Westland Books
115 books
Akka Mahadevi is one of the foremost feminist and spiritual icons of Indian history. Her powerful vachanas, written in twelfth-century Karnataka, trace a radical journey. Unlike other women bhaktas, Mahadevi worked within the female body, not around it – eventually walking naked, ‘breast to breast with the cosmos’, and moving beyond all binaries, including male–female, devotee–God. Steered by her own inner experiences, Mahadevi cut ...
Barely a month has passed since the royal wedding of Emperor Akbar to the legendary Jodha, when the new queen’s brother, Sujjamal, is found murdered in the palace gardens. With his honour and reputation at stake, Akbar asks his trusted advisor Birbal to solve the mystery. The murder has taken place in a garden, at a spot between two mango trees, and the two guards who are eyewitnesses have conflicting versions of what could have happened. Was it suicide? ...
In a government school classroom in Delhi, young Indira Thapa is set an unusual assignment by her favourite teacher: to write an essay around her name. Who was Indira Priyadarshini, the person after whom her grandfather named her? And why her? What is her legacy as India’s first-and only-woman prime minister?
Over the course of a long, hot summer and a curious friendship with an artist who is working on a biography of Mrs Gandhi, young Indira gets tangled ...
When violence has seeped into the very soil and water of a place, the peace that follows is poisoned too. And everywhere, stories rise to the surface.
In the uneasy, purgatory-like time of ceasefire, there is a sense of renewed optimism. An old man recalls the dream romance of Rwmaii and Sylvia, interrupted by her marriage to a militant. A journalist doesn’t know what to do with a murder story that could have been a scoop. A mysterious gun-flute man ...
Through a seeming act of providence, an old couple receives a day-old female goat kid as a gift from the cosmos. Thus begins the story of Poonachi, the little orphan goat.
As you follow her story from forest to habitation, independence to motherhood, you recognise in its significant moments the depth and magnitude of your own fears and longings, fuelled by the instinct for survival that animates all life. Masterly and nuanced, Perumal Murugan’s tale forces ...
How do we find peace, permanence and certainty in a world that is, by its very nature, impermanent, uncertain and volatile?
The reality is that we experience our entire lives through the mind, and all our experiences of pain and pleasure, satisfaction and dissatisfaction stem from there. To create meaning and be happy, we must train our minds to become a fit instrument that supports our well-being and enables us to reach our full human potential.
In Just Breathe, ...
I heard many people saying that one of the terrorists had studied in Jamia School, in my batch. If ‘they’ were to say I was friends with him, how would I deny it? I had very few friends in school, but who would believe that?
You can alter your future, but how do you change your past?
19 September 2008, the Batla House encounter. That one day changed the life of a young man from Inderwan Bairam in Bihar’s Gopalganj district. An over-protected ...
As we manoeuvre the many demands of relationships, career, property and health, we often sense a void, a feeling of alienation from our true selves. Is it possible for one planet to orbit so many suns? We have many centres in our lives, yet where is the true centre, the deepest centre that lies at the core of every heart?
Ensconced in India’s ageless oral tradition, Kamlesh D. Patel-widely known as Daaji, the fourth guru in the Heartfulness lineage-traces a ...
Baking often brings to mind comfort food: delicious homemade cakes, decadent brownies, cookies and puddings. In this wonderful book, Achu Kurian, who has over thirty years experience in baking, brings to you a comprehensive collection of recipes for delicious cakes and desserts - and much more. Comprising a wide range of recipes to satisfy the sweet tooth - from citrus cake and coffee gateau to coffee soufflé and yoghurt cream pudding - Achu Kurian has ...
As a young bride married into a family in Bihar, Pallavi Nigam Sahay was mesmerized by the vast repertoire of Bhojpuri bhansa ghars or kitchens. This is her tribute to the region’s traditional recipes - the legendary Litti Chokha; Choora Mattar; Bihari Halwai-style Mutton; Machli Ka Sarsonwala Jhor; the delectable Bhujias; the unique Parwal Ki Mithai, Thekua and other fantastic sweets. The Bhojpuri Kitchen is not only a celebration of several recipes, lest ...
Writer Sarah Ockler once said, I ve never met a problem a proper cupcake couldn t fix, and it s something that Shipra Khanna truly believes. Except this would extend to chocolate, and cakes, and ice-cream, and cookies. Just anything sweet, and sinful. Sinfully Yours is a collection of Shipra s favourite desserts. It includes classics that her mother and grandmother taught her; sweets that she came up with when experimenting in college; desserts that she thought ...
The South as a business centre is not on anyone s radar. Bombay and, to a lesser extent, Delhi, dominate the business world. Calcutta still retains a modicum of power, though it is in rapid decline. Madras is an overgrown village, and Bangalore a pensioner s paradise. Fast-forward to 2016. Kolkata is not on the business radar at all. Mumbai and Delhi continue to remain powerhouses. In the South, Bangalore is on top of everyone s list, and even Hyderabad is seen ...
Don t blame it on the hormones. As women, it has always been up to us to leave behind the heritage of health, just like your grandmother did for your mother and everyone in the family. But it s not easy to leave behind a legacy of health and harmony we must first create that in our lives. That requires making time for ourselves, be it for exercise, to eat right, or simply to nap. This book is about taking charge of ourselves, thanking our bodies and making peace ...
Happiness is a Stomach Full is a collection of delicious recipes from Kerala. Forgotten gems like the murungapoovu thoran (Drumstick flower thoran) and pachha parangaandi thoran (Tender cashew nut thoran) are revealed along with the famous appam and puttu. There is a great variety of vegetarian preparations as well as recipes from the fabulous coastal Kerala cuisine. Apart from desserts and snacks (including paal payasam and plantain chips), pickles, chutneys and ...
Who has the time for exercise? While research has shown that benefits from yoga range from curing ailments and improving muscle tone and flexibility to reducing stress and tension, today’s extended office hours, long commutes, and family obligations mean that not all of us can keep to a fitness schedule.
But, in Yoga in the Workplace, acclaimed yoga practitioner Shameem Akthar has come up with a simple and efficient way of using yoga practices at the work ...
I am half-man, half-superhuman. I am the mightiest warrior of my time. I have violated my dharma and murdered a man in cold-blood. I have, single-handed, wiped out a whole generation of my kinsmen. I have committed acts of unspeakable brutality on the battlefield. I have done it all for the love of one woman.
A woman who loves my brother.
I am Bhima, the second Pandava. This is my story.
Possessed of amazing strength, fierce loyalty and great tenderness, Bhima as ...
Born of prophetic union between the Earth Goddess Gaia and Daeyus, chief of the Devas, come the story of a child recounted by history to have become a king and retold by legend to have transcended into a god.
Indra, destiny’s orphan, finds himself growing up in a vortex of treachery and incumbency. Shielded from the usurpers of his birthright only by the watchful eye of the warrior sage Mitra, he first sets out to conquer the hearts of his tribesmen, and ...