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DescriptionFounded in 1870, the United Service Institution of India (USI) is anextraordinary security and defence services think tank. Its journal, publishedquarterly since 1872, is the oldest defence journal in Asia and one of themost prestigious in the world. This anthology comprises articles from theUSI Journal that span almost 150 years and shed light on a variety of topicspertaining to the development of military science and strategic thought inSouth Asia. With writings on subjects ranging from campaign studies, toreminiscences of soldiers in battle, to larger questions of defence policy,Military Musings is a rare and valuable addition to literature on India''s militarythought and history.

DescriptionWhen the British Imperialists left the Indian subcontinent in 1947, they leftbehind a legacy of governance based on communal and ethnic polarization.Since then, India has been engulfed by religious and ethnic violence-fromthe Partition to the more recent Gujarat riots of 2002 and Delhi riots of2020. This trajectory is in direct opposition to the ideals of ''justice, liberty,equality and fraternity'' enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Our increasinglypolarized society is now faced with the question: Will India follow the ethnicnationalist route that seems to be becoming a global phenomenon?Reconciling Difference is the attempt of a concerned citizen and scholar tounderstand the nature of hate and violence prevalent in India, and findpractical ways to restore peace and harmony. In his analysis, Rudolf C.Heredia urges citizens to seek frameworks beyond retributive justice. Hesuggests returning to the Gandhian ideas of ahimsa-non-violence andcompassion-in order to repair the fraying fabric of our society. And recallsNehru''s ideas of a pluralist and inclusive India, as well as Ambedkar''s idea ofthe republic in order to restore the country''s damaged polity. Finally, drawinginspiration from the Truth and Justice Commission set up in post-ApartheidSouth Africa, he urges consistent and reflective dialogues between polarizedcitizens in order to heal past wounds of collective violence.Thoughtful, dialogic and painstakingly researched, Reconciling Difference is abook every citizen interested in preserving the secular and democratic idealsof India must read.

DescriptionWhen Durgadas, an ordinary businessman from Delhi, is arrested for murderin Lucknow, the lives of the people he left behind-his family and friends-unravel in unexpected ways. As they fight to prove his innocence and dealwith the upheaval in their lives, they find themselves turning against eachother. Taranath, his eldest son, searches for meaning and strength in religionand ritual when the law seems to fail him. Rajnath, his younger son, findshis marriage with his wife, Neela, coming undone when they decide againsthaving a child until Durgadas is acquitted. His youngest daughter, Chaand,struggles with her attraction towards Vimal, the much older family friend andDurgadas''s confidant. Vimal''s integrity and Chaand''s loyalties are tested aspeople around them try to drive them apart.Fragments of Happiness follows the tumult of ordinary people learning abouttheir own power and helplessness in the face of extraordinary circumstances.Originally published in Hindi in 1973 as Seemayein Tootati Hain-five yearsafter the cult classic Raag Darbari-with this novel Shrilal Shukla proveshimself to be as great a master of tragedy as he was of satire.

DescriptionProfoundly compassionate and a masterful storyteller, Avinuo Kire describes aworld that is as breathtaking as it is shattering; where military occupation andmagic co-exist.''The Disturbance'' holds three interconnected stories, set against the backdropof the Indo-Naga conflict that began in the late 1940s and remains unresolvedto this day. Told through the eyes of women from three succeeding generationsof the same family, the stories recount how Naga people remained determinedto hold on to normalcy even in the face of occupation, state torture, thetearing apart of families and racism.In ''New Tales from an Old World'', everyday events in the mountains are infusedwith an element of the supernatural. Naga myths and folk legends slip effortlesslyinto tales of hard farm life, childhood terrors and adventures in the countryside,love and mourning. In these stories, hunters, predators, Tekhumevi (weretigers),secret potions, shadowy-demons called Kamv├╝pfhi, strange spirits and enchantedforests, find a place in contemporary Nagaland with remarkable ease.This volume, both a political declaration and a personal love-note to herland, establishes Avinuo Kire as a writer of formidable skill. The Last Light ofGlory Days is an exquisite unravelling of the tired tropes that cast Nagaland asanother undistinguishable piece in the ''Northeast''.

DescriptionThe hills of Nandagiri,1920: the Irish Kildare Regiment is part of the vastmachinery that holds together the British Empire for the Crown of England.Back home in Ireland, the Irish War for Independence is raging and is metwith a ruthless backlash; the Black and Tans-an English paramilitary forceset up to crush Irish dissidents-spread death, indignities and destructionwherever they go.In Nandagiri, Rose Twomey, an Irish-Indian, and Michael, a soldier fromthe Kildare Rangers, fall in love, defying the social norms of the time thatdisapproved of such unions. As news of the Black and Tans'' atrocities reachIndia, anger brews among the Irish soldiers against the Crown they''ve swornto serve, leading to mutiny, arrests, court-martials and executions. Rose andMichael are helpless in the political maelstrom blowing around them that ripsthrough their lives and dreams.Sixty years later, in those very same hills, families torn apart by thoseturbulent decades are forced to reckon with the horrors of the past,heartbreak, loss and alienation, but they may yet, perhaps, finally find healingand belonging.Through a love story spanning an era of Indian and Irish history, The Tainteddescribes the continued disconnect that many Anglo-Indians live in, unable tocome to terms with being unwanted in the country they consider ''home'' (theland of their White fathers), the bitterness they pass down to their childrenand their mutually conflicted relationship with a country they are unsurewhether to call their own.

DescriptionBombay, 1943. The young Parsi actress who was playing Salome in the newly foundedTheatre Group's production of Oscar Wilde's eponymously titled play drew the lineat performing the Dance of the Seven Veils, a sort of 'Biblical striptease'. So directorSultan Padamsee's 19-year-old sister Roshen stepped in. And met the handsome, intense Arab who played the male lead-Ebrahim Alkazi. In 1946, they weremarried.Thus was forged one of the greatest alliances in the world of theatre and art in post-Independence India. Ebrahim Alkazi took English theatre from its early beginnings inBombay to national and even international acclaim as he directed and acted in morethan a hundred plays, ranging from Oedipus Rex, Murder in the Cathedral and Macbeth inthe 1950s, to Ashadh Ka Ek Din, Andha Yug and Tughlaq in the '60s and '70s. As directorof the fabled National School of Drama from 1962 to 1977, he launched some ofthe finest actors of our times, including Om Shivpuri, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Rohini Hattangadi, Manohar Singh and Uttara Baokar. Chief costume designer andseamstress for all his productions was Roshen Alkazi.In 1977, when Ebrahim and Roshen decided to open Art Heritage in Delhi, it gave anew dimension to the world of art, as the leading artists of the day, includingM.F. Husain, Krishen Khanna, F.N. Souza, Tyeb Mehta, K.G. Subramanyam andLaxma Goud, flocked to this space that was not just a 'commercial' gallery, but afoundation for documenting and preserving the arts.With more than 50 rare photographs, Enter Stage Right is the story of theatre in Indiaas it has never been told before...to be treasured by theatre buffs, and savoured byanyone who loves a good story.

A fascinating look into the lives, struggles and triumphs of the women scientists who spearheaded Mangalyaan-India's mission to Mars.In late 2013, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Mangalyaan-India's first inter-planetary mission-after just eighteen months, at a fraction of the cost of similar missions by foreign space agencies. The next year India became the first Asian nation to reach the Mars orbit and the first in the world to do so in its first attempt.This historic mission, among ISRO's other great successes, was spearheaded by the most talented, dedicated and badass group of women scientists that the world has ever seen. Nandini Harinath and Ritu Karidhal calculated the spacecraft's trajectory to Mars, besides overseeing the mission operations; Moumita Dutta and Minal Sampat designed the complex scientific instruments involved in the mission; while numerous other 'Wonder Women' have been instrumental in ISRO's other pathbreaking work.Those Magnificent Women and Their Flying Machines narrates the inspiring stories of these extraordinary women: how they overcame the naysayers and gender barriers in a field dominated by men to achieve the impossible. Now India is ready to launch Gaganyaan, its first space mission with humans on board, at least one of whom will be a woman. Women in science are set to reach for the stars-and beyond.

One of our most courageous and eloquent storytellers, Nayantara Sahgal's superb mastery over language and history make this bold new work a compelling story that is as disturbing as it is beautifully told. Prabhakar, returning home one evening, comes upon a corpse at a crossroads, naked but for the skullcap on his head. Days later, he listens to Katrina's stark retelling of a gang rape in a village, as chilling as only the account of a victim can be. And in a macabre sequence, he finds his favourite dhaba no longer serves gular kebabs and rumali roti, while Bonjour, the fine dining restaurant run by a gay couple, has been vandalised by goons. Casting a long shadow over it all is Mirajkar, the 'Master Mind', brilliant policy maker and political theorist, who is determined to rid the country of all elements alien to its culture-as he, and his partymen, perceive it. A professor of political science, Prabhakar observes these occurrences with deepening concern. Is the theory he put forth in his book-that it is not the influence of those who preach goodness and compassion that prevails, but the matter-of-factness of cruelty-playing out before him? In the midst of all this, he meets Katrina, beautiful, half-Russian, wearing the scars of a brutal incident as a badge of honour. Together, they discover that, even in times that are grim, there is joy to be had.

An extraordinary book that combines travel- and history-writing with brilliant storytelling to give us a portrait of Mumtaz Mahal, in whose memory Shah Jahan built the Taj, and also a portrait of India before it was changed by liberalization. In the early 1980s, researching for his bestselling novel Taj, author Timeri-Tim-Murari began the first of his journeys in the footsteps of Arjumand Bano, the precocious daughter of a Mughal nobleman. Arjumand went on to become Mumtaz Mahal, chief consort of Emperor Shah Jahan, and empress of the Mughal kingdom until her death in 1631, giving birth to their fourteenth child. Over the next two decades, the grieving emperor had the Taj Mahal built in her memory-their final resting place, and the world's most enduring symbol of love. Tim went on his journeys at a time before air travel was common in India, when they were protracted affairs undertaken mostly by train. In these travels of discovery-in Delhi; in Agra, the centre of Mughal power and site of the Taj Mahal; in the desert cities of Rajasthan, where Shah Jahan waged ceaseless campaigns, Mumtaz Mahal at his side; and in Burhanpur in the Deccan, where the empress breathed her last-the author found fascinating glimpses of an empire at its zenith, and of a consuming love. Intertwined with these insights were the shabby realities of modern India-the obstinacies of the bureaucracy that controls monuments, the industries which deface them, and a citizenry that remains unaware of its own history. A brilliant meld of travel and history writing, Empress of the Taj is not only the story of a fabled queen, and the magnificent obsessions of royalty; it is also an invaluable record of a lost era in India.

New Delhi was the grandest planned capital city of the British empire. In its meticulous urban plan it owed as much to earlier imperial traditions of Delhi as it did to Western movements such as the Garden City and City Beautiful. It is interesting to examine the process by which this plan came into being, and the interactions between the people responsible for it. This new city also became the centre of a culture at the cusp of Indian and British Indian society - centering on the shopping precinct of Connaught Place, restaurants, clubs, cinema theatres and other institutions. In the years immediately following independence and partition, came a sudden expansion of the metropolis beyond the limits of New Delhi. This left the original New Delhi as a predominantly administrative centre, with a low density of population, and an oasis of green. Far from being a sterile space however, its many cultural institutions, public spaces and thriving shopping precincts have given it a persisting vibrancy.

'The essays in Uncertain Journeys: Labour Migration from South Asia document the price people pay to earn a dignified livelihood, as well as the joy and pain of distance employment. They […] help us to understand the labour migrant from South Asia as a human being, and not a mere remittance machine for the family or a precious foreign-exchange earner for the home country.'-From the introduction by A.S. Panneerselvan The topic of labour migration appears constantly in the media, but too often, the issues take precedence over the people involved-the migrant workers who leave Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to work long hours in precarious situations across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Here, eleven journalists explore the lived realities of migrant workers from South Asia-their aspirations, fears and dreams; how global forces determine their freedom; how they navigate the policies that attempt to regulate their lives; and their hopes for a better future which carry them through years of unrelenting toil. Uncertain Journeys asks fundamental questions about the nature and costs of labour migration. Essays about the plight of Indians stranded in Kuwait due to bankrupt employers query whether labour-sending countries can assume that their responsibilities to their citizens abroad end with enabling remittances. The horrifying stories of men and women suffering forced labour, abuse and de facto imprisonment demand whether the blurred borderlines between migration and human trafficking effectively enable modern-day slavery. Most crucially, the book questions whether human beings can be reduced to a mere commodity. Written with empathy, yet with a critical take on the stories being told, this book is an important contribution to the conversation about labour migration in South Asia.

'Elegant, lucid and funny, this book will appeal to as many readers as there are desires.'-Shohini Ghosh'The history of desire in India,' writes Madhavi Menon in this splendid book, 'reveals not purity but impurity as a way of life. 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.

Part of the bestselling 'Little Book' series, a new title by India's favourite author Ruskin Bond What can a flower teach us about courage? Or a little red ant?When is speaking up brave, and when holding one's peace?Why must we look on with suspicion at all that comes easy? What is the ultimate measure of man?Ruskin Bond, India's favourite writer, draws from his own experiences, and those of some of the world's greatest thinkers and doers, to offer words of inspiration and wisdom. A Little Book of Courage is the perfect guide-to dip into and to gift-for the good times, and the tough.

A beloved tale of genies, a magic lamp, an evil villain, and the remarkable adventures of a boy called Aladdin.Fifteen-year-old Aladdin is befriended by a stranger who says he is Aladdin's uncle. Charmed by his generosity and friendliness, Aladdin accompanies the man to a cave somewhere in the wilderness outside the city. From the cave, Aladdin gathers all kinds of astonishing jewels-and a lamp that looks old and ordinary. But when the stranger reveals himself as a magician, and locks Aladdin in the cave, the boy discovers there is magic everywhere, including in the old ring he is wearing on his finger. From here start the extraordinary exploits of Aladdin. Will he be able to become a rich man with the help of the genie of the lamp? Will he win the hand and heart of the Princess Badroulboudour? And how will he rescue her when his lamp is stolen from him by trickery?An everlasting story of genies and enchantment, love and deceit, a poor boy and a beautiful princess, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp will capture the hearts of readers once more, in this beautiful edition introduced by Ruskin Bond.

Janice Campbell Paul was just an ordinary American woman, not particularly religious or spiritual, when she was stricken with fibromyalgia, an illness so inexplicable that even the doctors were left puzzled. Slowly, as the sickness took over, she lost the life she had known. As friends and family eased their way out of her life, she was left alone, completely dependent on a wheelchair as she struggled to adjust to her new world.It was then that she discovered love. First, the love of God, which, she believes, created a series of miraculous events that set her life on a different course completely, and enabled her to walk again. The other love, no less powerful, was for a young man, many years her junior, in faraway West Bengal. Their long-distance relationship gave her the courage to dream again. It also gave her the courage to follow her calling and, equipped with a Bible and a heart full of faith, she travelled to the remote village of Bhat Bandh in Bengal. Together, she and the young man built a church, worked with an orphanage and struggled in a culture that would never accept their love or secret marriage.The couple moved to Kathmandu, where Janice lived for many years, though the struggles and challenges they faced eventually destroyed their marriage and their faith in their purpose together. Now 64, Janice is still walking...a bit slower but still determined to go out and tell the world about her healing, about a God that lives in a most imperfect woman and to show others that there is hope in a very dark world.