Don’t miss this campus novel based in Banaras Hindu University
The Hindi version of Banaras Talkies, a campus novel based in Banaras Hindu University came out in 2015, based in the author’s alma mater. The book, he says, is ‘as fictional as you think and as factual as you can understand’. Given that it is his first book chances are high that his experiences find […]
What are the lesser known monuments of India? This book tells us
A Saint, A folktale and other stories: Lesser known monuments of India, by Rana Safvi, is a collection of 19 articles, each on a different monument (most of these in northern India), including one on the graves of select poets. I read A Saint, A folktale and other stories: Lesser known monuments of India, at […]
Go beyond the clichéd north Indian village
Authors Luc Leruth with Jean Dreze bring the outsiders’ perspective into this story of learning and unlearning about life, society, culture, and more in rural north India. Fiction often allows subject specialists to explore ideas and topics in inventive ways, far removed from the restrictions that research papers ask for. Many talk about taking the […]
Friends, conversations and a bookstore in Banaras
Why does he not stock books in Hindi and those for children? A friend I had gone with to the Harmony Bookstore in Banaras asked me. I pointed her to Rakeshbhai, the curator and owner of this deceptively quaint bookstore. “If I keep Hindi books I need to have a range and number that does […]
The parallel worlds of animals and humans in The Silence of the Hyena
Book: The Silence of the Hyena Stories and a novella Author: Syed Muhammad Ashraf Translated from the Urdu by: M. Asaduddin and Musharraf Ali Farooqi The Silence of the Hyena, originally written in Urdu, consists of eight short stories and a novella. Two translators have brought these stories to English, and is a simple read that […]
