Talkative Man – R.K. Narayan
The Talkative Man tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at the Malgudi train station to pursue a purported U.N. project. The stranger winds up staying at Talkative Man’s home, where he begins to seduce the librarian’s daughter.
Helium – Jaspreet Singh
On November 1st 1984, a day after the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a nineteen-year-old student travels back from a class trip with his mentor and chemistry teacher, Professor Singh. As the group disembark at Delhi station a mob surrounds the professor, throws a tire over him, douses him in gasoline and sets him alight.
Years later the student, Raj, is compelled to find his professor’s widow, the beautiful Nelly. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, Nelly comes up against a nation in denial, Raj faces the truth about his father’s role in the Sikh massacre and they both find the path leads back to the train station. Jaspreet Singh crafts an affecting and important story of a largely untouched moment in Indian memory.
In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India – Edward Luce
India is poised to become one of the world’s three largest economies in the next generation and to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by 2032. Well before then India’s incipient nuclear deterrent will have acquired intercontinental range and air, sea and land capabilities. India’s volatile relationship with its nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan, may prove to be the source of the world’s next major conflict. And if you call anyone- from your bank to rail enquiries- your query may well be dealt with by a graduate in Gujarat. Any way one looks at it, India’s fate matters. Edward Luce, one of the most incisive and talented journalists of his generation, assesses the forces that are forging the new nation. Cutting through the miasma that still clouds thinking about India, this extraordinarily accomplished book takes the measure of a society that is struggling to come to grips with modernity. Drawing on historical research, existing literature and his own unparalleled access as the New Delhi-based, South Asia correspondent of the FT, this is a book that will enthral as well as educate and will remain the definitive book on the country for many years.
Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals: The Journals of Fanny Parkes – Fanny Parkes, William Dalrymple
Fanny Parkes, who lived in India between 1822 and 1846, was the ideal travel writer – courageous, indefatigably curious and determinedly independent. Her delightful journal traces her journey from prim memsahib, married to a minor civil servant of the Raj, to eccentric, sitar-playing Indophile, fluent in Urdu, critical of British rule and passionate in her appreciation of Indian culture. Fanny is fascinated by everything, from the trial of the thugs and the efficacy of opium on headaches to the adorning of a Hindu bride. To read her is to get as close as one can to a true picture of early colonial India – the sacred and the profane, the violent and the beautiful, the straight-laced sahibs and the more eccentric White Mughals who fell in love with India and did their best, like Fanny, to build bridges across cultures.
The Perfect Groom – Sumeetha Manikandan
Very little has gone right in Nithya’s young life. So, when a proposal from a young, handsome NRI comes along, her mother jumps at the opportunity and packs her daughter off to the US with her perfect groom.
Nithya seems to have settled in with Ashok, ostensibly happy, if as yet childless, in her new life. When an old flame comes back into her life, however, the cracks in her perfect marriage begin to show…
Memories and Such 