Revathi, an engineer, is besotted with Ravi, an auto driver, and marries him against her family’s wishes. As her life unravels, we are brought face-to-face with the realities of narrow-minded, small lives, where it remains impossible for people to rise above the societal chains that shackle them.The novel explores one’s helplessness and vulnerability in prose that is deceptively simple, it lays bare the insidious ways in which class, caste and misogyny infiltrate our lives and eat a...

Imayam is considered one of the most important Tamil writers today and this powerful collection of stories reveals just why that is. Whether he is depicting a lack of political morality in the novella Vazhga Vazhga, questioning whether religion unifies or divides in Tiruneeru Sami, or narrating his unique spin on Samban, a character from one our epics, Imayam’s unsparing gaze on society gently and subtly reveals the inequalities people must live with and navigate. Beautif...

A man offering curses and prayers, gifts and threats to his favourite deity before embarking upon a day of thieving...A woman in a packed bus, desperate to get home before her clothes are soaked with menstrual blood, but also determined to save a seat for a fellow woman...A loyal, ageing party worker, hoping to finally contest an election, but discovering instead the worm in the apple of democracy...Set for the most part in the small towns...

The author Sri 'M' is an extraordinary individual. His uniqueness lies not only in the fact that at the young age of 19 and a half, he travelled to snow clad Himalayas from Kerala, and there he met and lived for several years with a 'real-time' yogi, Babaji, but also that he should undertake such an unusual and adventurous exploration, given his non-Hindu birth and antecedents.The metamorphosis of Mumtaz Ali Khan into Sri 'M', a yogi with profound knowledge of the Upanishads and de...

Finalist for the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and for the Governor General's Literary Award, this powerful new work, about a transgender sex worker in the red-light district of Bombay who is given an unexpected task, is a gripping literary page-turner--difficult and moving, surprising and tender. Anosh Irani's best novel yet, and his first with Knopf Canada.The Parcel's astonishing heart, soul and unforgettable voice is Madhu--born a boy, but a eunuch by c...

Set in ancient India, Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha follows the spiritual journey of a young man who leaves his family home and meets the Buddha. An exploration of both Buddhist philosophy and individual morality, Siddhartha charts a quest from ascetic simplicity to worldly luxury and back again. While he draws on the Buddha's teachings, Siddhartha ultimately forges his own path, creating a personal philosophy that has fascinated readers for nearly a century. Siddhartha is c...

India for first time visitors. A guide to the cultural quirks of India.

Sri Ramana Maharshi, born Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu spiritual master. He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. The book describes his journey. He was one of the greatest teachers of Philosophy in the 19th century.

Sukesh, Sanchita, Kapil and Siddhant die and go to Yamlok, where they meet Yamraj. Yamraj gives them one last chance to become alive again, and they can go back to earth, if they win the game: Island Game of Modern Life. The winner will be resurrected to life and could start life from where it ended. What was the game and who wins? What is a modern life? Is it really true that after people die, Yamraj gives one last chance to them to become alive again?

Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse which deals with the spiritual journey of an Indian boy called Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha. The book was written in German, in a simple, yet powerful and lyrical style. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s.The story revolves around a young man who leaves his home and family on a quest for the Truth. Embarking on a journey that takes him from the austerit...

"These teachings from the heart of Buddhism ring true . . . a sumptuous meal of wild and comic dharma. Enjoy!" (Enkyō O'Hara, Soto priest and teacher).One hundred illuminating tales of the foibles and follies of everyday fools, this elegant, humorous, and masterful little book of wisdom is a welcome addition to the Buddhist canon."The One Hundred Parable Sutra" is know...

This is an uncompromising and provocative book about non-duality.In liberation it is seen that all phenomena simply arise in awareness with no person mediating them. Purpose, religion and paths of spiritual development all lose their meaning when it is seen that there is no one who exercises choice.“The most common misconception about liberation is that it is something an individual can gain. But liberation is a loss—the loss of the sense that there ever was a separate indi...