New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS) Mythlogy to leadership, the weekend bookshelf offers variety and adventure.
1. Book: ‘Jaya: The Illustrated Retelling of Mahabharata’; Written by Devdutt Pattanaik; Published by Penguin Books India; Priced at Rs.499
In this enthralling retelling of India’s greatest epic, the Mahabharata, originally known as ‘Jaya’, the writer seamlessly weaves into single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants, inluding the Pandavani of Chhattisgarh, Gondhal of Maharashtra, Tenukuttu of Tamil Nadu and Yakshagana of Karnataka.
Richly illustrated with over 250 line drawings by the author, the 108 chapters abound with little known details such as the names of 100 Kauravas, the worship of Draupadi as a goddess in Tamil Nadu, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jaimini, Aravan and Barbareek.
The book includes the lore of Shakauntalam as narrated in the Mahabharata – to throw insight into the disturbing and complex human condition 3,000 years ago that contoured the course of human history.
2. Book: ‘The Black Light’; Written by Rimi B. Chatterjee; Published by Harper Collins – India; Priced at Rs.299
Medhasri Sen was at war with the woman everyone thought she was. No one knew this until to everyone’s surprise she kills herself. Her brothers are secretly relieved. Abandoned by her husband for her strange unpredictable ways, she had been nothing but an embaraasment and a responsibility.
But her suicide disrupts the placid life of her journalist nephew, Satya, who discovers that before her death, Medha had laid for him a trail of clues that lead him to places that no one knew she had been to. At each place, Satya finds stories and art works she had hidden and it slowly dawns on him that he is rescuing the life work of a genuis.
3. Book: ‘No Way Home’; Written by Amarjit Sidhu; Published by Penguin India; Priced at Rs.299
As the separatists and the government threaten peaceful Punjab in 1980s, another group, the more feudal, looks West to escape. Away from this, Dave, a young Sikh is searching for a place he can call home. Unable to complete his doctorate in the US, he returns to India without a green card, much to the disappoitment of his parents. He moves from Chandigrah to Delhi in look for a job but is trapped in the 1984 Sikh massacre. Scarred, he moves to Canada, shuns his life of affluence and is faced with choices that change his life for ever.
4. Book: ‘The Immortals of Meluha’; Written by Amish Tripathi; Published by Westland Ltd; Priced at Rs.295
The inhabitants of that period called it the land of the Meluha – a near perfect empire created many centuries ago by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. The once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis. The only hope for the sun-worshippers is an ancient legend – the descent of Shiva, the mighty warrior, from Tibet to Meluha – the kingdom on earth with Kashmir as its gateway.
5) Book: ‘Ready for Take-Of: A Leadership Story’; Written by Sachit Jain; Published by Rupa & Co; Priced at Rs.195
Bosses are tough, metal chewing characters who will not lose a chance of snubbing employees with a disdainful glance. Anurag Sachdeva is an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate and a career investment banker who is forced to become the boss of the sick Ajanta Special Steel. But he has no clue about manufacturing or steel plants. He is a nice guy but will that see him through or his closest friend Manu and his wife Alpana, who become his closest management consultants.
