BANARAS
- Of Gods, Humans and Stories.
Author: Nilosree Biswas & Irfan Nabi
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 978-93-89136-77-7
Date: July 2021
No. of Pages: 240
Genre: Travel/Culture/Religion
Price: £52.50
A cascading effect of events unravels in Banaras: on its ghats and in its lanes. Myriad lanes emerge like an umbilical cord out of the ghats to the womb of the sacred geography, to the infinite spots where the believers pause to experience the divine. Its waterfront, a grid of staircase leads one’s vision up and the eye meets a world that is frantic of the mundane and magnum opus, a scene that appears chaotic yet in sync.
In Banaras: Of Gods, Humans and Stories, Nilosree and Irfan discern the engaging narrative of a unique chromosome that makes Banaras. Traversing within the maze, its sacred topography, craft traditions, and gastronomic plethora, the book examines the tenets of its weave. There is a singular, unified, and unstoppable momentum to all this—akin to the unfolding of a scroll of a painting.
JOHN LANG
- Wanderer of Hindoostan, Slanderer in Hindoostanee, Lawyer for the Ranee
Author: Amit Ranjan
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 978-93-91125-05-9
Date: July 2021
No. of Pages: 472
Genre: Biography/History
Price: £23.99
This book is in pursuit of Alice, whose name rhymes with ‘galluse’. That, however, is another memory, another book, waiting to germinate. John Lang (1816-1864), inebriated on John Exshaw, a cognac, eau de vie, most of his adult life, was a dogged underdog from Sydney; he spared no effort to hurt the John Company (East India Company). He lived in India after the age of 26 and was a prolific writer, journalist, and lawyer.
His novels were too feminist for Victorian comfort, and his white male protagonists are often described by the narrator as in love with India, in despise with England. As a journalist, he was irreverent toward the army and legal systems; modern journalists can take a lesson or two from Mr Lang. As a lawyer, John Lang learnt Persian and Urdu fast to be able to argue cases in lower courts. He fought some important cases for Indians against the Company, and even won some of them. The establishment, however, found a way to send him to jail. The Rani of Jhansi was impressed and invited him to be her lawyer.
Five Novellas About Women
Author: Indira Goswami
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 978-93-91125-07-3
Date: July 2021
No. of Pages: 176
Genre: Fiction
Price: £14.99
ndira Goswami is a great literary writer of her generation and a feminist icon. Most of her major works have been translated from Assamese into English; however some of her works are yet to be discovered by a larger audience. These five novellas represent a cross-section of her writing, with a special focus on women.
Sensitively translated, with detailed notes on the translation, these stories bring to light the human condition that Indira Goswami portrayed in her writing. The lives of the rural poor, the situation of widows, the plight of the urban underclass and various social constraints under which people are forced to live are depicted in these impactful narratives.
mahanadi
Author: Anita Agnihotri
Publisher: Niyogi Booka
ISBN: 978-93-89136-79-1
Date: July 2021
No. of Pages: 488
Genre: Eco-fiction
Price: £17.99
One of the largest rivers of India, Mahanadi originates from the foothills of the Sihaoa mountain of Chhattisgarh and flows for a thousand kilometres through Chhattisgarh and Odisha, finally immersing in the Bay of Bengal at Jagatsinghpur. But its journey never ends, as it flows daily from the plateau to the forest to the ravine to the plains. It unites with the sea every day. At every new turn, it leaves behind scores of villages, towns and cities. The din and bustle of a mofussil town, the solitary life in a standalone village, people’s struggle for survival, the episodes of their joys and sorrows, the sighs of the displaced people of Sambalpur during the building of the Hirakud dam mixes with the cries of the endangered people on the banks when the river overflows.
In this novel, the tale of the river is entwined with the people through vignettes of their dynamic lives that are infused with myths, legends and archaeological anecdotes. Characters like Malati Gond, Neelkantha, Kuber, Bhanu Shitulia, Parvati and others might never meet each other, but the story of their lives will remain strung together by the common thread of the ever-flowing Mahanadi.
One Love And The Many Lives Of Osip B.
Author: C.P. Surendran
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 978-93-91125-12-7
Date: July 2021
No. of Pages: 372
Genre: Fiction/Romance/Dysopia
Price: £21.50
Osip Bala Krishnan is a student at a boarding school in Kasauli, who falls in love with his English teacher, Elizabeth. Named after the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam by his Stalinist grandfather—with whom Osip shares a unique mental condition that often causes him to hallucinate incidents of Russia in the mid-20th century—he is determined to find Elizabeth, after she disappears. In the process, Osip unravels the secrets of why his grandfather pretends he cannot remember his past.
Osip’s journey is aided by his friend, Anand, a god-man on the make; Arjun Bedi, an iconoclastic writer disintegrating under harassment allegations; and the corpse of the school priest, which Osip and Anand kidnap to extort seed money for their adventures.
Through a clutch of dramatic characters, the plot traces and connects contemporary themes of transgressive relationships, gender politics, nationalism, individual freedom and group rights, fake news, and power. Sad, funny, and insightful, the novel asks: Can a dysfunctional young man survive in a deranged world, our world?
The Most Incredible Olympic Stories
Author: Luciano Wernicke
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 978-93-91125-14-1
Date: July 2021
No. of Pages: 230
Genre: July 2021
Price: £17.99
The Most Incredible Olympic Stories maps down the phenomenal journey of this marvellous event through time immemorial—from its genesis to its glory days—with the lore of myth, magic, and gallantry in every turn of its long walked path, where dirty politics went hand in hand with fair play, the universal the fraternity was welcomed in the backdrop of genocide, a strong woman often denounced of having male genitalia, fair skin dared to disobey White norms, the dark horse failed to surprise and the unpredictable often surprised.
Read in 15 languages, Luciano has already unearthed numerous stories of sports that have crossed many skies, unveiling the myths behind them. This time he curates the oldest sporting tale—a tale that becomes the narrative of modern civilization.
