Four Kings and Queens of India have their lives told in an engaging manner that is sure to appeal to kids who are just starting to appreciate history.
Think misty mountains. Think gentle small hillside towns. Think goats with tinkling bells around their necks. Think a delicious hint of danger from the natural world – leopards, for instance, after dark, or a ghostly figure half-glimpsed at dusk. Think Ruskin Bond, the grandfather that every Indian kid adopted as their very own. And guess what – today, May 19th, is Ruskin Bond’s birthday! 82 years young and going strong – why, we at IndiaBookStore have been seeing a new Ruskin Bond title on the online bookstands every couple of months! – Ruskin Bond remains an eternal favourite. It must be something to do with the man himself, the impression he leaves behind when we read him – a simple, nature-loving, modest, friendly man of generous spirit. So when Rupa Publications offered to give 3 of our readers a wonderful book bundle of 5 Ruskin Bond books to celebrate Ruskin Bond’s birthday, we were thrilled (and, admittedly, envious!) It didn’t need the added sweetener that one of the books would be autographed by The Bond himself! Go check it out for yourselves: The Ruskin Bond 5 Book Bundle Giveaway. Best of luck! Plus, if you’re a die-hard Bond fan, you…
The Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told contains 21 short stories spanning more than a century of Bengali fiction. Whether these are the ‘greatest Bengali stories ever’, however, is a question with no easy answer.
In The Wedding Photographer by Sakshama Puri Dhariwal, when wedding photographer Risha Kohli sits next to handsome young tycoon Arjun Khanna on a flight, sparks fly. Buy this smart, sassy, sexy novel here. Hour 3 Risha plugged her memory card into her laptop, grumbling to herself. Nidhi called this her ‘post-partum depression phase’, sifting through thousands of photos for the first cut selection. Unlike traditional wedding photographers, Risha didn’t believe in sending her clients thousands of photos to choose from. She spent a substantial amount of time on a thorough quality check. She painstakingly looked through each image, discarding the ones with poor lighting or resolution, cluttered frames and, most importantly, the non-candid images or ‘posers’. Most clients had a regular photographer to cater to requests such as ‘Hamare kitty party group ki ek photo lena’; they didn’t need Risha for that. Risha gulped down her lukewarm coffee, and started with the obvious thumbnails. Select, delete. Select, delete. If Risha ever quit her job to do photography full time, the first thing she would do would be to hire an assistant for this specific task. She loved taking photos and even enjoyed working on the album design, but the tedium…