Amid shelves crowded with sophisticated histories on the French Revolution, Thomas Carlyle’s classic remains the one book that makes history feel gloriously, terrifyingly alive like no other. Every Bastille Day, I find myself reaching for the same battered volume. It is not the newest history of the French Revolution. It is not the most balanced, the most archival or even the most reliable in the way modern historians would define ‘reliability.’ But for me, Thomas Carlyle’s T

As the United States marks its semiquincentennial, its finest histories reveal a restless nation unable to escape the foundational neurosis of its own creation. Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), by Emanuel Leutze. No painting has done more to canonise America’s founding myth. Yet beneath its heroic certainty lies the restless republic that historians from Charles Beard to Robert Kagan would relentlessly question. Behind the fireworks and the dutiful invocations of libe

Mohan Deshmukh’s book From the Banks of Krushna River, originally published in Marathi as Krushnakathavarun, reminds me of my stay in Sangli district (1965-1969), which was one of the most memorable periods in my long government service. His book is a delightful account of Sangli’s rich cultural and artistic heritage. It also tells the story of how a village boy from the district - the son of an honest and upright junior police officer - rose to become a leading builder and

In the evolving landscape of Indian non-fiction, where true crime writing frequently succumbs to spectacle and narrative sensationalism, The Pune Serial Killers authored by Sujata Sapre and Prof. Anandajit Goswami and published by Srishti Publishers asserts itself as a work of formidable intellectual authority and narrative sophistication. It is not a mere reconstruction of crime but a deeply reflective inquiry into the architecture of violence and the fragile moral ecosystem

A reflection on the ideas, history, and philosophy that shaped The Economic DNA of Bharat. In The Economic DNA of Bharat, I explore an alternative framework that places civilisation, ethics, and human dignity at the centre of economic thought. Part philosophy, part policy discourse, and part civilisational reflection, the book offers a sweeping exploration of Bharat’s economic journey, from the Indus–Saraswati civilisation to the aspirations of an Atmanirbhar India. In writin

A practical guide for aspiring entrepreneurs and dreamers from ordinary backgrounds carrying extraordinary ambitions. When I first arrived in San Francisco in 1969 with just seventy-five cents in my pocket, I could never have imagined that one day I would write a book on entrepreneurship and business leadership. I came from Taravada, a small village in Gujarat, where opportunities were limited, but dreams were not. My parents, despite having very little formal education, taug

Certain books on geopolitics (past and present) are insightful and revelatory enough to constitute an intellectual treat for the reader. ‘Great Power Games’ by erstwhile RAW chief Vikram Sood is exactly that. Published in 2025, this work begins by describing how power and money result in global control. Sood begins with the phrase: “It is difficult to define or measure power, but it is true that wealth is a source of power and the ability to project violent force adds to that

Zheng Liu’s study of independent bookselling in China reveals a vibrant retail culture but skirts the politics that shape it. The independent bookshop is one of modern capitalism’s most stubborn survivors. From Britain to America, it has endured the onslaught of scale and algorithms, adapting itself into something more than a retail space: part salon, part sanctuary and part civic square. That same romance now attaches itself to China’s flourishing crop of design-led bookstor

Envisioning India by Dr. Sanjay Sindhu Vasant Deshmukh is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and intellectually engaging work that seeks to map the socio-cultural, educational, and developmental trajectory of India in the contemporary era. Spread across more than 580 pages, the book belongs to the genre of ideological and analytical writing, offering a compelling blend of insight, reflection, and forward-looking vision. It is not merely a descriptive account of India’s present reali

In Nectar in a Sieve , Kamala Markandaya crafts a timeless portrait of rural womanhood, resilience and the human cost of change. Even after International Women’s Day, works that illuminate women’s resilience remain worth revisiting. In Nectar in a Sieve , Kamala Markandaya creates a memorable portrait of Rukmani, a character shaped by strength, patience, and moral courage, all of which are forged in the context of poverty, patriarchy, and social change. This post-colonial n

For more than seven decades, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has been the silent engine driving Indian journalism, delivering news with speed, accuracy and credibility across the nation. Yet, the stories behind the stories, the human drama inside newsrooms and the relentless effort that transforms events into headlines have largely remained invisible. 'What They Don’t Teach You in Journalism Schools' lifts that veil, offering a rare and compelling journey into the inner workin

Terrorism, which is a near ubiquitous phenomenon today, raises its ugly and sinister head every now and then with frightening precision and disastrous consequences. Terrorism can be defined as the deliberate targeting of civilians to terminate or lessen their support of their political leaders. In American military historian Caleb Carr’s controversial ‘The Lessons of Terror’ (2002), he analyses and describes how initially, this method was used by the Romans till the late eigh

Author Pratik Majumdar’s latest book argues that 1975 transformed Bollywood in ways memory has flattened. Sadly, whenever we go into a flashback to 1975, all discussions boil down to Sholay , a milestone in the history of Indian cinema and perhaps also, across world cinema. “Sadly” because, few are aware that 1975 can be defined as the Golden Year of Bollywood cinema. Did you know that not less than 80 full-length feature films were released across theatres in India and some

The title itself is enough to send shivers down the spine even before turning the first page, evoking an image of voices rising from unfathomable depths – forgotten, cursed, or perhaps deliberately silenced, only to return as haunting reverberations that refuse to be ignored. This sense of unease and foreboding forms the backbone of the book and remains remarkably consistent throughout. From the very beginning, readers are invited into a dark, unsettling universe where horror

Divya Iyer’s fluid writing style beautifully captures the emotional realities of digital-age relationships. ‘The Glitch in Our Stars’ by Divya Iyer explores modern love in its most familiar yet fragile form. A love born on screens, sustained by words, and tested by distance, silence, and the many truths we choose to curate online. In an age where relationships often begin with a notification and deepen through carefully chosen messages, this book feels both timely and deeply

Anandajit Goswami stands among the most distinguished Indian authors of contemporary times, and with his latest novel Siddharth – The Soul Seeker, he once again proves his remarkable ability to engage and move readers. A writer deeply committed to his craft, Goswami continuously transforms his imagination into compelling works across the spectrum of fiction. Siddharth – The Soul Seeker is a profound novel that traces a spiritual and existential journey, set against the emotio

Some books arrive with the weight of history on their pages. ‘Saṅgīta-darpaṇaḥ’ is one such work; a 200-year-old manuscript that has travelled through five or six generations of the legendary Kalka–Bindādin Gharānā before finding its way to print. Published just weeks after Paṇḍit Birju Mahārāj's passing in January 2022, this book feels less like an academic exercise and more like a parting gift from a maestro to the world of classical arts. The story behind this publication

The novel’s relevance remains undimmed. It speaks to a world still governed by appearances, ambition and self-deception, while quietly insisting on the redemptive possibilities of forgiveness, self-knowledge and love in its truest form. ‘The Painted Veil,’ a novel written by W. Somerset Maugham - the celebrated twentieth century British novelist, playwright, critic, short story writer and British secret agent during World War One - is one of the author’s most poignant and hau

Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958) Every empire produces at least one great historian who anatomises its exhaustion with a completeness that neither predecessors nor successors quite match. For Rome, it was Edward Gibbon who dissected the long senescence of the western Roman and eastern Byzantine power through six volumes in ‘The history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ with prosecutorial irony between 1776 and 1788. For Habsburg Spain, it was Fernand Braudel, whose

Dr Kshama Valsangkar’s book blends medical expertise with deeply personal experience, offering a practical guide for patients, carers, and even medical students. A new and significant addition to popular medical literature has been made with a book, ‘Let’s talk about Parkinson’s’, written by Dr Kshama Valsangkar. Parkinson’s is a complex disease, and it involves a gradual degeneration of the nervous system. In the early stages, the symptoms are so mild that the patient often