How much can a woman suffer and who will help her in her hour of need?

The book tells a love story between the daughter of a clever villager and the scholarly boy of a deprived widow. The love-locked pair had an obsession to work with their mentor for image makeover of their village through educational development, denied to the village by its influential Zamindar on the pretext of the modern education would spoil village's age-old social order. As the story progressed, the pair admitted in college where they befriended with a girl who was in exile to pave way for her corrupt father's promotion. The daughters of rich and powerful families tried to entice the boy, being impressed by his personality and all-round performances, which was thwarted with active cooperation of the exiled girl. The major turning point of the story took place when the clever father of the girl forced her to ignore the boy in view of his social status. The frustrated father joined hand with Zamindar, his bête noire in village politics, to get rid of the boy along with his mother in a mid-night fire. But, their mentor rescued them. The boy got selected to civil service, came back to village, set up a High School, rescued his love and the villagers from the evil clutches of Zamindar. A fiction of love, romance, tragedy, superstition, humour, comic, exploitation, corruption, nasty politics and feudocracy.

Contributed articles.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- PREFACE -- 1 The Diamond -- 2 The Ancient World -- 3 Early Persia and the East -- 4 Medieval Europe -- 5 The Dawn of Diamond Cutting in Europe -- 6 The Fifteenth-Century Technical Revolution -- 7 Renaissance Table and Point Cuts -- 8 Renaissance Multifaceted Cuts -- 9 The Early Brilliant Cut -- 10 Diamond Cutting in London -- 11 The Value and Assessment of Diamonds -- 12 The Indian Diamond Mines -- 13 The Diamond Trade in India -- 14 Diamond Cutting in India and the East -- 15 The Eclipse of Indian Diamonds -- Epilogue -- APPENDIX: A 1675 Description of the Diamond Mines -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- T -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

The Final Cut is a kaleidoscope of the lives of two strangers, one 22 and the other 18. They meet per chance. They meet again, this time for keeps, and explore the joys of living an uncharted life together, unfazed by conventional social norms then or since. It’s a journey through the uncertain late forties, the penny-pinching days in the fifties, the schools of life in the early sixties and the ups and downs of living in Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and London, cushioned by executive privileges in multi-national corporations in the seventies and eighties. Nomadic instincts resurface in the nineties. They join the ranks of backpacking hitch hikers, albeit dressed in flannels and blazers, checking into cheap lodgings in the back alleys of cities big and small in Europe, North and South America. The very ‘ unique’ insights they get into the cultures across the world, over many cups of wine in cafes and bars, from colourful ‘locals’ should make an interesting, if not fascinating, read. Back into the conventional life, the early Millennium years go in a whirl, alas a little too fast.

In Prophet, Intermediary, King: The Dynamics of Mediation in the Biblical World and Old Babylonian Mari, Julie B. Deluty investigates the mediation of prophecy for kings in biblical narratives and the Old Babylonian corpus from Mari. In many cases, the prophet’s message is delivered through a third party—sometimes a royal official or family member—who may exercise a degree of autonomy in the transmission of the words. Drawing on social network theory, the book highlights the importance of third-party intermediaries in the process of communication that lies at the core of biblical and ancient Near Eastern prophecy. Recognition of the place of non-prophetic intermediaries in a monarchic system offers a new dimension to the study of prophecy in antiquity.

Mental illness is as serious, if not more, when compared to any physical ailment – but society tends to look at one with sympathy and the other as a weakness. Dr. Preeti Pandit, a practicing psychotherapist, seeks to promote a better understanding of mental illness in this book. She seeks to answer questions such as: How do experiences in childhood form a foundation for you later in life? What can you do to move past negative experiences from long ago? How can you overcome your most troubling fears? How does an imbalance in relationships create long-lasting impact on your psyche? The author’s ultimate purpose is to showcase that when someone is afflicted with mental illness, there are reasons why. Coming to terms with those reasons can help individuals confront bottled-up feelings and move forward to achieve their life purpose. Join the author and a fascinating cast of characters as they go on a roller-coaster journey of intrigue, disbelief, and the unexpected – and leave with a greater awareness of the issues surrounding mental illness.