Battle For Bittora The Story Of India S Most Passionate Loksabha Contest

Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai, works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her carefree life. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni's 'duty' to drop everything and come and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from their sleepy hometown, Bittora. Jinni swears she won't but she soon ends up swathed in cotton saris and frumpy blouses, battling prickly heat, corruption and accusations of nymphomania as candidate Sarojini Pande, a daughter of the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh. And if life isn't fun enough already, her main opposition turns out to be Bittora ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan - an irritatingly idealistic though undeniably lustworthy individual with whom Jinni shares a complicated history. Enlivened by Chauhan's characteristic brand of wicked humour and sexy romanticism, this is a rollicking new tale of young India.

Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai, works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her carefree life. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni's 'duty' to drop everything and come and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from their sleepy hometown, Bittora. Jinni swears she won't but she soon ends up swathed in cotton saris and frumpy blouses, battling prickly heat, corruption and accusations of nymphomania as candidate Sarojini Pande, a daughter of the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh. And if life isn't fun enough already, her main opposition turns out to be Bittora ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan - an irritatingly idealistic though undeniably lustworthy individual with whom Jinni shares a complicated history.Enlivened by Chauhan's characteristic brand of wicked humour and sexy romanticism, this is a rollicking new tale of young India.

Drawing together the insights of postcolonial scholarship and cultural studies, Popular Postcolonialisms questions the place of ‘the popular’ in the postcolonial paradigm. Multidisciplinary in focus, this collection explores the extent to which popular forms are infused with colonial logics, and whether they can be employed by those advocating for change. It considers a range of fiction, film, and non-hegemonic cultural forms, engaging with topics such as environmental change, language activism, and cultural imperialism alongside analysis of figures like Tarzan and Frankenstein. Building on the work of cultural theorists, it asks whether the popular is actually where elite conceptions of the world may best be challenged. It also addresses middlebrow cultural production, which has tended to be seen as antithetical to radical traditions, asking whether this might, in fact, form an unlikely realm from which to question, critique, or challenge colonial tropes. Examining the ways in which the imprint of colonial history is in evidence (interrogated, mythologized or sublimated) within popular cultural production, this book raises a series of speculative questions exploring the interrelation of the popular and the postcolonial.

Director, dancer, goodwill advocate for the United Nations: Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush is so much more than the daughter of a legendary actor, or the wife of southern cinema's biggest star. Growing up in Bangalore and then Madras, in a household that resolutely kept out any hint of her father's superstardom, she was a quiet, introverted child whose greatest pleasure was a visit to Marina Beach and an occasional meal out. It was not cinema but law that became a preoccupation when she started thinking about college and career - but fate, and her mother, had other plans for her.Aishwaryaa writes with disarming honesty about life as Rajinikanth's daughter, of falling in love and raising two boys with Dhanush, of fighting her own demons and finding satisfaction in a career of her choice. She reflects on the many roles a woman has to juggle at home and outside - in her case, under the watchful gaze of cameras and celebrity-watchers.Intensely personal, but also inspirational, Aishwaryaa's memoir is an unusually frank insight into growing up in cinema-land. A playful meditation on the joys and difficulties of being a woman in this age, Standing on an Apple Box is as much a celebration of individual fulfilment as it is of family.

In a sprawling bungalow on New Delhi's posh Hailey Road, Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur and his wife Mamta spend their days watching anxiously over their five beautiful (but troublesome) alphabetically named daughters.Anjini, married but an incorrigible flirt; Binodini, very worried about her children's hissa in the family property; Chandrakanta, who eloped with a foreigner on the eve of her wedding; Eshwari, who is just a little too popular at Modern School, Barakhamba Road; and the Judge's favourite (though fathers shouldn't have favourites): the quietly fiery Debjani, champion of all the stray animals on Hailey Road, who reads the English news on DD and clashes constantly with crusading journalist Dylan Singh Shekhawat, he of shining professional credentials but tarnished personal reputation, crushingly dismissive of her 'state-sponsored propaganda', but always seeking her out with half-sarcastic, half-intrigued dark eyes.Spot-on funny and toe-curlingly sexy, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is rom-com specialist Anuja Chauhan writing at her sparkling best.

'Why do they call you Baaz?' 'It means falcon,' he replies solemnly. 'Or bird of prey. Because I swoop down on the enemy planes just like a Baaz would.' Then he grins. The grey eyes sparkle. 'It's also short for bastard.'1971. The USSR-backed India-Mukti Bahini alliance is on the brink of war against the America-aided Pakistani forces. As the Cold War threatens to turn red hot, handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane nicknamed 'Sabre Slayer' for the devastation it has wreaked in the ranks of Pakistan's F-86 Sabre Squadrons. Flanked by his buddies Raks, a MiG-21 Fighter, Maddy, a transport pilot who flies a Caribou, and fellow Gnatties Jana, Gana and Mana, Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure - until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism and whose eyes fill with disillusioned scorn whenever people wax eloquent about patriotism and war...Pulsating with love, laughter and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan's tribute to our men in uniform.

Now in a fresh new look! 'Delightful. Wickedly accurate.' INDIA TODAY 'I'll make my sisters squirm like well-salted earthworms. I won't sell. Even my jutti won't sell. And if I die na, then even my gosht won't sell!' The late Binodini Thakur had been very clear that she would never agree to sell her hissa in her Bauji's big old house on Hailey Road. And her daughter Bonu is determined to honour her mother's wishes. But what to do about her four pushy aunts who are insisting she sell? One is bald and stingy, one is jobless and manless, one needs the money to 'save the nation' and one is stepmother to Bonu's childhood crush - brilliant young Bollywood director Samar Vir Singh, who promised BJ upon his deathbed that he would get the house sold, divvy the money equally and end all the bickering within the family. The first word baby Bonu ever spoke was 'Balls' and indeed, she is bally, bullshit-intolerant, brave and beautiful. But is she strong enough to weather emotional blackmail by the spadefull? Not to mention shady builders, wily politicians, spies, lies and the knee-buckling hotness of Samar's intense eyes?

The year is 1942 and the province Sindh, where Sadhana, the childish granddaughter of a rich Sindhi grain merchant is getting married to Prakash, when Rehman, the meek, poor boy next door and Sadhana's childhood friend realizes his love for her. On the other hand, Jinnah and Nehru have started displaying their influence on the young and the restless of the yet undivided India, where the several Gurdwara's Sikh flags are replaced with the green flag of Islam and Prakash becomes a fatality in one such crossfire. Barely 15 days into her marriage and Sadhana is a widow. And Rehman is back in her life. But little does she know that her radical Hindu father has fixed her marriage to Sunil, a Sindhi millionaire running his looms in Dhakka, which is soon to become East Pakistan. Sadhana and Rehman plan an escape but destiny plays a cruel role with the breakout of riots and Rehman is once again late in claiming his love. The Radcliffe line has been drawn and has divided India. The lovers had parted painfully. Sadhana, now a nurse, is attending to the injured when she meets Sunil, the man she was slated to marry. His brother, Anil is a doctor at the hospital and has fallen in love with the young nurse. But Sadhana's heart only beats for Rehman. In this hour of difficulty, Sadhana's grandfather plans a sinister conspiracy and poisons Sadhana's mind against Rehman; causing her to marry Anil. And just when connubial happiness begins to set in and Sadhana gets pregnant, Rehman returns for her causing her heart to beat for him once again. What will Dr. Anil, who till now was unaware of their undying love, do when he comes to know of Rehman's presence? Will Sadhana follow her heart or will she bind herself in chains that have always distanced her from her true love? Will Rehman accept a pregnant Sadhana as his soulmate or leave her at the crossroads once again? To know more, read an epic tale of love, passion, emotion, drama and romance set in the times of partition through the eyes of our protagonist...Sadhana