Soothslayer

Simhachalam is an old laid back picturesque village in the foothills of the Sahyadris. Full of queer locations and people, it has numerous stories associated with it . What hides inside the abandoned boat house of Simhachalam? What is the history and the story of this cursed property ? Will the owner ever return to this property or with him will be lost all the hopes of clearing the curse associated to it. What is the "Soothsayer's prophecy" on this? Will it come true? The teenage kids Prateishtha, Esha , Nimisha and Prahar are on a quest to find these answers during their much awaited monsoon vacation. What awaits them is a trail full of adventure, code cracking and visiting mysterious places and meeting strange people! Will they succeed to trace the rightful owner and find the answers to the questions above? Happy reading and find out yourself!

A man curious about his future goes to an astrologer. The astrologer prophesies that his wife will meet with an accident. Destiny decides to test whether the astrologer will remain true to his craft even though it entails ruin. Will the astrologer pass the test? A sculptor creates a very beautiful statue. The statue is infected with the praise hurled upon it. Is beauty a source of inspiration or cause of destruction? Or are creation and destruction the two great imposters? There is theft in the house of a businessman. An engineering student confesses to the police, yet the investigation starts. There is a dilapidated medieval fort where poltergeist phenomena are reported. Six friends visit the fort, some out of curiosity and some out of compulsion. What happens inside the fort will haunt the ghosts for eternity. Stories that are uninhibited by the constraints of grammar, by the considerations of syntactic propriety, by the rigidities of morals and messages, is a dream destination. We believe that a story belongs more to a reader than its writer. We have tried our best to refrain ourselves from force-feeding the reader with matters that are too peripheral to matter, in spite of the many temptations to do so and have made naive attempts to act as facilitators and allow the reader to paint his own environs and at times, draw his own conclusions . This book is more a sincere than a scholarly attempt to do this.

A plucky, sardonic con artist must “prophesize” her way out of peril—discovering along the way that power and politics are nothing more than stories sold as truth. Kalyna’s family has the Gift: the ability to see the future. For generations, they traveled the four kingdoms of the Tetrarchia selling their services as soothsayers. Every child of their family is born with this Gift—everyone except Kalyna. So far, Kalyna has used informants and trickery to falsify prophecies for coin, scrounging together a living for her deteriorating father and cruel grandmother. But Kalyna’s reputation for prophecy precedes her, and poverty turns to danger when she is pressed into service by the spymaster to Rotfelsen. Kalyna is to use her “Gift” to uncover threats against Rotfelsen’s king, her family held hostage to ensure her good behavior. But politics are devious; the king’s enemies abound, and Kalyna’s skills for investigation and deception are tested to the limit. Worse, the conspiracy she uncovers points to a larger threat, not only to Rotfelsen but to the Tetrarchia itself. Kalyna is determined to protect her family and newfound friends, but as she is drawn deeper into palace intrigue, she can no longer tell if her manipulations are helping prevent the Tetrarchia’s destruction—or if her lies will bring about its prophesized downfall.

Saudi Arabia has changed beyond all recognition in the past few decades, and the country's writers have been pre-eminent in grappling with the dilemmas, the cultural jarring and the identity problems thrown up by such an accelerated pace of change. "Beyond The Dunes" opens up for the first time the diversity and richness of contemporary Saudi Arabian literature to an English-speaking audience in this uniquely accessible book. Mansour al Hazimi, Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Ezzat Khattab have put together a varied selection of poetry, short stories, novel extracts, personal accounts, drama and essays which provide a fascinating insight into the challenges and tensions of a culture that is striving to balance globalisation and modernity with highly cherished traditional values. The social dislocation experienced by Saudi Arabians finds vivid formal expression in the dramas included in this volume, which may surprise many Western readers with their bold experimentalism and surrealist elements. Novelist Ahmad al Siba'I, a more traditional writer, offers a reflective, humanistic response to the world, whilst poets such as Ghassan al-Khunaizi, Ahmad al Mulla and Huda al Daghfaq reflect both the rich stylistic heritage of Saudi literature and the new techniques and outlook of modern Arabic poetry. Even when they are harking back to the vanished world of pre-modern Saudi Arabia, many of these writers reflect generational dialogues and an awareness of contemporary resonances. "Beyond the Dunes" places women's voices firmly in the centre of the Saudi literary canon for the first time, reflecting the increasing pre-eminence of writers such as Raja' 'Alem, Qumasha al-Ulayyan, Noura al-Ghamidi and Fawziyya Abu Khalid. This ground-breaking book provides an indispensable introduction to the thoughts, forms and expressions of one of the most complex and fascinating of world literatures at a moment of pivotal transformation.

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 27 In Issue 27 of the Baba Indaba Children's Stories, Baba Indaba narrates the Persian tale of the Soothsayer's Wife and the (poor) Hodja. - a teacher of sorts who wants to improve his lot in life. But just how does the hodja succeed? It is believed that folklore and tales are believed to have originated in India and made their way overland along the Silk and Spice routes and through Central Asia before arriving in Europe. This book also has a "Where in the World - Look it Up" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story, on map. HINT - use Google maps. Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".

"Arthurian Legends and Romance? Yes, please!" Some believe Magic should rule the world. Others don't even know Magic is real. With the threat of Morgana's return looming over the Magical world, Violet Evans is the only one who can wake the Lady of the Lake and put a stop to Morgana's vengeance. A centuries old prophecy stalks Violet and when she is brutally attacked, Robert Maxwell saves her life with Magic changing her world forever. With undeniable proof that Magic is real, Violet is thrust into a world she never dreamed possible. As the romantic tension builds so does the threat of Morgana Le Fay. Violet must make a choice; become The Waker or leave the Magical world and Robert behind.