'It's about time,' announced Shalu's mother one fine day. Little did the Sundaresan family realise when they jumped on the matrimonial bandwagon that they were in for the ride of their lives. Sundaresan becomes the quintessential 'girl's father', nosing out prospective bridegrooms with the flair of a bloodhound. Parvati learns that for all her culinary prowess, the way to the 'boy's party's' heart is not through the stomach. Shalu, the bride-to-be, discovers that to be true to who you are is the hardest thing when 'Reject' is repeatedly stamped on you. Will Shalu's prince come along? The TamBrahm Bride is a light-hearted journey through the dizzying world of south Indian arranged marriages predominantly populated by astrologers, matchmakers and NRI grooms.
An entrepreneur in Bosnia, a ghost in the elevator, a deaf-mute father who dies yearning for his son's acceptance, a fantastical kingdom of people without tongues, a young girl on the threshold of marriage and death -- this collection of stories takes us through the strange and often twisted realities that shape our lives. We meet the pragmatic Dina Lal who trades religion for safety in anti-Hindu Pakistan, a still-dignified Narjis on her last journey while her child sleeps in the arms of her jailor, and several others -- young and old, male and female -- as they wrestle with the dile mmas of conflicting cultures and ideologies.
An eclectic mix of thirteen stories by Pakistan's finest women writers, Neither Night Nor Day explores milieus both old and contemporary and exposes, in the process, the underbelly of a society where the spectres of history continue to chase time.
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, A Golden Age is a story of passion and revolution, of hope, faith, and unexpected heroism. In the chaos of this era, everyone--from student leaders protesters to the country's leaders, from rickshaw-wallahs to the army's soldiers--must make choices. And as she struggles to keep her family safe, Rehana will find herself faced with a heartbreaking dilemna. .
In 1969, young Kirin Narayan's older brother, Rahoul, announced that he was quitting school and leaving home to seek enlightenment with a guru. From boyhood, his restless creativity had continually surprised his family, but his departure shook up everyone-- especially Kirin, who adored her high-spirited, charismatic brother.
A touching, funny, and always affectionate memoir, My Family and Other Saints traces the reverberations of Rahoul's spiritual journey through the entire family. As their beachside Bombay home becomes a crossroads for Westerners seeking Eastern enlightenment, Kirin's sari-wearing American mother wholeheartedly embraces ashrams and gurus, adopting her son's spiritual quest as her own. Her Indian father, however, coins the term 'urug' -- guru spelled backward -- to mock these seekers, while young Kirin, surrounded by radiant holy men, parents drifting apart, and a motley of young, often eccentric Westerners, is left to find her own answers. Deftly re-creating the turbulent emotional world of her bicultural adolescence, but overlaying it with the hard-won understanding of adulthood, Narayan presents a large, rambunctious cast of quirky characters, from her grandmother Ba, who enjoys visits from Hindu deities, to such urugs as Bhagwan Dass and the Cupboard Swami. Throughout, she brings to life not just a family but also a time when just about everyone, it seemed, was consumed by some sort of spiritual quest.
Interweaving family stories and mythology, My Family and Other Saints is a poignant reminder that the stories we tell are at the heart of the bonds that tie a family together, no matter how far afield our journeys may take us.
A collection of twelve short stories which revolve mainly around themes of love, loss, displacement and fate. At the heart of each story there is a conflict, sometimes deeply psychological and disturbing and in others, more sociological but intense in its impact on the characters. There are no grand tragedies and no "larger than life" heroes in these stories, but ordinary people caught up in mundane situations in an abstract world...
"On 13 September 1944, Noor Inayat Khan, the first female wireless operator to be flown into occupied France, was shot at Dachau. The descendant of Tipu Sultan, the tiger of Mysore, Noor was born in Moscow and raised in the Sufi style of Islam. From this unlikely background she became the only Asian secret agent in Europe in world war II, was one of three women in the SOE to be awarded the George Cross and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Shrabani Basu's new book tells the full story of this extraordinarily heroic woman.
Noor was brought up in France and Britain and joined the Red Cross when world war II broke out. But, though Sufi tradition preached non-violence, she felt that she had to do more to oppose the horrors of fascism. In Britain, Noor trained as a wireless operator before being recruited by the SOE.
Such was the urgent demand for radio operators that she was sent to France before her training was completed. Working under the code name of Madeleine, she joined a group that sabotaged communication lines. But disaster struck quickly and within days her circuit collapsed and her colleagues were arrested.
Though instructed by her controller, the famous Maurice Buckmaster, to return home, she refused to abandon her post as she was the last radio operator left in Paris. For a time she successfully dodged the Gestapo, but by late 1943 her luck had run out. She was betrayed, arrested and imprisoned at Avenue Foch. Undaunted, she made two dramatic escape attempts, but was recaptured and sent to Germany. Here she was interrogated and tortured and finally sent to Dachau, where she was shot. The Germans had learned nothing from her-not even her real name."
Rumi Vasi is 10 years, 2 months, 13 days, 2 hours, 42 minutes, and 6 seconds old. She's figured that the likelihood of her walking home from school with the boy she likes, John Kemble, is 0.2142, a probability severely reduced by the lacy dress and thick woolen tights her father, and Indian émigré, forces her to wear. Rumi is a gifted child, and her father, Mahesh, believes that strict discipline is the key to nurturing her genius if the family has any hope of making its mark on its adoptive country.
Four years later, a teenage Rumi is at the center of an intense campaign by her parents to make her the youngest student ever to attend Oxford University, an effort that requires an unrelenting routine of study. Yet Rumi is growing up like any other normal teen: her mind often drifts to potent distractions . . . from music to love.
Nikita Lalwani pits a parent's dream against a child's. Deftly pondering the complexities and consequences that accompany the best intentions, Gifted explores just how far one person will push another, and how much can be endured, in the name of love.
Available in north America for $8.00, including postage, from vsastri@winovia.com.
Aisha Bhatia is almost 30, single, and works as a Guest Relations Manager at a fancy hotel. ...a delightful romp through the five-star world of champagne brunches, gay soires, and the dilemmas of hip, young girls on the lookout for love and matrimony.
Rishi Reddi weaves a multigenerational tapestry of interconnected lives, depicting members of an Indian American community struggling to balance the demands of tradition with the allure of Western life.
In "Lord Krishna," a teenager is offended when his evangelical history teacher likens the Hindu deity to Satan, but ultimately forgives the teacher against his father's wishes. In the title story, "Karma," an unemployed professor rescues birds in downtown Boston after his wealthy brother kicks him out of his home. In "Justice Shiva Ram Murthy," which appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2005, an irascible retired judge reconnects with a childhood friend while adjusting to a new life with his daughter and her American husband. In "Devadasi," a beautiful young woman raised in the United States travels back to India and challenges the sexual confines of her culture. And in "Bangles," a widow decides to return to her native village to flee her son's off-putting American ways.
Set mostly in the Boston area, with side trips to an isolated immigrant community in Wichita, Kansas, and the characters' hometown of Hyderabad, India.
A new collection of ten stories. Migrating from Central America to the American South, from Metro Toronto to the Ukraine, this book features an unforgettable cast of characters. In the title story, 16-year-old Megan hates her Pakistani grandmother -- until Grandma disappears. In the enchanting magical realism of "Naina," an Indo-Canadian woman is pregnant with a baby girl who refuses to be born. "The View from the Mountain" introduces Wilson Gonzales, who makes friends with his new American boss, the aptly named Ted Grand. But following 9/11, Ted's suspicions cloud his judgment and threaten his friendship with Wilson.
A novel about the lives of three very different Bohra Muslims. Set in Toronto with back story in Mumbai, Nasreen Bastawala, an Indo-Canadian lesbian and burnt-out psychologist, becomes enmeshed in the lives of Shaffiq and Salma Paperwala, new immigrants from Mumbai.
While working in the same Toronto hospital as Nasreen, Shaffiq develops a persistent and confusing fascination with Nasreen, causing him to bring home and hide things he 'finds' in her office. Salma, his wife, discovers some of these hidden treasures and suspects that something is amiss. Unbeknownst to Shaffiq, Nasreen begins attending weekly Gujarati classes taught by Salma, who finds herself inexplicably attracted to her student. This attraction harkens back memories and regrets Salma holds about a lesbian affair that ended badly years ago.
Nasreen has troubles of her own. She recently broke up with her cheating girlfriend and still has mixed feelings about her, and their relationship. She is also dealing with her father, who has become demanding and clingy ever since the death of her mother a couple of years before.
Without knowing that it is happening, Nasreen becomes the centre of Shaffiq and Salma's lives. Each keeps a secret about Nasreen, and in so doing risks their marriage, while Nasreen struggles to come to terms with her mother's death, her recent break-up, and her new relationship with her father. An impulsive kiss between Salma and Nasreen sets off a surprising course of events.
Kaveri and Setu grow up in a small town in the state of Mysore, a princely state within British India. It is the 1930s and the distant fire of the freedom movement has begun to warm their languid bones. Setu absorbs their lawyer father Mylaraiah's unquestioning veneration of the British, while Kaveri thinks more like their spirited but reflective mother Rukmini. Mahatma Gandhi visits their town briefly and sets the cat among the pigeons. While Mylaraiah is convinced that 'swaraj' is a delusion, Rukmini questions the bases of their freedom, their political complacency and social presumptions. In an attempt to follow her heart and take charge of her own future, Kaveri defies her father and participates in the Quit India march organised by Shyam, the hot-headed revolutionary she is attracted to. Angered and jealous, and loyal to his father, Setu betrays his sister. Fifty years later, Setu's daughter tries to make sense of her sandpapered childhood, the hostility between her parents and their refusal to speak of the past. Two books and a letter found in a tea tin in the attic lead her to Kaveri and it is Kaveri's murky story that holds the key to her own.
Set mostly in the Boston area with side trips to an isolated immigrant community in Wichita, Kansas, and Hyderabad, this debut collection weaves a multigenerational tapestry of interconnected lives, depicting members of an Indian American community struggling to balance the demands of tradition with the allure of Western life.
In "Lord Krishna," a teenager is offended when his evangelical history teacher likens the Hindu deity to Satan, but ultimately forgives the teacher against his father's wishes. In the title story, "Karma," an unemployed professor rescues birds in downtown Boston after his wealthy brother kicks him out of his home. In "Justice Shiva Ram Murthy," which appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2005, an irascible retired judge reconnects with a childhood friend while adjusting to a new life with his daughter and her American husband. In "Devadasi," a beautiful young woman raised in the United States travels back to India and challenges the sexual confines of her culture. And in "Bangles," a widow decides to return to her native village to flee her son's off-putting American ways.