Uncommon tales of common folks of Uttar Pradesh
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Collecting over a dozen of them, ranging from the macabre to the miraculous, from the unspeakable to the uplifting, and featuring humans at their best and worst (more frequently though) is Bollywood writer and director Tanuja Chandra.
Power and its practitioners: A witty but disturbing look
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Offering a fascinating but sobering look at a gamut of these effects, spanning but not limited to overweening conceit, a prodigious sense of entitlement, contemptuous disregard of contrary opinions or suggestions, and compromises with moral principles and personal relationships is this book by Daniel Levin.
Of the nether world and dark secrets
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Throughout the novel, Attari portrays her heroine to be a fighter, as Alia struggles with a supernatural dose of despair and manages to keep her humanity intact. Despite youth, beauty, wit, money and a tough spirit, the larger than life portrayal of Alia's character longs to lead a normal life.
An Indus Valley city's end and its shadow on the present
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This historical/conspiracy thriller is a major departure for the Karachi-born, financial journalist-turned-author, whose debut, "Beautiful from the Angle" (2010), initially seemed a chick-lit look at high-society Karachi before revealing itself as a masterful blend of politics, terrorism, social repression and media (manipulation), with an explosive finale when Benazir Bhutto returns, but she well holds her own in the genre.
A man born of the soil returns to the soil
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The text was originally written in Odia language, named ‘Matira Manisha' in 1934. The translator, Bikram Das deliberately retained certain Odia words used in daily colloquial diction like, ‘jaa' (sister in-law), ‘bhauja' (wife of one's elder brother) and numerous others, to ensure the essence of the narrative intact within the natural flow of words.
A 'spirited' history of the British empire and its 'high' legacy
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There are also many revealing facts about alcohol -- how its use grew from the calorific benefits it provides, how a beer had the first recognised global trademark, and how a whiskey was the first product to be advertised in cinemas, and so on.
Love in different age
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The author has appropriatley depicted the internal emptiness within the two souls that remain unfulfilled till the end in spite of they being a family.
An ode to life at the turn of the previous century
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It is this attention to detail that makes Zindaginama such a gem, set as it is in a small village of Shahpur and how the Ghadar movement, a planned mutiny against colonial rule, and the First World War changed it all.
India's original and abiding 'He-Man' and his eventful life
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It was a tale that wouldn't seem amiss in Bollywood. A boy is pulled out of school and put to work on his family's farmlands, married off at a young age, gets frustrated at the bickering between wife and mother and leaves home for foreign climes to make his career. In a few short years, he is a celebrity sportsman, and a popular film star.
An Arab Spring version of Aladdin?
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Braswell's version of the Aladdin story is a tribute to the old stories' capability to be timeless and flexible enough to serve as a mirror, by accommodating notable features of the times they are told -- even the Arab Spring.
