Description When they first met in 2002 at a literary festival, Nayantara Sahgal was a veteran of more than twenty books; her debut work, the memoir Prison and Chocolate Cake, was published in 1954. Kiran Nagarkar had published his first novel, Saat Sakkam Trechalis, in Marathi in 1974, and his first work in English, Ravan and Eddie, twenty years later. Sparks didn't fly at that first encounter. It was only in 2014, when Nagarkar wrote to Sahgal about Mistaken Identity and other books of hers that he had read, that she invited him to lunch at her home in Dehradun- and thus began a correspondence that lasted until Nagarkar's death in 2019. As they discussed each other's work, their almost daily exchange of emails grew into a sharing of concerns: Nagarkar's chronic ill-health, Sahgal's grief on the death of her 23-year-old grandson, Zum, and through it all, their distress at the rise of violent majoritarianism and the loss of democratic ideals in their beloved country. Emails don't, observes Sahgal, 'have the prestige of letters, but they have an immediacy that letters can't have. Our mails made for the sense of a presence nearby with whom it became natural to share views, feelings and daily doings'. United by their love of books and their politics, separated by distance-Nagarkar in Mumbai, Sahgal in Dehradun-this immediacy was the key to a friendship that remains an enigma to an outsider. For Sahgal, the emotions appear to be those of a friend, albeit a close and loving one. For Nagarkar, 72 to Sahgal's 87 when the correspondence began, the feelings run deeper; he misses her constantly, and proclaims his love. This collection of mails is a rare and poignant document, an intimate glimpse into the life and times of two extraordinary writers who drew strength from each other in their personal and political battles.

This book is a comprehensive critical re-reading of Nayantara Sahgal’s oeuvre. One of the most significant Indian English writers, her fictional and non-fictional engagement with historical events and political dilemmas inextricably links her to the colonial, anti-colonial and post-colonial discourse in India. Drawing transcontinental connections with the ideas of Fanon, Foucault, Said, Beauvoir, White, Beck and Habermas the monograph juxtaposes recurring themes in her writing with the ideas of significant Indian post-colonial commentators. Tracing the subliminal tendencies in her writing to Gandhian humanity and Nehruvian pragmaticism, the book moves beyond clichés of feminist criticism and genealogical ties to unveil a unique artist who has folded nearly a century of Indian experience in her work. Drawing on novels, essays, speeches, journalism and interviews by Nayantara Sahgal, this volume will be of great interest to scholars of South Asian literature, post-colonialism, politics and contemporary history/culture/change.

In this exchange of letters dating from an extremely turbulent period of their lives, Nayantara Sahgal and E.N. Mangat Rai, two very public figures who had remained at the same time intensely private, broke their self-imposed silence for the first time.When Relationship was first published in 1994, it was received with varying degrees of shock and appreciation. This newly revised edition includes all of the correspondence carried in the previous one, with a short but significant addition: Diary from Chandigarh is an honest and often emotionally wrenching account of Nayantara's life with her husband and children before the break-up.Both the diary and the letters highlight one woman's endeavour to remain true to herself, her writing, her ideals and relationships, both outside and within marriage. They speak of a growing and passionate involvement, of the author's joy and pain at discovering an intellectual companionship while recognizing the difficulties of keeping such a relationship alive. They reflect too, on the dilemmas and compulsions that bind men and women into particular relationships, and the exigencies of public life and its implications for the private sphere.A mirror of the times when a kind of idealism and commitment still seemed possible, Relationship gives the reader an insight into the life and thoughts of one of India's most successful writers, and one of the most distinguished civil servants of his generation

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize: An “extraordinary” novel “lit by a moral intelligence at once fierce and tender” (The New York Times Book Review). In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, an embittered old judge wants only to retire in peace. But his life is upended when his sixteen-year-old orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge’s chatty cook watches over the girl, but his thoughts are mostly with his son, Biju, hopscotching from one miserable New York restaurant job to another, trying to stay a step ahead of the INS. When a Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai’s new-sprung romance with her tutor, the household descends into chaos. The cook witnesses India’s hierarchy being overturned and discarded. The judge revisits his past and his role in Sai and Biju’s intertwining lives. In a grasping world of colliding interests and conflicting desires, every moment holds out the possibility for hope or betrayal. Published to extraordinary acclaim, The Inheritance of Loss heralds Kiran Desai as one of our most insightful novelists. She illuminates the pain of exile and the ambiguities of postcolonialism with a tapestry of colorful characters and “uncannily beautiful” prose (O: The Oprah Magazine). “A book about tradition and modernity, the past and the future—and about the surprising ways both amusing and sorrowful, in which they all connect.” —The Independent

It s a complex universe that Kiran Nagarkar leads us into. Seven Sixes are Forty Three explores the dimensions of relationships in terms of an empty physicality and loneliness as an inherent element in modern lives. Translated by Subha Slee, the novel s quest for compatibility is inspiring.

Economic liberalization and globalization in India in the early 1990s resulted in a whirlwind of consumerist activities. New material and visual temptations swamped the markets. Expanding field of commodification infiltrated consumer minds through media imageries. New objects of desire aroused inhibited cravings. This engendered an accelerated and intensified relationship with things and images that permeate our everyday lives. Consumerist Encounters elucidates how our all-consuming relationship with objects and their representations have transformed rapidly over the last few decades in contemporary urban India. It argues that ephemerality, frivolousness, and multiplicity of choice regulate our flirtatious encounters with commodities and their images as we restlessly use, exhaust, dispose, and move on. Such a trend is illustrated by examining a plethora of commodity-centric phenomena such as exclusion through apparel, eroticization of body images, population of the T-shirt surface with graphics and text, rise of business process outsourcing, instantaneous seeing and sharing of images, and rejection of material goods in junkyards and ruins. These explorations collectively shed light on the constant negotiation of our identities, statuses, and mobilities in the image-saturated commodity landscape.

This book offers captivating insights into the interaction between the Indian and the American cultural worlds. A fascinating work of research, it illustrates an extraordinary capacity to employ the details of literary texts as significant clues in understanding the configuration of transcultural identities. The book constructs an exciting dialogue between complex theoretical notions and the vibrant fictional worlds populated by Indian, American and European characters. Its original and multi-layered approach illustrates how complex theories of culture can help the reader understand contemporary processes of migration, cultural change and gender identity that interfere with daily life.

In a city where the echoes of the past whispered through every alley and hidden corner, three souls found themselves entangled in a story woven by the fires of passion and the shadows of betrayal. Little did they know that their destinies were eternally bound, and the choices they made would set in motion a journey of redemption that transcended the boundaries of time. The studio, perched atop the bustling city, served as a witness to their unfolding drama. It was a place where art became the silent confidant, capturing the hues of love, turmoil, and transformation on its canvases. In this sanctuary, Sita, a passionate artist; kiran, a man with a mysterious past; and poorni, a figure veiled in enigma, will confront the complexities of their interconnected hearts. As the trio navigated the intricacies of their shared history, the canvas became a mirror reflecting the dance of emotions that unfolded within them. The bonfire in the hidden garden, a symbol of both destruction and renewal, marked the stages of their journey—each flame a testament to the fires of passion that threatened to consume and the redemptive embrace that offered a chance at healing. In the whispers of destiny, they discovered a path that led beyond the shadows of betrayal. The phoenix, with its wings outstretched, emerged as a symbol of their collective resilience—a beacon guiding them through the challenges that lay ahead. As the trio stood at the precipice of a new chapter, the city lights below mirrored the infinite possibilities that awaited. This is the prologue of their story, where embers of a forgotten tale come alive, and the fires of passion set the stage for a journey that will unravel the intricacies of love, betrayal, and the eternal bonds that transcend the boundaries of time. Little did they know that their destinies were intertwined in ways they could never have imagined, and the echoes of their shared history would resonate through the pages of a tale yet to be written.

Najeeb’s dearest wish is to work in the Gulf and earn enough money to send back home. He achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents, grim and absurd, into a slave-like existence herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert. Memories of the lush, verdant landscape of his village and of his loving family haunt Najeeb whose only solace is the companionship of goats. In the end, the lonely young man contrives a hazardous scheme to escape his desert prison. Goat Days was published to acclaim in Malayalam and became a bestseller. One of the brilliant new talents of Malayalam literature, Benyamin’s wry and tender telling transforms this strange and bitter comedy of Najeeb’s life in the desert into a universal tale of loneliness and alienation.

New Delhi, one month after the declaration of the Emergency, is the setting for Nayantara Sahgal's novel Rich Like Us, an ironic, tender and exquisitely crafted study of India and its people in the aftermath of Independence.The Emergency in India meant many things to many people - profit and power for some; jail for others; mobile vasectomy clinics for thousands more. For idealistics like Sonali it meant the end of a dream, the extinguishing of a bright flame of promise for the country's future that had burned since Independence. An unmarried woman, proud of her senior ranking in the civil service, she finds herself demoted and humiliated through a corrupt deal at governmental level. For opportunists like Dev, a beneficiary of the deal, it means a chance to quite his ailing father's business and make it on his own as a leader of the New Entrepreneurs. Sonali's colleague, Ravi Kachru, once a passionate Marxist, makes himself indispensable to the "royal line". Meanwhile, the stubborn shopkeeper, Kishori Lal, bloodied survivor of Partition, lands in a filthy prison cell for a non-existent crime.Rich Like Us is many individual histories, and many voices, in one - a compelling and vivid tapestry of India's past and present. Above all it is the story of Rose the cockney memsahib, brought by the worldly Ram from London forty years before to a family that neither wants nor welcomes her. In Nayantara Sahgal's tale, with its humour and tragedy, is mirrored some of the grandeur and folly of the Indian experience itself.