As President Bush prepared to invade Iraq, a Wall Street Journal correspondent for fifteen years, Asra Q. Nomani embarked on a dangerous journey from Middle America to the Middle East to join more than two million fellow Muslims on the hajj. On a journey perilous enough for any American reporter, Nomani was determined to take along her infant son, Shibli, living proof that she, an unmarried Muslim woman, was guilty of zina, or 'illegal sex'. She returned to America to confront the sexism and intolerance in her local mosque and to fight for the rights of modern Muslim women who were tired of standing alone against the repressive rules and regulations imposed by reactionary fundamentalists. Standing Alone in Mecca is a personal narrative, relating the modern-day lives of the author and other Muslim women to the lives of those who came before, bringing the changing face of women in Islam into focus through the unique lens of the hajj. In this book, she shows how many of the freedoms enjoyed centuries ago have been erased by the conservative brand of Islam practiced today, giving a false image of Muslim women as veiled and isolated from the world.

This selection of Khushwant Singh's prose is like the man himself: blunt, perceptive, incorrigibly provocative, often amusing but always bubbling with life. The book includes candid portrayals of public personalities such as Zail Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, Nani Palkhivala, Rajni Patel and Nargis Dutt. There are also vivid portrayals of public personalities such as Zail Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, Nani Palkhivala, Rajni Patel and Nargis Dutt. There are also vivid portraits of places such as Delhi, Amritsar, Goa, Lucknow, Bhopal and Hyderabad. Then there are his musings on such issues as communalism, terrorism and bride burning, still as vivid today as when the pieces were first written.

This book is a selection from Gossip Sweet and Sour and Malice in which Khushwant Singh gives you the the low down on people he has known and places he has visited. In these pages, you will be introduced to people like Mountbatten, Faiz, Shraddha Mata, P.C. Lal, Phoolan Devi and many others and you will travel to places as well known as Pakistan and Korea and as remote as Papua New Guinea. Irrepressible, incorrigibly provocative, perceptive Khushwant was never better.

In this exchange of letters dating from an extremely turbulent period of their lives, Nayantara Sahgal and E.N. Mangat Rai, two very public figures who had remained at the same time intensely private, broke their self-imposed silence for the first time. When Relationship was first published in 1994, it was received with varying degrees of shock and appreciation. This newly revised edition includes all of the correspondence carried in the previous one, with a short but significant addition: Diary from Chandigarh is an honest and often emotionally wrenching account of Nayantara's life with her husband and children before the break-up. Both the diary and the letters highlight one woman's endeavour to remain true to herself, her writing, her ideals and relationships, both outside and within marriage. They speak of a growing and passionate involvement, of the author's joy and pain at discovering an intellectual companionship while recognizing the difficulties of keeping such a relationship alive. They reflect too, on the dilemmas and compulsions that bind men and women into particular relationships, and the exigencies of public life and its implications for the private sphere. A mirror of the times when a kind of idealism and commitment still seemed possible, Relationship gives the reader an insight into the life and thoughts of one of India's most successful writers, and one of the most distinguished civil servants of his generation

'Seldom does one get a chance to become acquainted with India's great leaders through a young woman so intimately associated with them.' -New York Times Book Review A dramatic portrait of the spirit of sacrifice that carried India through the years of the struggle for independence, this evocative memoir of an unusual childhood ends with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Nayantara Sahgal describes what it was like growing up in Anand Bhavan, Allahabad, the home of her parents shared with her maternal uncle, Jawarlal Nehru, during the years when Gandhi was leading the movement for independence. It describes in loving detail the lives of a family for whom the country's fight for freedom was more important than anything else, certainly coming before comfort and riches. The book is particularly delightful for its picture of Nehru who springs from these pages as a man of friendly humanity and a joy in life that made him a beloved uncle, yet with an inborn greatness that inspired awe and admiration in the little girl who played with him. 'She is brilliant...complex and questioning.' - Pearl S. Buck

In the late nineteenth century, in a small village in northern India, a thirteen-year-old Brahmin widow meets a Muslim sarangi player and elopes with him. Many years later, their daughter Jaddanbai moves to Bombay and becomes a star of the early talkies. Chateau Marine, her home on Marine Drive, is famous for its evening mehfils and for the dreams it nurtures: regular visitors include Dilip Kumar, Mehboob and Kamal Amrohi. It is also the home of Fatima, Jaddanbai's daughter, who will set the screen ablaze as Nargis, the most accomplished actress of her time. Far removed from this world of glamour, a young boy named Balraj Dutt spends his teenage years attempting to rehabilitate himself and his family after the trauma of Partition. In 1950, at the age of twenty, he arrives in Bombay. And there his life takes an unexpected turn: he is given the lead role in a new film, and is soon on his way to becoming Sunil Dutt, the film star. Then comes the moment that transforms both their lives: on 1 March 1957, during the making of Mother India, Nargis is trapped in a circle of flames and Sunil risks his life to save her. They recuperate together, and fall in love. Nargis has been in a long but futile relationship with the mercurial Raj Kapoor, and in Sunil she finally finds an anchor. Their relationship is stormy and secretive to start with, but it survives every crisis to culminate in a quite wedding on 11 March 1958. What follows are years of togetherness, including the joys of caring three children, Sanjay, Namrata and Priya but also days of pain and heartbreak: financuial trouble, Nargis's illness, Sanjay's addiction to drugs. Based on the diaries and letters of Nargis, Sunil and their daughter Priya, as well as on conversations and interviews with family and friends, Darlingji - as they often addressed each other - is a probing yet affectionate biography of two extraordinary people and their love for each other. Travelling as it does from the nineteenth century to the present, the book tells the larger story of the evolution of Hindi cinema, and of a society and a nation in the throes of change.

'Kirin Narayan's memoir is a delightful account of the clash of cultures and centuries, as manifested in an Indian-American family rich in character and eccentricity.' - Ramachandra Guha, author of India after Gandhi. In 1969, Kirin Narayan's older brother Rahoul announced that he was dropping out of school and leaving home to seek enlightenment with a guru. Young Kirin adored her high-spirited, charismatic brother and looked on bewildered at the events that his dramatic departure set in motion. A funny, poignant, and always affectionate memoir, My Family and Other Saints follows the ways that Rahoul's spiritual journey reverberates through the entire family. As the family's beachside Bombay home becomes a crossroads for Westerners seeking Eastern enlightenment, Kirin's sari-wearing American mother Didi enthusiastically embraces ashrams and gurus, adopting her son's spiritual quest as her own. Her urbane Indian father Narayan, however, coins the term 'urug' - guru spelled backward - to mock these seekers. Meeting radiant holy men, sensing her parents drifting apart, and observing waves of young Westerners turning to meditation, Kirin is left to find her own answers. 'My Family and Other Saints echoes Gerald Durrell's classic memoir, My Family and Other Animals, not only in its title, but in its wonderful humour and lyrical prose.' - Judith Barrington

<p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">No Indian spymaster has, until now, written a memoir. A.S. Dulat is the first to do so, and in&nbsp;<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">A Life in the Shadows</em>&nbsp;he does it with considerable elan.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">He is one of India’s most successful spymasters, his name synonymous with the Kashmir issue. His methods of engagement and accommodation with all people and perspectives from India’s most conflicted state are legendary. The author of two bestselling books,&nbsp;<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years</em>&nbsp;(2014) and&nbsp;<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">The Spy Chronicles: R&amp;AW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace</em>&nbsp;(2018), Dulat’s views on India, Pakistan and Kashmir are well-known and sought after.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">Yet very little is known about him, primarily because the former spymaster has been notoriously private about his personal life. In this unusual and unique memoir, Dulat breaks that silence for the first time. This is not a traditional, linear narrative as much as a selection of stories from across space and time. Still bound by the rules of secrecy of his trade, he tells a fascinating story of a life richly lived and insightfully observed. From a Partition-bloodied childhood in Lahore and New Delhi to his early years as a young intelligence officer; from meetings with international spymasters to travels around the world; from his observations on Kashmir-political and personal-post the abrogation of Article 370, to his encounters with world leaders, politicians and celebrities; moving from Bhopal to Nepal and from Kashmir to China, Dulat tells the story of his life with remarkable honesty, verve and wit.</p><div><br></div>

<p><div style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important; float: left; width: 630px; margin-bottom: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 100; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"></div></p><div style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important; float: left; width: 630px; margin-bottom: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 100; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">For fans of A Streetcat Named Bob comes Finding Gobi, the heart-warming true story of a dog who captured the hearts of the world. Younger readers’ edition.<br style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important;">Finding Gobi is the ultimate story of hope and friendship – proving once again, that dogs really are ‘man’s best friend.’<br style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><br style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important;">In 2016, Dion Leonard, an ultramarathon runner, stumbled across a little stray dog while competing in a gruelling 155 mile race across the Gobi Desert. The pup earned the name ‘Gobi’, as she went step for step with Dion, keeping pace with him for nearly 80 miles. What Gobi lacked in size, she made up for in heart.<br style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><br style="outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box !important;">Dion had always focused on winning, but as he witnessed the incredible determination of this small animal, he felt something inside him change. This is a story of a life changing friendship between one man and a little stray dog called Gobi.</div>