India Unbound by Gurcharan Das India Unbound is the riveting story of a nation's rise from poverty to prosperity and the clash of ideas that occurred along the way. Today's India is a vibrant free-market democracy, and it has begun to flex its muscles in the global information economy. The old centralized, bureaucratic state, which stifled industrial growth, is on the decline; the lower castes have risen confidently through the ballot box; and the middle class has tripled in the last two decades. This economic and social transformation is one of the major themes of this book.
Acclaimed writer Gurcharan Das offers a ringside view of the economic and social transformation of our nation. India Unbound remains the perfect introduction to contemporary India.
Making The Minister Smile by Anurag Mathur Meet Chris Stark a ,former player of American football who as he himself is the first to accept 'think pretty good but don't talk that great on account of playing too much football.' Following the opportunities created by Liberalisation his family's corporation has entered into a business collaboration with an Indian company and this has brought the sportive young man to Delhi. While in India he becomes enmeshed in industrial disputes political machinations weird intelligence webs and an unfortunate love affair besides various other oddities. The solution to the entire Gordian knot of problems lies in making the Minister smile. What happens.
Deaf Heaven by Pinki Virani Journalist-turned-writer Pinki Virani examines the crisis which underlies the façade of progressive modernity that is present-day India through a set of characters you may have met. If not directly, then through the six degrees of separation which thread together this story of a life-changing weekend. The voice is that of Saraswati, librarian and collector of curious facts, who dies among her beloved books on Thursday evening. Until her body is discovered on Monday, her spirit is free to play sutradhar and watch over all she holds dear: her sister Damayanti, wife of a superstar; Tisca, heroine spurned by a rising star; Qudsia Begum, Bangalore beautician and wise mother; Czaerandhari, erstwhile maharani and sms-addict; hard-talking journalist Nafisa, does she hide a secret?
Yet: Saraswati?s stories are not only about women who wait for their idea of heaven to happen.
There is the wily husband of Bhagyalakshmi, scooty-driving bank-employee transposed from cultured Chennai to dusty Delhi. And in Bombay, the two men who leave Manya bleeding; her rightwing father and right-thinking twin brother.
And yet: Saraswati's stories are not about the men who eclipse the happiness of their women.
They are about a society where the forces of Olde Bharat battle with India. Where change has to be wrested from tradition, often with calamitous effects. And where hope constantly chafes against the trepidation of socio-political chaos.
This is fiction that dares to subvert form, structure and expectations to hold up a mirror to a nation at tipping point.Read More...Hide Pages: 283
A Romance with Chaos by Nishant Kaushik Ever felt that your life is a quagmire of uncertainty and dissatisfaction? Ever felt that destiny has struck a raw deal for you?Ever felt that your life is a quagmire of uncertainty and dissatisfaction? Ever felt that destiny has struck a raw deal for you? Meet Nakul Kapoor, a twenty-something corporate executive,who gives you a hilarious account of how he struggles through a life that comprises of:
An unacknowledged position at work that leaves him with nothing but the feeling of being an objected resource.
A stupid boss who thinks he is a Smart Alec.
A gorgeous girlfriend who can't think below D&G and Guccl while shopping with his credit card.
And an super pious roommate who thinks that watching sleazy films and lusting after material comforts are trivialities that one needs to rise above.
And then, one day, a few random sketches drawn by an acquaintance seem to give him the answers he has been looking for.
Does he manage to wriggle out of the muck?Read More...Hide Pages: 200
You've Got to be Kidding! by Leena Walawalkar A babe, a stud, a hunk and a smarty hop on board London flights to chase their dreams. A loyal wife gives company. A local naiveté joins the bandwagon.
And therefrom begins a remarkable journey of bonding, love, hatred, kicks in the butt and bolts from the blue.
Their compelling drive ? money, status, ambition Their solid strengths ? talent, diligence, suavity The only problems ? timing, destiny, no godfathers The final outcome ? strange, incredible, bizarre
You?ve Got to be Kidding! is a tale of six friends, bullish on life and bearish on, well, nothing. What lies in store?Read More...Hide Pages: 251
3 Zakia Mansion by Gouri Dange 3, Zakia Mansion is the story of a Mumbai family in the decades following the seventies. The story centres on Shaheen, a daughter who witnesses the slow fraying of the family fabric. Changing times, obsolete attitudes, a life-changing event within the family-all these come together in a cauldron from which Shaheen must leap out.
"Orphaned again and again" as she calls it, by adults who are at best adrift, and at worst cruel, Shaheen struggles to make a different life for herself. But somehow the sums don't add up. She loses what she thought was her new-found stability ? to come to the realization that there are no shortcuts in the process of living the 'life examined'.
Forced to - and then choosing to - abandon her marriage, she struggles to reach out to her daughter from whom she is estranged. In the process, she meets Manas, a young person from a background that is in broad terms similar to hers, but in its essence, very different. Manas is a grounded, lovingly brought up person. He has grown up in a family that has not, like hers, simply lurched along the decades, but has enjoyed the continuity, thoughtfulness and generosity of generations -the recipe that produces contented human beings.
How Shaheen lets go of her past, without losing what is real and precious, and how she weaves a new life, is the story of 3 Zakia Mansion.Read More...Hide Pages: 163
A Pack Of Lies by Urmila Deshpande Ginny slips through the cracks of her parent's divorce and grows up like a weed, undernourished in motherly love and over nourished in all the wrong ways. Ginny is potent, addictive, and as delicious and nutritious as nicotine. Sometimes tragic and sometimes funny, but always sexy Ginny falls in love as regularly as she smokes ganja, improvising her way through her times with honesty and compulsive joy and very little morality of the conventional type.
This Pack of Lies is one woman's raw and ruthless look at her own unlikely life in Bombay in the 1980's.Read More...Hide Pages: 291
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don?t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India.Read More...Hide Pages: 200
Oops! I Fell in Love! by Harsh Snehanshu Kanav, There's something in his name. That's why girl's detest it's every mention. His small town upbringing has left him vulnerable in Delhi and despite being an IIT'an he is struggling even to engineer his own life...A brief encounter with an LSR girl opens up new vistas in his life...Read More...Hide Pages: 215
The Music Room by Namita Devidayal When Namita is ten, her mother takes her to Kennedy Bridge, a seamy in Mumbai. There, in a cramped one room flat, lives Dhondutai. Despite her squalid surroundings, Dhondutai is special. For she is the only remaining student of the finest singers of the Jaipur gharana: the legendary Alladiya Khan and renowned songbird, Kesarbai Kerkar. Dhondutai is the keeper of the gharana?s secrets and of their rarest compositions. And yet for all her devotion to music, Dhondutai herself has never achieved fame. Namita begins to learn singing from Dhondutai, at first reluctantly and then with growing passion. Dhondutai sees in her a second Kesar, but does Namita have the dedication? Or will there always be too many late nights and cigarettes?
The Music Room is the story of Namita and her teacher; of the charismatic Alladiya Khan; and of the foul-mouthed and bewitching Kesarbai. At its heart is Dhondutai, shy, diffident yet full of determination. Beautifully written, full of anecdotes, gossip and legend, it is a stunning book.Read More...Hide Pages: 310
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