Somewhere, behind closed doors, in her solitary world; somewhere, under the sheets with an indifferent lover; somewhere, is a woman who will not be denied... Trapped for fifteen years in the stranglehold of a dead marriage and soulless household domesticity, the beautiful, full-bodied and passionate Meera Patel depends on her memories and her flights of fancy to soothe the aches that wrack her body; to quieten an unquenchable need. Until one cataclysmic day in Mumbai, when she finally breaks free... Bold, brazen and defiant, Sita's Curse looks at the hypocrisy of Indian society and tells the compelling story of a middle-class Indian housewife's urgent need for love, respect, acceptance – and sexual fulfilment.

Somewhere, behind closed doors, in her solitary world; somewhere, under the sheets with an indifferent lover; somewhere, is a woman who will not be denied... Trapped for fifteen years in the stranglehold of a dead marriage and soulless household domesticity, the beautiful, full-bodied and passionate Meera Patel depends on her memories and her flights of fancy to soothe the aches that wrack her body; to quieten an unquenchable need. Until one cataclysmic day in Mumbai, when she finally breaks free... Bold, brazen and defiant, Sita's Curse looks at the hypocrisy of Indian society and tells the compelling story of a middle-class Indian housewife's urgent need for love, respect, acceptance - and sexual fulfilment.

Sita S Curse Is A Landmark Book About A Social Evil That Has Been Tolerated For Too Long. Dowry Deaths Have Disappeared From The National Consciousness Even Though Thousands Of Women Continue To Be Burnt, Poisoned, Electrocuted Or Are Forced To Commit Suicide Every Year. In The First Book Of Its Kind, Seema Sirohi Gives Voice To Six Such Dowry Victims And Retraces Their Lives, Without The Abstraction Of Theory. She Also Shows How, If The Victims Tried To Bring Their Tormentors To Justice, They Faced A Backlash From The Male-Dominated Establishment.

Exploring the meaning of a Buddhist story, this book is a testimony of faith in the urgent relevance of India's spiritual traditions to the future of life on Earth, and it is an inquiry into the meaning of some central notions of these traditions. The value of spiritual traditions and of life itself is at stake here. In the Introduction, Ramchandra Gandhi raises the Ayodhya issue to international and universal levels. In the text, he offers a solution on the local and national levels. The temple mound in Ayodhya --the sacred hill on which the present Babri Masjid was built, also known as "Sita's Kitchen"--was originally a sacred place of the Adivasis (the aboriginal inhabitants of the subcontinent). It was sacred to the Goddess, the great nurturing earth, the fecund source of all life, the aboriginal presupposition of all later religions. As an aboriginal place sacred to the Mother Goddess, the hill in Ayodhya brings together all religions. Rather than a source of conflict, Ayodhya should become a meeting ground for the divergent religious traditions of the world to see their ultimate harmony. In the Buddhist story, the principal female character is an adivasi named Ananya ("not other"). The opposing sides come to see their oneness in Ananya. The frame-story is taken from the Vinaya-pitaka of the Pali Canon. It is the Bhaddavaggiyavatthu or "The Story of the Group of Well-Off Ones."

Valmiki's Ramayana is the story of Rama's exile and return to Ayodhya, of a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects. In Volga's retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey towards self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it -- Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila and Ahalya -- steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife. A powerful subversion of India's most popular tale of morality, choice and sacrifice, The Liberation of Sita opens up new spaces within the old discourse, enabling women to review their lives and experiences afresh. This is Volga at her feminist best.

A liberated, dynamic and successfully writer, Piya has everything she has ever wanted, until she's revisited by her past... Faraway Music is the story of a young Bengali girl, and her stumbles through the world of love. First as an adolescent in Calcutta, where she grows up in a loving home with her mother and grandparents, then as a gutsy journalist in love with her married boss, who finds herself caught in the nexus between politicians and the media, and finally as the reclusive writer married to an artist in the United States. Sensuous, profound, lyrical and moving, Faraway Music is the story of family, friendship, fame, love, loss...and all that lies in between.