Sita is one of the defining figures of Indian womanhood, yet there is no single version of her story. Different accounts coexist in myth, literature and folktale. Canonical texts deify Sita while regional variations humanize her. Folk songs and ballads connect her timeless predicament to the daily lives of rural women. Modern-day women continue to see themselves reflected in films, serials and soap operas based on Sita s narrative. Sacrifice, self denial and unquestioning loyalty are some of the ideals associated with popular perceptions of Sita. But the Janaki who symbolized strength, who could lift Shiva s mighty bow, who courageously chose to accompany Rama into exile and who refused to follow him back after a second trial, is often forgotten. However she is remembered, revered or written about, Sita continues to exert a powerful influence on the collective Indian psyche. In Search of Sita presents essays, conversations and commentaries that explore different aspects of her life. It revisits mythology, reopening the debate on her birth, her days in exile, her abduction, the test by fire, the birth of her sons and, finally, her return to the earth offering fresh interpretations of this enigmatic figure and her indelible impact on our everyday lives.

In Search Of Sita

Gokhale, Namita

Religion & Spirituality

India Viking

'At 98, as I look back on my life, I think about what has enriched it, what's been important to me, the mistakes I've made, and what my experiences have taught me...' If there's anyone who's been around, seen it all and lived life to the hilt, it has to be Khushwant Singh. India's most popular and prolific writer has, over the years, enlightened and outraged in equal measure, and enriched our lives with his humour, his honesty and his sharp insights and observations. Khushwantnama is a meditation on a life lived fully and the lessons it has taught the author. Here is his distilled wisdom on subjects as diverse as old age and the fear of death; on the joy of sex, the pleasures of poetry and the importance of laughter; on how to cope with retirement and live a long, happy and healthy life. Here, too, are his reflections on politics, politicians and the future of India; on what it takes to be a writer; and on what religion means to him.

Khushwantnama

Singh, Khushwant

Memoirs: Habib Tanveer

Biographies & Memoirs

Tanvir, Habib

Memoirs

Nobody has done more harm to me . . . than Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939. Had relations between the two great nationalist leaders soured to the extent that Bose had begun to view Nehru as his enemy? But then, why did he name one of the regiments of the Indian National Army after Jawaharlal? And what prompted Nehru to weep when he heard of Bose s untimely death in 1945 and to recount soon after, I used to treat him as my younger brother ? Rudrangshu Mukherjee s fascinating book traces the contours of a friendship that did not quite blossom as political ideologies diverged, and delineates the shadow that fell between them - for, Gandhi saw Nehru as his chosen heir and Bose as a prodigal son.

Nehru And Bose: Parallel Lives

Mukherjee, Rudrangshu

Historical

In 1967, C.N. Annadurai became the chief minister of Madras state, when his party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), swept to power for the first time. In this definitive biography, R. Kannan traces the growth of Annadurai from a young protégé of the radical thinker Periyar E.V. Ramasamy into a revered leader known as Anna or elder brother. 
Kannan draws on Anna's considerable body of writing, and the memoirs of other leaders and authors in Tamil, to candidly examine Anna's complex relationship with Periyar and his disillusionment with the corruption he witnessed when in power. Featuring luminaries like Rajagopalachari and Kamaraj, K. Karunanidhi and MGR, among many others, Anna offers a warm and rounded portrait of a man who showed the way for the democratic expression of regional aspirations within a united India.

Anna: Life And Times Of C.N. Annadurai

Kannan, R.

Arts & Literature

The Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened the divisions within and among countries. Nationalism continues to stir India, with the re-election of Narendra Modi in 2019, and in the US, despite the defeat of Donald Trump in 2020. The pandemic and the unsettling expansionism of China are reasons for heightened bilateral cooperation between the world's oldest and largest democracies, but they are increasingly protectionist and volatile. India and the US are trying hard to figure out their respective roles in the emerging world and their biliteral ties, as fears of a new Cold War, or even a military confrontation loom large. Both democracies are also grappling with contesting visions of their nationhood. Renewed debates over national security, borders, international trade, economic order, immigration, citizenship, state-society relations, the place of minorities, and institutional trust in both countries are noisy and fractious. In India, Narendra Modi's Hindutva Strategic Doctrine is reshaping India and advancing a new framework for its ties with the world; in the US, a significant portion of Trump's 'America First' nationalism has been embraced by his successor Joe Biden, demonstrating the salience of nationalism. Strategic commentaries tend to treat international relations in isolation from domestic politics. In a first, Open Embrace explores the domestic motivations of the strategic policies of India and the US. This new, wholly revised edition accounts for the post-pandemic shift in global politics and ongoing changes in the US politics around the defeat of Trump by Biden.

Open Embrace: India-US Ties in a Divided World

Politics & Social Sciences

George, Varghese K

Politics & Government

Seven Decades of Independent India

Rai, Vinod

Social Sciences

Writer-turned-politician Muthuvel Karunanidhi is amongst the most important political figures India has ever seen. He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for over five decades. Still remembered for his controversial but fruitful career as a regional leader, his contribution to Tamil history and culture has been invaluable. Meticulously researched and deeply engrossing, Karunanidhi: A Life delves into the life and times of this unforgettable man.

Karunanidhi

Panneerselvan, A. S.

Leaders & Notable People

Lone Empress

Vaasanthi, A.

In Central Time, Ranjit Hoskote becomes the storyteller of a turbulent epoch. We meet Ovid and Ghalib, poets in exile or eclipse, in these poems, which are by turns elliptical, conversational and narrative. We meet painters who betray their art, and sculptors who are betrayed by theirs. Fascinated by the enigmas of time, memory and evanescence that art invokes, Hoskote addresses a range of artists including Bihzad, Magritte, Masaki Fujihata and Ranbir Kaleka. At the same time, he retains his affection for the natural world, celebrating the textures and intensities of sensuous experience: the roughness of stone, the dance of light, the flowering of touch and the taste of salt and cinnamon. A testament to a present shimmering like a mirage between contested pasts and vexed futures, this book pivots around moments of encounter: a defiant squirrel in Anuradhapura, an intriguing collection of objects in a Berlin museum or a man discovering a mass grave near Kabul. Written between 2006 and 2014, the hundred poems that form Central Time resonate with the crises of war, genocide, terror, forced migration and the precariousness of belonging.

Central Time

Literature & Fiction

Hoskote, Ranjit

Poetry

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