Caravans

Indian Merchants on the Silk Road
By: Scott C. Levi

The great adventure of the Multani merchants on the Silk Road to ancient Asia

Caravans tells the fascinating story of tens of thousands of intrepid merchants who risked everything to travel great distances and spend years of their lives pursuing their fortunes in foreign lands.

From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, these merchants lived as ‘guests’ in cities and villages across Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Russia. Scott C. Levi examines the sophisticated techniques they used to convert a modest amount of merchandise into vast portfolios of trade and moneylending ventures. At precisely the same historical moment that the rising European trade in the Indian Ocean usurped the overland ‘Silk Road’ trade, the Multani merchants began making their way to Central Asia, linking the early modern Indian and Central Asian economies closer together than ever before.

This elegantly written, meticulously researched book brings a forgotten chapter of India’s business history to life. Caravans is the seventh volume in The Story of Indian Business series edited by Gurcharan Das.

Scott C. Levi is Associate Professor of Central Asian History at Ohio State University. 

And Home Was Kariakoo: Memoir of an Indian African

By: M.G. Vassanji

M.G. Vassanji was born in East Africa and, like many East African Indians of his generation, he emigrated to the West. But Africa remained his primal home—the land whose colours and smells most beckoned to him, the land in which his family roots went deepest. 

In And Home Was Kariakoo, he travels to this homeland to draw a vivid portrait of East Africa today and tells the story of the Gujarati Indians of that region for whom Africa is both home and not home.  Entwined through Vassanji’s accounts is the story of his own childhood in Dar es Salaam.  Part memoir, part travelogue, part history, And Home Was Kariakoo is an insightful, thoughtful, deeply moving meditation on the Indians of East Africa and what it means to call a place one’s home. 

M.G. Vassanji is the author of ten books. The Gunny Sack won the Commonwealth Prize, The Book of Secrets and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall each won the Giller Prize, while the memoir A Place Within: Rediscovering India won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. 

The Eye Still Seeks: Pakistani Contemporary Art

By: Salima Hashmi

A superb art book of one of the most arresting art movements in the world today.

Pakistan’s contemporary art scene is arguably the most exciting in South Asia. Well-known curator, artist and teacher Salima Hashmi gives us a superb overview in this lavishly designed book, which includes interviews with artists such as Rashid Rana and pieces by writers like Kamila Shamsie and Mohsin Hamid.

Salima Hashmi is a well-known artist and dean at the School of Visual Arts and Design at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. 

What Will You Give for This Beauty

By: Ali Akbar Natiq

Translated by: Ali Madeeh Hashmi

Qaim Deen sneaks across the Sutlej, into India, to steal cattle—braving cobras, wild boars and the border patrol—and gives generously of his earnings to those in need. Young Nauman’s forbidden love for Nuzhat leads him to seek refuge in a holy place, at terrible cost to his family. Maulvi Abdur Rahman and his neighbour’s bull terrier engage in a hilarious and unrelenting battle of wits. Could Kareeman’s beauty, which hits the village like a storm, be the salvation of Ghafoora the Dimwit?

Possessed of dark irony and a searing moral vision, Ali Akbar Natiq is a storyteller of exceptional talent and manifest power. He renders the robust rhythms of the Punjab countryside, with its undercurrent of violence and poverty, through feuds and feasts, hunts and marriages, mobs and floods, elopements and gossip. Acrobats, holy men, thieves, peasants, landowners, masons and courtesans populate the stories of his virtuoso debut collection What Will You Give for This Beauty?

About the Author

Ali Akbar Natiq began working as a mason, specializing in domes and minarets, to contribute to the family income while he read widely in Urdu and Arabic. Acclaimed as one of the brightest stars in Pakistan’s literary firmament, Natiq has published two volumes of poetry and one collection of short stories.

Ali Madeeh Hashmi is a psychiatrist, writer and translator. He has written about the lives and works of Faiz, Ghalib, Iqbal and Manto. 

Me, My Fiancée and #I Fu*!ed Up

By: Arya Babbar

We all want to be loyal but is love meant to last? 

All Rushabh Shah, a nice Gujarati boy, has done in his life is love his girlfriend and listen to her. So there is not an iota of doubt in his mind when he proposes. Both the families are overjoyed and soon the preparations for the wedding begin.

But then from nowhere doubts begin to creep in and he meets the love of his life—or so he thinks! Panicking, he embarks on a mission to find out whom he truly loves.

Question is, is there such a thing as true love?

This comedy of errors set against the backdrop of the great Indian wedding is unputdownable!

Aarya Babbar is an Indian actor who has worked in several Hindi/Punjabi films & was a participant in recent Big Boss 8 season.  

REGRET

By: Ikramullah

Translated by Faruq Hassan and Muhammad Umar Memon

Deeply moving and elegantly wrought, these two novellas skillfully evoke the long shadow cast by the violence of Partition through poignant tales of families and friendships sundered by the carnage of 1947.

Ikramullah is a renowned Urdu novelist and short-story writer.

Faruq Hassan was an Urdu poet, critic and translator.

Muhammad Umar Memon is an eminent critic, short-story writer and translator.

An Unfinished Agenda

My Life in the Pharmaceutical Industry
By: K. Anji Reddy

An insider’s look at the burgeoning pharma industry in India

From his birth in a village in Andhra to his founding and running Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, now one of India’s largest pharmaceutical enterprises, Dr K. Anji Reddy’s journey makes for an inspiring story. 

That story is told rivetingly in his own words in his memoir, An Unfinished Agenda. This book also takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the science of medicine over the last hundred years and reminds us of the stark challenges that remain.

Dr K. Anji Reddy was one of the leading figures of India’s pharmaceutical industry. He passed away in 2013.

A Mirrored Life

Subtitle: The Rumi Novel

Author: RabisankarBal
Translator: Arunava Sinha

On his way from Tangiers to China, the medieval Moorish traveller Ibn Battuta arrives in Konya, Turkey where the legendary dervish Rumi had lived, danced and died. More than half a century may have passed since his death, but his poetry remains alive, inscribed in every stone and tree and pathway. Rumi’s followers entrust Ibn Battuta with a manuscript of his life stories to spread word of the mystic on his travels. As Battuta reads and recites these tales, his listeners discover their own lives reflected in these stories—fate has bound them, and perhaps you, to Rumi.

A Mirrored Life reaffirms the magical powers of storytelling, making us find Rumi in each of our hearts.

About the Author 

Rabisankar Bal is a Bangla novelist and short-story writer, and has published over fifteen novels, five short-story collections, one volume of poetry and one volume of literary essays. Born in 1962, he has been writing for thirty years. His novel Dozakhnama, acclaimed by the late doyen of Bengali literature Sunil Gangopadhyay as the finest novel of 2010, won the West Bengal government’s Bankimchandra Smriti Puraskar.

About the Translator 

Arunava Sinha translates contemporary and classic Bengali fiction into English. He has seventeen published translations to his name. 

Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy

                                                    By : Mihir S. Sharma

Good times have been promised to India – but we need to make bold changes first. Unless the change is real, enthusiasm about the economy will vanish.

In Restart, Mihir S. Sharma shows what can and must change in India’s policies, its administration and even its attitudes. The answers he provides are not obvious, and require courage. Nor are they all comforting or conventional. Yet they could, in less time than you can imagine, unleash the creativity of a billion hopeful Indians.

About the author:

Mihir S. Sharma was born in Delhi, and grew up in Chandigarh, in Mumbai, in Jamshedpur and in Kolkata. He was trained as an economist and a political scientist before dropping ignobly out of academia. Like many others unable to concentrate on any one thing long enough to write a dissertation, he drifted from one thing to another till he found the closest thing to paid unemployment in a capitalist society: journalism. He now writes and edits opinion for the Business Standard newspaper in New Delhi.

WHEN I WAS 25

 By : SHAILI CHOPRA

Prominent leaders from different spheres share secrets of what they did at 25 and how that transformed their leadership horizon

When I Was 25 is a book about leaders when they were 25. The youth will immediately be drawn to it as they’d relate to that period of life much better. It includes careers graphs and how these successful personalities reached their current success from when they were 25. The list of people who have been profiled include Adi Godrej, KP Singh, Rajdeep Sardesai, Dimple Kapadia,P Chidambaram, Shashi Tharoor,Indra Noori,Zia Mody to name a few.

 The book is different than others on profiles of prominent leaders as it addresses the youth directly and imparts valuable lessons on how to get to the top—as opposed to simply tell the stories of people already at the top.

 About the author

Shaili Chopra is one of India’s top television editor-presenters. She hosts her own video blog TheShailiChopraREPORT. She has been the Senior Editor and Lead Anchor at ET NOW, the Economic Times Business News Channel and earlier with NDTV.

Shaili anchored the 9 pm primetime slots and conducted the big exclusive interviews of people like Warren Buffett, George Soros, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, PepsiCo’s boss Indra Nooyi, Microsoft’s head Steve Ballmer and many more.

In 2012, Shaili received India’s biggest journalism honour The Ramnath Goenka Award for best in business journalism. She also won the News Television Award for the Best Reporter in India in 2007 and later in 2008, her business-golf show Business on Course, won the Best Show Award. She also won the Media Foundation Best Business Anchor Award for 2010 and in the same year the Federation of Indian Industry gave her the Young Women’s Achiever Award for contribution to media. 

She was awarded the Young Indian Leader fellowship by the Spanish Government in April 2013.

Shaili’s previous book THE BIG CONNECT published by Random House India earlier this year garnered rave reviews and coverage across media in the country. This is her second book with Random House India.

Before Time

                                                              By : Xunaira J

Part I of : The Time Trilogy

The story is based in Pakistan.

The story is about Onaiza - who wants to be an author. 
While her father supports her choice, her mother wishes to see her become a doctor one day.

She is pictured as someone who has very low self esteem & thinks of herself as a loser.

The story in mostly conversations between her & Impassioned aka Asher over Internet Relay Chat Network.

They share & discuss everything under the Sun, including their personal lives, happiness & despair alike. 

While both Onaiza & Asher carry the baggage of their past, Onaiza is ready to move on while Asher is reluctant to do so.

Onaiza eventually develops feelings for Asher, but will she be able to bring Asher back to present so they can have a future together? Maybe the next part of the book will answer this question. 

After reading the book, long conversations that Onaiza & Asher share between them, described in bold, gets monotonous & irritating to read. 
It seems like a private conversation screen shot put directly in the book. 
While it might be fun to read the same on a mobile phone, reading about it in a book feels odd.

We wish Xunaira best of luck, for her upcoming titles.

Undying Affinity

                                                                 By : Sara Naveed

Meaning of the word Affinity :
A natural liking for & understanding of someone or something

The story is majorly set in Pakistan.
It is basically about two individuals Ahmar & Zarish.
Ahmar is a professor at a Business Management University where Zarish is a student.

Both Ahmar & Zarish discover Love in each other, but due to old family enmity, they struggle to be together.

Haroon is a childhood friend of Zarish who falls in love with her, which makes Ahmar & Zarish' love story  complicated.
To add to it, Amber who happened to be Ahmar's love interest at one point in time, comes back into their lives which gives a new & unexpected twist to the story.

 It's a 400 pages book , which feels long b'cos the average size of a book these days in around 300 pages.

Also, part of the book feels like a scene from the movie "Jab We Met"

We found some typo's in the book, which we have brought to the notice of the Author.
This is her first book.

If you like romantic novels, then you should read this book & feel the joy + pain, that Ahmar & Zarish go through ..

How to review a Book

Writing Book Reviews

When I began writing book reviews in July this year, I started off by writing about books that I liked, books that stayed in my mind long after I had stopped turning its pages. Soon, I started accepting books for review and then began the process of moving away my comfort zone and reading books by new authors. Today, I enjoy this tremendously, as it helps me explore new genres and exposes me to new writing. Reading work by budding writers gives me an insight into what others are writing about, which further helps me hone my own skills. Below are the steps I usually follow while writing book reviews on my blog.

Describe the book briefly -

Write the review without giving too many details about the book. It is fine to add the blurb or just write a summary in order to let the readers know what the story is about! 

Talk about what you liked/did not like about the book -

Think about what you have just read and try and answer a few questions:

·     Who your favorite character was and what did you like about him/her?

·     Did the characters seem real to you?

·     Was the writer able to use the appropriate words to express what he/she wanted to?

·     Was the story woven in such a way that it held your attention till the end?

·     What did you like most about the book?

If there was something that did not appeal to you, then you can also mention that in your review. In that case, you might want to first mention what you liked and then what could have been better! From experience I have realized that most writers are happy with the feedback as it helps them improve their writing skills.

Rate the Book -

Personally I do not like to rate books, but I have realized that most reviewers do! Well! This is a personal choice so go ahead and rate the book or just concentrate on writing.

Author’s Bio and Important Links -

 I usually include an author’s bio and picture in my reviews in order to give it a personal feel. A writer feels passionately about his book and I feel that including the above gives them as well as their work good exposure. Of course, this too is optional! You can also add a link to the author’s Facebook page or website where the book can be purchased.

About the Author –

Rachna is an educationist, book reviewer, blogger, interior designer and author. She loves to spend her time reading, travelling, listening to music, dancing and writing. Whenever she is alone and deep in thought, you will find her typing away on her laptop writing about topics like life, nature and human emotions. You can read more about her and her work on her website – www.rachnagupta.in

You can also follow her on Twitter - @GuptaRach

Apollo's Eleven

NASA's Apollo voyages to the moon have helped all of humankind uncover evidence about the history of the moon itself. Facts were formulated on how it, as well as our own planet, might have been formed billions of years ago. History has taught us many things but what history doesn’t teach us, is what really happened... The truth that rests on the dark side of the moon.

The links:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PrRhBQAAQBAJ

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PN03HCA

Author blog:

seanbiggs776.blogspot.com.au

Marry Me, Stranger

By : Novoneel Chakraborty

Keynote

The first book in the STRANGER trilogy

Description

Rivanah Bannerjee has recently relocated from Kolkata to Bangalore. She finds the city in total contrast to what had been living back home, but she slowly adjusts to the new setup with the help of her Facebook friends, colleagues, and roommates. The one day she gets a note by her doorstep saying ‘know your worth’. At first she assumes it to be some prank by one of her friends but after a series of questionable incidents she understands that someone—a stranger—is steadily taking control of her life, compelling her to make choices of his liking. Soon the stranger’s attitude takes a sadistic turn. In the end when she goes to the police for help, they set a trap for him by asking her to leave a note for him saying ‘marry me, stranger’ by her doorstep. Will the stranger really reveal himself and marry her or does he have some ulterior motive for choosing Rivanah?

Marry Me, Stranger is an edge-of-the-seat thriller by bestselling author Novoneel Chakraborty with an ending that will leave you shocked.

About the Author:

At 28, Novoneel is the writer of three national bestselling novels: A Thing Beyond Forever, That Kiss In the Rain, and How About a Sin Tonight? which have been devoured by thousands all over the country. They have also appeared in numerous bestsellers’ list at different point of time since their release. His fourth book, Ex: a twisted love story, came out in 2013.

Being a full time writer, he has written a story and screenplay for a twice National Award winning Bengali filmmaker which is scheduled to go on floors soon. Currently he is working on two Hindi film projects as a scriptwriter. He also pens ‘NovoSphere’; a popular blog on life and inspiration featuring one-paragraph stories which is followed by many. Time and again many posts of NovoSphere have featured in various national and international websites.

Young Turks

Shereen Bhan with Syna Denuhgara

Keynote

Prominent leaders from different spheres share secrets of what they did at 25 and how that transformed their leadership horizon

Description

The most inspiring book for young budding entrepreneurs

Young Turks is the longest running business show on television. The book will have the added dimension of ‘how to’ interlaced in the stories of these inspiring men. It will include the stories of 15-20 of the most inspiring tech entrepreneurs who’ve been on the show.

The show has a dedicated following and the book will have Shereen’s insights into what makes these men so successful. This will be the essential book for every aspiring entrepreneur.

About the author

Shereen Bhan is the Delhi Bureau Chief and Executive Editor of CNBC-TV18, India. She joined UTV news and current affairs division and produced shows like We the People for Star TV and Line of Fire for Sab TV. Her stint with CNBC-TV18 began in December 2000.

Bhan anchors and produces several flagship shows like Young Turks, India Business Hour, The Nation’s Business and Power Turks. She has done some of the biggest interviews on CNBC-TV18, including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Benazir Bhutto and Deepak Chopra. She also anchors and puts together CNBC-TV18’s ground events like the Managing India brainstorm and the CNBC Industry Vectors.

What To Say And When To Shut Up

By : Rakesh Godhwani

Keynote

A practical, accessible book on persuasive communication.

Description

What to Say and When to Shut Up is a useful and interactive book on persuasive communication for corporates, students, entrepreneurs, and anybody who is looking to make a lasting impression on their audience. Through a practical AEIOU Xtra E framework and examples from inspiring leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, J.K. Rowling, among others, this book will help you become a persuasive communicator.

Rakesh Godhwani’s invaluable advice includes ways to:

• Motivate audiences to action

• Nail the interview for your dream job

• Make impressive business presentations

• Pitch to investors to raise money

• Sell a product to a client

• Negotiate a win-win

• Network professionally and socially

• Resolve conflicts

About the author

Rakesh Godhwani calls himself a nobody. After spending amazing formative years in great organizations in the high-tech space like Wipro, Intel and Qualcomm—doing different roles in sales, product marketing and business development—Rakesh realized that his passion lay in helping others reach their maximum potential and fulfil their dreams.

Rakesh currently heads IIM Bangalore Alumni Association, coaches entrepreneurs and leaders in the hi-tech sector, teaches Managerial Communication and Communication for Leaders at IIM Bangalore, does yoga, cycles his way to work, earns a fraction of what he used to but lives a million times better.

Rakesh’s first book Plunnge was released in July, 2011. More details can be found on www.plunnge.com

or www.facebook.com/plunnge. His second book Seek: Finding Your True Calling was published by Random House India in 2013. He is an alumnus of KREC (now NITK) Surathkal, class of 1997 and of IIM Bangalore PGSEM, class of 2004. Rakesh is currently pursuing his PhD from Cardiff Metropolitan University which is expected to finish in 2015.

You can follow his blog at rakeshgodhwani.wordpress.com.

The Fifth Man

Author: Bani Basu | Translator: Arunava Sinha

Keynote

From the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award comes a novel brimming with irreverent humour, sexual tension and dark drama.

Description

Neelam’s hysterectomy at thirty hastens her into a sexless middle age and changes her relationship with her husband Ari. Their marriage remains stagnant until an unexpected telegram announces the visit of Ari’s ex-girlfriend Esha. By coincidence, their college professor Mahanam also arrives at their doorstep bearing an uncanny resemblance to Ari’s daughter. Events conspire to send all of them on a trip to Ajanta and Ellora where ancient stories spark memories of lost love and betrayal. Both deeply philosophical and playfully dramatic, The Fifth Man is a bittersweet meditation on middle-age desire.

About the author

Bani Basu is arguably the most versatile contemporary writer in Bengali, the broad range of her fiction deals with gender, history, mythology, society, psychology, adolescence, music, sexual orientation, the supernatural, and more. Besides writing novels and short stories, she is also an essayist, critic and poet. She has won a number of literary awards, including the Sahitya Akademi award. She lives and writes in Calcutta.

About the translator

Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and non-fiction into English. Twenty-eight of his translated works have been published so far. Born and brought up in Calcutta, he lives and works in Delhi.

Redrawing India

Redrawing India: The TEACH FOR INDIA Story

Kovid Gupta   Shaheen Mistri

The inspiring, never told before story of Teach For India, one of India’s biggest non-profit organizations

Description

A 19-year-old Bostonian teenager flies into Mumbai with her NRI parents to spend a relaxing summer break. Here she stumbles into a slum community, expecting to encounter paucity, prejudice, and pauperism. Her views are magically transformed when she instead comes across children with eyes full of potential.

In what is nothing less than a cathartic moment, she decides to commit herself to a lifelong battle of educational equity for every Indian child. But tackling India’s biggest hardship is nothing less than performing magic. With courage and perseverance, her movement soon grows from 1 to 100,000 individuals working relentlessly to rewrite India’s history. Numerous college graduates and young professionals trade their cozy corporate careers for challenging lives as teachers in municipal schools.

This is the saga of Teach for India, a living illustration of what is possible when a dream is followed uncompromisingly. It is the anecdotal blueprint on how Teach For India founder Shaheen Mistri transformed her dream of educational equity into a nationwide movement for liberty and justice. It is a tale of taking action into one’s own hands, and carving a space for oneself in the greater solution for utopic India.

About the Author:

Kovid Gupta graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010 with a BBA in Marketing, BS in Radio-Television-Film, and BA in Hindi. Since then, he has been actively working as a screenwriter and has written for acclaimed serials like Balika Vadhu and Bade Acche Lagte Hain in addition to Bhojpuri soaps. He is also the Founder and CEO of India Kids, a non-profit organization that works to improve the lives of orphaned children across India by empowering college students globally.

ORFEO

                         By: Richard Powers

A major and thrilling new novel that explores private fears, public hysteria and the art of music, by one of America's most important living writers

  

Orfeo is inspired by the fascinating real-life account of Steve Kurtz, the bioartist wrongly arrested for terrorism by the FBI and prosecuted by the American government for four years.

In a story of one man running for his life, Richard Powers shows how all of us are perilously close to crossing the blurred boundary that separates state security and state persecution.

Seventy-year old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police outside. His DIY microbiology lab - the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to extract music from rich patterns beyond the ear's ability to hear - has come to the attention of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid on his house, Els flees and turns fugitive, waiting for the evidence to clear him and for the alarm surrounding his activities to blow over.

But alarm turns to national hysteria, as the government promises a panicked nation that the 'Bioterrorist Bach' will be found and brought to trial. As Els feels the noose around him tighten, he embarks on a cross-country trip to visit, one last time, the people in his past who have most shaped his failed musical journey. And through the help of these people - his ex-wife, his daughter, and his longtime artistic collaborator - Els comes up with a plan to turn this disastrous collision with national security into one last, resonant, calamitous artwork that might reach an audience beyond his wildest dreams.

Richard Powers is a bestselling author, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a recipient of the National Book Award and one of America's most critically acclaimed novelists.

Richard Powers has been a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, as well as a winner of the US National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of eight novels, including The Time of our Singing, Plowing the Dark, and Gain. He lives in Los Angeles.