his wife Tanu leaves him for his best friend Adi, the owner of the law firm for which he works. As Anand surveys the wreckage of everything that has mattered to him, and realizes how misplaced his priorities have been, he is unexpectedly granted a reprieve. His doctor tells him that the initial diagnosis was wrong and that he is cancer-free. Determined to make the most of his second chance, Anand quits his high-powered job, and deliberately loses himself in the myriad simple joys of life for which he has never had the time. But when the old concerns and habits begin to creep back, he decides, on a whim, to journey to the remote Bhutanese retreat of Wangsisina to think about his future in solitude. Should he renounce the temptations of the city forever? Should he abjure romantic love? Should he spend the rest of his days as a recluse? Or should he start taking the first tentative steps back to a fuller life, which Chimi, his Bhutanese friend, encourages him to do? As he wrestles with these questions in the shadow of Bhutan's dramatic cliffs and mountains, he runs into the enigmatic Tara, a woman fleeing her own tragic past, and his life looks set to take yet another unexpected turn ...Action-packed yet contemplative, Pavan K. Varma's first novel is a powerful story of love and loss, despair and hope, chance and destiny, and the true meaning of joy and sorrow in every human life.

Through his unparalleled ability to devise result-oriented military, political, and administrative strategy, he overthrew one king, crowned another and paved the way for the establishment of India's first great empire. His seminal work, the Arthashashtra, arguably the world's first comprehensive treatise on statecraft and governance, was written approximately two thousand years before Machiavelli's The Prince. What would Chanakya do if confronted with the various crises that beset contemporary India? Using this question as the starting point for his new book, celebrated writer and thinker Pavan K. Varma has drawn up a practical and detailed plan, modelled on the Arthashashtra, to bring about reform and change in five key areas that require urgent attention governance, democracy, corruption, security, and the building of an inclusive society. Whether it is laying the foundation for an independent and effective Lokpal, or decriminalizing politics and successfully weeding out the corrupt, the solutions he proposes are substantive, well within the constitutional framework, and can make all the difference between intent and action. Chanakya's New Manifesto is both a call to action as well as a deeply insightful account of the challenges facing the country today. It is a book that should be attentively read by everybody with a stake in India's future.

Examines the evolution of the Indian middle class during the 20th century, especially since independence. This book is an useful read with an introduction analyses the transformation of the middle class.