TRIUMPH OF THE INDIAN REPUBLIC
Ram Nath Kovind
Rupa Publications
Pp 400, Rs 795
India has never seen a president like Ram Nath Kovind, fondly remembered as ‘Everybody’s President’. Here, in his own words, is the story of his life—public and private—told with uncompromising candour, modesty, and a sense of drama characteristic of an exceptional storyteller. If you have ever wondered what it’s like to walk in the shoes of the President of India or wanted to get a ringside view of the inner corridors of presidential power, then Triumph of the Indian Republic is the book for you.
The Rules That Make Us
Oliver Sweet
Hachette
Pp 304, Rs 1,850
Business anthropologist Oliver Sweet reveals the secrets to successful people—watching and how we can better understand consumers, voters and our relationships. His work uses cultural insights to help businesses, governments and NGOs achieve their goals— whether he’s working with the Gates Foundation to encourage South African men to get HIV tests, or helping a pet food company break into a new market in Brazil.
Gangrene
Akshaya Kumar, Navdeep Singh
Penguin Random House
Pp 208, Rs 499
Gangrene is an attempt to compile some of Punjabi literature’s most powerful short stories on Dalit themes and issues. Carefully curated by Prof Akshaya Kumar and Navdeep Singh, this volume features stories on a variety of issues ranging from caste identities and rural exploitation to urban life and housing. Searing in its indictment of casteism, this volume is a window to a better understanding of Punjabi society.
Gangs of Punjab
Jupinderjit Singh
Rupa Publications
Pp 224, Rs 395
From the killing of Sidhu Moosewala to attacks linked to Gippy Grewal, and threats to Salman Khan, violence is no longer an act—it is a message. Punjab’s organised crime has mutated into cartel-style international syndicates, with wanton killings and an endless cycle of revenge. Jupinderjit Singh’s Gangs of Punjab enters this ruthless underworld, tracing the rise of men who blur the line between outlaw and icon.
My Dead Flowers
Buku Sarkar
HarperCollins
Pp 160, Rs 499
The poems in Buku Sarkar’s My Dead Flowers are rivers; they meander, change course, are a swirl of eddies and back-eddies. They snake through the streets of Paris, New York City, Calcutta. And they sing of love—of its unruliness; its faltering ways; of its tenacious hold over memory. These are poems that reveal themselves not only in verse—hurried jottings on paper—but as photographs, each ‘a reminder / there’s nothing left’.