HarperCollins Publishers India strana 2 z 3

In Badass Begums, Anoushka Jain introduces you to ten such Mughal-era women whose lives rippled with ambition, romance, intrigue and fierce resilience. Jahanara Begum, Shah Jahan''s favourite daughter who designed Chandni Chowk and her sister, the firebrand Roshanara Begum, who schemed with Aurangzeb to take over her father''s empire; the invincible Begum Samru, a tawaif-turned-ruler, who led her own army into battles; Maham Anga and Mubarak Begum, whose counsel rivalled that of chief ministers, and the resolute Qudsia Begum who built riverfront gardens only to see them battered by rebellions - these and other stories come alive in a riveting narrative and walking tour maps of the places they lived in or curated.

Since the East India Company merged seven islands into Bombay (now Mumbai), change has been constant-but now it is used as a weapon for displacement, disguised as development. Slums are erased overnight to make way for luxury towers priced in tens of crores. The working class is pushed to the margins-literally-and into distant housing projects with no infrastructure, transport or sanitation. Entire communities are uprooted while a new Mumbai is built for the privileged few, behind closed gates, inside glass walls.

Ajay Jain is no exception. In this memoir, he looks back on his days at one of Delhi''s best-known schools, the all-boys'' institution, St. Columba''s. He talks about teachers or ''brothers'' good and bad, fights with fellow students or those from other schools, sneaking out to cinemas or markets, school trips, checking out girls from the neighbouring girls'' school and all other experiences typical for a student in the 1980s. And of course, Charlie, who was a fundamental part of his school experience.

The first spirit Sanjoy Roy encountered was one that haunted his ancestral house in Calcutta; he was five then. A few years later, the otherworldly made its presence felt again in his parents' sprawling bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi. Over the decades that followed, he and his family and friends have come across a variety of apparitions, spectres and phantoms in diverse locations both in India and abroad. Some of these beings are benign or at most mischievous, but others--lost, disturbed souls--are angrier and have to be placated. For Sanjoy, his ability to sense and interact with the supernatural is not something remarkable, but part of his everyday reality. As he sees it, there is perhaps a dimension parallel to ours, one that is teeming with spirits and souls. There's a Ghost in My Room is a fascinating travelogue through that mysterious world. Rich in period detail, humour and adventure, this unusual memoir makes for a compelling read and is sure to enthrall both the haunted-world sceptic and those who believe.

Featuring some of the best names in Indian fiction—both emerging and established—this extraordinary anthology frames the city through a range of vantage points. From the urchin lurking by Grant Road's railway overbridge to the screenwriter prowling the dance bars in Andheri; from the gay man cruising in a Dadar local to the artist hovering by a studio across the Danda shore; from immigrant nurses and couples in love to runaway teenagers—every character carries a critical Bombay fragment. Bombay is the only city that can grant them dimension.

For decades, All India Radio or Akashvani, India''s national broadcaster, has been ''the sound of India''. Be it Jawaharlal Nehru''s iconic ''Tryst with Destiny'' speech, shows such as Binaca Geetmala, cricket matches, movies or, more recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi''s Mann ki Baat, AIR has been and continues to be the primary source for programmes on news, entertainment and knowledge for many Indians. But there are innumerable fascinating stories associated with the radio channel itself.

Zeyad Masroor Khan was four years old when he realized that an innocent act of playing with a switch near a window overlooking the street could trigger a riot. As the distant thud of a crowd grew closer and calls for murder rent the air, he got his first taste of growing up in Upar Kot, a Muslim ghetto in Aligarh. Khan''s world was far removed from the Aligarh of popular imagination--of poets, tehzeeb and the intellectual corridors of the Aligarh Muslim University. His was a city where serpentine lanes simmered with violence, homes fervently prayed to dispel the omnipresent fear of a family member turning up dead, and the soft breeze that blew over crowded terraces carried rumours of a bloodthirsty mob on the prowl.

Arindam Chatterjee floats from the middle-class security of his home in East Delhi to the fiercely competitive world of the Indian Institute of Technology and onward to the East Coast of the US. He encounters rock musicians and coaching class nerds, mathematical geniuses and mountaineers, ill-fated underachievers pursuing big dreams and overachievers who are never satisfied. On his journey he begins to realize that his life is a confused tangle of ambitions and aspirations, some attainable, some not, and some hanging tantalizingly in between.

Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are sisters, yet their temperaments are in stark contrast to one another. Elinor, governed by reason and restraint, embodies the quiet strength of sense, while her younger sister, Marianne, embraces life with passion and abandon, guided by sensibility. Following their father''s death, the Dashwoods must contend with the uncertain ground of love, loss and societal expectation. As Marianne suffers the anguish of a broken heart, Elinor quietly hides her feelings beneath a veil of propriety.

For centuries, temples have functioned not just as places of worship but also social and cultural centres, offering both a connection to the divine and entertainment in the form of music and dance as respite from everyday life. In Dynasties of Devotion, Deepa Mandlik explores seven ancient temples across India and Cambodia, meticulously examines historical contexts and mythological stories associated with each temple.At the Kailasa Temple in Ellora, Maharashtra, she is struck by the visual representation of fertility and abundance - Goddess Lakshmi, elegantly sitting on a lotus, surrounded by four elephants showering her with rain. Through the dancing sculptures of Shiva and Parvati at the magnificent Brihadeeswara Temple in Tamil Nadu, Deepa reveals that this Chola dynasty temple was once a prestigious platform for Bharatanatyam with nearly 400 dancers and 250 musicians in residence.

Tamil: The Best Stories of Our Times, edited by Perundevi, brings together twenty-two outstanding short stories published over the past three decades by some of the finest contemporary writers of Tamil fiction. Traversing Tamil Nadu and the Tamil diaspora, these stories capture a society''s encounter with the modern world, as its people grapple with what is irreducibly human in themselves and others. Along the way, they unravel the subtle intricacies of life, illuminating various transitions, identities and interiorities.

From one of India''s most-loved creators comes something new to fall in love with. Avani''s favourite thing to do is bury her nose in romance novels, but, honestly, life can''t be trusted to make the stories real, right? But in the bookstore where she works, a man walks in, straight out of the pages of her favourite love stories. Aman is hot, successful, seems to know what she''s going to say before she''s said it, and just cannot get enough of her. In short, he''s perfect. Then why is Avani losing her mind, ignoring the advice of

Great Classic Short Stories is a collection of some of the most celebrated and widely read stories, plays and poems by popular authors like Beatrix Potter, E. Nesbit, Hans Christian Andersen, Jack London, Kate Chopin and William Wordsworth, and extracts from classics such as War and Peace and Three Men in a Boat. With a variety of genres including romance, horror, travel, crime and mystery, and beloved characters such as Nora Helmer, Bathsheba Everdene and Hercule Poirot, this is the perfect book to further your journey into the world of classic literature.

Whether as Rahul Raichand or Raj Malhotra, Mohan Bhargava or Rizwan Khan, Aman Mathur or Kabir Khan, the many roles that ''King Khan'' has embraced for his films have become forever etched in the minds of countless moviegoers. This book presents portraits of the star''s inspirational life and unearths what he means to people in every corner of the world-be it a taxi driver in Paris, an Irishwoman in London, three generations of women in a family in Pakistan or screaming fans across Europe, Asia, the US, the Middle East and, of course, India.