Bombay, 1896. A serial killer is on the loose. In Room 000, detectives struggle to snare the culprit, but this murderer is always one step ahead of them. When death is a contagion that spreads from house to house and from street to street, where does one look for clues? As the investigators in Room 000, armed with microscopes and cultures, track the killer, they invent a new science. But the Raj imprisons Bombay in antiquated disciplines that turn the plague into an epic tragedy. Room 000 takes a Holmesian look at the Bombay Plague. In these pages, you'll meet the Argyll Street Irregulars, share the anxieties of the Reluctant Ephemerist, thrill to the discoveries of the Solitary Scientist, and shudder over the repulsive story of the Red Leech. Here too, is Tatya Lakshman, the first Indian detective of the Bombay Police in hot pursuit of the Parsi Plague Current. In their signature style, Kalpish Ratna meld science and adventure into intrigue and mystery. The forgotten truths of the Bombay Plague, seen from this very human perspective, will compel us to look at today's emerging epidemics in an entirely new light.
Exploring the world is easy today, all one needs is the internet. Getting to know the ground beneath one's feet is quite another story. I began to look for the island on which I live, and, it wasn't there. So began my quest. Why was it difficult to read the landscape? All its past had been viewed from ships at sea, or from libraries in lands I had never been to.All its history was hearsay and all its storytellers were dead. I was an alchemist at the edge of discovery. Andheri is where I stood, and Andheri is geology on speed. Hills explode, rocks shudder and slide, rivers slouch in culverts, the sea is dismissed, and the land sweats people at every pore. Andheri is protean with mad caprice. A lake in the industrial district memorializes lost fields, a milestone marks a vanished road, a blind alley recalls a king, and our memorials are jailed in wire-mesh with dire warnings in three languages. We're going underground, we're up in the air, we'll do the metro wriggle, the skywalk or trapeze, we'll do the right green thing on a prayer and a concrete wing, we'll flatten the hills, push back the sea, and we'll make even more room for the builder and me. The idea of Andheri is shaped from the land it is built upon. Who will uncover that for me? How do you find something hidden in plain sight? Begin in a village named for an epidemic, witness an exorcism, and enter a labyrinth. Emerge with a mirage and meet a curious cartographer. Journey 60 million years with a turtle and a frog. Then, finally, find Gilbert Hill. Once Upon A Hill is a plea from Kalpish Ratna to their city of Bombay. Gilbert Hill is where our past and future are gathered. Shall we revere this still point, or as seems inexorable, destroy it with our dance ?
As the Babri Masjid is razed in Ayodhya, brick by ancient brick, Ratan Oak stumbles upon a corpse at the Kipling House in Bombay. It is the beginning of an unraveling for him, of the submerged identity he has sought to suppress all his life: that of his great-grandfather, Ramratan Oak. Grappling with this tandem existence, Ratan realizes that the communal violence which consumes his city mirrors the turbulence it experienced in Ramratans times. For, concealed in the scientific discoveries of the plague epidemic of 1897 is the terrifying truth about the dead woman of Kipling House. A novel that perfectly balances character and pace, The Quarantine Papers dissects the compulsions of a hate that corrupts, as it trails a doomed love story from nineteenth century Bombay into our own day.
Nyagrodha! Command the wind to be still. And in the silence that follows the tree will shake down stories. . . As their train puffs away into the distance, three runaway children—Lily, Vicky and Aman—are led by Makhmal Khan the monkey into the shimmering world of the forest... Deep within its shadows, beyond the last cloud on the horizon, stands Nyagrodha, the ancient banyan. Within its magical labyrinth the children encounter monarchs and mice, dreamers and scholars, paupers and fortune-seekers, braggarts and burglars, foppish fish and bloodsucking bugs, gory battles and incredible flying machines... But none of these can distract them from the dangers that threaten Simha the fierce young king and his friend Jeev, the musical bull. For the story of their tangled lives is very like the childrens' own. Will Aman, Vicky and Lily find their way back home through the maze of stories? Or will treachery destroy the friendship between Simha and Jeev, and leave the forest wounded and bleeding forever? 'This is an upside-down story,' Hanumanta the Langoor warns the children. 'A story that will turn you inside out. Will you hear it unafraid?
The pull of a Kalpish Ratna novel is undeniable, even hypnotic.'--The Telegraph What is the chill interface between violence and pseudo-science? What is the secret ingredient of the elixir of youth being doled out by a hakim at Leopold Caf�? Who was the Bombay Ripper, the notorious serial killer from the late-1800s? How does a fifteen-year-old widow's sati attempt result in the birth of an icon of the Hindu Rashtra? How much of love is real and how much hallucination when the object of one's affection is a spectre? In this thrilling mix of medical history and speculative fiction, the intrepid microbiologist Ratan Oak jumps between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, outwitting vedic scientists, brahminical eugenicists, lusty serial-killers and ghostly seductresses.
What if a whole lot of strangers, human and animal, waiting for rescue decided you were JustIt? And you hadn't a clue what the rescue was all about? It all began with a letter from an Uncommon Aunt. How exactly do you ask your Aunt if she's a frog or something slithery in the grass? You simply have to climb into a vegetable basket and float up Cloud Street ... and you will find yourself in the midst of a Pandemonium in Pakshila. Join JustIt and Anil the Excluded Squirrel in this exciting adventure, solve a mystery and trap the villain in a thrilling climax.
Ladybird Favourite Tales are the timeless, treasured stories that generations of children have grown up with and loved. These easy-to-read retellings, enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations, faithfully capture all the magic of the original stories.
Time has forgotten Bahadur Khan. History has condemned him as a drunken wastrel and overlooked his military genius. Part man, part horse; part Hindu, part Muslim; part Rajput, part Gujarati; what was he like, really, this rebellious young man? A warrior born, why did he refuse the most vital battle in history? Why did he surrender the islands of Bombay to two centuries of Portuguese rule? This is the story of that renegade prince, Bahadur, Shah of Gujarat. When Vasco da Gama lands near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498, he seems scant more than a visiting trader, just another discourteous barbarian, hardly a threat. But the aughts of the new century bring seismic change. Portuguese violence on the coast escalates and piracy menaces the Spice Route. Gujarat, richest among Indian kingdoms, nourished by her eighty-seven ports, feels the tremors. It is a time of shifting loyalties. Sultans wage war on land and forge uneasy entente at sea. Borders are redrawn, new kingdoms and principalities take shape. In Dilli, the throne of Hindustan is up for auction, and everybody is bidding. Alliances form and dissolve between Rajput, Lodhi, and Sharqi, while from across the mountains glares the Chagtai, Zahiruddin Babar. Into this tense arena strolls a teenager, Bahadur, Prince of Gujarat, exiled for his wildness; at nineteen, famous already for his prowess in battle. As battle lines are drawn at Panipat, veterans hold their breath. They know the fortunes of Hindustan depend on this untried youngster. In this powerfully imagined narrative, Kalpish Ratna recreates the obscure signposts of Bahadur's life drawing facts from Indian histories. The language sparkles, filigreed with lapidary skill. In various narrative styles, myth and legend blend metamagically with the tragic events of medieval history. Bahadur, masterfully delineated in chiaroscuro, reflects the confused loyalties of young Indians today. The story of this medieval prince belongs in our own times.
Generations of children have grown up with and loved these timeless Indian Tales. Easy - to - read re - tellings of classic Indian stories are enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations and faithfully capture the magic of the original stories.
Generations of children have grown up with and loved these timeless Indian Tales. Easy-to-read re-tellings of classic Indian stories are enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations and faithfully capture the magic of the original stories.
Generations of children have grown up with and loved these timeless Indian Tales. Easy - to - read re - tellings of classic Indian stories are enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations and faithfully capture the magic of the original stories.
At a mere four hours’ notice, at 8.00 p.m., on March 24th 2020, the Indian Prime Minister Modi announced a lockdown to contain the spread of virus in order to jumpstart an already-crumbling healthcare system for one of the most devastating pandemics soon to envelop India. People stormed out to panic-buy ration stocks; India’s migrant working classes started walking back to the villages, left hungry and desolate without homes, work and wages - a scene not very short of an apocalypse. Over two summers, India woke up to similar headlines: a shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines; a languishing economy; cases rising and falling; governments greenlighting Hindu religious, superspreader that compounded the second wave; misled unlocking schools, business and the social sphere, and reversed lockdowns when cases went up; underreporting of cases and deaths; lakhs dead to the virus and crores of people infected, and still counting. While the pandemic continues to rage on, notwithstanding its ebbs and flows, its real impact on society may start to be visible only much later. Over a year of tracking how the pandemic ravaged India’s society, economy, politics and culture, nine of finest India’s writers try and make sense of this difficult reality. The Dark Hour is a publisher’s anthology of specially commissioned long-form essays that unpack two dreadful summers of the pandemic that wreaked havoc on the many Indias within India.
Ladybird Favourite Tales are the timeless, treasured stories that generations of children have grown up with and loved. These easy-to-read retellings, enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations, faithfully capture all the magic of the original stories.
Bombay, 1896. A serial killer is on the loose. In Room 000, detectives struggle to snare the culprit, but this murderer is always one step ahead of them. When death is a contagion that spreads from house to house and from street to street, where does one look for clues? As the investigators in Room 000, armed with microscopes and cultures, track the killer, they invent a new science. But the Raj imprisons Bombay in antiquated disciplines that turn the plague into an epic tragedy. Room 000 takes a Holmesian look at the Bombay Plague. In these pages, you'll meet the Argyll Street Irregulars, share the anxieties of the Reluctant Ephemerist, thrill to the discoveries of the Solitary Scientist, and shudder over the repulsive story of the Red Leech. Here too, is Tatya Lakshman, the first Indian detective of the Bombay Police in hot pursuit of the Parsi Plague Current. In their signature style, Kalpish Ratna meld science and adventure into intrigue and mystery. The forgotten truths of the Bombay Plague, seen from this very human perspective, will compel us to look at today's emerging epidemics in an entirely new light.
Generations of children have grown up with and loved these timeless Indian Tales. Easy - to - read re - tellings of classic Indian stories are enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations and faithfully capture the magic of the original stories.
Time has forgotten Bahadur Khan. History has condemned him as a drunken wastrel and overlooked his military genius. Part man, part horse; part Hindu, part Muslim; part Rajput, part Gujarati; what was he like, really, this rebellious young man? A warrior born, why did he refuse the most vital battle in history? Why did he surrender the islands of Bombay to two centuries of Portuguese rule? This is the story of that renegade prince, Bahadur, Shah of Gujarat. When Vasco da Gama lands near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498, he seems scant more than a visiting trader, just another discourteous barbarian, hardly a threat. But the aughts of the new century bring seismic change. Portuguese violence on the coast escalates and piracy menaces the Spice Route. Gujarat, richest among Indian kingdoms, nourished by her eighty-seven ports, feels the tremors. It is a time of shifting loyalties. Sultans wage war on land and forge uneasy entente at sea. Borders are redrawn, new kingdoms and principalities take shape. In Dilli, the throne of Hindustan is up for auction, and everybody is bidding. Alliances form and dissolve between Rajput, Lodhi, and Sharqi, while from across the mountains glares the Chagtai, Zahiruddin Babar. Into this tense arena strolls a teenager, Bahadur, Prince of Gujarat, exiled for his wildness; at nineteen, famous already for his prowess in battle. As battle lines are drawn at Panipat, veterans hold their breath. They know the fortunes of Hindustan depend on this untried youngster. In this powerfully imagined narrative, Kalpish Ratna recreates the obscure signposts of Bahadur's life drawing facts from Indian histories. The language sparkles, filigreed with lapidary skill. In various narrative styles, myth and legend blend metamagically with the tragic events of medieval history. Bahadur, masterfully delineated in chiaroscuro, reflects the confused loyalties of young Indians today. The story of this medieval prince belongs in our own times.
Nyagrodha! Command the wind to be still. And in the silence that follows the tree will shake down stories...As their train puffs away into the distance, three runaway children - Lily, Vicky and Aman - are led by Makhmal Khan the monkey into the shimmering world of the forest...Deep within its shadows, beyond the last cloud on the horizon, stands Nyagrodha, the ancient banyan. Within its magical labyrinth, the children encounter monarchs and mice, dreamers and scholars, paupers and fortune-seekers, braggarts and burglars, foppish fish and bloodsucking bugs, gory battles and incredible flying machines...But none of these can distract them from the dangers that threaten Simha the fierce young king and his friend Jeev, the musical bull. For the story of their tangled lives is very like the children's own...Will Aman, Vicky and Lily find their way back home through the maze of stories? Or will treachery destroy the friendship between Simha and Jeev, and leave the forest wounded and bleeding forever? 'This is an upside-down story, ' Hanumanta the Langoor warns the children. 'A story that will turn you inside out. Will you hear it unafraid?
Ladybird Favourite Tales are the timeless, treasured stories that generations of children have grown up with and loved. These easy-to-read retellings, enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations, faithfully capture all the magic of the original stories.
At a mere four hours’ notice, at 8.00 p.m., on March 24th 2020, the Indian Prime Minister Modi announced a lockdown to contain the spread of virus in order to jumpstart an already-crumbling healthcare system for one of the most devastating pandemics soon to envelop India. People stormed out to panic-buy ration stocks; India’s migrant working classes started walking back to the villages, left hungry and desolate without homes, work and wages - a scene not very short of an apocalypse. Over two summers, India woke up to similar headlines: a shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines; a languishing economy; cases rising and falling; governments greenlighting Hindu religious, superspreader that compounded the second wave; misled unlocking schools, business and the social sphere, and reversed lockdowns when cases went up; underreporting of cases and deaths; lakhs dead to the virus and crores of people infected, and still counting. While the pandemic continues to rage on, notwithstanding its ebbs and flows, its real impact on society may start to be visible only much later. Over a year of tracking how the pandemic ravaged India’s society, economy, politics and culture, nine of finest India’s writers try and make sense of this difficult reality. The Dark Hour is a publisher’s anthology of specially commissioned long-form essays that unpack two dreadful summers of the pandemic that wreaked havoc on the many Indias within India.
Generations of children have grown up with and loved these timeless Indian Tales. Easy - to - read re - tellings of classic Indian stories are enhanced by exciting, richly colourful illustrations and faithfully capture the magic of the original stories.
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