A compilation of love stories and poems from the classical literature and folklore of India Set in regions of great natural beauty where Kamadeva, the god of love, picks his victims with consummate ease, these stories and lyrics celebrate the myriad aspects of love. In addition to relatively well-known works like Kalidasa's Meghadutam and Prince Ilango Adigal's Shilappadikaram, the collection features lesser-known writers of ancient India like Damodaragupta (eighth century AD), whose 'Loves of Haralata and Dundarasena' is about a high-born man's doomed affair with a courtesan; Janna (twelfth century), whose Tale of the Glory-Bearer is extracted here for the story of a queen who betrays her handsome husband for a mahout, reputed to be the ugliest man in the kingdom; and the Sanskrit poets Amaru and Mayaru (seventh century), whose lyrics display an astonishing perspective on the tenderness, the fierce passion and the playful savagery of physical love. Also featured are charming stories of Hindu gods and goddesses in love, and nineteenth-century retellings of folk tales from different regions of the country like Kashmir, Punjab, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Both passionate and sensuous in its content, this book is sure to appeal to the romantic in all of us.

Ruskin Bond, b. 1934, Indo-English litterateur.

Ruskin Bond is known internationally as one of India's most prolific writers in English for children, young adults, and adults. This literary biography analyzes the impact of personal, social, geographical, political, and literary influences on Bond's worldview, aesthetic principles, and writings. Connecting the development of Bond's writing career over the past 50 years to the evolution of the publishing industry in India, Khorana details the author's pioneering work in the field of children's and young adult literature, and his contribution to diasporic and postcolonial/post-independence literatures. She concludes that it is Bond's versatile, original, and elegant writing in a variety of genres that continue to endear him to readers around the world. According to the author, despite Bond's British background, he does not write about India from a Eurocentric perspective. Having lived the majority of his life in India, he knows the country as an insider, writing with an authenticity and emotional engagement about the land and the people of the Himalayas and small-town India. Khorana analyzes his novels and short stores, and highlights his juxtaposition of his protagonists' individual dramas against larger social, moral, and metaphysical issues. In addition, she reveals how the autobiographical and regional elements in Bond's work provide insight into universal themes such as the tension between past and present, city life versus rural values, the dignity of ordinary folk, preservation of the environment, and living in harmony with nature.

ÿRuskin Bond has won the hearts of millions of readers with his countless charming short stories and introspective novels. From biographical tales about acting as a grandfather to children, to tales of unrequited love, the cross-cultural dimensions of Indian society, and the power and beauty of nature, Bond's more than forty novels and short story collections have made him an internationally acclaimed author.ÿ InÿRuskin Bond's World, Indian scholar Gulnaz Fatma, Ph.D. sheds light on one of her country's greatest and most beloved storytellers, tracing the influences in his stories from a childhood in colonial India through his time spent in Britain and his life today among India's hills and mountains. She explores the biographical as well as the imaginary elements of his fiction and explores in detail the themes of nature, children, love, and animals in his novels and short stories. Throughout these pages is revealed Bond's love for humanity in all its variety, from honorable rogues to proud beggars, heartbroken lovers, and wise old men and women.ÿ "Gulnaz has successfully traced major themes in Bond's prolific work under the lenses of her careful examination, proving he is the product of his environment...a sincere study of Ruskin Bond."ÿ --Stephen Gill, Ph.D., author and poet laureate of Ansted Universityÿ "I welcome this long overdue study of one of India's literary shining lights. Ruskin Bond's World opens the door to a deeper understanding of one author's imagination and deepest wisdom."ÿ --Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. and award-winning author ofÿThe Gothic Wandererÿ Literary Criticism: Asian - Indicÿ www.ModernHistoryPress.comÿ

Ruskin Bond's first full-fledged autobiographical book covers his 'formative years, ' till the age of twenty-one. The world of Anglo-India, with all its conflicting pulls, comes alive as he tells his story. His earliest memoirs are bitter-sweet, and relate to Jamnager where he lives till he is six. The happy hours spent in exploring the Ram Vilas Palace grounds and playing with his younger sister Ellen and the palace children are overshadowed by the acrimonious relation between his parents. Their estrangement while he is still a child leaves him with a life-long sense of insecurity. His unhappiness is exacerbated by the untimely death of his father -- his emotional anchor - when the author is just ten. Forced to stay with his mother and his stepfather, both of whom are absorbed in their own worlds, he tries to fend off his loneliness through books and the company of a few friends. Left for the most part to himself, the gentle dreamer realizes very early - as 'a pimply adolescent' - his calling as a writer. His first book, The Room on the Roof, materializes in England, the land of his forefathers, where he is sent to make a career for himself. literary prize, the author's yearning for India is too powerful to let him remain abroad for long. He returns and begins a writing career which has spanned four decades, and earned him a place in the pantheon of great Indian writers. 'Ruskin Bond has a magnificently simple and immensely moving style, compassion and a love and reverence for life.' --Indian Express 'With a subtle sense of irony punctuated by his own inimicably pungent humour, Bond masters the art of conveying the drama and pathos of ordinary lives.' --The Telegrap

An Inspirational Journey : Pratibha Devisingh Patil The First Woman President of India - is an attempt to understand the life and works of the First Citizen of India prior to her occupying the coveted position. In the late fifties and early sixties when the discouraging forces against women were predominant, Pratibhatai excelled in academics. It was her will power, conviction and purity of purpose which propelled her into politics and finally elected to be the First Woman President of India, only sky is the limit. Pratibhatai's life is a story, her journey in life has been so eventful, her achievements are so large and varied. She has had a political career which kept moving upwards, gradually and steadily, till she finally reached the pinnacle. She humbly attributes her success to the Almighty and to the People of India. The book is a progressive effort to illustrate her political participation as well as her attachment towards the family and emerged her a winner on both the fronts effectively. Simply her achievements are so large and varied that they need to be narrated - ';Those who do not speak about themselves need to be spoken about.'