In late August 1978, Geeta and Sanjay Chopra stepped out of their home in a quiet neighbourhood in Delhi. Geeta had to record a programme at All India Radio. Her younger brother Sanjay accompanied her. The two teenagers disappeared. Four days later, their disfigured bodies would be found by cowherds in a deserted corner of the Ridge, a thickly forested area on the western outskirts of the city. The brutal killing of the children traumatized the city and transfixed the nation. The prime minister had to answer questions about the crime in parliament and police forces in numerous states were mobilized to hunt down the killers.\nIn this first full-length book about the murder and its aftermath, bestselling author and journalist Sudeep Chakravarti, a longtime resident of New Delhi, remembers the horrific crime using eyewitness accounts, archival research, court records, and original interviews that shed fresh light on the tragedy.\nThe murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra took place during an exceptionally unsettled phase in the history of the Indian capital in modern times. Just a few years earlier, in the mid-1970s, Indira Gandhi’s Emergency had terrorized many sections of the population, and just a few years later, in 1984, the city would be convulsed again by a pogrom against Sikhs following the assassination of Indira. Against this background of blood and vengeance, the author’s exploration of the murder of the Chopra siblings, the hunt for their killers, and the sadness and trauma of those grim days will take the reader on a compelling and unputdownable journey through the darkness that settled on Delhi.

Fallen City: A Double Murder, Political Insanity, and Delhi’s Descent from Grace

Children's Books

Sudeep Chakravarti

Education & Reference

Aleph Book Company

Embark on a touching journey through the lively streets of Calcutta in Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwallah, one of India’s bestloved children’s stories. Mini, a curious five-year-old, fills her father’s world with questions and laughter. Enter Rahmat, the Kabuliwallah, a stranger from Afghanistan hawking dry fruits from door to door. When he arrives at Mini’s house, Rahmat is captivated by her as she reminds him of his own daughter. This is the story of the heart-warming friendship that develops between the two—and the unbreakable bond that exists between fathers and daughters.\nBeautifully translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha, this classic tale, enriched with imaginative illustrations, brings to life the poignant story of Mini and the Kabuliwallah. Join them as they prove friendships can blossom in the most unexpected places, leaving a lasting imprint on the heart.

Kabuliwallah

Rabindranath, Tagore

Indian Books

Become a Winner Right Now: A Masterclass from the Supergurus

Literature & Fiction

His Highness Jamedar-General, Khiledar-Major, Sata Vyaghra Samhari, Maharajadhiraja Visva Bhuvana Samrat, Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, M.A.D., A.C.T.C., or C.R.C.K.—the illustrious Tiger King—is born under an unlucky star, and is destined to die in the jaws of a tiger. Refusing to succumb to fate, the king embarks on a quest to defy destiny by eliminating every tiger in his path, vowing to stop at nothing until he reaches the fateful hundredth kill.\nA satirical masterpiece, Kalki’s The Tiger King invites readers on a journey through the whimsical corridors of Pratibandapuram where titles are as abundant as the Maharaja’s ambition. The Maharaja’s quest for a hundred tiger kills takes a delightfully absurd turn, complete with prophetic astrologers, an innocent wooden toy, and a twist that leaves the Maharaja’s ego deflated. Expertly translated from the Tamil by Gowri Ramnarayan and delightfully illustrated throughout, The Tiger King is an entertaining and thought-provoking story of royal folly, showcasing Kalki’s sharp wit and humour.

The Tiger King

Kalki

The Collected Stories of Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury

Chowdhury, Upendrakishore Ray

Maitra, Lopamudra

Middle Class India: Driving Change in the 21st Century

History

Manisha Pande

Asia

Unlocking Wealth: Secrets to Getting Rich at Any Age

Rohit Sarin

Words are power. Words are magic. Words are fun. Words are sexy. Words can move you to tears. Words can make you laugh. And words can show you the world and everything in it with clarity and depth as few other things can. In this gloriously entertaining book, one of our greatest wordsmiths (and self-proclaimed bibliophile) Shashi Tharoor takes us on a tour of the words, concepts, and particularities that constitute the sublime (and sometimes mystifying) wonderland of the English language. 
He demystifies punctuation, guides us through the arcane rules of spelling and grammar, and explains a wide array of essential components of the language including acronyms, bacronyms, contronyms, oxymorons, kennings, metaphors, similes, idioms, euphemisms, palindromes, and much much more. He delves into the history and evolution of English, delights in its quirks, embraces its geographical variants, provides hilarious examples of its misuse around the world, is awed by the way in which the masters of literature use it, and revels in its beauty and grandeur. Passionate, learned, funny, and brilliantly readable, A Wonderland of Words is a book that will enchant and educate all those who delight in the English language.

A Wonderland of Words: Around the Word in 101 Essays

SHASHI THAROOR

Love jihad, Muslim appeasement, forced conversions—these conspiracy theories are now driving everyday conversations in India. Amplified by politicians, cacophonic media coverage, and relentless social media forwards and updates, they have come to be accepted as reality by a large number of people.\nBut are these claims—that India’s minorities are plotting to weaken the majority Hindu community—based on the truth? Or are they fictions created and disseminated to serve the interest of power?\nIn this book, the authors interrogate some theories that are part of the landscape of WhatsApp chats and social media feeds of millions of Indians every day. Chapter 1 examines ‘love jihad’, perhaps the most ascendant of all these claims. Starting with the first known case of ‘love jihad’, the authors investigate arguably the only definitive list of ‘love jihad’ cases. They travel to the state where the largest number of arrests have been made under new anti-love jihad laws to explore if the crackdown is justified. Chapter 2 places ‘population jihad’—the claim that Muslims are waging a holy war by producing more children—under the scanner.\nThe authors crunch the numbers and trawl through parliamentary records to decode whether Muslims will indeed outnumber over a billion Hindus in the near future. Chapter 3 scrutinizes the Hindutva claim of a sinister Christian scheme to take over India through mass forced conversions. Chapter 4 examines the theory of Muslim appeasement, probing assertions like unequal availability of electricity on Diwali and Eid, the hajj subsidy, funds to madrasas, and the favourite bugbear of the Hindu Right: Muslim men being able to take up to four wives.\nWith its clear-eyed and scrupulously argued and researched approach, Love Jihad and Other Fictions is an indispensable antidote to the viral falsehoods threatening to tear India apart.

Love Jihad and Other Fictions: Simple Facts to Counter Viral Falsehoods

Politics & Social Sciences

Jain, Sreenivasan

Alavi, Mariyam

Sharma, Supriya

Social Sciences

Sirinagar (as it’s pronounced in Kashmiri), the capital of Paradise on Earth, is known for its lush green valley and picturesque lakes, but also for its troubled past and unsettled present. Founded in 250 BCE by the Buddhist king Ashoka, Srinagar’s chequered history is one of conquest and centuries of foreign rule, characterized by both indulgence and neglect. In independent India, the state’s troubled geopolitics, the growth of tehreek (armed insurgency) since 1989, and the tumultuous quest for azaadi have turned Srinagar into one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world. In City as Memory, Sadaf Wani draws from her childhood experiences in the mid-90s amidst a waning insurgency movement and increasing militarization, as well as her adolescence in the early 2000s during deadly cycles of violence in the wake of civilian protests, to explore how Kashmir’s turbulent history deeply intertwines with memories of home for its people. Wani explores the beating heart of the city through stories of personal remembrance and scholarship, examining questions of identity and belonging to craft an intimate portrait of Srinagar. Her portrayal illuminates the deep wounds on the spatial, temporal, and emotional landscape of this city of contradictions—where scenic views of the Dal Lake coexist with smoke from tear gas.

City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar

Wani, Sadaf

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