COVER REVEAL

Book Description

A man of unusual gifts and dangerously consequential flaws, Atal Behari Lal Vajpayee was the Hindu Right’s most glamorized and enigmatic face until now. Drawing on a natural talent to pull in the crowds with his eloquence, he elevated his physically frail and academically mediocre self to become a powerful spokesperson of historical victimhood.

In this singularly gripping account, Abhishek Choudhary sets out to prove that Vajpayee was far more critical to the project of Hinduizing India than is commonly understood. He uncovers how Vajpayee’s early life, of which we know shockingly little, lies at the heart of his political character: essentially conservative yet curious and conciliatory, detached yet quietly ambitious. Weaving previously unseen documents with revealing interviews, Choudhary layers this definitive biography with details of Vajpayee’s underground activities in the wake of Gandhi’s assassination; his early obsession with foreign policy; the shock from the premature deaths of his parents; his tortuous private life and maudlin poetry; his key role in the SVD coalition experiment; his defense of the Sangh Parivar inside the parliament and his averments and deferments outside. In so doing, this extraordinary debut revises several lazy myths and false binaries that have come to dominate Indian political discourse. The sympathy of Congress conservatives and Hindi intelligentsia for the RSS, Patel’s own extended ambiguity, Nehru’s innate conviction that East Pakistan would merge back with India, Indira Gandhi’s fleet-footed attack on the Jan Sangh’s finances and electoral chances, the foolish fantasies of JP’s Total Revolution and the Sangh Parivar’s dubious heroism in the Emergency are also revisited to reveal the complexity of India’s democracy.

Praises for the book

‘The finest biography of an Indian prime minister that I have read’

Ramachandra Guha

‘A real achievement, an instant classic and a total triumph’

Shruti Kapila

‘Doubles as a history of Hindu supremacism; it won’t be bettered for a long time’
Pankaj Mishra

‘Extraordinary and unputdownable. This is biography done right’

Sonia Faleiro

The post Yesterday’s King and King maker – VAJPAYEE: THE ASCENT OF THE HINDU RIGHT, 1924–1977 by Abhishek Choudhary appeared first on Outset Books.

 A raging pandemic, a dearth of life-saving equipment, and ninety days to manufacture a world-class ventilator.

The Ventilator Project – Cover Reveal

In response to the imminent crisis, Amitabha Bandyopadhyay and Srikant Sastri formed the IIT Kanpur Ventilator Consortium as a task force to assist a young startup, Nocca Robotics, in building affordable high-quality ventilators for India’s cash-strapped hospitals. Under the mentorship of reputed industry leaders, the task force and the Nocca team worked tirelessly against unprecedented odds – trammeled by a ban on imports and telecommuting through Zoom and Whatsapp in the face of stringent lockdown restrictions – to manufacture the Noccarc V310 in record time. This is the incredible story of its conception, creation, and success, in the words of the task force co-leaders themselves.

Inspiring and riveting, The Ventilator Project also offers an unmatched blueprint for business in the post-Covid era through first-hand lessons gleaned during the task force’s phenomenal ninety-day run. It proves that India, with its deep recesses of talent and ingenuity, has the potential to be a world leader in both business and social impact.

Pre-order link: https://amzn.to/3aOQBpq

The post Cover Reveal -The Ventilator Project by Srikant Sastri and Amitabha Bandopadhyay appeared first on Outset Books.

A charming tale of a young schoolboy trying to find his place in a changing world.

Twelve-year-old Karthik Subramanian has just been granted admission into St George’s, an elite boys’ school in Bangalore that has supported the academic lives of ‘four state cricketers, one India captain, tens of professors, hundreds of doctors, engineers and scientists, thousands of chartered accountants …’ In this most exalted of institutions, Karthik yearns for recognition as an academic superstar.

Rigorously prepped by his parents and grandfather, dutifully offering his prayers to Lord Ganesha, Karthik steps into this new world. But nothing has prepared him for the challenges that lie in wait and he is left to himself to navigate the cruelties of school life, and the transition into adolescence. The less his family learns about his friends, the better. There are threats all around, even violence.

Brilliant in its observations of a motley cast of characters, and finely calibrated for humor and sadness, What’s Wrong with You, Karthik? is a poignant, exuberant debut from a writer of rare caliber.

‘A warm, minutely detailed evocation of boyhood . . . textured like life itself’ ― Samanth Subramanian

‘[Written with] skill and precision’ – Srinath Perur

The post Cover Reveal: WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU KARTHIK appeared first on Outset Books.

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Gay Icons of India

Hoshang Merchant and Akshaya K. Rath

9789386215956 | PAN ǀ Rs 450 ǀ Paperback | July 10, 2019

‘Hoshang Merchant has gone boldly into a territory that was “out of bounds” in India till the historic ruling down of the dreaded Section 377. The narrative of Gay Icons of India is well paced, personal and insightful’ –Shobhaa De

‘India’s history is incomplete without acknowledging the millions of unspoken stories of the queer world. Gay Icons of India are symbolic of a way forward. “We’re here, we’re queer!’ – Keshav Suri

 

Fighting a relentless culture of discrimination and homophobia, India’s LGBTQ+ community is finally on the road to inclusion and acceptance. While there are still miles to go, the Supreme Court’s landmark reading down of Section 377 in September 2018 came as a battle hard-won for those who identify as gay.

In the wake of this watershed judgment, Gay Icons of India celebrates twenty-two extraordinary personalities from the queer community who have resisted injustices through their art and greatly aided LGBTQ+ social movements. From dancers and poets to writers and artists, Hoshang Merchant and Akshaya K. Rath pay homage to these inspirational figures who stand steadfastly for equal love and the right to be different.

AUTHOR BIO

Hoshang Merchant is the author of Yaraana: Gay Writing from India, Forbidden Sex, Forbidden Texts: New India’s Gay Poets, and The Man Who Would Be Queen. A well-known poet and teacher, he has published over twenty books of poetry. He recently retired from the University of Hyderabad for twenty-six years.

Akshaya K. Rath is an Assistant Professor of English and teaches creative writing, gender, and sexualities at NIT Rourkela. His book Secret Writings of Hoshang Merchant was published in 2016.

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