The Other Senses: An Inspiring True Story of a Visually Impaired

The Other Senses: An Inspiring True Story of a Visually Impaired
Author: Preeti Monga
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2012-10-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9351940365

Preeti was barely six years old when doctors diagnosed her deteriorating vision as a condition due to optic atrophy. Those were difficult days but with the support and encouragement of her parents she learnt to get the best out of her disability. She looked for possibilities, focused on every positive she could dream of, always playing her best shot at facing challenges and failures with dignity and without shame. Sprinkled liberally with failures and obstacles, her story is a journey through a fairly difficult life with lots of courage and never-say-die attitude. In her memoirs she shares all the fun she had living life queen size and on her own terms. For she firmly believes, ‘When life gets cloudy, the trick is to look at the silver lining.’

Devdas and other Stories

Devdas and other Stories
Author: Sarat Chandra Chatterjee
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2005-04-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 8174369325

The classic, heart-touching story of unrequited love of a man's fall from grace and his tragic end offers an insightful and compassionate portral of men and women in love. Devdas, written in early decades of the twentieth century, still captivates readers, and has been filmed several times - a testament to endurance and class. One of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's finest novels, it reveals the best there is in Indian romantic literature. The abridged translation of Devdas, Srikanta and six of Sarat Chandra's short stories brings to English readers a careful selection of writer's best.

Women of Vision: Nine Business Leaders in Conversation with Alam Srinivas

Women of Vision: Nine Business Leaders in Conversation with Alam Srinivas
Author: Alam Srinivas
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2013-01-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9351940446

A 2012 McKinsey study found that women hold a mere 5 per cent of boardroom positions in Indian firms. If India has to emerge as a real economic superpower in the 21st century, she has to harness the growing women power, grant them a greater role in the nation-building process and chalk out a clear ballot-to-boardroom path for them. However, there are a few women who have fought against all odds to occupy the corner rooms in Indian companies. Women with Vision profiles successful businesswomen from diverse backgrounds: (1) World-class managers (Chanda Kochhar and Naina Lal Kidwai); (2) First-generation entrepreneurs (Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Zia Mody and Ekta Kapoor) and (3) Inheritors (Anu Aga, Shobhana Bhartia, Priya Paul and Priti Paul). In a face-to-face interview with the author, each icon shares her journey of how she battled male-dominated hierarchies to shatter the glass ceiling and set up successful business empires through grit, determination, hard work and merit. Their stories, also narrated by their family members and colleagues, highlight their conflicts, challenges, perils and promises. These personalities can truly inspire a whole generation of women to fight their way through the corridors of corporate power while juggling their many responsibilities at home.

Parul: A Love Story

Parul: A Love Story
Author: Harsha V. Dehejia
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2013-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9351940306

Praful is a Professor, a dyed-in-the-wool academic who is shaped by the life-denying philosophy of Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta. Parul, on the other hand, is a sensual, earthy woman who believes in the veracity of love and the reality of the many beautiful things that life offers. A chance meeting between the two leads not only to a romantic relationship spread over eleven purnimas, but becomes a dialogue between two philosophical systems, the Advaita of Shankara and the Madhurya of the Bhagvata Purana. As romantic moments between the two unfold, intellectuality interacts with sensuality, questioning the validity of each, and as Chaitra moves to Magh, a transformation takes place. As Harsha Dehejia weaves this romantic story, where meetings by the Parijataka and conversations underneath the Champa, are not only moments of shringara but introspections on the meaning of life, we hear and feel the sensuality of love as it merges seamlessly with the intellectuality of a philosophic discourse. In this heart-throbbing romantic relationship, there is the spiritual quest of ultimate reality along with the pleasures of the sound of the wind and the song of a bird. Metaphysical thoughts and tender feelings, evocative colours and resonant sounds, intoxicating aromas and patterned textures, myths and metaphors, intermingle in the hushed conversations of two people in love.

The Story of Tea

The Story of Tea
Author: E. Jaiwant Paul
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2005-04-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9351940381

The Story of Tea traces the history, myths and rituals of growing and drinking tea from the tea gardens of China to the roadside dhabas of India. Thomas Garraway's first public sale of tea in England in 1657 was of historic importance. For this he published and distributed a poster... "The leaf of such known virtues ... that it is sold for twice its weight in silver. It maketh the body active and lusty. It helpth the headache, giddiness and heaviness and thereof. It is very good against stone and gravel, cleaning the kidneys and ureter. It is good against crudities, strengthening the weakness of the Ventricle or Stomack, causing good appetite and Deigestion and particularly for men of a corpulent body and such as are great eaters of flesh... It prevents and cures ague, surefeits...and fevers, by infusing a fit quantity of the leaf, thereby provoking a most gentle vomit...It drives away all pains in the Collick proceeding from wind and purgeth safety the Gall..." So said Thomas Garraway and indeed, many belived him!

Bal Thackeray & The Rise of the Shiv Sena

Bal Thackeray & The Rise of the Shiv Sena
Author: Vaibhav Purandare
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2013-02-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 8174369910

Vaibhav Purandare grew up in Mumbai in the 1980s and 90s, the tumultuous decades in which Bal Thackeray and his Shiv Sena went from being regional political players to champions of a militant Hindutva that carried their rhetoric and rage across India. He began his journalistic career with the political newsmagazine Blitz in 1993, in the early part of which Thackeray and his organisation played a key role in the Mumbai riots, and has since worked with India’s leading newspapers such as The Indian Express, The Asian Age, Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Mid Day and Mumbai Mirror, apart from writing for a host of other publications. His first book, The Sena Story was published in 1999, when he was only 23. His second book, Sachin Tendulkar: A Definitive Biography (Roli Books) and is now into its fifth edition. He is currently Senior Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times, Mumbai.

Around India in 80 Trains

Around India in 80 Trains
Author: Monisha Rajesh
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2012-11-08
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 8174368450

Monisha Rajesh was born in King’s Lynn in Norfolk and grew up all over England. She read French at the University of Leeds and taught English at a high school in Cannes before studying postgraduate journalism at City University London. She has written for the London Evening Standard, The Guardian, TIME magazine and The New York Times. Monisha now works at The Week magazine and lives in London. This is her first book.

Bambi, Chops and Wag: How three dogs trained a family

Bambi, Chops and Wag: How three dogs trained a family
Author: Ranjit Lal
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2013-07-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 8174368663

Bambi, Chops and Wag: A madcap story of how three dogs trained a family is a first-person account of author Ranjit Lal's love for his three pet dogs and how the family cared for the two Boxers and a Labrador. A book for everyone from age 10 to 100, this is a fun, easy-to-read book that will keep the readers hooked to their antics, and their different personalities. At times funny and at times touching the core of your heart, this book celebrates the family's commitment to the three adorable dogs: Bambi, Chops and Wag.

Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame

Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame
Author: John Lall
Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 8174368930

A fascinating re-creation of the life and times of the dazzling nautch girl who became the celebrated Begam Samru after her marriage to a foreign military adventurer, General Reinhardt. She shared his dangers and tortuous intrigues in the turbulent ‘time of troubles’ in the eighteenth century. When he died she took over his jagir, converted to Christianity and steered a perilous course with uncanny skill through the Moghul empire’s last days and the evergrowing power of the British. The life story of this extraordinary Christian princess has no parallel in the transition from chaos to order in Hindustan two hundred years ago. Her memory lives on in the splendid cathedral she built at Sardhana near Meerut which continues to draw thousands of visitors from far and near.