Writing brief articles on topics of public interest calls for a keen observation and an ability for coherent presentation. Nirmala Ramaswamy, with her plenty of observational skills makes pithy presentations with a mixture of humour, understanding and empathy. This book is a treasure trove of her writings. You will not have a dull moment reading it. - Dr. G. Lakshmipathi, a well -known author and a humorist. This book takes you on a nostalgic walk down memory lane. The author’s narrative style is so vivid that you can almost see the progress and prosperity growing in post-independent India and the changes brought on by technology in peoples’ lifestyles. Through it all, you feel her love for her family, friends and country and her gratitude for experiencing life at its fullest. - Indu, my niece, an avid reader and a book club facilitator

"Pankaj Mishra transforms a visceral, intimate story of one man’s humble origins into a kaleidoscopic portrait of a society bedazzled by power and wealth—what it means on a human level, and what it costs. Run and Hide is a spectacular, illuminating work of fiction." —Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach Growing up in a small railway town, Arun always dreamed of escape. His acceptance to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, enabled through great sacrifice by his low-caste parents, is seemingly his golden ticket out of a life plagued by everyday cruelties and deprivations. At the predominantly male campus, he meets two students from similar backgrounds. Unlike Arun—scarred by his childhood, and an uneasy interloper among go-getters—they possess the sheer will and confidence to break through merciless social barriers. The alumni of IIT eventually go on to become the financial wizards of their generation, working hard and playing hard from East Hampton to Tuscany—the beneficiaries of unprecedented financial and sexual freedom. But while his friends play out Gatsby-style fantasies, Arun fails to leverage his elite education for social capital. He decides to pursue the writerly life, retreating to a small village in the Himalayas with his aging mother. Arun’s modest idyll is one day disrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Alia, who is writing an exposé of his former classmates. Alia, beautiful and sophisticated, draws Arun back to the prospering world where he must be someone else if he is to belong. When he is implicated in a terrible act of violence committed by his closest friend from IIT, Arun will have to reckon with the person he has become. Run and Hide is Pankaj Mishra’s powerful story of achieving material progress at great moral and emotional cost. It is also the story of a changing country and global order, and the inequities of class and gender that map onto our most intimate relationships.

At the turn of the century and the beginning of the new Millennium, India has made extraordinary industrial and economic progress. At the same time the sub-continent is faced with innumerable problems in the area of basic social services. Religion plays an important role in the interpersonal relationship and social interaction of the people. Religion is not only worship and prayer, but dictates such factors as who could come in physical contact with the other and who has the right to draw water from a well and who is deprived of it. Because of these factors it is necessary to look at the perception of disability in the soteriologies of India. This study confines itself to Hinduism as the major religion of India, that is based on the achievement of salvation and thus to escape the cycle of birth-, death- and rebirth and Christianity, on the other hand, that is involved in trying to improve the conditions of the poor and the needy and its main precept is the love of neighbours. It would be interesting to pursue these distinctions in reviewing the perception of disability in both these religions.

Home to one of the ancient civilizations of the world, India is also the birthplace of a dizzying array of gods worshipped by millions of Hindus living in India and across the globe. Over the centuries many of these gods rose to power and became the object of utmost devotion, only to fall from grace and lose their standing. These deities shared a peculiar trait: they were never perfect. In this multivolume series entitled, The Galaxy of Hindu Gods, Sach takes you on an extended journey to meet with the gods and share their tales with you. Among the multitude of deities, the most ancient are the Vedic gods, which include luminaries like Indra, Surya, Varuna, Agni, and others. Today a minor deity, the Vedic Indra was once the ruler of the three worlds who, under the influence of a mysterious power drink, fought with the demons and vanquished them. His reign did not last long. His comrades Surya and Varuna also had their glory days but were overthrown by other gods of the pantheon. Yet, after thousands of years, gods like Indra, Surya, and Varuna are still household names and honored in Hindu rituals and traditions. If you know little or nothing about Hindu mythology, this is your ideal starting point where you will meet the overwhelming array of Hindu gods and learn about their wonderful stories.