BOOKS OF THE WEEK - SATURDAY, 29TH FEBRUARY, 2020

Animosity at Bay
An Alternative History of the 
India-Pakistan Relationship, 1947 to 1952
By - Pallavi Raghavan 
ISBN : 978-9353572730
Price Rs. 699.00
 About the Book
n this groundbreaking book, Pallavi Raghavan uses previously untapped archival sources to weave together new stories about the experiences of post-Partition state-making in South Asia. Through meticulous research, she challenges the existing wisdom about the preponderance of animosity and the rhetoric of war. The book shows how amity and a spirit of cordiality governed relations between the states of India and Pakistan in the first five years after Partition. Arguing that a hitherto overlooked set of considerations have to be integrated more closely into the analysis of bilateral dialogue, this book examines the developments leading to the No War correspondence between Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan: the signing of a 'Minorities Pact' between the two prime ministers; and the early stages of the Indus Waters negotiations. It also explores the calculations of Indian and Pakistani delegates at a series of interdominion conferences held in the years after Partition.

About the Author
Pallavi Raghavan is assistant professor of international relations at Ashoka University, Delhi, where her research is focused on India's international history, and on the global history of partitions.
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BOOKS OF THE WEEK - SATURDAY, 22ND FEBRUARY, 2020

Let Me Say it Now
by - Rakesh Maria

ISBN : 9789389152067     Rs. 899.00
About the Book
‘Son, I think you have made a mistake. You have written IPS five times.’
‘No, sir, it’s not a mistake,’ I said. ‘It is deliberate. Sir, give me IPS or nothing.’

Rakesh Maria’s entry into the elite Indian Police Service and rise to the coveted post of Mumbai’s Police Commissioner is a gripping and inspiring story.

One of India’s best-known police officers, Maria’s life is the stuff police legends are made of. Time and again his bosses and various political masters took him off his regular postings to detect serious crimes. But he successfully steered challenging and monumental investigations -- the 1993 serial blasts and the audacious 26/11 terror attack being two such instances. His work confined him to the Urbs Prima in Indis for the better part of his career. It constantly kept him under the spotlight, attracting the ire of many and resulting in some deeply distressing moments. But Maria persisted and led from the front, wherever his duty took him.

Just when he was about to complete his tenure as Commissioner, the sensational Sheena Bora murder case came to light. As usual, Rakesh Maria ensured that no stone was left unturned to unravel the roles of the influential accused. Just then, he was abruptly transferred on promotion. The treatment meted out to one of Mumbai’s top cops created a huge controversy. Several explanations were offered; guesses hazarded. However, Maria held his silence, as always. He was not new to controversies. They dogged him as they do all public servants who choose to act rather than take the easy way out, seeking shelter under rules of hierarchy and office.

In Let Me Say It Now, Maria breaks his silence for the first time, letting the reader into his side of the stories built around him. It is the chronicle of a conscientious and steadfast cop who found himself in the midst of sensitive cases and created benchmarks in complicated investigations. The book is also an unusually frank and penetrating look into the criminal justice system and the socio-political set-up it operates in.
About the Author  
Rakesh Maria is one of the most distinguished police officers of our times. A recipient of the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 1994 and the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service in 2007, he held several important posts.
In his thirty-six long years in the Indian Police Service, he is credited with having built and led several Mumbai police teams which solved some of the most high-profile cases -- the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993, the Indian Mujahideen module in 2008, the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai, and the sensational Sheena Bora murder case which was brought to light when he was Commissioner of Police.
An avid sportsman, Maria enjoyed nothing better than a game of basketball with his constables and officers. He is also a taekwondo exponent, has an ear for music and is a voracious reader.
Rakesh Maria lives in Mumbai with his wife, Preeti and has two sons, Kunal and Krish
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BOOKS OF THE WEEK - SATURDAY, 15TH FEBRUARY, 2020

ISBN : 9789353338213    Rs. 595.00
Backstage
The Story Behind India’s High Growth Years

By - Montek Singh Ahluwalia 

About the Book
Tracing the spectacular trajectory of ahluwalia’s life from its humble beginnings in Secunderabad to the corridors of power in New Delhi, this book is a classic insider’s account of how the India story was shaped and script Ahluwalia played a key role in the transformation of India from a state-run to a market-based economy, and remained a constant fixture at the top of India's economic policy establishment for an unprecedented period of three decades. The book traverses the politics, personalities, events and crises in India's recent history. It goes behind the numbers to bring alive the politics of reform, and how policy change was pushed through—at first, slowly, under prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and then much more boldly in 1991 when the opportunity provided by a severe balance of Payments crisis was seized for wide-ranging reform. Ahluwalia, who served as commerce Secretary and finance Secretary during this crucial period, makes a convincing case for why, contrary to the accusations at the time, the reforms that formed part of the conditionality of the international monetary fund (IMF) programme in 1991, were home-grown and not thrust upon a reluctant India by the IMF. Ahluwalia discusses the successes and failures of the up a regime during which period he served as deputy Chairman of the planning Commission, a cabinet-level position. He presents the story behind India’s spectacular economic growth in the first half of the upa’s tenure as well as its historic achievements in poverty alleviation. He also candidly discusses the policy paralysis and allegations of corruption that came to mark the last few years of up a 2. Narrated with wit, humour and remarkable intellect, backstage is a definitive contribution to India's economic and political history by one uniquely positioned to write it.
About the Author 
Montek Singh Ahluwalia served as one of India’s senior economic policymakers for three decades, and played a crucial role in the country’s turn from a state-run to a market-based economy. He was special secretary to Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and V.P. Singh in the 1980s, and commerce secretary and finance secretary in the 1990s. He took a break from government in 2001, when he was selected by the IMF as the first director of their newly created Independent Evaluation Office. He returned in 2004 to the Government of India as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, with the rank of cabinet minister, a position he held up till May 2014. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, by the President of India in 2011 for his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service.
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BOOKS OF THE WEEK - SATURDAY, 8TH FEBRUAEY, 2020

BITING THE BULLET
Memoirs of a Police Officer
by - Ajai Raj Sharma
About the Book
Country’s top cop Ajai Raj Sharma’s journey started with policing small towns of Uttar Pradesh, fighting bandits and goons of the notorious Chambal Valley, taking on the responsibility of politically sensitive and communally volatile districts. He was handpicked to lead the Delhi Police Force at a time when India’s capital was in a crisis. He also stood at the helm of the world’s largest border force, which secures India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. In the pages of this searing memoir, readers will be treated with the inside story of the creation of Special Task Force, of the elimination of the dreaded Shri Prakash Shukla, the exposing of the match-fixing scandal, the hunting down of ISI terrorist Ghazi Baba and the dynamic response to the 2001 Parliament attack, amongst many others.
Biting the Bullet is a trailblazing account of a life full of tackling dacoits, encounters, shootouts and terror attacks, all the while giving an insight into the mind and heart of this police officer as he makes life-changing decisions.
About the Author 
AJAI RAJ SHARMA is a 1966-batch IPS officer who served in several administratively important and sensitive districts of Uttar Pradesh. He is credited with creating and heading Special Task Force, an elite force which liquidated several notorious gangs operating from Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states, and most notably the case of dreaded Shri Prakash Shukla. He became Commissioner of Police, Delhi and handled many high profile cases including the attack on Indian Parliament. He retired as Director General of Border Security Force in 2004.
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BOOKS OF THE WEEK - SATURDAY, 01 FEBRUARY, 2020

ISBN :9780670093892
Price Rs.799.00
The Story of Yoga
From India to the Contemporary World
By -  Alistair Shearer 

About the Book
How did an ancient Indian spiritual discipline turn into a GBP 20 billion-a-year mainstay of the global wellness industry? 
This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. From arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the twentieth-century West, we discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future, such as digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for an authentic identity in the face of unprecedented change.
About the Author 
Alistair Shearer is a cultural historian specialising in the art and architecture of the Indian subcontinent and a former lecturer at SOAS University of London. He is a teacher of meditation and the psychology of yoga, and his translation of the Yoga Sutras has remained in print for almost forty years. Alistair is the co-creator of an award winning retreat hotel in Kerala.
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