Amish to pen fourth book in ‘Ram Chandra Series’

(New Delhi, May 31, 2022) HarperCollins has acquired author Amish Tripathi’s new book “War of Lanka”, the fourth book in the “Ram Chandra Series”.

In a statement, the publishers said the date of release for “War of Lanka” will be announced soon.

The first book in the “Ram Chandra Series” explores the tale of Ram (“Scion of Ikshvaku”), the second the story of Sita (“Warrior of Mithila”), and the third burrows deep into the life of Raavan (“Enemy of Aryavarta”). The three stories now merge from the fourth book onwards into a single narrative.

HarperCollins has also acquired world English-language rights to Tripathi’s backlist, including the “Shiva Trilogy”, the “Ram Chandra Series” and “Legend of Suheldev-The King Who Saved India”; and his non-fiction titles “Immortal India: Young India, Timeless Civilisation” and “Dharma: Decoding the Epics for a Meaningful Life”. The books will be published between July and August.

Tripathi says he is delighted to sign up with HarperCollins as his new publisher.

“I’m sure that they will take my books to the next level. They will be publishing my entire backlist, and also my upcoming book, ‘War of Lanka’,” he said.

HarperCollins India Ananth Padmanabhan said, “Twelve years ago, when ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ was first published, it created a revolution and announced the arrival of a significant new voice in Indian fiction.

“Since that first book, Amish, with his fantastical storytelling, has created multiple parallel universes and has entertained millions of readers.”

According to executive publisher Udayan Mitra, HarperCollins India is “delighted beyond measure” to become a part of the adventure, as it “brings ‘War of Lanka’, along with Amish’s entire backlist, to the many, many readers who, like me, have been waiting with bated breath”.

Book explores diverse experiences of menstruation in S Asia

(New Delhi, May 28, 2022) A new anthology will look into the diverse experiences of menstruation in South Asia through essays, stories, poetry, interviews and menstrala art with contributors including Tishani Doshi, Shashi Deshpande, Rupi Kaur, Lisa Ray and Shashi Tharoor, among others.

On the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day on Saturday, Pan Macmillan India announced that it will release “Period Matters: Menstruation in South Asia”, edited by Farah Ahamed, on June 30.

The cover, designed by Sukruti Anah Staneley, contains menstrala artwork by Lyla FreeChild, who harvested her own menstrual blood for the painting. The complete painting forms a part of the book’s art section.

The book includes interviews with transpeople, menstruators in prison, the homeless and various marginalised groups about their experience of menstruation as also Ahamed’s short story “Hot Mango Chutney Sauce”, which was on this year’s Commonwealth Writers’ Prize shortlist.

According to the publishers, “Period Matters” is an important endeavour forward to bring conversations about menstruation and menstrual health into the open.

While activist Granaz Baloch narrates how she defied traditional notions of tribal honour and conducted the first-ever menstrual health workshop in Balochistan, Radha Paudel writes about her mission to have menstrual dignity acknowledged as a human right in Nepal.

Tharoor relays the Menstrual Rights Bill which was tabled in Lok Sabha. Doshi breaks new ground with a poem about her uterus. Ayra Indrias Patras describes how some poor women in Pakistan managed their period during the Covid pandemic.

Aditi Gupta reflects on promoting menstrual literacy among young children across India through the Menstrupedia comic books. In a personal essay, Lisa Ray reveals how her illness triggered an early onset of menopause.

The book also showcases menstrala, or art inspired by menstruation, ranging from Rupi Kaur’s iconic photo essay, Anish Kapoor’s oil paintings, Shahzia Sikander’s neo-miniaturist art, photographs of wall murals made by young people in Jharkhand, to Sarah Naqvi’s embroidery. Amna Mawaz Khan offers a perspective through the choreography of her menstrual dance.

In a nutshell, “Period Matters” illustrates with power, purpose and creativity both the variances and commonalities of menstruation.

Ruskin Bond turns 88

(New Delhi, May 19, 2022) Birthday is a “day in the year we do sometimes realise how lucky we are to be alive”, says legendary author Ruskin Bond who turned 88 on Thursday.

On this occasion, HarperCollins India has brought out a book by the author titled “How To Live Your Life”.

“Be whatever you want to be… Give it your heart and soul, and you will have made something of your life, my friend,” says Bond.

The book is packed with all the good advice anyone, any age, would love and benefit from because it is sound wisdom distilled from the wonderful life and times of the inimitable Ruskin Bond, the publisher says.

Before the pandemic, Bond, on his birthday, used to spend time in the evening at his favourite bookstore, Cambridge in Mussoorie, with his fans and cut a cake.

“My dream birthday party would be one in which I am joined by hundreds of my young readers, all enjoying cakes, jalebis, samosas, etc, the bill to be paid by my publishers,” Bond told PTI.

“I have, on the whole, had a wonderful life, and I will tell you more about it as we go along,” he writes at the beginning of his book.

He goes on to describe how he loves writing with a pen, basking in the sun, having a good breakfast and reading letters written by his well-wishers and fans.

“There’s something special you can do, even if you are not yet quite sure what it could be. It’s lurking there somewhere in the back of your mind. It will come to the fore one of these days. And then you can forge ahead. And don’t look back,” he advises.

Bond also asks children not to look back at failure.

“Our past is full of regrets, of things that bother us from time to time. As you get older, you will look back at your boyhood, girlhood, teens, and wish that you had done things differently at certain times. Don’t let these memories stand in your way.”

On birthdays, he writes, “Once a year we celebrate our individual birthdays. On that day in the year we sometimes realise how lucky we are to be alive.

“And yet, surely, every day is a birthday – a birthday for you and me…”

Tina Narang, publisher at HarperCollins India, says at 88, with a life well lived or rather wonderfully lived, Bond is right there on top among the people most suited to tell us how to live our lives.

“Told in true Bond style, each piece of advice will ring true with everyone who reads the book as you’ll discover true wisdom on its pages, again and yet again,” she says about the book.

Bond was born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. As a young man, he spent four years in the Channel Islands and London. He returned to India in 1955. He now lives in Landour, Mussoorie with his adopted family.

At the age of eight, Bond escaped his jail-like boarding school in the hills and went on to live with his father in Delhi. His time in the capital was filled with books, visits to the cinema, music, and walks and conversations with his father – a dream life for a curious and wildly imaginative boy, which turns tragic all too soon.

His first novel “The Room on the Roof”, written when he was 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then, Bond has written a number of novellas, essays, poems and children’s books.

Bond has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

2 Nagpur kids win Oxford’s global read contest

(New Delhi, May 18, 2022) Two school students from Nagpur have been named winners of the Oxford Big Read Global Competition 2021.

Kavya Raj Agarwal from Centre Point School in Nagpur’s Wardhaman Nagar and Tanisha Gupta of the same school in Amravati Road Bypass were among the 149 students who took part from India.

In the competition, primary and secondary school students are required to read Oxford University Press (OUP) supplementary readers and do different age-wise activities based on the levels they belong to.

In the 2021 contest, participants at the global level were from India, Pakistan, South-east Asia, Hong Kong and mainland China, Vietnam and Turkey. The prizes included OUP books, 100 pounds and Apple iPad.

The contest is aimed at encouraging young children to enrich their lives by embarking on a life-long journey as avid readers.

This year too, the competition will be open to all students from classes 1-9 with June 15 being the last date to submit school entries.  The national winners will be announced on July 20 and the global winners on September 15.

Sharing his thoughts on the contest, OUP India MD Sumanta Datta said, “Oxford Big Read competition is our sincere attempt to support parents and teachers in their efforts to raise young readers. We have always received an overwhelming response from schools across India and hope to increase our reach with every new edition of Oxford Big Read.”

How diamond baron Dholakia managed Rs 920 for first trade!

(New Delhi, May 15, 2022) Diamond tycoon Govind Dholakia has come out with a tongue-in-cheek account of his journey of life, recalling how he created a billion-dollar company and providing nuggets of information including how he arranged Rs 920 for the first trade of his life.

The autobiography Diamonds Are Forever, So Are Morals, as told to A P J Abdul Kalam’s Wings of Fire co-author Arun Tiwari and Dholakia’s aide Kamlesh Yagnik, is published by Penguin Enterprise.

Dholakia, founder and chairman of diamond manufacturing and exporting company Shree Ramkrishna Exports Pvt.Ltd., strongly believes that high morals and values helped him largely in making the right decisions in life.

His book also tells how he has an inclination towards spiritual wellbeing. His memoir can also be described as a fine balance between his spiritual self and his karma.

It was on the last Sunday of January 1970 after he went to a crystal ball reading shop that Dholakia decided to start his own business – dealing with rough diamonds and polishing them.

Recalling his first trade, he says, “… We landed at the office of Babubhai Rikhavchand Doshi and Bhanubhai Chandubhai Shah. They quoted Rs 91 as the price of one carat, but a minimum purchase of ten carats had to be made. That meant Rs 910 and a brokerage of Rs 10 had to be added.”

Dholakia only had Rs 500 and was told to give the remaining amount after reaching home.

“The problem was that there was no money at home. Whatever I had with me was in my pocket. However, I did not want to miss the opportunity. Hence, I promptly made the payment of Rs 500,” Dholakia recalls.

To make the remaining payment of Rs 420, he went to his friend Virjibhai’s house.

Virjibhai promptly called his wife and asked her to give Dholakia Rs 200 that she had for the household expenses. Then Virjibhai went to his neighbour and took Rs 200 on credit. He then added Rs 20 that he had in his wallet and gave them to a much-relieved Dholakia.

Dholakia then went and paid the rest Rs 420 and made the first trade in his life.

“We sold the polished diamonds to Babubhai at 10 per cent profit after about a week. They were very happy with our work and started giving us as many roughs as we wanted,” he says.

Dholakia considered diamonds as God.

“I realised that harnessing a diamond’s true potential was not only an art, but it was also a very precise and exact science. The skills needed to be a proficient diamond cutter and polisher would take years of training to acquire but the science part remained an enigma to most of the workers,” he says.

Goswamys explore 19th-century Pahari paintings in book

(New Delhi, May 12, 2022) Art historian couple B N Goswamy and Karuna Goswamy have authored an illustrated book on 19th-century Pahari paintings that depict the journey of five pilgrims to the land of Lord Shiva.

“A Sacred Journey: The Kedara Kalpa series of Pahari paintings and the painter Purkhu of Kangra”, published by Niyogi Books, features detailed descriptions of the paintings, their subtle nuances and spiritual significance and includes over 170 images of the Kedara Kalpa series of paintings from leading museums and collections around the world.

The present volume of paintings is based on Karuna Goswamy’s research and her identification, for the first time, of the little-known ancient Shaivite text Kedara Kalpa.

The authors state that there are long and smaller versions of the Kedara Kalpa text. The long version asserts that Kedara is the foremost among tirthas; visiting Kedara and performing puja there are beneficial for devotees.

In the long version, Shiva narrates past events to Parvati. However, there is a slight gap in the narrative here and one comes upon a small group of five Brahmins who decide to venture on the ‘great path’. It is from this point that the shorter version of Kedara Kalpa, as in other copies of the text begins.

B N Goswamy calls the venture a “… sthala purana to Kedarnath. A sthala purana is about a place – a pilgrimage; what it entails and what it leads to”.

The authors have ascribed it to Pahari painter Purkhu and they appear to be made between 1815 and 1820. The paintings are in two series.

The authors through these paintings have also provided details about the cities the sadhaks travel to, their way of life and the ambience in which the sadhaks and the king pay homage to each other.

The book not only details interpretations of the paintings but also gives ample information about how painstakingly the works were acquired and curated from all over the world.

Karuna Goswamy had to travel to several countries across the world to collate data about the series. She died in 2020 before seeing the completed work. But her husband continued the work and launched it.

“Karuna was way more adventurous than me in research. She put the work together but before she could finish the work, she was gone, so I decided to complete it,” he says.

The mystical journey, the illustrations of detailed paintings, the aesthetically composed text all combine to make the book a valuable work on Indian art.

“Each of these works intrigues and informs, and in some ways expands our awareness, for nothing quite like these do we see elsewhere in the range of Indian paintings. There is something here for everyone to savour for sure,” says B N Goswamy.

Book features games hinterland of India grew up playing

(New Delhi, May 12, 2022) A new book talks about 15 traditional or indigenous games that hinterland of India has grown up playing but now have somewhat vanished from the urban landscape.

“The Games India Plays: Indian Sports Simplified” by Amitabh Satyam and Sangeeta Goswami features traditional Indian games that are entertaining, intellectually stimulating, educational and which can be played almost anywhere with minimal equipment.

The 15 such games mentioned in the book, published by Bloomsbury India, are Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Gilli Danda, Lagori, Nondi, Nalugu Rallu Atta, Yubi Lakpi, Nadee Parvat, Cheel Jhapatta, Jod Saakli, Vish Amrut, Langdi, Gella Chutt, Atya-Patya and Pacha Kuthirai.

The authors say these games have been selected after extensive research.

Some of the features of these games are – a detailed set of rules for each step during the game; many variations that allow possibilities to develop while playing, thus inviting players to innovate; fun to play with a large number of possible outcomes, maximising the involvement of each player at all times during the play.

The book also says that these games can be played with no or minimal equipment and without any planning. They have established rules; some can be customised or relaxed depending on the field, the number of players and the equipment available.

The authors also seek to establish a connection of these games to our ancient culture and assert that preserving these indigenous games is akin to preserving our culture.

Satyam and Goswami, however, rue that these games have been almost eliminated from the active consideration of Indians.

“Rich urban Indians just follow the West. Sports means the ones played in the West at the Olympics. Poor urban Indians aspire to do what the urban rich do. Similarly, people from smaller towns look up to urban Indians. Villagers are out of the equation. Over time, a sense has developed that their life, culture and life is not up to the mark, and city folks are the people to take directions from,” they argue.

The authors also bat for schools creating space for Indian games in their premises.

“Expensive schools invest in developing Western sports facilities. They must consider creating space for Indian games or sharing space with a tennis or basketball court. A tennis court is good for only two players, whereas the same space can be used by dozens of players playing Indian games,” they write.

“Our games are fun and interesting and can be played conveniently. They cost nothing or almost nothing to play, especially the games we have selected. Encouraging these games will allow the players to receive all the benefits mentioned earlier and will require almost no investment. The investment required in lakhs of crores of rupees for building thousands of tennis courts, cricket stadiums and swimming pools is not needed,” they say.

According to them, Indian games give, say, a hundred times better return on investment.

“Investment in Western games does help win some medals in international competitions, such as the Olympics. However, if we wish to build character, develop team spirit and provide physical exercise, then Indian games are as good or better than the Western ones,” they argue.

Sculptor Khambatta’s tribute to INS Vikrant on metaverse

(New Delhi, Apr 27, 2022) Sculptor Arzan Khambatta has joined a league of celebrated names from the field of art, culture, sports and entertainment in the metaverse and will create a limited-edition collection themed around India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

Khambatta’s entry into the metaverse with Hefty Art – an initiative of Hindustan Talkies, digital media entertainment company Hungama and ethereum scaling and infrastructure development platform Polygon will ensure the availability of some of his artworks for purchase as digital collectibles in the form of utility-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

INS Vikrant, the maritime warship which played a key role in the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, got reduced to a heap of scrap before it was bought by crew members. Later, Arzan was commissioned to create a tribute to it.

With changing times and a booming online world, Khambatta said metaverse is the future.

“I am excited for this tribute to INS Vikrant. This will definitely help me reach out to a wider audience and art markets worldwide. For any artist, the more viewers they can connect with is better. Looking forward to responses around my sculptures in metaverse now,” he said in a statement.

According to Ashish Chowdhry, co-founder of Hindustan Talkies, “With Arzan Khambatta joining in, our world only gets better and more beautiful. We want to create a metaverse that would be an art lover’s delight. Every new association allows us to back new artists and take our vision across platforms and regions.”

Speaking on the partnership, Hungama managing director Neeraj Roy said it will enrich the Hefty metaverse.

“Revolutionising how art is consumed, and artists are viewed today worldwide, NFTs are just a step ahead in the way it unleashes new limitless possibilities to showcase their work on a global scale,” Roy added.

Along with having Khambatta on board, Hefty Art’s auction for the M F Husain’s art piece “Fury” will kick-off around the second week of May. It will be the first-of-its-kind ‘phygital’ auction for an artwork by the master. This will be followed by the foray of all Hefty certified artists into the Hefty metaverse.

Anthology of short stories portrays life’s ephemerality

(New Delhi, Apr 27, 2022) Author Kannan Menon, who has written several novels, anthologies and children’s books in Malayalam, has come out with a collection of short stories in English heeding to requests by his readers.

He says “Beyond the Golden Shower”, his anthology of 13 stories, depicts the dreams and sorrows of middle-class Indians.

“These stories touch upon how social issues and values pervade our lives,” Menon told PTI.

Menon has been publishing short stories and novels in Malayalam for a long time now. His readers and well-wishers had been encouraging him to have his work translated into English so that it reaches a wider audience.

“That was my motivation. On a very selfish level, I want my grandchildren, who unfortunately cannot read and write Malayalam, to be able to enjoy reading my work,” he says about his book, which has been translated into English by P N Venugopal.

Menon, who has been living in and outside the US for the past 25 years, features several NRI characters in the stories in his book.

“My experience had made me realise that our worries and issues, which might seem dissimilar from the outside, are a common thread and we are battling the same demons irrespective of where we are. Drawing from my own experiences, I decided to feature NRI characters in this anthology,” he says.

Menon is the founding general secretary of the Kerala State General Insurance Employees Union and has written four novels, six anthologies of short stories, four children’s books and one collected works.

To him, all of his books are distinct since they are a reflection of something he has experienced or seen at a juncture in his life.

“This particular anthology is, however, special to me as it covers an array of themes which mirror the reality of many among us. It is also different from my other works because it is in English,” he says.

Menon also praises the translation work by Venugopal, saying “he has made sure that the soul of each story was preserved.”

One day, life takes a turn and the familiar becomes an indelible memory. A Malayali leaves his land of golden shower trees and tries to find out what lies beyond. The official state flower of Kerala, its vibrant petals remind him of his home and the bonds he had forged. The characters’ resilience makes them akin to this tree’s sturdiness to withstand varying temperatures.

The commonality in each of the characters is that they all wait somewhere – to see a luminous shower of happiness they yearn for.

The stories in the book portray life’s ephemerality like the nature of the golden shower tree – to shed its flowers and leaves.

Book chronicles journey of elections in India

(New Delhi, Apr 26, 2022) What common distinction do politicians Mamata Banerjee, Morarji Desai, Tribhuvan Narain Singh, Prem Kumar Dhumal and Biju Patnaik share?

They form a “dubious league of chief ministers losing polls when their respective parties won the assembly elections”, says a new book which narrates the saga of Indian elections with stories ranging from digitisation of voting and the constant struggle with the malpractices to holding elections during pandemic.

“The Power of The Ballot: Travail and Triumph in the Elections”, written by Supreme Court advocate Vipul Maheshwari and journalist Anil Maheshwari and published by Bloomsbury India, talks about how elections in India have been a stable and impressive feature of the country’s political landscape.

The book has a foreword by former Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.

Among the many anecdotes the authors share is the one about Banerjee, saying “she is in a hall of ‘defeat in victory’ of sorts that includes Morarji Desai, Tribhuvan Narain Singh, Prem Kumar Dhumal and Biju Patnaik”.

However, each had a peculiar situation or circumstances, they say.

“In some ways, she (Banerjee) is the only one to have lost an assembly seat when her party went on to win a record 213 out of 292 seats that went to polls in Bengal in 2021,” they write.

In 1970, Singh was the incumbent Uttar Pradesh chief minister who failed to win a bye-election. He was heading a Samyukta Vidhayak Dal, consisting of Congress (O), Swatantra Party, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Kranti Dal.

In 1971, Patnaik had formed a breakaway Utkal Congress and was set to become Orissa’s chief minister but the legendary politician lost from all the four assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha constituency which he was contesting simultaneously.

In December 2017, Dhumal, a former chief minister, was a front runner in the race for the coveted seat of the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh when BJP edged out Congress’s Virbhadra Singh regime. BJP won but Dhumal failed to get elected to the assembly.

Desai lost in 1952.

The authors say the Indian electorate can be harsh in its judgments and anti-incumbency is a term that was probably coined in India.

They say over the post-Independence decades, elections have turned into a panorama of the democratic experience that everybody in some way tends to study, situate in their observation and render in their telling.

According to them, in any democratic country, a national election is a major and much-publicised event; it tends to highlight and dramatise the entire political process and, to a considerable extent, the underlying cultural and social milieu.

The elections also involve larger numbers of people in political activities than any other single national endeavour, they say.

“For the time being, at least, it brings political leaders, and aspirants for political leadership, into more direct contact with the masses or the citizens than in any other way, and it gives the average citizen a short-lived sense of importance to bring their choice of political leaders through active participation in the political process,” they write.

The authors also feel that elections in India have aspects of special interest and fascination.

“The spectacle of crores of ordinary Indians – at least one-fourth of whom are illiterate, isolated, both geographically and socially, and unaccustomed to democratic ways – participating in ‘the world’s largest democratic elections’ is a truly impressive demonstration of democracy in action in the largest non-communist developing nation,” they write.