The Book of Aleph (Volume 7) by Aleph Book Company

t h e

b o o k

o f

ALEPH

t h e

b o o k

o f

ALEPH v o l u m e

ALEPH BOOK COMPANY An independent publishing firm Promoted by Rupa Publications India Published in India in 2018 by Aleph Book Company 7/16 Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110 002

C O N T E N T S 07 WINTER

41 SUMMER

Cover illustration and section openers: Detail from ‘Flower studies’, the Darah Shikoh Album; attributed to Muhammad Khan © The British Library Board

In the works of fiction in this selection, characters, places, names and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. In the works of non-fiction in this selection the views and opinions expressed are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him/her which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same. ISBN: 978-93-86021-93-9 Printed and bound in India by Disclaimer: All prices, publication dates, and other specifications in this volume are liable to change without notice.

53 MONSOON

71 AUTUMN/WINTER 91 HIGHLIGHTS 2017

All rights reserved. Copyright in individual excerpts vests in the authors or proprietors. Copyright in this selection vests in Aleph Book Company. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from Aleph Book Company.

27 SPRING

1 1 3 P R I Z E -W I N N E R S A N D F I N A L I S T S 122 INDEX

132 BACKLIST

147 ABOUT US

why i am a hindu shashi tharoor In Why I Am a Hindu, one of India’s finest public intellectuals gives us a profound book about one of the world’s oldest and greatest religions. Starting with a close examination of his own belief in Hinduism, he ranges far and wide in his study of the faith. He talks about the Great Souls of Hinduism, Adi Shankara, Patanjali, Ramanuja, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and many others who made major contributions to the essence of Hinduism. He delves deep into Hinduism’s most important schools of thought (such as the Advaita Vedanta). He explains, in easily accessible language, important aspects and concepts of Hindu philosophy like the Purusharthas and Bhakti, masterfully summarizes the lessons of the Gita and Vivekananda’s ecumenism, and explores with sympathy the ‘Hinduism of habit’ practised by ordinary believers. He looks at the myriad manifestations of political Hinduism in the modern era, including violence committed in the name of the faith by right-wing organizations and their adherents. He analyzes Hindutva, explains its rise and dwells at length on the philosophy of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, its most significant ideologue. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremist ‘bhakts’, and unequivocal in his belief that everything that makes India a great and distinctive culture and country will be imperiled if religious ‘fundamentalists’ are allowed to take the upper hand. However, he also makes the point that it is precisely because Hindus form the majority that India has survived as a plural, secular democracy. A book that will be read and debated now and in the future, Why I Am a Hindu is a revelatory and original masterwork.

K Excerpt I am happy to describe myself as a believing Hindu: not just because it is the faith into which I was born, but for a string of other reasons, though faith requires no reason.

the book of aleph

One reason is cultural: as a Hindu I belong to a faith that expresses the ancient genius of my own people. I am proud of the history of my faith in my own land: of the travels of Adi Shankara, who journeyed from the southernmost tip of the country to Kashmir in the north, Gujarat in the west and Odisha in the east, debating spiritual scholars everywhere, preaching his beliefs, establishing his mutths. I am reaffirmed in this atavistic allegiance by the Harvard scholar Diana Eck writing of the ‘sacred geography’ of India, ‘knit together by countless tracks of pilgrimage’. The great philosopher-President of India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, wrote of Hindus as ‘a distinct cultural unit, with a common history, a common literature, and a common civilization.’ In reiterating my allegiance to Hinduism, I am consciously laying claim to this geography and history, its literature and civilization, identifying myself as an heir (one among a billion heirs) to a venerable tradition that stretches back into time immemorial... I am more comfortable with the belief structures of Hinduism than I would be with those of the other faiths of which I know. Hinduism is, in many ways, predicated on the idea that the eternal wisdom of the ages and of divinity cannot be confined to a single sacred book; we have many, and we can delve into each to find our own truth. As a Hindu I can claim adherence to a religion without an established church or priestly papacy, a religion whose rituals and customs I am free to reject, a religion that does not oblige me to demonstrate my faith by any visible sign, by subsuming my identity in any collectivity, not even by a specific day or time or frequency of worship. As a Hindu I subscribe to a creed that is free of the restrictive dogmas of holy writ.

former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. He is a two-time member of the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram and chairs Parliament’s External Affairs Committee. He has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was honoured as New Age Politician of the Year (2010) by NDTV. (For more on Shashi Tharoor, please see www.shashitharoor.in. Follow him on Twitter @ ShashiTharoor and Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShashiTharoor.)

K Shashi Tharoor is the bestselling author of sixteen previous books, both fiction and nonfiction, besides being a noted critic and columnist. His books include the path-breaking satire The Great Indian Novel (1989), the classic India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), and most recently, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2016), for which he won the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism for Books (non-fiction). He is a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a

the book of aleph

winter

strangers no more sanjoy hazarika

New Narratives from India’s Northeast

In Strangers No More, Sanjoy Hazarika explains how and where things stand in the Northeast today. He examines old and new struggles, contemporary trends and the sweeping changes that have taken place and asks whether the region and its people are still ‘different’ to the rest of India, to each other and whether they are destined to remain so. While it may not be possible to overcome lingering hatred, divisions and differences by brute force, economic might or efforts at cultural or political assimilation, there are other ways forward. These include the process of engagement—of accepting, if not embracing, the ‘Idea of India’ and working on forging connections between disparate cultures to overcome the mutual suspicions that have existed for decades. Hazarika tells little-known stories, drawn from personal experience and knowledge, of the way in which insurgents operate, of the reality of border towns in the region, the pain of victims, and the courage of fighters on either side of the ideological and physical conflict, in the jungles and in lands awash with rain and swamped by mist. He travels across borders and mountains, listening to tales of the people of the region and those who live in neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. He challenges the stereotype of the ‘Northeasterner’, critiques the categorization of the ‘Bangladeshi’, deals with issues of ‘race and discrimination’, and suggests best practices that could be used to deal with intractable issues and combatants. Critically, he tries to portray the way in which new generations are grappling with old and current issues with an eye to the future. Extensively researched and brilliantly narrated, Strangers No More is arguably the most comprehensive book yet available about India’s Northeast.

K Sanjoy Hazarika is Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Earlier he was Director of the Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research at Jamia Millia Islamia.

the book of aleph

He is an award-winning journalist, formerly with the New York Times. His books include Bhopal: The Lessons of a Tragedy; Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India’s Northeast; Rites of Passage: Border Crossings, Imagined Homelands, India’s East and Bangladesh; and Writing on the Wall, a collection of essays. As a columnist and specialist commentator on the Northeast and its neighbouring regions, Hazarika has written and published extensively on draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Eastern Himalaya, and freedom fighters from the Northeast. He is founder and managing trustee of C-nes (www.c-nes.org) which has pioneered the work of boat clinics on the Brahmaputra River; these provide nearly half a million people every year with regular healthcare. Hazarika has made over a dozen documentary films on a number of subjects including the Brahmaputra, the endangered Gangetic river dolphin, and the danger that women face in conflict situations. The films look at how communities and individuals, especially women, cope with conditions of acute conflict as in Rambuia, his latest documentary on Mizoram. These have been screened across India and at national and international film festivals and also in Dhaka, London, New York, Washington, Berlin, Göttingen and Vienna.

love and the turning seasons edited by andrew schelling

India’s Poetry of Spiritual & Erotic Longing

For thousands of years, the Indian subcontinent has proved a fertile ground for the world’s most captivating erotic love poetry, and the genius of its devotional writing harnesses great energy and mystical insight. It is in fact often hard to tell whether the poets are offering poems of spiritual longing using the garments of love poetry or writing erotic pieces in the guise of devotion. Perhaps, in a land where erotic sculptures routinely ornament many temples and gods are known for their explosive sexuality, this question has little meaning to these remarkable writers. In their devotional traditions, eroticism and mysticism seem inseparable. This collection spans 2,500 years and includes work originally sung or recited by well-known bards: Kabir, Mirabai, Lal Ded, Vidyapati and Tagore. There are also poems from the Upanishads, ancient Sanskrit poetry and Punjabi folk lyrics. The poets have largely emerged from the ranks of the dispossessed: leather workers, refuse collectors, maidservants, women and orphans. Their vision is of a democratic society in which all voices count. Often they faced persecution for speaking candidly, or daring to speak of spiritual matters at all. The notes include profiles of these legendary lives. Several of these poets simply vanished, absorbed into a deity, or disappeared in a flash of purple lightning. A few produced miracles—most of them are surrounded by clouds of mystery. Andrew Schelling has drawn on the work of twenty-four translators, including A. K. Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Deben Bhattacharya, Dilip Chitre, Gieve Patel, Ezra Pound and Robert Bly to build the finest anthology of India’s erotic and spiritual poetry ever assembled for the general reader.

K Andrew Schelling is a North American poet and translator. He has published seven books of translations of classical Sanskrit and Prakrit poetry, including The Cane Groves of Narmada River, Dropping the Bow: Poems from Ancient India, which received the

the book of aleph

winter

1992 Academy of American Poets award for translation, the first time that association recognized work from an Asian language. Schellingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poetry and essays have been published widely in the United States, and are recognized for their close attention to the orders of the natural world. His latest book, a folkloric account of California writing and ethnography, is Tracks Along the Left Coast: Jaime de Angulo and Pacific Coast Culture. He teaches poetry and Sanskrit at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

love

& the turning seasons ANDREW

SCHELLING

The finest anthology of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s erotic and spiritual poetry ever assembled for the general reader.

the book of aleph

winter

indian cultures as heritage romila thapar

Contemporary Pasts

In her latest book, Romila Thapar writes about the hotly contested subject of Indian culture. Every society has its cultures, the patterns of how people of that society live. In recent times, there has been much debate on the nature and definition of Indian culture and cultures. In her investigation of various aspects of Indian culture, Romila Thapar begins with a precise definition of culture and then analyses the major influences that shape it. She describes how cultures flow together to form a country’s heritage, looks at how the multiple pasts of a society impinge upon its various cultures, and shows how social discrimination, the treatment of women, science and knowledge, among other things, leave an indelible imprint on a country’s heritage. Thought-provoking and wise, this is a book that will spark debate and lay to rest many long cherished shibboleths about India’s cultures.

K Romila Thapar is Emeritus Professor of History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2008, Professor Thapar was awarded the prestigious Kluge Prize of the US Library of Congress, which honours lifetime achievement in studies such as History that are not covered by the Nobel Prize.

the book of aleph

do we not bleed ? mehr tarar

Reflections of a 21st-Century Pakistani

Do We Not Bleed? Reflections of a 21st-Century Pakistani is a passionate, illuminating book about contemporary Pakistan. Comprising original profiles of diverse Pakistanis—some of whom are internationally feted and many others who are relatively unknown—as well as essays that examine the major fault lines in Pakistani society, the book offers the reader an insider’s perspective on the state of affairs in the country today. The book is divided into five thematic sections, each corresponding to a subject that the author feels strongly about. ‘Religious Persecution and Other Discontents’ delves into the killings and oppression generated by religious discord that are now a routine feature of life in Pakistan. In this section we also find stories of people like Ambreen, the girl who dared to take on the patriarchy and repressive customs and was burned to death for her defiance, and Qandeel Baloch, the self-proclaimed selfie queen, who was killed by her own brother for daring to flaunt her sexuality and contempt for the hypocrisy that permeated the society she was part of. ‘The Pakistan You Do Not Know’ shows us little known aspects of everyday life in Pakistan; ‘Remarkable Pakistanis’ tells the story of, among others, Muniba Mazari, a quadriplegic whose inspiring story proves the resilience of the human mind and spirit and Shazia Mushtaq, the selfless educator of Yahounabad; ‘Family and Friends’, contains personal narratives about members of the author’s immediate circle; and ‘The India Connection’ crosses the border to profile aspects of India that the author cherishes, including Delhi and Amitabh Bachchan.Written in her inimitable style, Mehr Tarar’s first book is a remarkably honest account of her beloved country.

K Mehr Tarar is the former op-ed editor of the Daily Times, one of Pakistan’s leading national dailies. She is a freelance columnist for the Daily Times and Express Tribune; Khaleej Times, UAE; and a blogger for the Huffington Post.

the book of aleph

race course road seema goswami

A Novel

Set largely in the prime minister’s official residence, the RCR complex, Race Course Road revolves around the aftermath of the assassination of a sitting prime minister and the battle for succession that ensues within his family, with the elder son and heir, Karan Pratap Singh, trying to fight off the challenge presented by his charismatic half-sister, Asha Devi. As the search for the murderer continues, sex scandals surface, revelations about dodgy arms deals rock India, and rival TV anchors shout and spar even as the country undertakes one of its most bitterly-contested general elections ever. Who will get to live in Race Course Road once the votes have been counted? Who will get to rule India for the next five years? Who will be the new prime minister of India? Read Race Course Road, the ultimate insider’s political thriller, to find out.

Excerpt Asha settled her mother down, wiping the tears off her face, and whispered, ‘Be brave. He would have wanted you to be brave.’ And then, instead of sitting down in the space vacated for her, she went and took her place beside her brothers. She could feel the animosity coming off Karan in waves, but all she could think about was how peaceful Baba looked in death. The stern frown, the downward droop of the mouth was gone. He looked serene, almost happy, as he lay there surrounded by masses of white flowers. A gust of wind from the nearby air conditioner blew some white rose petals on to Birendra Pratap’s cheek. Almost without thinking, Asha bent down and gently brushed them away. That one touch destroyed her. Tears tumbling down her cheeks, she bent down to kiss her father gently on the forehead. That was the image that the TV channels kept coming back to through the day. And that was the picture that was on the front page of every newspaper the next morning.

the book of aleph

Asha Devi with Birendra Pratap. An inconsolable daughter bending down to kiss her dead father for the last time. Her brothers, Karan Pratap and Arjun Pratap, were nowhere in the frame.

K Seema Goswami is a journalist, columnist and author. She began her career with Anandabazar Patrika Group, working for Sunday magazine before moving on to become editor of The Telegraph’s weekend features. She currently writes a weekly column, Spectator, for the Hindustan Times’ Sunday magazine, Brunch, which has a large and dedicated following. Her book Woman on Top, written to help women in the workplace, has been translated into several Indian languages. Race Course Road is her first novel.

the baptism of tony calangute sudeep chakravarti

A Novel

‘Ah, Goa,’ the Professor sighs, sounding at once like a tired prophet and a man saddened by a straying lover. His eyes glaze over for some moments as he looks into his glass, his little finger makes a tentative wiggle, but not enough for Zezito to prepare a refill. Ah, Goa. A tiny strip with endless ocean on one side and proud green hills on the other, the land in between basted with conquest from the time of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to the patchy Pax Indica of lesser rulers, lesser still, in the frenetic churn of the new age that is upon us. In between, there was a long sabbatical as the Estado da India, a coveted ornament. The State of India was part of an overextended Portuguese imperial design doomed to failure—though not before spawning this beautiful mongrel speck on the vastness of a mongrel subcontinent, our Eden of half-eaten apples where we try so very hard to let people be as they wish to be. But this must be more than Eden, Antonio thinks. Eden had only some apples, one serpent, one Adam, one soon-to-be busy Eve. Did Eden ever sell its soul? Did it sell all hope? But enough. There is time to return to the tales of the Professor and the simple pleasures at Villa de Vida. In Goa, once of the Estado da India initiated by the voyager Dom Afonso de Albuquerque, once Gomantak and Govepuri and, during grand dynasties of the ancients, Aparanta—the Land at the Horizon, the faraway land—there is always time. Sometimes, there is too much, what after a few drinks the Professor calls timelessness. Meanwhile, the serpents gather... In prose that is part lyrical and part brutal satire, in this remarkable novel that is really a passion play, Sudeep Chakravarti evokes the essence of a selfproclaimed paradise on the verge of losing itself, on the verge of chaos.

K 24

the book of aleph

winter

Sudeep Chakravarti’s latest book is the bestselling The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community. He is the author of several ground-breaking and bestselling works of narrative non-fiction (Red Sun, a finalist at the Crossword Awards in 2009; Highway 39; and Clear.Hold.Build, winner of the Award for Excellence at the Asian Publishing Awards 2014), novels (Tin Fish, The Avenue of Kings) and short stories. His essays and short fiction have appeared in collections in India and overseas, and, like his books, are translated into several languages. Chakravarti is among India’s leading independent commentators on matters of conflict and conflict resolution, democracy and development, political economy, and the convergence of business and human rights. An extensively published columnist, he has over three decades of experience in media, and has earlier worked with major global and Indian media organizations, mostly in leadership positions. An avid scuba diver, Chakravarti’s keen interest away from writing remains marine conservation. He lives in the Velliangiri Hills in Tamil Nadu, and Goa.

the book of aleph

the short life and tragic death of qandeel baloch sanam maher In February 2016, a journalist from the international news agency Agence France-Presse interviewed a 25-year-old Pakistani woman for a story on how the country’s youth—an estimated 180 million people under the age of 30— interacted with social media. ‘Young people can communicate online in relative freedom,’ the journalist Issam Ahmed reported, ‘and the country even has a Kim Kardashian-type figure—Qandeel Baloch.’ The young woman caught the reporter’s attention after she posted a video on Facebook mocking a presidential ‘warning’ not to celebrate Valentine’s Day—a ‘Western’ holiday. In the video, made on a cell phone as she lies in bed, Baloch wears a low-cut red dress, and her full lips are painted scarlet. The sheets match her outfit, and her dress rides up her legs to reveal her thighs. ‘They can stop to people go out,’ she says in broken English, ‘but they can’t stop to people love.’ She says the same thing once more, this time in Urdu, with an exaggerated American accent, as though she is not used to speaking the language. ‘Woh logon ko pyaar karnay se nahin rok saktay. Kuch bhi kar lein. (No matter what they do, they can’t stop people from loving).’ The video shows us everything that Pakistanis loved—and loved to hate— about Qandeel: she played the coquette, dished out biting critiques of some of Pakistan’s most holy cows, and gave her heart away to politicians, actors, singers and cricketers. Pakistanis snickered at the way she spoke and her accent, and marvelled at her gumption. She was the stuff of a hundred memes and the butt of people’s jokes. She was Pakistan’s first celebrity-by-social media. At the time, the Valentine’s Day video had been seen 830,000 times. Five months later, Qandeel Baloch would be dead. Her brother would strangle her in their family home, in what would be described as an ‘honour killing’—a murder to restore the respect and honour Qandeel’s behaviour online robbed him of. In 2015, 933 women and men were killed for ‘honour’ in Pakistan, according to the country’s Federal Ministry of Law. Those are only the number of cases that are reported by friends and families. Only a handful of these victims are featured 28

the book of aleph

on the front pages of newspapers in Pakistan. In most cases, the murderers do not face charges as they are ‘forgiven’—as per a loophole in the existing legislation— by the surviving family members. In 2014, Senator Syeda Sughra Imam tabled the Anti-Honour Killing Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill in the Senate to address such loopholes. The bill was finally passed by the Senate in March 2015, but lapsed in parliament in October last year. However, just six days after Qandeel was murdered, this bill was fast-tracked to be presented in parliament in two weeks. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, and not a party or government spokesperson, was chosen to make the announcement. What spurred the change? Who was Qandeel Baloch and how did she come to reveal a fundamental schism in Pakistanis’ understanding of themselves as Pakistanis and Muslims?

K Sanam Maher is a journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, Buzzfeed, The Caravan, the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound, Roads & Kingdoms and The New York Times’ Women in the World.

spring

coming out as dalit yashica dutt

A Memoir

Dalit student Rohith Vemula’s tragic suicide in January 2016 started many charged conversations around caste-based discrimination in universities in India. For Yashica Dutt, a journalist living in New York, this was the moment to stop living a lie, and admit something that she had hidden from friends and colleagues for over a decade—that she was Dalit. In Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt recounts the exhausting burden of living with the secret, terrified of being found out, and dealing with the crushing guilt of denying her history. In this personal memoir that is also a narrative of the Dalits, she writes about the journey of coming to terms with her identity and takes us through the history of the Dalit movement; the consequences of the lack of access to education and culture; the paucity of Dalit voices in mainstream media; and attempts to answer crucial questions about caste and privilege. Woven from personal narratives from her life as well as that of other Dalits, this book forces us to confront the injustices of caste and also serves as a call to action.

twenty-two. But I didn’t stop because I knew I would never be like them no matter what fictitious last name I used. In Rohith’s letter I saw the all-too-real possibility that under a slightly different set of circumstances, I could have made that decision to end my life.

K Yashica Dutt is a New York-based journalist who writes on gender, identity and culture. She was previously a principal correspondent with Brunch and the Hindustan Times and is the founder of dalitdiscrimination.tumblr.com

Excerpt We had many things in common, but one very vital thing that was different. Unlike me, Rohith Vemula did nothing to bury his Dalitness. Instead he used it as a shield to stand up for his fellow Dalit students in Hyderabad University against the caste-based prejudices of the administration. After I started working as a journalist, the question of my caste lost some of its intensity but none of the fear that came with it: the fear of being caught, the fear of losing friends, respect and even my bylines. I dodged all mentions of ‘Reservation’ or inter-caste marriages. I looked the other way when someone casually used ‘Bhangi’ as an offensive epithet, struggling to sustain a blank expression and hoping that no one noticed the actual Bhangi in their midst. The fear of my Dalitness being ‘discovered’ made me hate it more. I wanted to be like my colleagues who were not hiding, not scared, not Bhangi and by extension ‘normal’ and therefore ‘better’ than me. I had to work twice as hard to be half as good and all the trying and hiding had made me exhausted even before I turned 30

the book of aleph

spring

pilgrim nation Journeys of the Spirit devdutt pattanaik In its essence, India was not created by emperors, rajas or politicians; its sacred geography was established by pilgrims who saw the face and spirit of God in its holy mountains and mystic waters. Devdutt Pattanaik explores the idea of pilgrimage and uses various sacred spots of India—Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Islamic, even ones inspired by Bollywood—to understand the glue that binds this land together.

Excerpt Have you heard of Bodhiraksita? He is the first ‘documented’ pilgrim in Indian history. According to local inscriptions, he travelled from Sri Lanka in the first century bce, to Bodhgaya, in Bihar, located a hundred kilometres from modern Patna, to see the famous bodhi or pipal tree under which Buddha got his enlightenment. Of course, during his visit, he would not have seen the 180-foottall pyramidal Mahabodhi temple, full of images of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, fierce gods and goddesses such as Yamantaka and Vajravarahi who are part of later Mahayana and Tantrik Buddhism. This brick structure was built only five hundred years after his visit, during the Gupta period. Today when we visit Bodhgaya as part of the Buddhist tourist trail and encounter people from China and Japan and Korea and Thailand, and Europe, and America, we assume this pilgrim spot was always there, since 2500 years ago, when Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakya clan attained enlightenment here. But that is not so. In fact in the early nineteenth century, no one in India had any idea about Buddhism. Buddha, at best, was an avatar of Vishnu mentioned in some Puranas. The Mahabodhi temple and the lands around it had been, since the sixteenth century, under the control of a Hindu mahant. It was British historians and archaeologists who played a key role in the rediscovery of Buddhism. Sir Edwin Arnold wrote The Light of Asia that told the story of Buddha’s enlightenment. Sir Alexander Cunningham played a key role in identifying the Buddhist nature of the dilapidated structures in Bodhgaya. And Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka played a key role in restoring the site to its 32

the book of aleph

former glory. He initiated a legal process to enable Buddhists to reclaim the site in the late nineteenth century. He died in 1933 and it is only in 1949 that the Government of India acknowledged it as a Buddhist shrine. Over the years, there have been claims and counter claims in matters of its administration, with some Hindus claiming it is also a Hindu shrine, though increasingly the management is being given to Buddhists, not just those from India, but from all over the world. Now Bodhgaya is a UNESCO World heritage site.

K Devdutt Pattanaik writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. He has written over 700 articles in newspapers, and thirty books, which include the bestselling Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management and My Gita. His shows on television include Business Sutra and Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik. He lives in Mumbai. For more information on Devdutt and his books, please visit www. devdutt.com.

the art of seduction seema anand ‘The Union of man and woman is like the mating of Heaven and Earth. It is because of their correct mating that heaven and earth last forever. Human beings have lost this secret and have therefore become mortal. By knowing it the path to immortality is opened...’ Ancient eastern cultures believed that a stable society depended on a good and stable marriage and the secret to a stable marriage was extremely good sex. Marriage was the path to heaven and sex was the vehicle to get you there and therefore the Kama Sutra—and its fellow manuals—were considered works of divine instruction. In The Art of Seduction, Seema Anand explores the vocabulary and evolution of these narratives and their relevance to our modern lives.

Excerpt According to the Kama Sutra paan was the last thing offered in the games of foreplay; when you’d had your fill of foreplay you offered your lover paan—this indicated that you were ready for sex! In this case traditionally it was the woman who would offer the paan because it was her decision as to when the foreplay came to an end. When she felt that she had been aroused fully and it was time for the next step she would make the paan and offer it to her lover. The Kama Sutra tells us that this was the most intimate offering from a woman to a man because it wasn’t just an expression of how physically close they were, it was a promise of the ecstasy they were about to share. In this act of offering paan the woman is referred to as ‘priyatama vamahast’ or ‘she who offers paan with her left hand’—because sex was a left hand activity. The right hand was used for offering prayers and eating food, all things sexual were done with the left hand.

K 34

the book of aleph

spring

Dr Seema Anand is a London-based mythologist and a practising storyteller. She lectures on the Kama Sutra and is an acknowledged authority on Eastern Erotology. Her TED talk on ‘The Art of Seduction’ has been viewed more than 6.5 million times.

kashmir The Biography radha kumar ‘A Kashmir political scientist once said to me: “You cannot discuss Kashmir, or the Kashmir conflict, without starting with history”.’ In this way begins Radha Kumar’s biography of Kashmir, a book that attempts to give the reader a deep yet accessible look at perhaps the most troubled part of India. Beginning with references to Kashmir as ‘a sacred geography’ in the Puranas, Kumar’s account covers a lot of ground as it seeks to grapple with the seemingly intractable issues that have turned the state into a battleground for decades. She finds that many of its problems stretch deep into the past, and will need to be thoroughly studied and understood, before they can be resolved with any degree of permanence. She chastises the Indian government for never failing ‘to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when it comes to the state’s political grievances’. Equally, she shows how Pakistan’s Kashmir policy has been ‘an unmitigated disaster’. She concludes that if Kashmir is ever to move towards peace and stability, we will need all the major stakeholders (India, Pakistan, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, ‘Azad Kashmir’ and Gilgit–Baltistan) to accept their myriad failings and move towards the few feasible options that remain. Timely and authoritative, Kashmir: The Biography is a book that cuts through the rhetoric and sorrow that cloaks Kashmir, to give the reader a balanced, accessible and deeply empathetic view of the state, its politics and its people.

K Dr Radha Kumar is an academic and author of several well-regarded books on ethnic conflict and feminism, including Making Peace with Partition and A History of Doing: Movements from Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, 1900–1990. She was one of the interlocutors appointed for Jammu and Kashmir by the Manmohan Singh government in 2010; in the words of the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the government of India hoped ‘that after interacting with all shades of political opinion

the book of aleph

spring

[the interlocutors] will support a way forward that truly reflects the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially the youthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

ayodhya City of Faith, City of Discord valay singh 6 December 2017 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the demolition of a sixteenth-century mosque in Ayodhya by a frenzied mob of Hindus. The demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 was followed by large-scale riots that killed thousands of people and permanently communalized the polity of the country. In the years leading up to the demolition and in its aftermath, the right-wing gained decisive ground in electoral politics and deepened its hold on Hindu society leading to the pronounced othering of minorities by the majority community. The demolition was the climax of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that has been at the heart of Indian politics for a quarter century since the BJP first campaigned on the promise of building a Ram Temple at the site of the mosque. Do the people of Ayodhya still dream of a Ram Temple and will the issue be reinvigorated by the party in power? Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord is an unprecedented portrait of the sleepy town in northern India, which has been a place of reverence for many faiths for millennia, but has also been a place of violence, bloodshed and ill-will. Through numerous interviews, exhaustive research, and rare insights from being embedded in Ayodhya, the author presents a comprehensive account of one of the most fiercely contested places in the country.

K Valay Singh is a journalist and photographer based in New Delhi. Originally from Bhopal, Valay started his career in journalism with NDTV 24x7. He has produced documentary films for Indian and French media and has written for the Economic Times, Himal Southasian and DailyO, among other publications. This is his first book

the book of aleph

spring

the book of aleph

reshaping art t . m . krishna

{aleph spotlight}

In Reshaping Art, T. M. Krishna examines what art is and how we can harness its power to make ourselves and our communities open and sensitive. Well known for his attempts to break Karnatik music out of its high-caste confines, the author takes us through his journey of understanding what art means to different groups of people and the different and similar ways in which we all create and enjoy it. In this book, T. M. Krishna questions the caste, class and gender imbalance that pervades most forms of art and asks how we can take art out of this cage so that it can serve as the transformative medium through which people come together as equals.

K A vocalist in the Karnatik tradition, Thodur Madabusi Krishna is known for his uncommon renditions and original interpretations of music. As a public intellectual, Krishna speaks and writes about issues affecting the human condition and about matters cultural. He is the driving force behind the Urur-Olcott Kuppam Festival and the Svanubhava initiative, and has been part of inspiring collaborations, such as the Chennai Poromboke Paadal with environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman. He is the recipient of the Professor V. Aravindakshan Memorial Award (2017), the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (2017) and the Ramon Magsaysay Award (2016). His path-breaking book A Southern Music: The Karnatik Story won the 2014 Tata Literature Live! First Book Award for Non-fiction.

the book of aleph

superhuman river bidisha banerjee

A Biography of the Ganga

Worshipped as a living goddess for centuries, the Ganga is one of the most significant rivers in India, if not the world. From its icy origins in the Gangotri glacier in the Himalaya, the river wends its way for 2,525 kilometres through five major northern states before ending its journey in the east at the Bay of Bengal through the Sundarbans delta, the largest mangrove system in the world. The Ganga’s significance transcends the spiritual and mythological as it sustains millions of people who live by its banks or eke out a living by tilling lands that the river fertilizes. Its waters have spawned hundreds of towns and cities, foremost amongst them Varanasi, or Kashi, the city favoured by Lord Shiva himself—one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. For tens of millions of people, the Ganga is the living threshold between the human and the superhuman. This is the river that supposedly originates in the Milky Way and extends all the way to the underworld. It is the river that medieval Europeans considered one of the four rivers of Eden. The same river that drove Alexander and Columbus mad. Famous for its gold, its muslins, its malabathrum and spikenard, today, apart from being one of the most venerated, it is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The amount of sewage dumped into its waters is 2.9 billion litres, roughly the amount of water that would pump out of the Niagara Falls if you were to stare at it for an hour. The Gangetic river dolphin, an emblem of its waters and once present in the thousands, is now a severely endangered species and nearly impossible to see. In September 2014, the Modi government pledged 510 billion rupees over the next five years to stop the discharge of untreated sewage into the river. Will Modi’s ambitious plan do for the Ganga what billions of dollars and the collective effort of five European nations did for the Rhine? Although the Ganga is one of the world’s legendary rivers, spoken of in the same breath as the Nile, the Danube, the Amazon and the Mississippi, there are few major accounts of the river, especially one told from an Indian perspective. Superhuman River is a book that remedies that deficit.

summer

K Bidisha Banerjee has been obsessed with the Ganga ever since she pretended, as a child, that ordinary shower water was Ganga water. She lives in Oakland, California, the obvious midpoint between her two homes, Kolkata and Kansas. She has written for Slate, the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, Triple Canopy, and the Stanford Journal of Law, Science, and Policy. She is an ethical leadership curriculum designer for the Dalai Lama Fellows. This is her first book.

the book of aleph

summer

daughters of the sun ira mukhoty

Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire

In 1526 a Timurid warrior-scholar rides into Delhi to build an empire. With him ride his wives, his sisters, his daughters, his aunts and his distant female relatives. Unhindered by a relatively recent conversion to Islam, these women will help found a culture of such magnificence and beauty that it will become a by-word for opulence in the world. These Mughal women of Hindustanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;unmarried daughters, eccentric sisters, fiery milk-mothers and beautiful wives, will contribute to the great syncretic culture of the Mughals by writing biographies, building monuments, engaging in diplomacy, and patronizing the arts. And even as the zenana changes from the earlier nomadic, tented spaces to the later more sequestered grandeur within the high stone walls of mighty qilas, the influence of the women remains visible and unquestioned. This book looks at the lives of these Mughal women, and the enigma of their disappearance, except as objects of curiosity, from our collective memory.

K Ira Mukhoty is the author of Heroines: Powerful Indian Women in Myth and History. She was educated in Delhi and Cambridge, where she studied Natural Sciences. After a peripatetic youth, she returned to Delhi to raise her two daughters. Living in one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, she developed an interest in the evolution of mythology and history and its relevance to the status of women in India.

the book of aleph

summer

missing A Novel sumana roy

jugaad yatra dean nelson

It is the summer of 2012. A young girl is molested in Guwahati in India’s Northeast. Journalists take photographs and make videos of the incident, but no one tries to rescue her. The monsoons have arrived, and like every year, Assam is flooded. Kobita, a fifty-four year old activist, married to a blind poet in Siliguri, travels to Guwahati in search of the molested girl who has gone missing. She has left instructions to make a new bed, and Nayan, her blind husband, cut off from newspapers because of his inability to read, has to now depend on the carpenter and his family to trace his wife after her phone calls stop coming. There is a riot in lower Assam from where Kobita made her last phone call to her husband. Their young son, Kabir, is in England, researching the construction of the Hill Cart Road, the highway that connects Siliguri to Darjeeling and the eastern Himalayas. While his father grows desperate for some news about his missing wife, Kabir is completely absorbed in his study of a cache of letters written by a man called Philip to his brother in England in 1839. While all this is going on, there is still no news of Kobita. Where is she? Missing is about seven days in the lives of these people. It is a study of the modern marriage, always played out against the awareness of the question that gave birth to the Indian subcontinent’s first epic, the Ramayana: What happens when a wife goes missing?

When India’s rocket scientists launched their low-cost Mangalyaan spacecraft into the orbit of Mars they cited a Hindi colloquial word to explain their triumph: jugaad. It was a divisive description for what was, arguably, the greatest practical achievement of modern Indian science. Jugaad means frugal innovation, the quick fix solutions which defy conventional wisdom, born of ingenuity in the face of hardship to bring comfort to the poor. It also refers to shoddy home-made inventions—like the half motorbike, half bullock cart trikes which clog India’s roads, corner-cutting construction and corrupt deals. Some believe it is a uniquely Indian trait which could be its USP on the road to prosperity, while others believe it is a source of shame which hampers the nation's development at every turn. Jugaad Yatra is a journey through the best and worst of jugaad; it asks whether India should embrace jugaad as the fast lane to wealth or shun it as a celebration of the sub-standard?

Exploring the Indian Art of Problem Solving

K Dean Nelson is an investigative journalist and business analyst who spent ten years in Delhi as South Asia correspondent and editor, first for the Sunday Times and later for the Daily Telegraph. He lives with his family in Edinburgh and continues to work in Asia on assignments.

Sumana Roy’s first book, How I Became a Tree, was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award and the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award. Missing is her first novel. She lives in Siliguri.

the book of aleph

summer

getting to know hinduism mark w . muesse

Religion, Traditions, Cultures and Philosophy

Mark W. Muesse, renowned lecturer with The Teaching Company, brings readers into an encounter with Hinduism, the world’s oldest living religious tradition. Muesse’s brief survey challenges the perception of Hinduism as one religious tradition, showing how rich and diverse this 5,000-year-old story truly is. He traces the vast history and practices of the faith, moving from its origins up through classic and contemporary periods, and demonstrates how its religious tradition is both monotheistic and polytheistic.

K Mark W. Muesse is the W. J. Millard Professor in Religious Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Muesse directs the Asian Studies programme at Rhodes and has produced three Teaching Company lecture series on the world’s religions.

the book of aleph

the town that laughed manu bhattathiri

A Novel

Paachu Yemaan, Karuthupuzha’s tough and terrible ex-inspector of police, isn’t ready for a retired life just yet. So he occasionally gives his wife a police-style lecture, attempts to discipline his little niece Priya and practices expressions of fury before his mirror. Joby is the town drunk who has wasted his life away. Buried deep in his heart is the dull ache of a love that’s like a forgotten song. He’s the town buffoon who entertains for alcohol. These two men, vastly different in status, temperament and self-opinion, are connected by Paachu’s niece Priya, the talkative girl who isn’t afraid of walking under elephants but starts at the sight of lizards. Joby takes Priya to school and back on his rusty bicycle, and this becomes a journey of self-discovery and fulfilment for the two men. Besides these two, The Town That Laughed is filled with several more quirky characters including the wizard-like photographer Varky, the gentle Sharada, constable Bubru, the saintly barber Sureshan and even Joby’s cheerful mutt Lilly. And as the reader gets caught up in the big and small incidents of their lives, he falls under the spell of Karuthupuzha—the town that laughed.

K Manu Bhattathiri is a Keralite settled in Bengaluru. He has worked as an advertising copywriter, a journalist and a college lecturer. At present he co-owns a small advertising agency in Bengaluru. His career as an author began with the 2016 publication of the critically-acclaimed Savithri’s Special Room and Other Stories, a collection set in the fictitious little town of Karuthupuzha. The Town That Laughed is his first novel.

the book of aleph

the end of liberalism rudrangshu mukherjee

{aleph spotlight}

Recent political developments across large parts of the globe have made it clear that liberalism is in crisis. Several political regimes and political leaders have little time and respect for liberal values but it is important to understand that in many cases they have been empowered by popular social attitudes that have turned against liberalism. In order to understand this phenomenon, Rudrangshu Mukherjee goes back to the origins of liberalism to understand its substantive ideas and lineage. He shows how liberalism, a Western doctrine, flourished when Western empires dominated much of the world. Ironically, while values like freedom, democracy and citizenship were nurtured in the West, they were denied to the people of the countries that had been colonized by Western nations. Liberalism in the West thrived by being illiberal elsewhere. The contradictions within made liberalism vulnerable to attack. Totalitarian regimes swept it aside, and other doctrines replaced it with increasing frequency. In the twenty-first century, in both the East as well as the West, liberalism appears to be fast disappearing. This important book tells us why.

K Rudrangshu Mukherjee is founding Vice Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University. He was educated at Calcutta Boys’ School, Presidency College, Calcutta, JNU and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was awarded a DPhil in Modern History by the University of Oxford. He has taught in the department of history, Calcutta University, and held visiting appointments at Princeton University, Manchester University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. From 1993 to 2014 he was the Editor, Editorial Pages, The Telegraph. He is the author of many books—these include Awadh in Revolt 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance; Spectre of Violence: the Massacres in Kanpur in 1857; The Year of Blood: An Essay on 1857. He is the editor of Great Speeches of Modern India and of The Penguin Gandhi Reader. His latest publication is Nehru & Bose: Parallel Lives. monsoon

why india needs a free press n . ram

{aleph spotlight}

Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (1989); and a Columbia J-School Alumni Award (2003). His latest book is Why Scams are Here to Stay.

The press in India is under attack. Repeated assaults on its independence and revenue by powerful forces—governments at the centre and in the states, by businesses, fundamentalist organizations, terrorists, among others—have led to its decline. One of India’s most distinguished editors, N. Ram, tells us why a free and independent media is essential to a healthy democracy. He examines the assaults on the media, the disquieting trend of big business houses buying a controlling interest in major media organizations, the purveying of fake news and paid news, the increasing authoritarianism of ministers and government functionaries and the physical threats journalists face as they do their jobs. He analyses the changing role of media, the effects of censorship and self-censorship, public distrust, and everything else that has contributed to the dwindling reach and power of the media. Laced with insights drawn from his own experience as one of the country’s leading editors, as well as those drawn from his interaction with prominent players in the industry, and those who have declared war on it, Why India Needs a Free Press is a book that shows exactly why an independent and free media is essential for our country.

K N. Ram, chairman of Kasturi & Sons and former editor-in-chief and publisher of The Hindu and Frontline magazine, is a political journalist with literary interests. He has written on a range of socio-political subjects and specialized in investigative journalism. Along with Susan Ram, he is the biographer of the great Indian writer, R. K. Narayan, whom he knew well. Ram was elected president of the Contemporary India Section of the 72nd Session of the Indian History Congress (2011). He was awarded the Padma Bhushan for Journalism (1990). He also received the Asian Investigative Journalist of the Year Award from the Press Foundation of Asia (1990); the B. D.

the book of aleph

life lessons from india ’ s greatest spiritual teachers series editor : nanditha krishna India is a land of spirituality, and has produced some of the world’s greatest thinkers and philosophers. India’s spiritual masters cross the narrow dividing lines of religion, ranging from Mahavira and the Buddha, who lived over 2,500 years ago to more recent philosophers such as Vivekananda, Ramakrishna and many others. Through this series we will examine the teachings of some of India’s best known spiritual masters. Each book will be a handy companion to help the reader along the difficult pathways of life. Walking in the footsteps of these great men and women can take each of us to greater heights of knowledge, wisdom and understanding.

K LIFE LESSONS FROM MAHAVIRA EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY NANDITHA KRISHNA

Mahavira was the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of Jainism, born in modern Bihar in the sixth century bce. At the age of thirty, he abandoned his worldly possessions and left home in pursuit of an ascetic life. For the next few years, Mahavira practised intense meditation and performed severe austerities beneath a sal tree, after which he attained omniscience. Mahavira emphasized the importance of ahimsa or non-violence against all life forms in order to achieve a better rebirth and the ultimate liberation of the soul. LIFE LESSONS FROM ADI SANKARA EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY NANDITHA KRISHNA

Adi Sankara was born in the eighth century in modern Kerala. He was a great philosopher who established the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta and unified and

the book of aleph

established the six main schools of Hinduism. He travelled across the Indian subcontinent propagating his philosophy through debates and discourses, establishing monasteries and monastic orders. He participated in philosophical debates with orthodox schools of Hinduism and heterodox traditions. He established several mathas or monasteries derived from the ancient ashrama system. By the time he died at the age of thirty-two, he had produced a cornucopia of commentaries on ancient Indian texts as well as original philosophical works which contain some of the greatest gems of human thought.

K Series editor Dr Nanditha Krishna is a historian, environmentalist and writer based in Chennai, with a PhD in Ancient Indian Culture. She has been a Professor and a Research Guide for the PhD programme of CPR Institute of Indological Research, and is currently the President of the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation. She is a prolific writer who has written books, research papers and popular articles on various aspects of Indian art, religion and the environment. LIFE LESSONS FROM MOINUDDIN CHISHTI EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY BABLI PARVEEN

Moinuddin Hasan Chishti was a Sufi saint, philosopher and spiritual teacher, who settled in India in the early thirteenth century, where he promulgated the famous Chishtiyya order of Sufism. He is known as the founder of the Sufi movement in India. He was a charismatic and compassionate spiritual preacher who attracted both Hindus and Muslims. Chishti introduced the syncretic element to Indian society and culture, which has continued for centuries. The veneration of Sufi shrines in India started with the shrine of Moinuddin Hasan Chishti. He was the first Islamic mystic in India who encouraged the use of music as ‘Sama’ along with prayers and meditation to establish communion with God. Due to his popularity and the belief that he can help solve all problems, his shrine in Ajmer, Rajasthan, is visited by thousands every day.

monsoon

K Dr Babli Parveen is a historian and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delhi. She has published papers in the areas of ‘History of Sufism in South Asia, Sufi Saints and Shrines in India’, ‘Islamisation in Medieval India and Issues of Muslim Community in contemporary India’. She is the recipient of prestigious international awards—The International Creative Mind Award at the Sixth Global Award Event (2016) and the Women’s Empowerment Award at the Sixth Global Economic Summit, WTC, Mumbai (2017).

animal stories syed muhammad ashraf translated by m . asaduddin Award-winning writer Syed Muhammad Ashraf is one of the most important contemporary practitioners of the Urdu short story. Often set in rural India, Ashraf’s stories offer sharp insights into village life and its inhabitants, but it is his stories featuring animals—of wild beasts breaching village walls, a sense of foreboding and danger lurking around every corner, and the eternal conflict of man versus nature—that are truly unforgettable. In ‘Rogue’, three men set out on a winter’s night in a jeep to hunt a mad elephant when suddenly they come across a woman and a child on the isolated jungle track. In ‘Separated from the Flock’, a man is reminiscing about the country across the border that he left behind when in the bone-chilling pre-dawn hour his car stops before a bonfire surrounded by men, the fire crackling to illuminate a familiar stranger. In three short stories—‘The Hyena Laughed’, ‘The Hyena Cried’ and ‘The Hyena Fell Silent’—the shadow of the hyena is always present in the narrative, until man and animal become one and it is difficult to tell who is more dangerous. And in Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s renowned translation of Ashraf’s novella Numberdar ka Neela (The Beast), the destinies of a blue bull and its owner, the village administrator, are intertwined—the fate of one will have consequences on both.

K Syed Muhammad Ashraf is an Urdu novelist and a short story writer of great distinction. He has written two novels and several collections of short stories. Some of his stories have been translated into English and other Indian and world languages. He has received a Sahitya Akademi Award and several other awards. Author, critic and translator in several languages, M. Asaduddin writes on the syncretic cultural traditions in India, literature and language politics. He is currently Dean, faculty of Humanities and Languages, and Director, Centre for Comparative Religions and 60

the book of aleph

monsoon

Civilizations. He was Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, 2008-2009 and a Charles Wallace Trust Fellow at the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, 2000. He has lectured/ led workshops at the universities of Delhi, Kolkata, Dhaka, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, East Anglia, Chicago, Rutgers, New York, St. Louis, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Among his fourteen books are: Image and Representation: Stories of Muslim Lives in India (with Mushirul Hasan,OUP, 2000), Filming Fiction: Tagore, Premchand and Ray (OUP, 2012) and Premchand in World Languages: Translation, Reception and Cinematic Representations (Routledge, 2016). He is a regular speaker at literary and cultural festivals in India and abroad and has received the following awards: Katha Award, Dr A. K. Ramanujan Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award.

the malayalis paul zacharia

A Portrait of a Community

The book is an informal introduction to Malayalis—the occupants, so to say, of Kerala—by a writer who is one of them and has much fun being one. It looks at the way Malayalis conduct their struggle for a place under the Indian sun, how their politics dupes them, how the media fools them, and yet how they keep surfacing and surviving. It is an account of how an ingenious, resilient and creative people fight to keep their dreams alive by putting their everything into education, by scrupulously maintaining communal harmony, by turning themselves into unrelenting immigrants—even by working as hired killers. Incorrigibly argumentative and contrary, brilliant in unpredictable ways, blessed with uncanny wit, devastatingly addicted to the media, leftist for all to see but feudal and patriarchal to the core, splurging in the glitter of expatriate money, here is an Indian people whose saga of survival is both comic and heroic.

Excerpt Modern Syrian Christians of Kerala (the majority Christian population here) believe that the Apostle Thomas—the one who so famously questioned Jesus— visited here in 52 ce and baptized their forefathers. Historians surmise that the diverse, rich trading centre of Kerala may well have drawn this Palestinian Jew of the Roman Empire who wished to preach the Gospel. Thousands of churches today bear his name, their rituals and theology derived from Eastern Orthodox traditions in the liturgical language Syriac, a form of Aramaic, the dialect Jesus— and Thomas—spoke. For decades now, the liturgical language of Kerala Christians has been Malayalam, the language of Kerala. Thomas’s name remains ubiquitous in Kerala, appearing on everything from baptism registers and the neon signs of jewellery stores to name-plates of dental surgeons and real estate developers’ ads. During the negotiations surrounding arranged marriages, it’s common for both families to make discreet inquiries as to whether the other’s ancestries reach back to the Apostle. A ‘yes’ can prove a big plus—apart from the quantum of dowry, of course. Then in 1498, the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sailed to Kerala to open up the first Europe-India sea route. Imagine his

the book of aleph

monsoon

surprise when he found Christians! Two years later, Captain Pedro Ă lvares Cabral followed, bringing eight Franciscan priests, eight chaplains, and a chaplain major. He left a few behind, who introduced the Latinâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;read Roman Catholicâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; rite to Kerala. Once European Christianity had arrived, life was never the same again for Kerala Christians. The community would be split, re-split, changed, reformed, and reinvented. But looking back, it seems clear that through the vicissitudes of history the community was moving ahead, not stumbling.

K Paul Zacharia writes in Malayalam and English. He has published over fifty books and has received several awards including the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award. He lives in Thiruvananthapuram.

the book of aleph

monsoon

electrifying bengali pulp fiction selected & translated by arunava sinha

charmers and betrayers yatish yadav

Disappearing corpses. Scientists who are spies. Manic murderers. Dogged detectives. Love triangles and deaths. Mysterious creatures. The dead and the departed. Sex, romance and betrayal. These are the ingredients of a long tradition of pulp fiction that lurks in dark corners within the hallowed precincts of Bengali literature, which is known for occupying the high ground of culture. Like a river running beneath it, however, these other stories of sordid criminals and seductive evildoers, of passion-driven murderers and subversive femme fatales, never stopped flowing into the minds of readers, written by numerous talented writers and published by both small presses in dingy alleys and large companies who dominate the business of Bengali books. Electrifying Bengali Pulp Fiction brings together the best of these sinful stories from the land of the bhodrolok.

In the secret world of espionage, the inner workings of India's intelligence agencies is guarded zealously. The triumphs and setbacks of operations, recruiting of spies, training of handlers, counter-intelligence and the reach of our spy organizations are often buried in official files. Charmers and Betrayers: The Secret History of India’s Intelligence Agencies takes the reader on a hundred-year-long journey through the history of Indian spy agencies. Starting from the pre-Independence activities of the Great Game during the British Raj through the setting up of India’s R&AW and IB, to sensitive operations in the recent past, this book is the first detailed account of India's intelligence agencies and the remarkable men and women who work for them. Pieced together from official documents and interviews with experts, retired and serving members of the intelligence community, this book offers a ringside view of this shadowy world.

K Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and non-fiction into English. Over thirty of his translations have been published so far. He selected and translated The Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told. Twice the winner of the Crossword Translation Award, for Sankar’s Chowringhee (2007) and Anita Agnihotri’s Seventeen (2011), he has also won the Muse India award for translation for When the Time Is Right (2012) and been shortlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction prize (2009) for his translation of Chowringhee. Besides India, his translations have been published in the UK and the US, and in several European and Asian countries through further translation. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, and lives and writes in New Delhi.

the book of aleph

The Secret History of India’s Intelligence Agencies

K Yatish Yadav is an investigative reporter with over a decade’s experience in covering intelligence and investigative agencies. He has reported extensively on conflicts in Kashmir, the Northeast and the Naxal-affected areas of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. In his columns, he writes on internal security and contemporary politics. He is the winner of the Best Director Award at the New York International Film & Video Festival for a documentary exposing an international human trafficking ring operating from Nepal. He is currently Deputy Editor of the New Indian Express.

monsoon

outcaste matampu kunjukuttan translated from the malayalam by

vasanthi shankaranarayanan

A hundred years ago, the lives of the Namboodiris, the highest caste of Kerala Brahmins, were rigid, severe, patriarchal and anti-women. The most terrible thing that could happen to an upper-caste individual was loss of caste; so the greatest sin was to do something that would lead to loss of caste. Sexual adventures usually ended in the pregnant womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public trial and outcasting. Outcaste is based on actual events that took place between 1900â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1910. It tells the story of how Paptikutty, a Namboodiri bride, deliberately used seduction as an act of revenge to smash the prison walls of custom, caste and the oppression of women in Kerala society at the time. When Paptikutty is called to trial, she produces proof of the sixty-four liaisons she deliberately cultivated and argues that if she were to lose caste so too should all those eminent men who had enjoyed her favours. Since the laws were clear, these men were also tried and declared communal outcastes, thus ruining nearly a generation of Namboodiris and their descendants. Outcaste is a tale of passion and power; a tale of a lone woman's righteous anger that wreaks havoc on a whole hypocritical, ossified community.

K Matampu Kunjukuttan is a novelist, short story writer, screenplay writer, priest, teacher and actor. His novels, short stories and screenplays have won many awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, National Film Award for Best Screenplay, Ashdod International Film Award for Best Screenplay and Sanjayan Award among others. Vasanthi Shankaranarayanan is a translator and a journalist. Her other works include a translation of Agnisakshi and short stories.

the book of aleph

monsoon

the book of aleph

mangalyaan sandhya ramesh

only in india sayoni basu and priya kuriyan It is almost a cliché that India is diverse and amazing. This book is a collection of only some random examples of this—but made memorable by fabulous and funny illustrations. From dinosaur eggs to prehistoric monuments, villages where everyone is known by a musical note to villages where rice is farmed below sea level, plants that bloom every twelve years to lakes filled with skeletons and the only floating national park in the world... This book of random things you knew and lots of things you did not know about each state is whimsically illustrated by Priya Kuriyan.

K Sayoni Basu has worked in publishing for more years than she can remember and has written many many words by way of emails, contracts and excel sheets. She is a publisher at Duckbill Books, an independent publishing house for children and young adults, and has written a couple of books for children. Priya Kuriyan is a children’s book writer/illustrator, comics maker and animator. A graduate of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), she has directed educational films for Sesame Street Show (India) and the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) and illustrated numerous children’s books for various Indian publishers. She likes dabbling in various visual styles and filling her sketchbooks with strange caricatures of people from places she travels to. Her most recent book is Ammachi’s Glasses, a wordless picture book about a spunky grandmother published by Tulika Books.

the book of aleph

Mars has been the destination for many exploratory missions, but when Mangalyaan, India’s first orbiter to Mars, launched from Sriharikota on 5 November 2013 to begin its 690 million kilometre journey through deep space, the entire world was watching. The successful launch and its subsequent journey is the story of grit and determination. Built on a shoestring budget and in record time for a mission of its size, Mangalyaan is expected to help us study the Martian surface and atmosphere and send us stunning pictures of our fascinating planetary neighbour. Indian space research had come into its own. In this book, Sandhya Ramesh examines our fascination with the planet Mars through the ages, Mars exploration by other nations, ISRO’s Mars mission and other space projects and, finally, the important role the planet is set to play in our future as we get ready for the first human mission to the red planet.

Excerpt The two moons of Mars were finally discovered in 1877 within a week of each other by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall had been actively looking for Martian moons, then the subject of much fascination, and discovered the smaller inner moon, Deimos, while observing the larger outer moon, Phobos. When Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli decided to observe Mars and map its features in 1877, he noticed what looked like dark striations and lines on the planet. He called these canali, Italian for grooves. In the latter half of the 1800s, the world was seeing a great deal of canal building, with lands separated by large water bodies suddenly becoming connected and traversable. The first half of the nineteenth century saw all the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls in North America connected by canals. Then the Suez Canal was opened to the public in 1867 after a ten-year construction period. This was a big development. It allowed ships to go from India and the Mediterranean to Europe without going around Africa. A transit of 8,000 kilometres saved! Soon after, the construction of the largest canal in the world—the Panama Canal—was started. Because of these canals and their significance during this period, Schiparelli’s autumn/winter

canali was very quickly mistranslated into English as ‘canals’. What added to this mistranslation was that telescopes until the late nineteenth century were only good enough for observing large surface features or planetary transits. But they were not accurate enough to observe details on the surface of Mars. This led to astronomers believing in the existence of canals built by extra-terrestrial beings on the planet for water transportation. The public was caught in a frenzy of enthusiasm about intelligent civilizations using canals on Mars like they did on earth.

K Sandhya Ramesh is a science communicator and freelance science writer. She is especially passionate about astronomy and planetary sciences.

the blue lotus meena nayak

Myths and Folktales of India

Myths and folktales are layered narratives that tell of the human experience in all its variety and perfection and imperfection. These experiential tales are like mirrors that reflect our lives—knowing them we can gauge our own actions and behaviours. Sometimes, these tales are archetypal, and sometimes they defy categorization. Sometimes they affirm our own human-ness, and, at other times, they make us question the imperatives that drive us. In India myth-making and storytelling are also traditions of the soil that nourish the country’s diverse cultures—Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Islamic, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, and Tribal. They not only accentuate the distinct identity of each culture, but they also blend to form a collective ethos. This book is a collection of myths and folktales from the various communities and cultural traditions of India, interconnecting through themes of how we experience life.

K Meena Arora Nayak is a Mahabharata scholar and a novelist. She is the author of In the Aftermath, About Daddy, Endless Rain, The Puffin Book of Legendary Lives, and a forthcoming monograph, Evil in the Mahabharata. She is a Professor in the Department of English at Northern Virginia Community College. She lives in Virginia, USA.

the book of aleph

autumn/winter

not just another story jhimli mukherjee pandey As the rags-to-riches blockbuster film Slumdog Millionaire sweeps the Oscars in 2008, a Kolkata journalist is tasked with tracking down a young girl who was part of an award-winning documentary made many years earlier about the children of sex workers. Lakshmi, the girl who is being looked for, is the daughter of a sex worker in Sonagachi. Eventually, the journalist finds the elusive Lakshmi in a new avatar in Kolkata’s posh Salt Lake area. She is now Anjali, a high class escort, beautiful, well-spoken and at peace with her place in the world. As she gets to know the young woman that Lakshmi has become, the journalist gradually begins to uncover her past—it is a story that stretches through the murky alleys of Sonagachi all the way back to a refugee camp during the Bangladesh War of 1971.

Excerpt ‘How much further? My legs are hurting!’ Lata was the first to balk. ‘Just a bit more. Come on, we’re nearly there,’ the vendor said in a reassuring tone. ‘Once you see this place, you’ll want to keep coming back, you’ll see.’ After a few more kilometres of twisting bylanes, the girls started to get worried. The sun was beginning to dip and the shadows were growing longer. Saraju’s breath caught in her throat. She had to get back. ‘Uncle, my mother will start looking for me. I’ll get a beating if my work is not done. Let’s go back,’ Saraju said. Lata joined in insistently, ‘We don’t want to go any further. Please take us back!’ Lata held Saraju’s hand in a tight grip. ‘What! Don’t you want new dresses and toys and books? You’ll get to eat delicious food! Those foreigners are really kind,’ the man said in encouraging tones. ‘No, we don’t want anything. We want to go back home,’ Saraju said, as tears pricked her lids.

the book of aleph

autumn/winter

‘Home? You call that hell-hole your home?’ His voice changed from charming to sharp. ‘We just want to go home. We want to go back to our parents.’ The girls stopped and refused to go any further. Passers-by began giving the group curious looks. With an ingratiating smile on his face, the vendor came close to Lata and Saraju and spoke in a low, menacing tone. ‘Come with me quietly, or I will leave you here and go. Go back home if you think you can find your way.’

K Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey has been a journalist for twenty-four years. She started her career with The Statesman and later joined the Times of India. Since 2007, she has been writing both fiction and non-fiction in English and Bengali. She also translates from and into both languages.

the book of aleph

my kashmir omar abdullah

{aleph spotlight}

Omar Abdullah’s first book, part memoir, part history and part analysis of the various problems that have beset Jammu and Kashmir in the decades since Independence, will be one of the most important books to be published about the beautiful and troubled state. My Kashmir will not only offer the reader unprecedented clarity about the situation in Kashmir today, it will also offer rare insights into Kashmiri politics and the Abdullah family that has played a prominent part in shaping the discourse on the region.

K Omar Abdullah is one of India’s most remarkable political leaders. Belonging to the National Conference (NC) political party in Jammu & Kashmir, he was the youngest ever chief minister of the state. He has also been twice president of the National Conference. A three-time MP, he has served as Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry as well as Union Minister of State for External Affairs. He is presently a member of the J&K Legislative Assembly. Omar Abdullah belongs to one of India’s most distinguished political families. His grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah, also known as Sher-e-Kashmir, formed the first ever political party in Kashmir which later evolved into the National Conference. Sheikh Abdullah led the state, first as prime minister from 1948 to 1953, and later as chief minister for two terms. Omar’s father, Dr Farooq Abdullah, was a three-time chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. Omar Abdullah divides his time between Srinagar and New Delhi. His interests include reading, travelling, swimming and skiing. My Kashmir is his first book

autumn/winter

apropos A Short Biography of Pondicherry aditi sriram Pondicherry is a South Indian coastal town and former French colony that joined India nearly ten years after British India became independent. While figuring out its multilingual identity, it transformed into a spiritual centre, a hub for alternative education, a quasi-extension of the large state of Tamil Nadu bordering it, an ecological and environmental bastionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and, thanks to a liberal liquor license, a party town. Residents shared their stories with the author in Tamil, English and French. There is the butcher who spent fourteen years in jail; a twenty-one-year-old waiting to join her boyfriend in New York; a Tibetan woman raised in Delhi who runs a popular Latin American dance studio; an English literature professor who is compiling a multi-volume encyclopaedia about his city. All of them converge on the beach promenade in the evenings, an incidental procession of sunsetwatching, breeze-seeking pedestrians. This city-wide ritual tells its own story of how people come together: the contrast of colours, languages, religions, and family legacies.

Excerpt Bharathi Park is a museum of stories, and its curators span historians who have lived in Pondicherry for nearly fifty years, to young lovers seeking tree-trunked privacy, to uniform-wearing school children scaling the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artificial mountains. Pieces of the sixteenth century Gingee Fort pillars dot the park, extracted and installed by the French; today they are anachronistic, totem pole-like adornments found in between curls of trees. Equally figurine-like are the pink-jacketed Swachh Bharat women hunched over the soil, brought in by the new government to compost the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s waste. Outside the park, streets emanate like spokes and meet the rest of the street grid at odd angles, creating cosy boundaries for a badminton or cricket match on a sleepy, car-less Sunday morning. Inside, Heehs and his crepuscular colleagues make rotations and sharp turns to draw geometric patterns along the walking paths. These converge at a curious monument in the centre of the park: tall, white, and pillared. Its pillars and 80

the book of aleph

triangular roof make it European, and the tall fleur-de-lys sculpture positioned on the dome above the roof mark it as French, and proudly so. A local will tell you that this is the Aayi Mandapam; a well-informed local will inform you that it is also the symbol of the Union Territory of Pondicherry. But not everyone can tell you who, or what, Aayi is. Or why it inspires Greco-Roman-like architecture that bears a Tamil name—mandapam, meaning hall, or stage. The mystery of Aayi is a five-hundred-year old story that starts with a Tamil king and ends with a French emperor. Included in the cast are an agriculturalist with 'a physiological peculiarity—a thick growth of hair on his soles', a 'femme de joie', or harlot, and a nineteenth century Chief Engineer of Paris.

K Aditi Sriram teaches writing at Ashoka University. She completed her Master’s in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City in 2013. Although she did not grow up in Pondicherry, her father and his seven siblings did; her grandparents still own a house there; and her great-grandparents received Nehru in their home in 1955 when Pondicherry transitioned from a French colony to an Indian town. This is her first book.

the gujaratis salil tripathi

A Portrait of a Community

Traders and trade unionists, feminists and stockbrokers, tycoons and politicians, scientists and shopkeepers: scattered around the world, seventy million Gujaratis call the state with India’s largest coastline their home. Currency notes of both India and Pakistan carry portraits of Gujaratis—Mohandas Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Hospitable yet calculating, mercantile and pragmatic, outwardly pious and yet tolerating violence, practical and transactional, cheerful and money-minded, Gujaratis live with contradictions and look for opportunities to benefit. But all Gujaratis aren’t wealthy vegetarians. Pastoral nomads in Kachchh, Bohra traders in Mumbai, shipbreakers in Alang, nakhudas on the Saurashtra coast, and Parsi lawyers in courts add to the richness of the vibrant community. Gujaratis have travelled to the farthest corners of the planet to seek their fortune. Outside India, Gujaratis run motels in Middle America and trade diamonds in Antwerp; they have fought apartheid in South Africa, fought against imperialism in Tanzania, and arrived penniless in Leicester when expelled from Kampala; run malls in Nairobi and souks in Dubai; they have sold opium to China and sell rice in Bangkok; they formed trade unions in London and financed Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army in Singapore. In his unparalleled portrait of the community, Salil Tripathi shows how they eat, build, earn, learn, blend, protect, love, and kill.

K Salil Tripathi is an award-winning journalist who has written for publications around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review, New Statesman, India Today, Caravan and Mint and others. His previous books include The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and its Unquiet Legacy and Detours: Songs of the Open Road. He is the chair of the writers-in-prison committee of PEN International and lives in London. 82

the book of aleph

autumn/winter

district zero ajay shankar

Tales from India’s Poorest Districts

Over the course of an entire year, ten reporters from the Indian Express set out on a daunting assignment: to map the story of poverty and progress in India’s poorest district, Nabarangpur, a 5,000-sq-km speck on the map of Odisha, with a population of twelve lakh, nearly 56 per cent of whom were tribals. They came back with reports of villages without electricity, health centres without doctors, students without colleges, farmers without money, businesses without a railway line, and a crumbling cinema hall without an audience. This book will continue from where they left off. It will tell the story of Nabarangpur through its people—extraordinary men and women and children who lead ordinary lives; of their hopes and fears caught in the crosswinds of poverty and progress; and their courage and compassion in the face of extreme adversity. District Zero tells haunting yet uplifting stories from a forgotten corner of India.

Excerpt The sun begins to sink and the mood drops. Four children perched on a low wall start reading their textbooks quickly, they have to finish soon. Sitting next to them, Bhimsen Santa, a twenty-year-old ‘10th fail’ farmer, is worried. ‘It’s been sixteen days since it rained. We are in trouble,’ he says. Santa is part of a group of villagers that cultivates maize on land set picturesquely against the backdrop of rolling green hills. The edge of the farm land is about 100 metres away from a rock-studded stream below. But without electricity for a tubewell, it’s 100 metres too far. As night falls, the first oil lamp comes on at one end of this horseshoe-shaped hamlet. At the other end, a solar lamp glows in the home of Juleme Majhi. The light went out of forty-five-year-old Juleme’s life three years ago with the death of her husband, who left her with two girls and a boy. ‘One night, he started shivering badly. It was raining and with no light, no road, no vehicle, we couldn’t do anything. The nearest Primary Health Centre is 5 kilometres away,’ says Juleme’s neighbour, Dani Killo, a tall, wiry teenager. The village turns in for the night. ‘We are lucky, the weather is much cooler 84

the book of aleph

now. If it was between April to June, you would have run away by now,’ says Reli Pengi, cradling his thirteen-month-old son Ishak in his arms. Pengi’s friend, Mangaraj Tadingi, chips with a one-liner that has everyone in splits. ‘Watch out for the free injections,’ he says, and after a pause, adds, ‘from our mosquitoes.’ The last light goes out. The three dogs, a cat, a brood of hens and the snorting herd of cows grow quiet. And Ishak starts to cry.

K Ajay Shankar is Deputy Editor of the Indian Express and lead editor for the newspaper’s special assignments. These include District Zero, an ongoing project tracking poverty and progress in India’s poorest district. Formerly National Sports Editor, Shankar was part of the newspaper’s team of editors and reporters that worked on the Panama Papers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning global investigative project jointly pursued by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Suddeutsche Zeitung and over 100 media organizations, including the Indian Express.

autumn/winter

king of kings The Remarkable Story of Raja Raja Chola kamini dandapani Over a thousand years ago, a man named Rajakesari Arulmozhivarman became the emperor of a kingdom in the far south of India. Over the course of his reign, he fortified and expanded what had been a collection of local villages and districts, and the spoils of bitterly fought battles, and created one of the greatest empires the subcontinent has ever seen—the Chola empire. His dominion was a powerhouse of military, economic, administrative, artistic and religious accomplishment. He earned multiple grandiose monikers: King of Jewels, Incomparable Chola, Great Saviour, Jewel of the Solar Dynasty, Lion Among Kings—and the one by which he is known to this day—Raja Raja, King of Kings. King of Kings journeys deep into the past, to explore the life of this extraordinary king under whose patronage Tamil Sangam literature, art and architecture flourished, the empire's military and naval capabilities reached their zenith, and the territories of the Chola empire expanded beyond South India to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

K Kamini Dandapani was born and raised in (once) sleepy Madras. She now lives in the city that never sleeps, New York. Forever in search of what she was meant to be and do in life, she has worked her way through a dizzyingly varied range of occupations. She has dabbled in hotel management and translating and interpreting for Italian leather manufacturers. She has babysat fractious infants and taught piano and Bharatanatyam. A long stint in the corporate world, that included Chase Manhattan Bank and McKinsey & Co., was followed by a complete change in direction back to her true love, music. She now teaches and performs Carnatic music in New York. When she has the time and inclination, she writes, mainly on topics that are directly or tangentially related to South India on her blog, Tales of South India.

the book of aleph

an inglish made in india kalpana mohan Indian English—lingua franca, colonial bequest, language of the elite and the aspirational. In An Inglish Made in India Kalpana Mohan delves into all these aspects of the distinctive form of the English language that is found in India, from its earliest influences on Indian languages (and vice versa) to its evolution post Indian independence. The book is an entertaining narrative about the myriad Indianisms that abound, the importance of Indian English in a world of many Englishes, the effect of the IT boom on the English language and the changing attitude of a new India towards the language bequeathed to it by the Raj.

Excerpt

hours.’ The imposition was severe by most standards. But the principal of an upscale boarding school in the hills of India had to make every child squirm. Hence, 2,000 times in all, the child had had to write the following most unforgettable line of her elementary years: ‘I will speak only in English in school.’

K Kalpana Mohan’s pieces in India Currents magazine have won her the New America Media prize and the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club prize. Her new monthly column for India Currents magazine, Desi Lens, looks at how Indians have changed in America and how they have changed America. Her first book, Daddykins, a memoir about the last two years with her ailing father, will be published by Bloomsbury India.

In the valley dwarfed by the Dhauladhar range, in a beautiful court where green and orange flags flapped in the breeze in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, the shouts of a dozen boys rose up above the game of volleyball they were playing. I watched the boys from a balcony at the home of the principal of Dalhousie Hilltop School. They talked as they played. They chatted in a language that they had grown up with. It was their mother tongue, the language of soul mates. It was the tongue spoken by friends when they were most at home, when they were spiking balls on the volleyball count. It was not English. Here I heard the real India speak in a moment of frenzy and focus. ‘Game shuru karo. Chalo. Run!’ (Begin the game. Let’s go. Run!) If the principal, Poonam Dhawan, were watching them, they’d be in trouble. But this was after school hours when most people, the principal included, let their guard down. When the boys paused in their game, for those one or two breathless seconds, the only thing I heard at almost 8,000 feet above sea level was the sound of silence and the thick murmur of the creatures of the forest. Dhawan, who had left a cushy life in Austin, Texas, fought small fires almost every hour sure as the bell in her school rang every 40 minutes. Sometimes, as on one of the days I was in school with Dhawan, a child walked up to her with a book first thing in the morning. ‘Imposition,’ Dhawan said, with a laugh, ‘for speaking in Hindi during school 88

the book of aleph

autumn/winter

The literary novel of the year

‘By far the best non-fiction book from India I have read this year.’ —Hindustan Times

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

‘The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told is an extraordinary collection, translated by a master.’—Scroll.in

the book of aleph

The true story of one of the most successful and expensive spies of World War II

highlights 2017

An unsentimental view of aspects of Gandhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legacy that have endured and those that have been cast aside

A cookbook that vividly describes Bengalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diverse culture and landscapes

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

The groundbreaking science on why weight loss is so difficult

A volume that celebrates the diversity of Hinduism

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

Twelve Memorable Stories from India

100

the book of aleph

Celebrating one of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foremost modern painters

highlights 2017

101

102

Eminent scholars explore the complexities of twelve Hindu goddesses

How Indian food has transformed the global foodscape

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

103

104

Zen Buddhist techniques to find meaning in our work

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most renowned living Zen Buddhist master teaches us how to find happiness

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

105

106

Modern versions of Mirabaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s timeless poetry

Ancient poems of love, sex and beauty

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

107

The views of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important thinkers on what nationalism truly is

108

the book of aleph

A collection of recipes that celebrates Lucknow's storied history and culinary traditions

highlights 2017

109

110

A darkly comedic fantasy novel

Ruskin Bondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest novellas

the book of aleph

highlights 2017

111

114

AN ERA OF DARKNESS: THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA SHASHI THAROOR Winner of the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism for Books (Non-fiction), 2016 Shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award (Non-Fiction) 2017 Shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award (Jury Awards: Nonfiction) 2017 Shortlisted for the Publishing Next Printed Book of the Year Award 2017

ASKEW: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF BANGALORE T. J. S. GEORGE Shortlisted for the Best Non-Fiction (English) Prize for the Atta Galatta-Bengaluru Literature Festival Book Prize 2017

THESE CIRCUSES THAT SWEEP THROUGH THE LANDSCAPE: STORIES TEJASWINI APTE-RAHM Shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize (Fiction) 2017 Shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (Fiction) 2017

IN THE JUNGLES OF THE NIGHT: A NOVEL ABOUT JIM CORBETT STEPHEN ALTER Shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017

MAID IN INDIA: STORIES OF OPPORTUNITY AND INEQUALITY INSIDE OUR HOMES TRIPTI LAHIRI Shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2017 Longlisted for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (NonFiction) 2017

TALKING OF JUSTICE: PEOPLEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RIGHTS IN MODERN INDIA LEILA SETH Winner of the Oxford Book Cover Prize 2016

HOW I BECAME A TREE SUMANA ROY Shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize (Non-fiction) 2017 Shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (NonFiction) 2017 Shortlisted for the Book Cover of the Year Publishing Next Awards 2017

THE SUCCESS SUTRA: AN INDIAN APPROACH TO WEALTH DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Finalist for the Crossword Book Award (Popular category: Business and Management) 2016

the book of aleph

prize-winnres and finalists

115

116

BEING THE OTHER: THE MUSLIM IN INDIA SAEED NAQVI Longlisted for the Atta-Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2016

KORMA, KHEER & KISMET: FIVE SEASONS IN OLD DELHI PAMELA TIMMS Winner of Digital Book of the Year Publishing Next Awards 2015

THE BLACK HILL MAMANG DAI Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2017 Finalist for the Crossword Book Award for Fiction 2016

WILD FIRE: THE SPLENDOURS OF INDIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ANIMAL KINGDOM VALMIK THAPAR Winner of Printed Book of the Year Publishing Next Awards 2015

SWIMMER AMONG THE STARS KANISHK THAROOR Finalist for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2016 Longlisted for the Crossword Tata Literature Live! First Book Award 2016 Longlisted for the Atta-Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2016

COLOURS OF THE CAGE: A PRISON MEMOIR ARUN FERREIRA Finalist for the Crossword Book Award for Non-fiction 2015

BECOMING A MOUNTAIN: HIMALAYAN JOURNEYS IN SEARCH OF THE SACRED AND THE SUBLIME STEPHEN ALTER Winner of the 9th Himalayan Club Kekoo Naoroji Book Award 2015

THE PATNA MANUAL OF STYLE SIDDHARTH CHOWDHURY Finalist for the Hindu Literary Prize 2015

the book of aleph

prize-winnres and finalists

117

118

FILOMENAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S JOURNEYS: A PORTRAIT OF A MARRIAGE, A FAMILY AND A CULTURE MARIA AURORA COUTO Finalist for the Crossword Book Award for Non-fiction 2015

CHRONICLE OF A CORPSE BEARER CYRUS MISTRY Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2014 Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2015

A CLUTCH OF INDIAN MASTERPIECES: EXTRAORDINARY SHORT STORIES FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT EDITED BY DAVID DAVIDAR Winner of Printed Book of the Year Publishing Next Awards 2015

ARCTIC SUMMER DAMON GALGUT Winner of the Tata Literature Live! Best Book Award for Fiction 2014

CITY OF SPIES SORAYYA KHAN Winner of the Best International Fiction Book, Sharjah International Book Fair 2015

SHADOW PLAY SHASHI DESHPANDE Finalist for the Hindu Literary Prize 2014

THE MYSTERIOUS AILMENT OF RUPI BASKEY HANSDA SOWVENDRA SHEKHAR Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for Best Novel in English 2015 Finalist for the Hindu Literary Prize 2014

BUSINESS SUTRA: A VERY INDIAN APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Winner of the DMA-NTPC Book Award 2013

the book of aleph

prize-winnres and finalists

119

The King’s Harvest © S.T. Gyatso

The King’s Harvest

Chetan Raj Shrestha was born in 1978 in Gangtok, Sikkim. He is a trained architect, specializing in conservation architecture. He has lived in Darjeeling, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Sydney, and is currently working in a collaborative architectural practice in Gangtok.

Cover illustration by Kalyani Ganapathy Cover design by Bena Sareen

THE KING’S HARVEST CHETAN RAJ SHRESTHA Winner of the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award 2012 Finalist for the Commonwealth Book Prize 2013

Just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, in a village above the Rangeet river in Sikkim, a woman called Kamala hacks

chetan raj shrestha

her husband, Police Constable Puran,

nearby police station and turns herself

two novellas

into forty-seven pieces, then walks to the in. At first, the murder seems an openand-shut case to Dechen, the tough,

foul-mouthed, prickly lady cop in charge

of the investigation. But as she begins to

delve into the lives of Kamala and Puran, she discovers a world of lies, deceit and

love gone wrong, where the past, including her own, constantly shadows the present, nothing is as it seems, and the guilt of murderers is difficult to establish.

~ On a day of endless rain, a man emerges from thirty-two years of isolation to meet his king, whom he owes a share of the

fiction

ALEPH BOOK COMPANY

chetan raj shrestha

`350

www.alephbookcompany.com

BUTTERFLIES ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD PETER SMETACEK Finalist for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award 2013

harvest from his fields. Journeying across leech-infested forests and forbidding valleys, he tells his children the story of his life—one that has been full of drama and magic. But the biggest miracle of all awaits him in Gangtok, where he will speak to the absent king.

~ These two novellas, united by their strong sense of place, showcase Chetan Raj Shrestha’s enormous gifts as a storyteller. Magical, gritty, nerve-wracking and stylish in equal measure, this is an exceptional debut.

An independent publishing firm promoted by Rupa Publications India

120

THE WILDINGS NILANJANA ROY Winner of the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2013 Finalist for the Commonwealth Book Prize 2013

BETWEEN CLAY AND DUST MUSHARRAF ALI FAROOQI Finalist for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012

THE COMPETENT AUTHORITY SHOVON CHOWDHURY Finalist for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award 2013 Finalist for the Hindu Literary Prize 2014 Finalist for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2014 Finalist for the Crossword Book Award for Fiction 2015

PICTURING TIME: THE GREATEST PHOTOGRAPHS OF RAGHU RAI RAGHU RAI Runner-up for Printed Book of the Year Publishing Next Awards 2016

EM AND THE BIG HOOM JERRY PINTO Winner of the Hindu Literary Prize 2012 Winner of the Crossword Book Award for Fiction 2013 Finalist for the Commonwealth Book Prize 2013 Winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction 2016 Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2016

A PLEASANT KIND OF HEAVY: STORIES AMRITA NARAYANAN

the book of aleph

Shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize (Fiction) 2016

prize-winnres and finalists

121

winter 2018

( january - february )

DO WE NOT BLEED?: REFLECTIONS OF A 21ST CENTURY PAKISTANI MEHR TARAR Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: February Territory: World

WHY I AM A HINDU SHASHI THAROOR Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 699 Publication date: January Territory: Indian subcontinent

STRANGERS NO MORE: NEW NARRATIVES FROM INDIA’S NORTHEAST SANJOY HAZARIKA Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 899 Publication date: January Territory: World

RACE COURSE ROAD: A NOVEL SEEMA GOSWAMI Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: February Territory: Indian subcontinent

LOVE AND THE TURNING SEASONS: INDIA’S POETRY OF SPIRITUAL AND EROTIC LONGING ANDREW SCHELLING Format: B Format PB Price: Rs 399 Publication date: January Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE BAPTISM OF TONY CALANGUTE SUDEEP CHAKRAVARTI Format: B PB Price: Rs 299 Publication date: February Territory: World

spring 2018

122

INDIAN CULTURES AS HERITAGE: CONTEMPORARY PASTS ROMILA THAPAR Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: February Territory: World

the book of aleph

( march - april )

THE SHORT LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF QANDEEL BALOCH SANAM MAHER Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: March Territory: Indian subcontinent

index

123

COMING OUT AS DALIT: A MEMOIR YASHICA DUTT Format: B or Demy HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: March Territory: Indian subcontinent

AYODHYA: CITY OF FAITH, CITY OF DISCORD VALAY SINGH Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 699 Publication date: April Territory: World

summer 2018

124

( may - june )

PILGRIM NATION: JOURNEYS OF THE SPIRIT DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Format: B HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: April Territory: Indian subcontinent

RESHAPING ART T. M. KRISHNA Format: A Format HB Price: Rs 399 Publication date: May Territory: World

THE ART OF SEDUCTION SEEMA ANAND Format: B Format PB Price: Rs Publication date: April Territory: Indian subcontinent

SUPERHUMAN RIVER: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE

KASHMIR: THE BIOGRAPHY RADHA KUMAR Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 699 Publication date: April Territory: World

the book of aleph

GANGA BIDISHA BANERJEE Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: May Territory: Indian subcontinent

DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN: EMPRESSES, QUEENS AND BEGUMS OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE IRA MUKHOTY Format: Demy Price: Rs 499 Publication date: May Territory: World

index

125

MISSING: A NOVEL SUMANA ROY Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: May Territory: World

THE END OF LIBERALISM RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE Format: A HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: July Territory: World

JUGAAD YATRA: EXPLORING THE INDIAN ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING DEAN NELSON Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: June Territory: Indian subcontinent

WHY INDIA NEEDS A FREE PRESS N. RAM Format: A HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: July Territory: World

GETTING TO KNOW HINDUISM: RELIGION, TRADITIONS, CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY MARK W. MUESSE Format: B PB Price: Rs 299 Publication date: June Territory: Indian subcontinent

LIFE LESSONS FROM MAHAVIRA LIFE LESSONS FROM ADI SANKARA NANDITHA KRISHNA Format: A PB Price: Rs 299 Publication date: August Territory: World

LIFE LESSONS FROM MOINUDDIN CHISHTI BABLI PARVEEN Format: A PB Price: Rs 299 Publication date: August Territory: World

monsoon 2018

126

( july - september )

THE TOWN THAT LAUGHED: A NOVEL MANU BHATTATHIRI Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: July Territory: World

the book of aleph

index

127

128

ANIMAL STORIES SYED MUHAMMAD ASHRAF Translated by M. Asaduddin Format: B HB Price: Rs 5499 Publication date: August Territory: World

THE MALAYALIS: A PORTRAIT OF A COMMUNITY PAUL ZACHARIA Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: September Territory: World

69 OUTCASTE MATAMPU KUNJUKUTTAN Translated from the Malayalam by Vasanthi Shankaranarayanan Format: B PB Price: Rs 299 Publication date: September Territory: World autumn / winter 2018

( october - december )

ONLY IN INDIA SAYONI BASU AND PRIYA KURIYAN Format: Demy Price: Rs 699 Publication date: October Territory: World

ELECTRIFYING BENGALI PULP FICTION Translated & Selected by Arunava Sinha Format: B PB Price: Rs 399 Publication date: September Territory: World

MANGALYAAN SANDHYA RAMESH Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: October Territory: World

CHARMERS AND BETRAYERS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF INDIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES YATISH YADAV Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 699 Publication date: September Territory: World

THE BLUE LOTUS: MYTHS AND FOLKTALES OF INDIA MEENA NAYAK Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 799 Publication date: October Territory: World

the book of aleph

index

129

NOT JUST ANOTHER STORY JHIMLI MUKHERJEE PANDEY Format: B PB Price: Rs 399 Publication date: October Territory: World

DISTRICT ZERO: TALES FROM INDIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S POOREST DISTRICTS AJAY SHANKAR Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: November Territory: World

MY KASHMIR OMAR ABDULLAH Format: A HB Price: Rs 499 Publication date: November Territory: World

KING OF KINGS: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF RAJA RAJA CHOLA KAMINI DANDAPANI Format: HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: December Territory: World

APROPOS: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF PONDICHERRY ADITI SRIRAM Format: A HB Price: Rs 399 Publication date: December Territory: World

AN INGLISH MADE IN INDIA

130

KALPANA MOHAN Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 599 Publication date: December Territory: World

THE GUJARATIS: A PORTRAIT OF A COMMUNITY SALIL TRIPATHI Format: Demy HB Price: Rs 799 Publication date: November Territory: Indian subcontinent

the book of aleph

index

131

THIS UNQUIET LAND: DISPATCHES FROM INDIA’S FAULT LINES BARKHA DUTT Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-16-3; Territory: Indian subcontinent

NON-FICTION

GREY HORNBILLS AT DUSK BULBUL SHARMA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-65-1; Territory: World

THE BENGALIS: A PORTRAIT OF A COMMUNITY SUDEEP CHAKRAVARTI Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 799; ISBN: 978-93-86021-04-5; Territory: World THE INDIAN SPY: THE TRUE STORY OF THE MOST REMARKABLE SECRET AGENT OF WORLD WAR II MIHIR BOSE Format: Royal PB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-86021-58-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent

BENGALI COOKING: SEASONS AND FESTIVALS CHITRITA BANERJI Format: B format PB; Price: 299; ISBN: 978-93-86021-59-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent BUSINESS SUTRA: A VERY INDIAN APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-54-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent

WHY GANDHI STILL MATTERS: AN APPRAISAL OF THE MAHATMA'S LEGACY RAJMOHAN GANDHI Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-86021-15-1; Territory: World

THE SUCCESS SUTRA: AN INDIAN APPROACH TO WEALTH DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-41-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent

MANU PAREKH: 60 YEARS OF SELECTED WORKS Format: Large format picture book; Price: Rs 2,999; ISBN:978-93-84067-23-6; Territory: World

THE LEADERSHIP SUTRA: AN INDIAN APPROACH TO POWER DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-46-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent

INDIAN NATIONALISM: THE ESSENTIAL WRITINGS EDITED BY S. IRFAN HABIB Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN:978-93-86021-05-2; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE TALENT SUTRA: AN INDIAN APPROACH TO LEARNING DEVDUTT PATTANAIK Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-83064-27-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE LUCKNOW COOKBOOK CHAND SUR & SUNITA KOHLI Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN:978-93-86021-60-1; Territory: World MAPS FOR A MORTAL MOON: ESSAYS AND ENTERTAINMENTS ADIL JUSSAWALLA Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-67-5; Territory: World THE BULLET AND THE BALLOT BOX: THE STORY OF NEPAL’S MAOIST REVOLUTION ADITYA ADHIKARI Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-83064-76-2; Territory: Indian subcontinent UNBOUND: 2,000 YEARS OF INDIAN WOMEN’S WRITING EDITED BY ANNIE ZAIDI Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-83064-16-8; Territory: World

JUNGLE FOLK DOUGLAS DEWAR Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-84067-39-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE CRISIS WITHIN: ON KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION IN INDIA G. N. DEVY Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-83064-10-6; Territory: World ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY: WHY INDIA SHOULD SAY NO TO CAPITAL PUNISHMENT GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-82277-78-1; Territory: World GRAND DELUSIONS: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF KOLKATA INDRAJIT HAZRA Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-28-6; Territory: World

COLOURS OF THE CAGE: A PRISON MEMOIR ARUN FERREIRA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-70-5; Territory: World

132

the book of aleph

backlist

133

HEROINES: POWERFUL INDIAN WOMEN OF MYTH AND HISTORY IRA MUKHOTY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-49-6; Territory: World

ME, THE JOKERMAN: ENTHUSIASMS, RANTS & OBSESSIONS KHUSHWANT SINGH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-51-9; Territory: World

INDIA IN LOVE: MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY IRA TRIVEDI Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-82277-62-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent

EXTRAORDINARY INDIANS: A BOOK OF PROFILES KHUSHWANT SINGH Format: Demy HB; Price: 499; ISBN: 978-93-83064-73-1; Territory: World

THE SMALL WILD GOOSE PAGODA IRWIN ALLAN SEALY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-83064-48-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent

CURRIED CULTURES: INDIAN FOOD IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

THREE-QUARTERS OF A FOOTPRINT: TRAVELS IN SOUTH INDIA JOE ROBERTS Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-84067-52-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent

KRISHNENDU RAY & TULASI SRINIVAS Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-32-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent TALKING OF JUSTICE: PEOPLE’S RIGHTS IN MODERN INDIA LEILA SETH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-82277-96-5; Territory: World

THE LIFE OF HINDUISM EDITED BY JOHN STRATTON HAWLEY & VASUDHA NARAYANAN Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 799; ISBN: 978-93-86021-08-3;Territory: Indian subcontinent

OF BIRDS AND BIRDSONG M. KRISHNAN Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-82277-64-4; Territory: World

DEVI: THE GODDESSES OF INDIA JOHN STRATTON HAWLEY & DONNA MARIE WULFF Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-82277-45-3; Territory: Indian subcontinent

BIRDS IN MY INDIAN GARDEN MALCOLM MACDONALD Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-40-3; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE FIRST FIRANGIS: REMARKABLE STORIES OF HEROES, HEALERS, CHARLATANS, COURTESANS, & OTHER FOREIGNERS WHO BECAME INDIAN JONATHAN GIL HARRIS Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-63-7; Territory: World THE FREETHINKER’S PRAYER BOOK KHUSHWANT SINGH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495;ISBN: 978-81-923280-4-1; Territory: World 99: UNFORGETTABLE FICTION, NON-FICTION, POETRY & HUMOUR KHUSHWANT SINGH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 699; ISBN: 978-93-83064-75-5; Territory: World PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER AND OTHER UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS KHUSHWANT SINGH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-76-7; Territory: World

PERPETUAL CITY: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF DELHI MALVIKA SINGH Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-24-8; Territory: World FORGET KATHMANDU: AN ELEGY FOR DEMOCRACY MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 325; ISBN: 978-93-82277-00-2; Territory: Indian subcontinent A BOY FROM SIKLIS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHANDRA GURUNG MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 250; ISBN: 978-93-82277-50-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE LIVES WE HAVE LOST: ESSAYS AND OPINIONS ON NEPAL MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-52-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent FILOMENA’S JOURNEYS: A PORTRAIT OF A MARRIAGE, A FAMILY & A CULTURE MARIA AURORA COUTO Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-04-0; Territory: World

134

the book of aleph

backlist

135

SUBCONTINENTAL DRIFT: FOUR DECADES ADRIFT IN INDIA AND BEYOND MURRAY

DRAGON ON OUR DOORSTEP: MANAGING CHINA THROUGH MILITARY POWER

LAURENCE Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-83064-25-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent

PRAVIN SAWHNEY & GHAZALA WAHAB Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 799; ISBN: 978-93-82277-26-2; Territory: World

WHY SCAMS ARE HERE TO STAY: UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN INDIA

UNLADYLIKE: A MEMOIR RADHIKA VAZ Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-83064-17-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent

N. RAM Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-31-1; Territory: World CITY ADRIFT: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF BOMBAY NARESH FERNANDES Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-20-0; Territory: World DEGREE COFFEE BY THE YARD: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF MADRAS NIRMALA LAKSHMAN Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-15-6; Territory: World KORMA, KHEER & KISMET: FIVE SEASONS IN OLD DELHI PAMELA TIMMS Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-82277-14-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent

PICTURING TIME: THE GREATEST PHOTOGRAPHS OF RAGHU RAI RAGHU RAI Format: Oversized Royal; Price: Rs 795; ISBN: 978-93-84067-18-2; Territory: World PEOPLE: HIS FINEST PORTRAITS RAGHU RAI Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 999; ISBN: 978-93-83064-13-7; Territory: World SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA: A CELEBRATION OF HER LIFE AND LEGACY RAGHU RAI Format: 8 x 9 Hardback; Price: 1,499; ISBN: 978-93-82277-61-3; Territory: World PUNJAB: A HISTORY FROM AURANGZEB TO MOUNTBATTEN RAJMOHAN GANDHI Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-83064-08-3; Territory: World

THE KINGDOM AT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD: JOURNEYS INTO BHUTAN OMAIR AHMAD Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-01-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent CHANAKYA’S NEW MANIFESTO PAVAN K. VARMA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-09-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent BUTTERFLIES ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD PETER SMETACEK Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-05-7; Territory: World

PRINCE OF GUJARAT: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF PRINCE GOPALDAS DESAI (1887–1951) RAJMOHAN GANDHI Format: Royal HB; Price: Rs 500; ISBN: 978-93-83064-06-9; Territory: World UNDERSTANDING THE FOUNDING FATHERS: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE INDIAN REPUBLIC’S BEGINNINGS RAJMOHAN GANDHI Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-83064-24-3; Territory: World THE DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION: WHY WE NEED TO RETURN TO GANDHI AND

ASIA REBORN: A CONTINENT RISES FROM THE RAVAGES OF COLONIALISM & WAR TO A NEW DYNAMISM PRASENJIT K. BASU Format: Royal HB; Price: Rs 1,999; ISBN: 978-93-84067-19-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent

TAGORE RAMIN JAHANBEGLOO Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-26-7; Territory: World THE PAST AS PRESENT: FORGING CONTEMPORARY IDENTITIES THROUGH HISTORY

BATTLES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC: A CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF NEPAL PRASHANT JHA Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-82277-99-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent

136

the book of aleph

ROMILA THAPAR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-83064-01-4; Territory: World

backlist

137

THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL INDIA IN INDIA ROMILA THAPAR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-38-0; Territory: World ON NATIONALISM ROMILA THAPAR, A. G. NOORANI & SADANAND MENON Format: A format HB; Price: 399; ISBN: 978-93-83064-11-3; Territory: World THE BOOK OF INDIAN DOGS S. THEODORE BASKARAN Format: B format HB; Price: 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-57-1; Territory: World BEING THE OTHER: THE MUSLIM IN INDIA SAEED NAQVI Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-84067-22-9; Territory: World

SUBHAS AND SARAT: AN INTIMATE MEMOIR OF THE BOSE BROTHERS SISIR KUMAR BOSE Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-83064-14-4; Territory: World AFTER TENDULKAR: THE NEW STARS OF INDIAN CRICKET SOUMYA BHATTACHARYA Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-83064-72-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent BECOMING A MOUNTAIN: HIMALAYAN JOURNEYS IN SEARCH OF THE SACRED AND THE SUBLIME STEPHEN ALTER Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-83064-04-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE MYSTICAL WORLD OF KAHLIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET: A RELAXING COLOURING

THE COLONEL WHO WOULD NOT REPENT: THE BANGLADESH WAR AND ITS UNQUIET LEGACY SALIL TRIPATHI Format: Royal HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-82277-18-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent A TIME OF MADNESS: A MEMOIR OF PARTITION SALMAN RASHID Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-36-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent 1991: HOW P. V. NARASIMHA RAO MADE HISTORY SANJAYA BARU Format: Demy HB; Price: 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-68-7; Territory: World

BOOK FOR ADULTS SUJAYA BATRA Format: A4 PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-58-8; Territory: World HOW I BECAME A TREE: A MEMOIR SUMANA ROY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-82277-44-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent SPELL OF THE TIGER: THE MAN-EATING TIGERS OF SUNDARBANS SY MONTGOMERY Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-82277-41-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE SECRET LIFE OF FAT: THE GROUNDBREAKING SCIENCE ON WHY WEIGHT LOSS IS

ACCIDENTAL INDIA: A HISTORY OF THE NATION’S PASSAGE THROUGH CRISIS AND CHANGE SHANKKAR AIYAR Format: Kindle; Price: Rs 297; ISBN: 978-93-82277-88-0 ; Territory: Indian subcontinent AN ERA OF DARKNESS: THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA SHASHI THAROOR Format: Demy HB; Price: 699; ISBN: 978-93-83064-65-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent INDIA SHASTRA: REFLECTIONS ON THE NATION IN OUR TIME SHASHI THAROOR Format: Royal HB; Price: Rs 695; ISBN: 978-93-84067-28-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent 1962: THE WAR THAT WASN’T SHIV KUNAL VERMA Format: Royal HB; Price: Rs 995; ISBN: 978-93-82277-97-2; Territory: World

138

the book of aleph

SO DIFFICULT SYLVIA TARA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-45-8; Territory: ASKEW: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF BANGALORE T. J. S. GEORGE Format: A format HB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-21-2; Territory: World M. S. SUBBULAKSHMI: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY T. J. S. GEORGE Format: Demy PB; Price: 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-60-1; Territory: World THE DASHING LADIES OF SHIV SENA: POLITICAL MATRONAGE IN URBANIZING INDIA TARINI BEDI Format: Demy HB; Price: 699; ISBN: 978-93-83064-22-9; Territory: World

backlist

139

WORK: HOW TO FIND JOY AND MEANING IN EACH HOUR OF THE DAY THICH NHAT HANH Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-69-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

ON HINDUISM WENDY DONIGER Format: Royal HB; Price: Rs 995; ISBN: 978-93-82277-0-71; Territory: World

FICTION NO MUD, NO LOTUS: THE ART OF TRANSFORMING THICH NHAT HANH Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-48-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent MAID IN INDIA: STORIES OF OPPORTUNITY AND INEQUALITY INSIDE OUR HOMES TRIPTI LAHIRI Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-84067-33-5; Territory: World

THE GREATEST URDU SHORT STORIES EVER TOLD SELECTED & TRANSLATED BY MUHAMMAD UMAR MEMON Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 699; ISBN: 978-93-83064-07-6; Territory: World

EXOTIC ALIENS: THE LION AND THE CHEETAH IN INDIA VALMIK THAPAR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-82277-55-2; Territory: World

MIRABAI: ECSTATIC POEMS VERSIONS BY ROBERT BLY & JANE HIRSHFIELD Format: B PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-86021-85-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

TIGER FIRE: 500 YEARS OF THE TIGER IN INDIA VALMIK THAPAR Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-24-3; Territory: World

THE CANE GROVES OF NARMADA RIVER EDITED BY ANDREW SCHELLING Format: B PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-86021-92-2; Territory: Indian subcontinent

WILD FIRE: THE SPLENDOURS OF INDIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ANIMAL KINGDOM VALMIK THAPAR Format: Oversized royal HB; Price: Rs 2, 995; ISBN: 978-93-83064-68-7; Territory: World

DJINN CITY SAAD Z. HOSSAIN Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-86021-13-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent excluding Bangladesh

WINGED FIRE: A CELEBRATION OF INDIAN BIRDS VALMIK THAPAR Format: Oversized royal HB; Price: Rs 2, 995; ISBN: 978-93-83064-69-4; Territory: World

UNHURRIED TALES: MY FAVOURITE NOVELLA RUSKIN BOND Format: B HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN:978-93-86021-88-5; Territory: World

SAVING WILD INDIA: A BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE VALMIK THAPAR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-84067-37-3; Territory: World

THE LOVERS: A NOVEL AMITAVA KUMAR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-86021-00-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent

LIVING WITH TIGERS VALMIK THAPAR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-84067-50-2; Territory: World

A PLEASANT KIND OF HEAVY AND OTHER EROTIC STORIES AMRITA NARAYANAN Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-10-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent

MAGIC FOR THE SOUL: AN ADULT COLOURING BOOK OF POSTCARDS FEATURING

THE PARROTS OF DESIRE: 3,000 YEARS OF INDIAN EROTICA AMRITA NARAYANAN Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-83064-09-0; Territory: World

GOND ART VENKAT RAMAN SINGH SHYAM Format: Postcard; Price: 299; ISBN: 978-93-83064-03-8; Territory: World COURAGE AND CONVICTION: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY GENERAL V. K. SINGH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-82277-57-6; Territory: World

140

THE BOOK OF CHOCOLATE SAINTS JEET THAYIL Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 799; ISBN: 978-93-86021-03-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent

the book of aleph

THE CANE GROVES OF NARMADA RIVER ANDREW SCHELLING Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-86021-92-2; Territory: Indian subcontinent

backlist

141

THE GREATEST BENGALI STORIES EVER TOLD EDITED BY ARUNAVA SINHA Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-82277-74-3; Territory: Indian subcontinent

SHILAPPADIKARAM ILANGO ADIGAL TRANSLATED BY ALAIN DANIÉLOU Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-83064-19-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE KING’S HARVEST CHETAN RAJ SHRESTHA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-83064-05-2; Territory: World

ZELALDINUS: A MASQUE IRWAIN ALLAN SEALY Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-86021-07-6; Territory: World

CHRONICLE OF A CORPSE BEARER CYRUS MISTRY Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-35-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

COLLECTED POEMS JEET THAYIL Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-84067-43-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

PASSION FLOWER: SEVEN STORIES OF DERANGEMENT CYRUS MISTRY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-17-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent

EM AND THE BIG HOOM JERRY PINTO Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-31-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE RADIANCE OF ASHES CYRUS MISTRY Format: B Format PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-83064-74-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent

KALIDASA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY READER KALIDASA EDITED & TRANSLATED BY

ARCTIC SUMMER DAMON GALGUT Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-82277-25-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE HOUSE OF BLUE MANGOES DAVID DAVIDAR Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-94-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE SOLITUDE OF EMPERORS DAVID DAVIDAR Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-95-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent A CLUTCH OF INDIAN MASTERPIECES: EXTRAORDINARY SHORT STORIES FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT EDITED BY DAVID DAVIDAR Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 599; ISBN: 978-93-82277-29-3; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE ADVENTURES OF AMIR HAMZA GHALIB LAKHNAVI & ABDULLAH BILGRAMI TRANSLATED BY MUSHARRAF ALI FAROOQI Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-12-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE MYSTERIOUS AILMENT OF RUPI BASKEY HANSDA SOWVENDRA SHEKHAR Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-32-3; Territory: World

142

the book of aleph

MANI RAO Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-82277-75-0; Territory: World SWIMMER AMONG THE STARS KANISHK THAROOR Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-84067-34-2; Territory: Indian subcontinent A TOWN LIKE OURS KAVERY NAMBISAN Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-83064-00-7; Territory: World THE BLACK HILL MAMANG DAI Format: B Format PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-82277-23-1; Territory: World TILLED EARTH MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 250; ISBN: 978-93-82277-51-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent SEASONS OF FLIGHT MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 250; ISBN: 978-93-82277-49-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE TUTOR OF HISTORY MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-82277-02-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent

backlist

143

ALL OF US IN OUR OWN LIVES MANJUSHREE THAPA Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-82277-11-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent

GOOD HOPE ROAD SARITA MANDANNA Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-84067-20-5; Territory: Indian subcontinent

BETWEEN CLAY AND DUST MUSHARRAF ALI FAROOQI Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-30-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent

SHADOW PLAY SHASHI DESHPANDE Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-19-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE WILDINGS NILANJANA ROY Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-48-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE COMPETENT AUTHORITY SHOVON CHOWDHURY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-60-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE HUNDRED NAMES OF DARKNESS NILANJANA ROY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-77-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent

MURDER WITH BENGALI CHARACTERISTICS SHOVON CHOWDHURY Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-82277-79-8; Territory: Indian subcontinent

TAGORE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY READER RABINDRANATH TAGORE EDITED &

THE PATNA MANUAL OF STYLE: STORIES SIDDHARTH CHOWDHURY Format: B Format HB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-83064-77-9; Territory: Indian subcontinent

TRANSLATED BY ARUNAVA SINHA Format: Demy PB; Price: Rs 595; ISBN: 978-93-82277-27-9; Territory: World TALES OF FOSTERGANJ RUSKIN BOND Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-47-7; Territory: World A GATHERING OF FRIENDS: MY FAVOURITE STORIES RUSKIN BOND Format: B Format HB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-83064-79-3; Territory: World UPON AN OLD WALL DREAMING: MORE OF MY FAVOURITE STORIES AND SKETCHES RUSKIN BOND Format: B Format HB; Price: Rs 395; ISBN: 978-93-84067-47-2; Territory: World SMALL TOWNS, BIG STORIES: NEW AND SELECTED FICTION RUSKIN BOND Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-82277-54-5; Territory: World THE DEMON-HUNTER OF CHOTTANIKKARA: A NOVEL S. V. SUJATHA Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-86021-09-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent ESCAPE FROM BAGHDAD! SAAD Z. HOSSAIN Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-53-3; Territory: Indian subcontinent

144

the book of aleph

CITY OF SPIES SORAYYA KHAN Format: B Format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-83064-78-6; Territory: Indian subcontinent ESCAPE ARTIST SRIDALA SWAMI Format: B Format PB; Price: Rs 195; ISBN: 978-93-82277-98-9; Territory: World IN THE JUNGLES OF THE NIGHT: A NOVEL ABOUT JIM CORBETT STEPHEN ALTER Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 499; ISBN: 978-93-83064-67-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent THESE CIRCUSES THAT SWEEP THROUGH THE LANDSCAPE TEJASWINI APTE-RAHM Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-84067-56-4; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE TALIBAN CRICKET CLUB TIMERI N. MURARI Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-33-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent TAJ: A STORY OF MUGHAL INDIA TIMERI N. MURARI Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-82277-34-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent CHANAKYA RETURNS TIMERI N. MURARI Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 495; ISBN: 978-93-83064-02-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent

THE TIRUKKURAL TIRUVALLUVAR A NEW ENGLISH VERSION BY GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI Format: B format HB; Price: Rs 295; ISBN: 978-93-83064-70-0; Territory: World A SUITABLE BOY VIKRAM SETH Format: Royal PB; Price: Rs 995; ISBN: 978-93-83064-12-0; Territory: Indian subcontinent SUMMER REQUIEM VIKRAM SETH Format: Demy HB; Price: Rs 399; ISBN: 978-93-84067-42-7; Territory: Indian subcontinent THE BHAGAVAD GITA VYASA TRANSLATED BY WINTHROP SARGEANT Format: B format PB; Price: Rs 299; ISBN: 978-93-83064-15-1; Territory: Indian subcontinent

photo credits

Unless otherwise specified all photographs are courtesy of the respective authors. Pages 33, 44: Prashant Sareen Pages 36, 57, 87: Wikimedia Commons Page 38: Pratikmishra011/Wikimedia Commons Page 46: Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons Page 51: orvalrochefort/flickr.com Page 64: Roseann Sebastian Tharakan Page 76: Warwick Goble

146

the book of aleph

ABOUT US Aleph Book Company is an independent publishing company founded in May 2011 by David Davidar in partnership with R. K. Mehra and Kapish Mehra of Rupa Publications India. Aleph publishes approximately forty books a year—mainly in the following subject areas: literary fiction, history, biography, memoir, narrative non-fiction, reportage, travel, current events, music, art, science, politics, nature, religion, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and business. For further information on how to submit your manuscript and where to buy our books please visit our website www.alephbookcompany.com Everything we do owes much to the efforts of the team of professionals who make the firm what it is. The founders and directors of Aleph Book Company would like to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the following colleagues who are instrumental in editing, designing, marketing, distributing and providing administrative support to the books on the company’s list. In alphabetical order they are: A. K. Singh (and his team members and all the Rupa sales managers and executives), Aienla Ozukum, Amit Bhattacharya, Bena Sareen, Dibakar Ghosh, Neeraj Gulati (and his team members, Amar Srivastava, Neha Vats and Rita Satyawali), P. K. Sharma, Pujitha Krishnan, Rajkumari John, Rosemary Sebastian Tharakan, Simar Puneet, S. P. Singh Rawat (and his team), and Vasundhara Raj Baigra (and her team members, Geetu Martolia, Rizwan Khan, Rupsha Ghosh and Shivendra Singh). The Book of Aleph: Volume Seven was designed by Bena Sareen.

147