'My life was simple: repetitive, predictable. Then the predictability blew away like vapour when the bomb fell.' Seven-year-old Parvati's perfect world came crashing down the night the bomb fell on her house and she lost her mother and grandmother. Her father, an army officer deployed in Kashmir during the '71 war, also went missing that night. Orphaned overnight, Parvati left Ambala Cantt to live with her aunt's family. Now, twenty years later, she has returned to 169, The Mall to exorcize the ghosts of the past. While trying to find out what happened on that fateful night Parvati experiences the familiarity and warmth of life in a small cantonment-impromptu picnics, polo matches, husbands' nights. But she also uncovers deep secrets and a web of lies that will forever alter the course of her life. In The House on Mall Road Mohyna Srinivasan gives us a unique glimpse of life in the army-the hospitality of the people, their kindness and affection, the quaint yet charming traditions that uphold authority and valour while always maintaining respect and camaraderie. Dramatic and riveting, The House on Mall Road is a spellbinding debut novel.

Ayodhya imbroglio - Babri Masjid demolition meant many things to many. For some it triggered off a chain of, law and order problems. For some it demoted our economy. For some it deepened Hindu-Muslim divide. For some it worsened Hindu-Muslim hate. For some it meant religious mania. For some it was political advantage by polarization of communal vote banks. For some it was depletion of vote bank. For some it was a blessing and for some it was a curse. But for Jahan Shah, a young IPS Officer, who is also the hero of the story, it was a com of two sides... one side, the mirror and the other side, me fire I On one side, the Ayodhya mirror reflected almost all follies we had. Our political folly, our social folly, our economic folly, our illiteracy, lack of awareness, poverty, our priority, our policy, our discrete discretion and discrimination... any thing and every thing! All dogmas on the earth, on Indian Earth! This novel The Great Indian Inferno crafted around the 'Ayodhya entanglement' is a timely one. The author P.V. Jaganmohan blends fact with fiction with admirable creative dexterity. He has presented a spellbinding narrative that draws sustenance from the ill-perceived notion of cultural identity. Author narrative exalts the power of common place words and creates a symphony of many voices that augers well for our plural society.

Is This Possible? is a collection of six short stories that delve into the mysterious. From supernatural occurrences to crime and deception to the power of love, each story offers a unique and thrilling journey into the unknown. A mixed bag of tales with something for everyone! This compilation will take them back to their childhood, and they will be able to connect with the stories.

'The ancient whore, the handmaiden of dimly remembered Hindu kings, the courtesan of Mughal emperors', the 'Paris of the East', Lahore is more than the grandeur of Mughal forts and gardens, mosques and mausoleums; the jewel colours of everlasting spring. It is also the city of poets, the city of love, longing, sin and splendour. This anthology brings together verse and prose: essays, stories, chronicles and profiles by people who have shared a relationship with Lahore. From the mystical poems of Madho Lal Hussain and Bulleh Shah to Iqbal's ode and Faiz's lament, from Maclagan and Aijazuddin's historical treatises and Kipling's 'chronicles' to Samina Quraeshi's intricate portraits of the Old City and Irfan Husain's delightful account of Lahori cuisine, City of Sin and Splendour is a marriage of the sacred and profane. While Pran Nevile paints a vivid sketch of Lahore's Hira Mandi, Shahnaz Kureshy brings alive the legend of Anarkali and Khalid Hasan pays a tribute to the late 'melody queen' Nur Jehan. Mohsin Hamid's essay on exile, Bina Shah's account of the Karachi vs Lahore debate and Emma Duncan's piece on elections are essential to the understanding of modern-day Lahore. But the city is also about Lahore remembered. Ved Mehta and Krishen Khanna write about 'going back' as Khushwant Singh writes about his pre-Partition years in Lahore. Sara Suleri's memories of her hometown, the landscapes of Bapsi Sidhwa's fiction, Khaled Ahmed's homage to Intezar Hussain and Urvashi Butalia's Ranamama are tributes to memory as much as they are tributes to remarkable lives and unforgettable places. Including fiction old and new--from Manto and Chughtai to Ashfaq Ahmed and Zulfikar Ghose; Saad Ashraf and Sorayya Khan to Mohsin Hamid and Rukhsana Ahmad, City of Sin and Splendour is a sumptuous collection that reflects the city it celebrates.

A marvelous debut novel exploring the fractures caused by the Partition of India, as well as the legacy and contemporary parallels of sectarian violence around the world. Lahore, British India. 1943. As World War rages, resentment of colonial rule grows, and with it acts of rebellion. Animated by idealistic dreams of an independent India, Chhote Nanu agrees to plant a bomb intended for the British superintendent of police. Some four years later, following a torturous imprisonment, Chhote flees the city as it descends into violence. Carrying the young son of his murdered wife through scenes of unspeakable bloodshed, he encounters his brother, Barre Nanu, the two of them caught between a vanishing past in the new nation of Pakistan and a profoundly uncertain future in India. Kanpur, India. 2002. Following the death of his grandfather, Barre Nanu, Karan Khati returns from New York to join his sister in their childhood home, which has been transformed by the embittered Chhote Nanu into a hostel for Hindu pilgrims. When their mother arrives from Delhi, Karan and Ila learn that their fathers were two different men—one Hindu, one Muslim—relationships with both of whom were doomed by familial bias and prejudice, the siblings resolve to reconnect, and to understand the painful twist and turns in the family’s story. Moving back and forth from the tumultuous years surrounding Partition to the era of renewed global sectarianism following 9/11, this extraordinary historical novel, “Tolstoyan in its scope” (Ha Jin), portrays a family and nations divided by the living legacy of colonialism. Richly evocative and timely, House of Caravans will endure in the ways only the best literature does.

Vol. for 1888 includes dramatic directory for Feb.-Dec.; vol. for 1889 includes dramatic directory for Jan.-May.