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A trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at Calcutta
society. Set in Calcutta in the mid-1980s, Truth/Untruth is a
fast-paced thriller built around the death of the pregnant
Jamuna—a maid in a newly affluent residential apartment
complex—and Arjun, the upwardly mobile businessman who seduced
her. Packed with a cast of colorful characters, this novel is a
trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at the different
segments of Calcutta society: from the middle-class culture
vultures to the unscrupulous “promoter” class and the domestic
helpers and slum goons who form an intrinsic part of the city’s
life. All are implicated in a complex web of guilt and bizarre
twists and turns. Sex, lies, death—the great modernist
themes—run like a thread through this book, exposing societal
greed, lust, corruption, and moral hypocrisy with a sardonic tone
that spares none. An unusual novel by an author who is otherwise
known for her hard-hitting activist-feminist stories, Truth/Untruth
underlines the exploitative vicious cycle that defines urban
relations between the haves and have-nots.
It's the mid-to-late 1800s and the British have banished Wajid Ali
Shah the nawab of Awadh in Lucknow to Calcutta. To the sound of the
soulful melody of the sarangi, the mercurial courtesan Laayl-e
Aasman is playing a dangerous game of love, loyalty, deception, and
betrayal. Bajrangi and Kundan, bound by their love for each other
and for Laayl-e, struggle to keep their balance. Ranging across
generations and geography, the scale of Laayl-e's story sweeps the
devil, a crime lord, and many other remarkable characters into a
heady mix.Mirror of the Darkest Night is almost an aberration in
Mahasweta Devi's oeuvre. Known for her activism and hard-hitting
indictment of social inequalities, she pays close attention to
detail in this sparkling novel. It offers a rare glimpse of Devi's
talent for telling the sort of story she normally eschewed and it's
a cracker of a tale.
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Our Santiniketan (Hardcover)
Mahasweta Devi; Translated by Radha Chakravarty; Introduction by Radha Chakravarty
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R471
Discovery Miles 4 710
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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A brief, evocative memoir from one of India's greatest writers.
"Like a dazzling feather that has fluttered down from some unknown
place. . . . How long will the feather keep its colours, waiting?
The 'feather' stands for memories of childhood. Memories don't
wait." In Our Sanitikentan, the late Mahasweta Devi, one of India's
most celebrated writers, vividly narrates her days as a schoolgirl
in the 1930s. As the aging author struggles to recapture vignettes
of her childhood, these reminiscences bring to the written page not
only her individual sensibility but an entire ethos. Santiniketan
is home to the school and university founded by the foremost
literary and cultural icon of India, Rabindranath Tagore. In these
pages, a forgotten Santiniketan, seen through the innocent eyes of
a young girl, comes to life-the place, its people, flora and fauna,
along with its educational environment, culture of free creative
expression, vision of harmonious coexistence between natural and
human worlds, and the towering presence of Tagore himself.
Alongside, we get a glimpse of the private Mahasweta-her inner
life, family and associates, and the early experiences that shaped
her personality. A nostalgic journey to a bygone era, harking back
to its simple yet profound values-so distant today and so urgent
yet again-Our Santiniketan is an invaluable addition to Devi's rich
oeuvre available in English translation.
Weaving history, myth and current political realities, these three stories by noted bengali writer Magasweta Devi eplore troubling motifs in contemporary Indian life through the figures and narratives of the indigenous tribes of India. Devi's texts are examined and amplified through an interview and critical essays by Gaytri Spivak. Her essays explode the scope and impact of these stories, connecting the necessary "power lines" not only between local and international structures of power (patriarchy, nationalsims, late capitalism), but tracing them to the very door of the university.
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The Murderer’s Mother
Mahasweta Devi; Translated by Arunava Sinha
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R610
Discovery Miles 6 100
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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A tense sociopolitical novel exploring power, violence, and
morality in 1970s India. The Murderer’s Mother takes
readers to the late 1970s in the Indian state of West Bengal, where
the Communist Party–led Left Front has just been voted into
power. It tells the story of Tapan, who has been installed
as a gang leader by the most powerful man in the locality in order
to kill “unwanted obstacles,” which he does, one after another.
Tapan knows there is no other way he can earn a living, but at the
same time, he is desperate to protect his family. He tries to stop
petty crime and assaults on women, even as he protects his
patron’s interests. Through the dissonance, he becomes both a
feared and revered figure, but his patron’s game becomes clear:
now the murderer, too, must be eliminated.
Mahasweta Devi is one of India's foremost literary figures. Mother
of 1084 is one of her most widely read works, written during the
height of the Naxalite agitation - a militant communist uprising
that was brutally repressed by the Indian government and led to the
widespread murder of young rebels across Bengal. This novel focuses
on the trauma of a mother who awakens one morning to the shattering
news that her son is lying dead in the morgue and her struggle to
understand his decision to be a Naxalite. Breast Stories is a
collection of short fiction about the breast as more than a symbol
of beauty, eroticism, or motherhood, but as a harsh indictment of
an exploitative social system and a weapon of resistance. At a time
when violence towards women in India has escalated exponentially,
Devi exposes the inherently vicious systems in Indian society. Old
Women tells the touching, poignant tales of two timeworn women -
Dulali, a widow since childhood, who is now an old woman
preoccupied only with day-to-day survival, and Andi, who loses her
eyesight due to a combination of poverty, societal indifference,
and government apathy. All three volumes, written in Devi's
hard-hitting yet sensitive prose, are significant milestones in
India's feminist literary landscape.
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Old Women (Paperback)
Mahasweta Devi, Gayatri Chakrav Spivak
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R350
Discovery Miles 3 500
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Mahasweta Devi is one of India's foremost literary figures. Mother
of 1084 is one of her most widely read works, written during the
height of the Naxalite agitation - a militant communist uprising
that was brutally repressed by the Indian government and led to the
widespread murder of young rebels across Bengal. This novel focuses
on the trauma of a mother who awakens one morning to the shattering
news that her son is lying dead in the morgue and her struggle to
understand his decision to be a Naxalite. Breast Stories is a
collection of short fiction about the breast as more than a symbol
of beauty, eroticism, or motherhood, but as a harsh indictment of
an exploitative social system and a weapon of resistance. At a time
when violence towards women in India has escalated exponentially,
Devi exposes the inherently vicious systems in Indian society. Old
Women tells the touching, poignant tales of two timeworn women -
Dulali, a widow since childhood, who is now an old woman
preoccupied only with day-to-day survival, and Andi, who loses her
eyesight due to a combination of poverty, societal indifference,
and government apathy. All three volumes, written in Devi's
hard-hitting yet sensitive prose, are significant milestones in
India's feminist literary landscape.
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R383
Discovery Miles 3 830
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