Travails With Chachi

Chachi: is not a taxi. It is something that feels; and emotes . . . New Delhi: A melting pot. A crucible of people, cultures, lifestyles. Home to the politicians that lead this country. And to the taxiwallahs that more often than not charge a hundred per cent extra than the legitimate fare. U.P.: The badlands. Notorious for dacoits, land usurpation; and other misdeeds. This is the New Delhi and U.P that we travel through with the most lovable of all symbols associated with the city – the Ambassador car. Travails with Chachi is a ‘Never-before-Seen’ Delhi. It is a Delhi seen through the eyes of the Ambassador taxi – an ubiquitous symbol that for many decades defined Delhi. Plodding through Lutyens’ Delhi on a maximum speed of 40 kmph Chachi (the protagonist of this book) sees all; experiences all; and tells all. The taxi belches; makes offensive noises; and is a tell-tale. And so the characters that Chachi plys on her ample ‘back’seat – dhoti-clad paan-chewing portly politicians indulging in ‘suitcase politics; Ganesh brand beedi chain-smokers; the Nakli Singh Yadavs who only want to induct people into politics – that is already home to bus conductors and convicted dacoits; the belan brandishing Bablu ki Ma; and Mehnath Singh – who is far removed from the name bestowed upon him by his parents that implies ‘hard work’. The lands that Chachi travels through is peppered with those that breathe and abuse concurrently; those that revel and live off name-dropping; the inventors of lyrical slogans - Tilak, tarazu, talwar aur ch****; sab ko maro joota chaar!; and those that make a living - doing nothing. This is New Delhi. This is U.P. This is Chachi’s world.

'The only book I have ever written just for the fun of it' Graham Greene Greene proves a wonderful storyteller in this hilarious tale of the eccentricity of families and the pomposity of the middle class. Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel her way, Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay. Through Aunt Augusta, a veteran of Europe's hotel bedrooms, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals, CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban life. In Travels With My Aunt Graham Greene not only gives us intoxicating entertainment but also confronts us with some of the most perplexing of human dilemmas.

Srinagar, capital city of the famed ‘paradise on earth’, Kashmir. Ailan Gali, a deep, dark narrow lane that lies at its heart, where houses stand on a finger’s width of space and lean crookedly against each other, so deep, so narrow, so closely connected that even thieves do not dare enter. Yet people live and love here, they cling on to their old ways, they share stories and food, joys and sorrows, sufficient unto themselves. But the outside world beckons, youngsters begin to leave, and slowly change makes its way into Ailan Gali only to find its hitherto hidden mirror-image – the change that has insidiously been working its way into the lives of those who are the gali’s permanent residents. This funny, poignant, evocative story of a Kashmir as yet untouched by violence – but with its shadows looming at the edges – is a classic of Hindi literature, available in English translation for the first time. Published by Zubaan.

“This is why we read fiction at all” raves the Washington Post: Family life meets historical romance in this critically acclaimed, “gorgeous, sweeping novel” (Ms Magazine) about two people who find each other when abandoned by everyone else, marking the signal American debut of an award-winning writer who richly deserves her international acclaim. On the outskirts of a small town in Bengal, a family lives in solitude in their vast new house. Here, lives intertwine and unravel. A widower struggles with his love for an unmarried cousin. Bakul, a motherless daughter, runs wild with Mukunda, an orphan of unknown caste adopted by the family. Confined in a room at the top of the house, a matriarch goes slowly mad; her husband searches for its cause as he shapes and reshapes his garden. As Mukunda and Bakul grow, their intense closeness matures into something else, and Mukunda is banished to Calcutta. He prospers in the turbulent years after Partition, but his thoughts stay with his home, with Bakul, with all that he has lost—and he knows that he must return.

Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at his mother's funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel her way, through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay... Accompanying his aunt, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals, CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban lifetime.