read and being able to fight guilt are also highlighted with the intention that having completed this book urges the non- regular reader to continue in their quest of more fulfilling reading. This book intends to help people acquire an altered approach to reading so that parents and significant caretakers in the lives of young learners do not inadvertently demotivate budding readers. An investment of 100 minutes of your time could make a positive change in how you read and what you do hereafter.

Remember, Repeat, Inhabit looks at three questions in relation to the idea of the viewer: What happens when one reads someone else's reading of someone else?What happens when something repeats itself in Kieslowski's work?Is there a possibility of an ontology of space?The book attempts to understand the idea of 'viewing' from the inside, not simply as an ontological premise but definitely affected by it. Three differing contexts are looked at-a French madman's notion of the 'self', a Polish filmmaker's notion of the 'everyday' and an Indian performance artist's notion of 'memory'. Through these on-the-surface contrasting artists and texts, a particular idea of a 'viewer' emerges. This viewer is the key to an understanding of something almost elemental in the nature of the idea of 'viewing' in the contemporary context of twenty-first-century Delhi.

Democratic Accommodations: The Minority Question in India analyses the complex story of the accommodation of claims, interests and rights of minorities in India. It aims at what India-being one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse nations of the world-can offer to other nations, particularly to the countries of Europe that are confronted with ethnocultural and ethno-religious assertion. The authors have endorsed the argument that all plural democracies-and all democracies can only be plural in the present historical conjuncture despite the attempts by regimes to make them majoritarian-must work out their own strategies of accommodation by evolving a policy matrix that is suited to the dynamics of their own societies. The book is organised along four rubrics-laws, institutions, policies and political discourse-to understand Indian democracy's distinct response to diversity. The rich and nuanced exploration of the Indian approach to the minority question presented in this book will advance the international debate on diversity and multiculturalism and help policymakers in pluralistic democracies to develop their own particular strategies to deal with minority claims.

India in Translation, Translation in India seeks to explore the contours of translation of and in India-how Indian texts travel around the world in translation, how Indian texts travel across languages in the subcontinent and how texts from various languages of the world travel to India. The book poses pertinent questions like:· What influences the choice of texts and the translations, both within and outside India? · Are there different ideas of India produced through these translations? · What changes have occurred over the last two hundred odd years, from the time of colonialism and anti-colonial struggle to that of globalisation? · How does one rate the success or otherwise of a translation?· What is the role of these translations in their host languages, in their cultural and literary polysystems?The book includes eighteen essays from eminent academics and researchers who examine the numerous facets of the rich and varied translation activity. It shows how borders-both national and subnational, and generic-are created, how they are reinforced and how they are crossed. While looking at the theory, methodology and language of translation, the essays also enunciate the role of translations in political, social and cultural movements.

Narrated by some of the most celebrated doctors from across the world, Dear People, with Love and Care, Your Doctors weaves together inspirational and personal stories of medical excellence and brilliance, interjected with feelings of triumph, loss, fear, strength, valour and empathy.

Against the Nation invites readers to explore South Asia as a place and as an idea with a sense of reflection and nuance rather than submitting to conventional understanding of the region merely in geopolitical terms. The authors take the readers across a vast terrain of prospects like visual culture, music, film, knowledge systems and classrooms, myth and history as well as forms of politics that offer possibilities for reading South Asia as a collective enterprise that has historical precedents as well as untapped ideological potential for the future.

Time, Doubt and Wonder in the Humanities addresses a serious lacuna in humanities studies. It affirms our commitment to wonder and adventure in living by confronting the subtext that lies within the manifold worldly, social and political vicissitudes and tribulations. The essays in this volume speak to our times and make sense of the idea of temporality in general by using wonder as an inclusive metaphor, which engulfs fortitude, anguish, joy, providence, submission, precariousness and revulsion. Wonder could lead to curiosity to inspiration to doubt to questioning to indignation to seeking of justice. The book offers a benchmark in thinking about why we must take literature and art seriously in times of great political turmoil. It affirms that the shape and contour of literary studies shall depend on how the coming generation maintains a delicate balance among inspiration, doubt and faith.

Heiress Kamila Mughal is humiliated when her brother's best friend snubs her to marry a social climbing nobody from Islamabad. Roya discovers her fiancé has been cheating on her and ends up on a blind date on her wedding day. Beautiful young widow Begum Saira Qadir has mourned her husband, but is she finally ready to start following her own desires? Inspired by Jane Austen and set in contemporary Pakistan, Austenistan is a collection of seven stories; romantic, uplifting, witty, and heartbreaking by turn, which pay homage to the world's favourite author in their own uniquely local way.

Taking India by storm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been one of the most talked about figures all around the world. His enigmatic persona and his forceful leadership have created a polarized world where some idolize him, while others question his motives and methods. In an attempt to break the myths around who Narendra Modi really is, the author attempts to take us through a journey of the leader''s life, his political aspirations, his growth within the party, his remarkable stint in Gujarat and his performance over the last two years in Delhi. The author identifies the many formidable challenges Modi faces as the leader of the world''s largest democracy that is in the midst of a complex transition and recommends measures that Modi must implement to deliver on his promises, thereby enabling India to realize its true potential.

For the young English educated Indian, from the big cities to the small towns, across gender and across all classes, India''s BPO boom changed their lives. They found themselves in the throes of an industry that matched their energy and insatiable hunger for action. Satindra Sen who was part of the team that set up one of the country''s first offshoring ventures writes an engaging tale tinged with sharp humour and piercing insight of how things were and how they turned out to be.

Passion, purpose, potential, perseverance are the qualities required to make great achievers and leaders. This book tells you how to ┬╖ turn people into leaders ┬╖ build trust and confidence ┬╖ make you reach your destiny ┬╖ transform your organization

Books on management and organizations usually ignore the human factor. This unorthodox book marks a radical departure in how organizations should be understood. It deals with human issues and relationships between groups. Though serious, it makes for easy reading and is written with humour. How Organizations Really Work is the perfect companion for an employee at any level; for those who want to step back and look objectively at what''s happening around them and make sense of it. It is also for management students accustomed to impractical diets of theory. Exclusive mind-maps at the end of each chapter help the reader make connections between the concepts discussed and entities, while the wildly funny stories provide a much-needed welcome break. Beginning with the reasons why organizations exist, the author examines how authority flows down from the board to everyone else. Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Finance, Information Systems and Operations are examined first theoretically and then through the eyes of a practitioner who knows where theory falls short.

Understanding leadership is really about understanding life, and this starts with gaining an understanding of the self. Traditional management approaches, based on ''scientific'' analysis, cannot contribute much towards understanding leadership. This book shows how leadership can be better understood by reading and interpreting masterpieces of world literature, and relating them to leadership issues. The book starts with Cervantes'' masterpiece Don Quixote, whose main character asserts, ''I know who I am'', and believes in himself. This is followed by other works to highlight important issues: ambition and purpose in Chinua Achebe''s Things Fall Apart, faith vs. reason in Bertolt Brecht''s The Life of Galileo, awakening the human spirit in Bernard Shaw''s Saint Joan, authenticity in Girish Karnad''s Tughlaq, and the old Sanskrit play Mudra Rakshasa by Visakhadatta, leaders and society in Arthur Miller''s All My Sons, the role of illusions in Ibsen''s The Wild Duck, taking a stand in A Dolls'' House, the epic Mahabharata for development of perspective, and Herman Hesse''s Siddhartha for understanding the process of self-development and realisation of one''s potential. Based on the experience of the authors teaching a course on leadership for the last 20 years at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, this is an enlightening and illuminating read for both academicians and corporate leaders.