Developing good habits at a young age can help pave the way for a prosperous future. Reading is a habit that we should all cultivate because it not only broadens our knowledge and enlightens our minds, but it also aids in the development of our language skills and vocabulary.
UNPARENTING: Sharing awkward truths with curious kids (Reema Ahmad)
Unparenting is a vibrant, whacky testimony to a parent-child relationship where the child leads and the parent follows. Written in the form of deeply personal, engaging and often humorous essays, the book is a powerful reminder of what it feels like to be lost and misunderstood as a child, and how important it is to challenge what we think we know as parents.
Through her own awkward journey as a confused single parent, Reema Ahmad explores what it means to explore newer ways of bringing up children-ways that nurture their sense of innocence and curiosity while giving them the freedom to choose their own truths. Reema invites you to hop along as she and her son, Imaad, learn to laugh and make up stories about why penises shape-shift, the mysteries of pubic hair, the magic of adolescent crushes and the confounding maze of dating and sex. Join them as they explore these mysteries and other serious topics like abuse, adult relationships, divorce and dying-issues that adults often forget to wonder at and seldom question.
SOJOURN (Amit Chaudhuri)
An unnamed man arrives in Berlin as a visiting professor. It is a place fused with Western history and cultural fracture lines. He moves along its streets and pavements; through its department stores, museums and restaurants. He befriends Faqrul, an enigmatic exiled poet, and Birgit, a woman with whom he shares the vagaries of attraction. He tries to understand his white-haired cleaner. Berlin is a riddle-he becomes lost not only in the city but in its legacy.
Sealed off in his own solitude, and as his visiting professorship passes, the narrator awaits transformation and meaning. Ultimately, he starts to understand that the less sure he becomes of his place in the moment, the more he knows his way.
THE HIDDEN HINDU 2 (Akshat Gupta)
The Hidden Hindu 2 takes the storyline from the cliffhanger to bring to the readers a myriad of revelations and twists. It narrates a captivating journey of what seemed to be the end of wars to only be another beginning. Enthralling, exciting and entrancing, the book explores the past with secrets that hold the power to shake ancient beliefs of the present, resulting in an alteration of the future.
Expressing his thoughts, national best-selling author, Akshat Gupta, said, “If you have liked the first part, then you are going to absolutely love The Hidden Hindu 2. It has unexpected twists and breathtaking revelations which will keep the readers on the edge. I am grateful for the love that has been showered for the first part and hope that they continue to show the same excitement and enthusiasm.”
While the first battle is lost, the protagonist, Om, is yet to learn about his past. The Hidden Hindu 2 explores the hidden agendas behind allies and the identities of LSD, Parimal, and eventually, Om. Akshat Gupta takes the readers on an adventure as they traverse to gather knowledge if the book of Mritsanjeevani holds a bigger purpose than even immortality for Divinities and Demons.
AFTERNESS (Ashok S. Ganguly)
The author invites readers to journey with him as he looks back fondly on his extraordinary life – from his childhood to his upbringing in the metropolitan Bombay of the 1930s, to his PhD in Illinois and his eventual return to India. After joining Hindustan Unilever’s R&D department, Ganguly quickly rose up the ranks as a talented young professional, eager to discover and learn new things.
Afterness spans across eighty years of his life, its edges tinged by the tumultuous events in India in the twentieth century, and interspersed with fascinating people, from the mysterious Kishen Khanna, who accurately predicted events in Ganguly’s life, to encounters and friendships with well-known historical figures such as Mother Teresa and Rajiv Gandhi.
Dr. Ashok S. Ganguly’s journey was interspersed with failures, but he doesn’t shy away from talking about these and the sacrifices that went on to define his life. He covers three important aspects in the book – importance of family and upbringing, impact of corporate environment and influence of society and outward perspective.
Honest, reflective, personal and revelatory, Afterness provides valuable insight into his thinking process and decision-making skills that enabled Ganguly’s meteoric rise and sustained his legendary career.
THE MANY LIVES OF MANGALAMPALLI BALAMURALIKRISHNA (Veejay Sai)
Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, an internationally renowned Carnatic musician from the illustrious musical lineage of composer Saint Tyagaraja, wore many hats in his lifetime. Having made a stage debut at the age of seven, he was hailed as a child prodigy. From then till the time he passed away, at age eighty-six in 2016, he continued to be in the spotlight, not just for his extraordinary talent and versatility as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, but as a composer, playback singer and even, briefly, as a character actor.
He was a primary school dropout, a teenage poet and composer, a restless mind, a polyglot, a legacy upholder, a wordsmith, an ice cream lover and a pathbreaker. This is a story of the many lives of Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna.
Veejay Sai’s in-depth research into his life and work led him deep into unseen archival material and across the Carnatic musical landscape of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Fortified by interviews with his family members, disciples and peers, The Many Lives of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, a definitive biography of the musical genius, is not only a revealing account of the personal traits and facets of an unparallelled genius, but is also a portrait of India’s classical music world, a place as much of beauty as of untrammelled egos.
