{"title":"Voices from India","description":"\u003cp\u003eA curated selection of modern classics and translated fiction from across India's literary traditions featuring celebrated authors, regional voices, and stories illuminate the richness and complexity of Indian life.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"18646-the-second-wife","title":"The Second Wife","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: Premchand\u003cbr\u003eTranslator(s): David Rubin\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Vision\/Orient paperbacks\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2006\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 206\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 812220418X\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharming and cultivated, Nirmala’s only sin is her failure to get a husband who would accept her without a dowry. She is married off to a widower.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe realistic dramatization of the family events is peculiarly Indian, but based on universal human experience, transcending geographical boundaries and barriers of culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREVIEW\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA story of Indian ethos and its cultural impact.\u003cbr\u003e-Dr Ganga Prasad Vimal\u003cbr\u003eHindi Literary Critic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eABOUT THE AUTHOR:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREMCHAND (1880-1936), born in Lamhi Village near Varanasi in north India as Dhanpat Rai, Premchand’s realistic writings highlighted the social milieu through a multi-faceted portrayal of human nature. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDAVID RUBIN, scholar and novelist, received his Doctorate in Comparative Literature at Columbia University, USA, and later taught Hindi literature at the same university. The story proceeds unhampered to its grim, logical conclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"Premchand \/ Vision\/Orient paperbacks \/ Paperback","offer_id":40776429830313,"sku":"18646","price":15.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/files\/secondwife.png?v=1779476197"},{"product_id":"2221-the-blue-bedspread","title":"The Blue Bedspread","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: Raj Kamal Jha\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Picador India\u003cbr\u003eYear: 1999\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 228\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 0330373854\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA novel of extraordinary power and rare humanity which holds within itself the conflicting worlds of lost innocence, an erotic past, a frayed present, an intense fabrication and, above all, undying decay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a house on a narrow Calcutta street, lit by the half-light of a yellow street lamp, lies a baby, one day old, wrapped in its hospital towel.  In the next room sits a man, all alone, writing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho is this man, at once frightened and determined? What is he writing? Where has the baby come from and where will it go? Tonight, these questions will be answered when the man unravels the dark secrets he has carried all his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePainting scenes half-remembered he flits between past and present, twisting facts to flesh out fiction.  Slowly, as the night grows darker, the truth is revealed like a jigsaw falling into place, piece by piece: two children who muffle their fears in the blueness of their bedspread;...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn prose that is breathtaking and precise, Raj Kamal Jha discovers love and hope behind the hidden violence and twisted eroticism of an old city.  It is a profoundly moving story of people who, through their imagination, find the escape they so desperately seek.  \u0026lt;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePRESS REVIEW:  Jha is a master imagist.  From still-life studies he draws connections with humans.  From observations of the city, he captures individual lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is a grand work of images and words, a rich depiction of a drying, derelict world in which shadow people -- extraordinary in their ordinariness -- inhabit.                                                                                   - - THE ASIAN AGE\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"Raj Kamal Jha \/ Picador India \/ Hardcover","offer_id":40776493498537,"sku":"2221","price":31.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/files\/bluebedspread_1f52f155-f53a-4d2b-b3c3-10eafd308510.png?v=1779476905"},{"product_id":"25475-twilight","title":"Twilight","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: Azhar Abidi\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin\/Viking\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2008\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 215\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 9780670082742\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Karachi, Bilqis Ara Begum, proud custodian of her family's traditions, prepares for the wedding reception of her son Samad. The family has gathered, the servants have been given their instructions, the invitations sent to Pakistan's upper crust. But Bilqis is restless-this is not what she had planned for her only son: Kate, whom Samad has recently married, is Australian and middle class.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile Bilqis struggles to reassure herself of her son's commitment to the family, their customs and, most of all, to herself, Pakistan is facing turmoil. Having fortified his dictatorship through a sham referendum, General Zia is now set on imposing orthodox Muslim law on the country, and news from the border is of an imminent insurgency in Kashmir. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet, against the threats to the liberal space she has always accepted as her privilege, Bilqis stands firm-drawing strength from the values of her aristocratic parents and memories of her carefree childhood in undivided India-and refuses, with characteristic obstinacy, to join Samad in Australia. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen she stumbles upon her servant girl Mumtaz's secret affair with a Kashmiri freedom fighter-a reckless tryst that threatens to destroy the girl's honour but for which she claims to have no regrets-and Bilqis is left to examine the convictions that have so long determined her life and her faith in those around her. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwilight confirms Azhar Abidi's stunning talent for nuanced storytelling and vivid, evocative prose. It is a captivating novel about love and loyalty, exile and conflict, and ultimately about the inherent comforts and trials of the mother-son bond.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCOMMENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A skillfully crafted tale of Mohajir disenchantment in Zia’s regime. A soulfully rendered evensong of a dream turned sours…’\u003cbr\u003e-KHUSHWANT SINGH\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Twilight is notable for the grave eloquence of its prose…for its sense of the burden of human indebtedness…If the novel beings with a nod to Seth, it ends with an epiphany almost in the manner of Tolstoy’\u003cbr\u003e-The Age\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Azhar Abidi’s first novel, Passarola Rissing, told of some amazing adventures in a seventeenth-century flying ship, and it was a delight. His new novel could hardly be more different, yet it gives just as mush pleasure… Abidi’s forte lies in his insights into the minds of individuals…the moral strength and  emotional climax of  the book peaks in Abidi’s meticulous account of each individual’s attempt to match self-will against necessity’\u003cbr\u003e-Australian Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"Azhar Abidi \/ Penguin\/Viking \/ Hardcover","offer_id":40776567226537,"sku":"25475","price":34.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/files\/twilight.png?v=1779476647"},{"product_id":"26478-t-ta-professor","title":"T Ta Professor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: Manohar Shyam Joshi\u003cbr\u003eTranslator(s)\/ Editors(s): Ira Pande\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2008\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 139\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 9780143068396\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA thin, short man with illusions of grandeur, Khashtivallabh Pant, Dubbul MA, is a school teacher in a remote Kumaoni village, where he is mockingly referred to as T’ta Professor. A great admirer of the Englishman’s attire, T’ta is also deeply in awe of the white man’s language. He always carries a notebook to jot down English words that he hears for the first time, acknowledging a word as acceptable only after he has consulted his Oxford Dictionary. His vanity makes him a terrific target for lampooning and the narrator in this novel, a writer who never manages to finish the stories he sets out to write, is determined to produce a ‘biting satire’, and wastes no time finding out more about T’ta’s life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen T’ta starts to tell his tale, what begins as an innocent idyll turns quickly into an erotic and scatological romp, and T’ta turns from a ridiculous comic character into a pathetic pervert. As the story unravels, the multiple narratives reveal a complex figure, comic and tragic by turns, and the novel changes gear and darkens into a gothic bleakness of unimaginable dimensions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREVIEW:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHilarious and disturbing … I have never read anything like it … Joshi is a genius’ \u003cbr\u003e—Khushwant Singh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Translated brilliantly by Ira Pande, this gem of a book will soon establish itself as a classic’\u003cbr\u003e-\tThe Statesman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘[An] excellent translation’\u003cbr\u003e-\tUrvashi Butalia, Outlook\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘This translation will re-invent Manohar Shyam Joshi for a generation not acquainted with the genius’\u003cbr\u003e-\tMail Today\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘’This bittersweet tale of a chimerical character is revealingly quirky’\u003cbr\u003e-\tTime Out\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Ira Pande has done a remarkable translation. She has retained the authenticity of the original voice, while retelling the story as a good English novel’.\u003cbr\u003e-\tDeccan Herald\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A true classic to which Ira Pande’s translation does justice’\u003cbr\u003e-\tElle\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"Manohar Shyam Joshi \/ Penguin \/ Paperback","offer_id":40776585248937,"sku":"26478","price":17.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/files\/ttaprofessor.png?v=1779476708"},{"product_id":"23730-yavati-a-classical-tale-of-lust","title":"Yayati - A Classical Tale of Lust","description":"\u003cb\u003e Shipping Note: This item usually arrives at your doorstep in 10-15 days\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: V S Khandekar\u003cbr\u003eTranslator(s)\/ Edito: Y P Kulkarni\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Vision\/Orient paperbacks\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2008\/2014\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 251\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 9788122204285\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Jnanpith and Sahitya Adademi awards, the story of Yayati is perhaps one of the most intriguing and fascinating episodes of Mahabharata.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYayati was a great scholar and one of the noblest rulers of oldent times.  He followed the Shastras and was devoted to the welfare of his subjects.  Even the King of Gods, Indra, held him in high esteem.  Married to seductively beautiful Devyani, in love with her maid Sharmishtha, and father of five sons from the two women, yet Yayati unasbashedly declares, \"My lust for pleasure is unsatified..'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis quest for the carnal continued, sparing not even his youngest son, and exchanging his old age for his son's youth..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"V S Khandekar \/ Vision\/Orient paperbacks \/ Paperback","offer_id":40785100996777,"sku":"23730","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/files\/yayati.png?v=1779476569"},{"product_id":"7704-the-great-feast","title":"The Great Feast","description":"\u003cb\u003e Shipping Note: This item usually arrives at your doorstep in 10-15 days\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: Mannu Bhandari\u003cbr\u003eTranslator(s)\/ Editors(s): Ruth Vanita\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Orient Longman\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2002\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 136\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 8125014845\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA bold expose of the contemporary Indian political scene that has cast aside morality and ethics and unfailingly betrays public trust for vested interests and private ends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe novel opens with the death of Bisesar-an unknown village youth-in itself an insignificant event. But with an important by-election around the corner, the feasting begins as opposing political parties like vultures seize upon the unfortunate event to extract political capital out of its, thereby providing sharp insights into the exercise of power and patronage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"Mannu Bhandari \/ Orient Longman \/ Paperback","offer_id":40785416814761,"sku":"7704","price":17.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/files\/greatfeast.png?v=1779565270"}],"url":"https:\/\/indiaclub.com\/de\/collections\/voices-from-india.oembed","provider":"The India Club","version":"1.0","type":"link"}