The Begum And The Dastan

Lined with grandeur, tragedy and fantasy, Tarana Husain Khan's odyssey maps the social, political and religious contours of 1897 Sherpur with the fascinating and strong-willed Feroza Begum at the centre of the storm. On an evening not too many evenings ago, the blue-eyed Feroza, flouting her family's orders, attended Nawab Shams Ali Khan's sawani celebrations at the Benazir Palace. Tragedy coloured the night when she found herself kidnapped and withheld in the Nawab's harem - bustling, tantalizing and rife with sinister power play. As tyranny and repression tightened their hold inside the royal walls, at the Bazaar Chowk, dastangoi Kallan Mirza enchanted his listeners with the legend of sorcerer Tareek Jaan and his chimeric city, the Tilism-e-Azam, where women were confined in underground basements. Misfortune and subjugation link eras when Ameera, Feroza's great-granddaughter, is restricted to her house and finds solace in her Dadi's retelling of Feroza's tragedy. When Ameera's circumstances begin mirroring the strife and indignities pervasive in 1897 Sherpur, she must reflect if society has shifted enough for women and their choices. Written with careful flamboyance and striking evocativeness, The Begum and the Dastan is a world imbued with love, splendour and heartbreak, only saved by the women who refuse to play by the rule book.

Winner of the Global Humanities Translation Prize The Tale of the Missing Man (Dastan-e Lapata) is a milestone in Indo-Muslim literature. A refreshingly playful novel, it explores modern Muslim life in the wake of the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. Zamir Ahmad Khan suffers from a mix of alienation, guilt, and postmodern anxiety that defies diagnosis. His wife abandons him to his reflections about his childhood, writing, ill-fated affairs, and his hometown, Bhopal, as he attempts to unravel the lies that brought him to his current state (while weaving new ones). A novel of a heroic quest gone awry, The Tale of the Missing Man artfully twists the conventions of the Urdu romance, or dastan, tradition, where heroes chase brave exploits that are invariably rewarded by love. The hero of Ahtesham’s tale, living in the fast-changing city of Bhopal during the 1970s and ’80s, suffers an identity crisis of epic proportions: he is lost, missing, and unknown both to himself and to others. The result is a twofold quest in which the fate of protagonist and writer become inextricably and ironically linked. The lost hero sets out in search of himself, while the author goes in search of the lost hero, his fictionalized alter ego. New York magazine cited the book as one of “the world's best untranslated novels.” In addition to raising important questions about Muslim identity, Ahtesham offers a very funny and thoroughly self-reflective commentary on the modern author’s difficulties in writing autobiography. The Global Humanities Translation Prize is awarded annually to a previously unpublished translation that strikes the delicate balance between scholarly rigor, aesthetic grace, and general readability, as judged by a rotating committee of Northwestern faculty, distinguished international scholars, writers, and public intellectuals. The Prize is organized by the Global Humanities Initiative, which is jointly supported by Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Studies and Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.

The cultural capital of erstwhile Awadh region, has charmed generations into writing about the city. But there is no book that captures all the aspects of Awadhi culture, history and traditions of the region. Awadh Symphony: Notes on a Cultural Interlude is an extensively detailed volume which takes you on a journey to a bygone era and gives a glimpse of everyday life in this North Indian kingdom. Revisiting Awadh, it offers almost all aspects of human activity-from culture, cuisine, craft and religious ritual to games, fairs and bazaars; from life of ordinary Muslim women to courtesans, who were a part of the famous Sham-i-Awadh; from the tradition of dastangoi to the recitation of marsiya; and much more. A staunch bibliophile and an ardent admirer of Lucknow, author Aslam Mahmud had collected every possible book on Awadh throughout his life, consulting each of these to pen the work of a lifetime-a compendium on Lucknow with rare information and an exceptional guide to the life and times of Awadh.

Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of Manto and Ghalib and a history of Indian culture rolled into one. Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, ‘I discovered Rabisankar Bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country.’ Rabisankar Bal’s audacious novel, told by reflections in a mirror and forged in the fires of hell, is both an oral tale and a shield against oblivion. An echo of distant screams. Inscribed by the devil’s quill, Dozakhnama is an outstanding performance of subterranean memory.

Five hundred years ago, Guru Nanak founded the Sikh faith in India. The Sikhs defied the caste system; rejected the authority of Hindu priests; forbade magic and idolatry; and promoted the equality of men and women -- beliefs that incurred the wrath of both Hindus and Muslims. In the centuries that followed, three of Nanak's nine successors met violent ends, and his people continued to battle hostile regimes. The conflict has raged into our own time: in 1984 the Golden Temple of Amritsar -- the holy shrine of the Sikhs--was destroyed by the Indian Army. In retaliation, Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Now, Patwant Singh gives us the compelling story of the Sikhs -- their origins, traditions and beliefs, and more recent history. He shows how a movement based on tenets of compassion and humaneness transformed itself, of necessity, into a community that values bravery and military prowess as well as spirituality. We learn how Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Guru, welded the Sikhs into a brotherhood, with each man bearing the surname Singh, or "Lion," and abiding by a distinctive code of dress and conduct. He tells of Banda the Brave's daring conquests, which sowed the seeds of a Sikh state, and how the enlightened ruler Ranjit Singh fulfilled this promise by founding a Sikh empire. The author examines how, through the centuries, the Sikh soldier became an exemplar of discipline and courage and explains how Sikhs -- now numbering nearly 20 million worldwide -- have come to be known for their commitment to education, their business acumen, and their enterprising spirit. Finally, Singh concludes that it would be a grave error to alienate an energetic and vital community like the Sikhs if modern India is to realize its full potential. He urges India's leaders to learn from the past and to "honour the social contract with Indians of every background and persuasion."

Awadh is synonymous in history with its eventful nawabi reign that lasted for over a century. Awadh’s dynasty was founded in a humble habitat on the banks of the River Saryu near Ayodhya. The place was named Faizabad and grew to become the political capital and a renowned centre of culture and prosperity under its successive nawabs. Faizabad’s tryst with its royalty lasted for over half a century before passing the baton to Lucknow, which became the new capital of Awadh. The new first city shed its old husk to adorn a fresh one. The praxis, customs, etiquettes, poetry, art and craft that its royalty fashioned remain alive to this day.

" Bitter rivals. Reluctant colleagues. Tormented ex-lovers. Myra Rai is living her best life. At twenty-eight, she is a prominent journalist at the precipice of dreamy success and her dating life is the envy of the town. After all, jealous heads stir to probe her almost engagement to Ravi Rao, the gentleman heir to a roaring political legacy! Myra is well on her course. Until comes knocking the broad-shouldered, chiselled-face ghost from her past... Andrew Brown is a headstrong political activist, unexpectedly back in the city after a winning stint in the US. Set to take over as the executive editor of Morning Herald, he is determined to revisit his past and reconnect with that one feisty journalist at work who hates his guts, hates that he is back, and hates that he never called... Both Myra and Andrew have lost a lot over the years, including each other. But in the fierce race to best one another while pretending not to seethe in the hellfire of jealousy and suppressed passion, can they keep their barbs (and hands) to themselves? Right from the centre of a smouldering passion-fest, Prajwal Hegde tugs compellingly at the heartstrings and delivers a stormy rom-com that is all love (AND a whole lot of lust)! "