Tag: memoirs
-
Book Review: Bhang Journeys – Stories, Histories, Trips and Travels
Made with the leaves of the cannabis plant, bhang has been consumed in India for thousands of years. Mixed with thandai or lassi, bhang – which is mildly psychoactive and which can produce feelings of euphoria – is often consumed during the festival of Holi, although true connoisseurs will give it a go at any…
-
Book Review: Becoming Goan – A Contemporary Coming-Home Story
Goa. For a lot of people, it’s their idea of paradise. White beaches. Blue water. Cocktails and a balmy sea breeze. Snoozy, lazy days. Parties in the night. A relaxed, chilled-out Goan lifestyle that’s a world away from the helter-skelter of a Delhi or a Mumbai. That’s the dream, right? Sure, and for a lucky…
-
Book Review: Never Out of Print – The Rupa Story
One of India’s oldest, most prominent publishing houses, Rupa was established in Calcutta back in 1936 by Daudayal Mehra, then a young man who saw an opportunity in the bookselling business. Today, even as all major, global publishers have entered the Indian market over the last few decades, Rupa continues to thrive as an independent…
-
Spreading Joy: In Conversation with Joy Alukkas
When the world’s favourite jeweller tells the story of his life, the world sits up to listen. Or rather, in this case, read. Spreading Joy is the story of Joy Alukkas, the man who heads the ‘Joyalukkas’ jewellery brand, which is present in 11 countries around the world, with a chain of more than 150…
-
A Way Within: An Excerpt
First published in 1997 and extensively revised and expanded for this edition, A Way Within: Seven Years in a Himalayan Ashram is a candid and illuminating account of the inward journey; a quest that is challenging and rewarding in equal measure,’ says the publisher’s note. In the book, the author Madhu Tandan recounts her story…
-
The Brass Notebook: An Excerpt
‘In this no-holds-barred memoir, renowned feminist economist and academician Devaki Jain recounts her own story and also that of an entire generation and a nation coming into its own,’ says the publisher’s note, about The Brass Notebook. Jain writes about her childhood in south India, a life of comfort and ease with a father who…
-
Book Review: Adman Madman – Unapologetically Prahlad
One look at the mildly risqué back cover of this book and you know this isn’t going to be a run-of-the-mill memoir. For there is an exuberant Prahlad Kakar, bearded and long-haired, with an impressively long cigar in his mouth, holding up a large fish (which he has presumably just caught) in one hand and…
-
The Yellow Sparrow: An Excerpt
Consigned to the shadows, their very existence swept under the carpet, the transgender community in India – even as it struggles to somehow eke out a living at the fringes of society – faces widespread ridicule and humiliation. The challenges they face have often been documented in the media but have never been adequately addressed.…
-
Book Review: Doctor Steel
Jamshed Jiji Irani, who passed away at the age of 86 in October 2022, is well regarded for his work with Tata Steel and the contributions he made towards modernizing the company’s steel plant in Jamshedpur. Armed with a PhD in Metallurgy from the University of Sheffield, UK, Irani joined TISCO (later renamed Tata Steel)…
-
Book Excerpt: Three Countries, Three Lives – A Doctor’s Story
In her memoir, author Lindy Rajan Cartner looks back at her long, remarkably interesting journey as a doctor. Born in 1935 in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar) Cartner led a somewhat unconventional life by the standards of that time. ‘Set between three countries, Burma, India, and England, and spanning three generations, Three Countries, Three Lives…