Domestic servants have always been, and continue to be, ubiquitous in the households of middle and upper income rural and urban South Asia. They are also strikingly visible in art forms: paintings, sculptures, photographs, cinema, plays, stories, etc. Yet, they remain absent from scholarly research with very few recent exceptions.Domestic service was an important category of labour and social relationships in early modern and colonial India but the domestic servant has largely remained abs...

‘Exemplary’ Ravish Kumar'A wonderful selection’ Rana SafviFor generations, domestic servants in India have been subjected to neglect, apathy and cruelty. Though they are known nowadays as the domestic ‘help’, ‘aid’ or ‘staff’, often merely to meet the requirements of political correctness, their condition remains unchanged for the most part as the country’s privileged classes have failed to truly address the most pervasive inequalities in their households.In Les...

The story of Tenzin Palmo, an Englishwoman, the daughter of a fishmonger from London's East End, who spent 12 years alone in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas and became a world-renowned spiritual leader and champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment.Diane Perry grew up in London's East End. At the age of 18 however, she read a book on Buddhism and realised that this might fill a long-sensed void in her life. In 1963, at the age of 20, she went to India,...

It is natural for people to shy away from the reality of death. After all, the fear of dying is the root fear of all fears. Yet this refusal to acknowledge the impermanence of our earthly existence creates a deep anxiety that inhibits a person's spiritual progress. Put another way, if we are to progress on the spiritual path, it is necessary to fully accept the impermanence of life and the certainty of death.The ego is terrified by the thought of death, since it knows that it will ...

Everybody loves Novice to Master! As you'll see in the glowing endorsements and reviews included below, this modern spiritual classic has been embraced by readers of all types.In his singularly humorous and biitingly direct way, Zen abbot Soko Morinaga tells the story of his rigorous training at a Japanese Zen temple, his spiritual growth and his interactions with his students and others. Morinaga's voice is uniquely tuned to the truth of the condition of the human mind an...

**A stirring and insightful novel from an author Japan Quarterly calls "a Japanese writer of genius."**From beloved author Soseki Natsume, And Then tells the story of Daisuke, a man in his twenties who is struggling with his personal purpose and identity as well as the changing social landscape of Meiji-era Japan. As Japan enters the 20th Century, ancient customs give way to Western ideals, and Daisuke works to resolve his feelings of disconnection and abandonment during ...

Krishnamurti's essential message is that to find truth, we must go beyond the limits of ordinary thought. In public talks worldwide, he strove to free listeners from conventional beliefs and psychological mind-sets in order to understand what is. The essential message of J. Krishnamurti, revered philosopher and spiritual teacher to millions, challenges the limits of ordinary thought. In talks and teachings to audiences worldwide, he extricated his listeners from the tangled net of ideas, o...

The classic, heart-touching story of unrequited love of a man's fall from grace and his tragic end offers an insightful and compassionate portral of men and women in love. Devdas, written in early decades of the twentieth century, still captivates readers, and has been filmed several times - a testament to endurance and class. One of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's finest novels, it reveals the best there is in Indian romantic literature. The abridged translation of Devdas, Srikanta and six of ...

Koans are a useful sign-post on the path to enlightenment. They reveal abstract Truth that cannot be expressed logically through presenting the reader with a paradox that can only be solved by shifting one's perspective.The venerable Koans of the past, those that have been handed down through the generations are expressed in archaic language. If you cannot enter into that archaic language the koan is unlikely to bring you much benefit.This book represents the Koans in moder...

In 1999, Amit Chaudhuri moved back to Calcutta, the city in which he was born. It was a place he had loved in his youth and the place he had made his name writing about. But upon his return he discovered that the Calcutta of his imagination had receded and another had taken its place.Lyrical, observant and profound, Calcutta is a personal account of two years (2009–2011) spent in one of the least known – yet greatest – cities of our time by one of our leading novelists. Us...

'Extremely ambitious' Financial Times'An imaginative tour de force ... She really is a genius' Guardian'A delight' New StatesmanFROM THE MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR NICOLA BARKERTo the world he is Sri Ramakrishna - godly avatar, esteemed spiritual master, beloved guru. To temple owner, Rani Rashmoni, he is the Brahmin fated to defy tradition. But to Hriday, his n...

This is the remarkable true story of a young man's initiation in the Himalayas. David Manners was trekking in Nepal when he stumbled upon the mountain home of a jhankri, or Nepalese shaman. The jhankri accepted David as his pupil, and so began the next stage of David's extraordinary journey, in which he embarked upon an adventure that was more challenging and, ultimately, life-affirming than anything he could have imagined.In Limitless Sky, David shares t...