Situated on the left bank of the Ganges, in the state of Uttar Pradash, Varanasi is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. For Hindus there is nowhere more sacred; for Buddhists, it is revered as a place where the Buddha preached his first sermon; for Jains it is the birthplace of their two patriarchs. Over the last four thousand years, perhaps no city in the world has stood witness to such a flux of history, from the development of Aryan culture along the Ganges, to invasions that would leave the city in Muslim hands for three centuries, to an independent Brahmin kingdom, British colonial rule, and ultimately independence. But what is the city like today? Home to 2.5 million people, it is visited by twice that number every year. Polluted, overpopulated, religiously divided, but utterly sublime, Varanasi is a living expression of Indian life like no other. Each day 60,000 people bathe in the Ganges. Elderly people come to die here. Widows pushed out by their families arrive to find livelihood. In the city center, the silk trade remains the most important industry, along with textiles and the processing of betel leaf. Behind this facade lurk more sinister industries. Varanasi is a major player in the international drug scene. There's a thriving flesh trade, and a corrupt police force that turns a blind eye. As with Suketu Mehta's Maximimum City Piers Moore Ede tells the city's story by allowing inhabitants to relate their own tales. Whether portraying a Dom Raja whose role it is to cremate bodies by the Ganghes or a khoa maker, who carefully converts cow's milk into the ricotta like substance that forms the base of most sweets, Ede explores the city's most important themes through its people, creating a vibrant portrait of modern, multicultural India.

A lone man navigates the streets of Kaleidoscope City in the aftermath of a broken romance. Buoyed by his curiosity and a search for meaning, with sketchbook in hand, he finds inspiration in unexpected places, from far-flung neighborhoods to fleeting glimpses of a mysterious woman. In this deftly constructed series of postcards to an unknown reader, Marcellus Hall lays bare our universal yearning for experience.

'I will never forget my first sight of the river in Varanasi, from the narrowness and constriction of the alleys, thronged with activity, to the sudden release of the waterfront, the labyrinth's end . . . It seems that all of life has its assigned place on the stone steps leading down to the Ganges. Some are used for bathing, others for laundry, washing buffalo, puja (worship, ceremonial offering), and this one for the business of death. The smells are of wood smoke, buffalo dung, urine and jasmine flowers. The sounds are of rustling kites and lowing cattle, crackling wood and prayer. . .'Piers Moore Ede first fell in love with Varanasi when he passed through it on his way to Nepal in search of wild honey hunters. In the decade that followed it continued to exert its pull on him, and so he returned to live there, to press his ear to its heartbeat and to discover what it is that makes the spiritual capital of India so unique. In this intoxicating 'city of 10,000 widows', where funeral pyres smoulder beside the river in which thousands of pilgrims bathe, and holiness and corruption walk side by side, Piers encounters sweet-makers and sadhus, mischievous boatmen and weary bureaucrats, silk weavers and musicians and discovers a remarkable interplay between death and life, light and dark.

How did colonial influences change the urban form of the Arab capitals? The author here poses - and answers - many questions on globalisation and the Middle East.

Joshua Ali Quare wakes in 2109 at the age of 140 in a strong youthful body with no memory of his past, to find he is at the center of a vast and deadly conspiracy. The only clues to his identity are the records he has left--messages from the man he once was... As Quare journeys through his past, he discovers he has been a key figure in the history of a turbulent, violent century--soldier, criminal, assassin, spy. A century filled with killing plagues and warring cults, ruthless corporations and dying nations. A century where treachery is often the only way to survive. Now someone is looking for him. Someone from his past. And Quare must learn the terrifying secret of his history before it unleashed devastating consequences for the future of the human race. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

For Alternity... It has been said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But that wasn"t said about the altruistic men and women of Alternitycorp, a group of science-adventurers who gained absolute power only to change key events of the past in hopes of creating a better future. This future had a name, and that name was Chronopolis, a city created using a science called Chrononomy. It all starts deep beneath Alternity Group Headquarters, where Special Time Agent Justin Nicholas Thyme enters the Chrona, an imposing time portal powered by the nuclear fusion of nearby stars. This star energy enables Justin and his protegée Infinity Staires to travel back in time to change key events, forward in time to explore mankind"s eventual fate, and even across infinite fractured dimensions. Join Justin as he fights giant centipedes in the Permian, while Infinity attempts to prevent Cortes from landing at La Paz, all under orders from a group of wildly rich scientists trying to save humanity, and the flora and megafauna of the future. Chronopolis is the home base, and the Chrona is the gateway to the past, future and beyond. Come ride along, and don"t forget to wear a protective "freeze" suit for the time jumps! Meet our agents, the aliens, the ants and the beautiful amazons of Space Station Armstrong, then take a breather at Alternity"s Miocene base, where Infinity keeps Owdy, her pet Woolly Mammoth. This is an adventure you will never forget.

This book is like a time capsule containing a selection of interviews that aired on Hromadske Radio’s Ukraine Calling show. They capture what people were thinking during a critical time in the country’s history, from the July 2016 NATO Summit through to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2019 landslide election victories. Decision makers, opinion makers, and other interesting people commented on events of the day as well as larger issues. Topics range from politics to sports, religion, history, war, books, diplomacy, health, business, art, holidays, foreign policy, anniversaries, public opinion to freedom of speech. Interview guests include Canada’s then Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, writer Andrey Kurkov, Crimean political prisoner Hennadii Afanasiev, who was tortured in 2014, Ukraine’s acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun, American analyst/journalist Brian Whitmore, UNHRC’s Pablo Mateu, ethnologist Ihor Poshyvailo, investment banker Olena Bilan, Tufts University’s Daniel Drezner, a cameo appearance by Boris Johnson, and many more. Together these interviews provide a unique, diverse, and kaleidoscopic perspective conveying the substance, atmosphere, and flavor of Ukraine while it was on the receiving end of a hybrid war from Russia.