THE ASPIRANT: Memoirs of a Monk Turned Civil Servant

THE ASPIRANT: Memoirs of a Monk Turned Civil Servant
Author: Mathew Joseph
Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
Total Pages: 269
Release: 1900
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9354388094

If you do not become what you once aspired to become, does it matter? ‘The Aspirant’ looks for an answer to this perennial question. It is the story of a young man who once wanted to become a Carmelite monk, but ended up becoming a monk of a different order - a civil servant. The disillusionment with the way monastic life was practiced, made him take this new direction. The journey ahead as a bureaucrat in CAG’s institution took the author to many places across the globe and caused him to meet several people – ordinary people with extraordinary stories – and those stories add extra layers to this memoir. And all through his life’s varied voyages, a part of him remained as a monk. ‘The Aspirant’ attempts to demystify two venerable institutions - the church and the bureaucracy - with a tinge of irreverence but without an iota of malice.

The Turned Field

The Turned Field
Author: Kent F. Jacobs
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2016-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1611393426

Air Force top gun Kyle Kendrick, a leader in the initial air strike of the Gulf War, returns to England and is assigned duty as the first American/NATO liaison at RAF Coltishall. After departing a RAF Winter Ball, Kyle is involved in a seemingly unsurviva

Zenani Deordhi: The Life and Journey of a Princess

Zenani Deordhi: The Life and Journey of a Princess
Author: Dr. Santosh Singh
Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2020-12-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9390463068

‘Who I am today? Merely a suffering soul, tormented by my own guilt. I cannot tread the same lanes, the royal corridors again that I left behind a year ago; so what if I want to rectify today, something that I destroyed yesterday.’ She stood gazing at him helplessly. Fateh Kanwar, the princess of Bikaner, stunningly beautiful and noble was not born to rule. Or so she thought. Married at the age of twelve, the tender love grew in her life after she took saptpadi with the crown prince of Jaipur. They were two young lives converging on a deadly course: one an innocent princess of Bikaner, who was living an idyllic life in royal corridors, the other , a young charming prince, who had spent all his life defying the traditions and Rajdharma, even after ascending the throne. After a series of shocking events, it was her brilliant mother-in-law, who paved the way for her elevation to be a regent queen. But yet again her world turned upside down. She perceived the political intrigues and power play of her two most trusted people as the key to her rule. Destiny defied her again. Fateh Kanwar herself becomes a victim of greed for power. Or so the people believed. Set in the last quarter of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century India, ‘Zenani Deordhi’ is a compelling tale of a kingdom in peril. It is the tale of love and loss, pleasure and pain, and lust and greed. It is a vivid account of the lifelong struggle of a simple young woman, who walked the tightrope of being a queen and a mother and therefore became a sweeping story that is as relevant today as it was yesterday.

Once Upon an IAS Exam

Once Upon an IAS Exam
Author: K. Vijayakarthikeyan
Publisher: Rupa Publication
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2018
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9789353045951

The Varieties of Religious Experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience
Author: William James
Publisher: The Floating Press
Total Pages: 824
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1877527467

Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature explores the nature of religion and, in James' observation, its divorce from science when studied academically. After publication in 1902 it quickly became a canonical text of philosophy and psychology, remaining in print through the entire century. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."

Maa, I've Become a Collector

Maa, I've Become a Collector
Author: Rajesh Patil
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2019-04-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9353029600

Rajesh Patil was born to poor farm workers in the backward Khandesh region of Maharashtra. He worked as a child labourer picking cotton, selling bread, and doing small jobs. But what set him apart was that, unlike most of his peers, he was driven by an intense desire to improve his lot through education. Against great odds, he moved to Nashik for a B.Sc. and then to Pune for an M.Sc. in statistics - all this with the help of freeships, scholarships and the support of his teachers, friends and well-wishers. By dint of his hard work, he managed to get into the Indian Statistical Service, but the Indian Administrative Service was his goal. Unsuccessful at first, he persisted until eventually he cracked the competitive exams and qualified for the IAS. Maa, I've Become a Collector is the inspiring account of Rajesh's struggles that has been a bestseller in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and Odia and motivated thousands of students in India's hinterlands in their quest for a better life. At the same time, it is much more than one man's story - it is a riveting and revelatory account of rural India