Books of The Week - 12th April, Saturday 2025

Famous Last Questions : A Confused Woman’s Investigations into the Country that Shaped Her 

by Sanjana Ramachandran

ABOUT THE BOOK

India’s ’90s kids grew up in an offline world and graduated to one that’s hyperconnected and seemingly always on fire. This generation’s psyche is riddled with qualms about identity, politics, capitalism, technology, relationships, selfhood, and what it means to live authentically—and in Famous Last Questions, Sanjana Ramachandran strikes at the heart of their confusion.

She is sincere and ironic, self-flagellating and observant, and witheringly funny. In a heroic attempt to understand why she is the way she is, she takes a scalpel to her childhood trauma and ends up with the socio-political machinery that set the scene for it, thinking out loud: Why is ‘Science, Arts, or Commerce’ how we decide the course of our lives? Why must we believe in God? Should women get married before the age of thirty, or die trying? Why is domesticity so difficult when she isn’t the ‘perfect’ housewife? How has the internet exposed Indian culture? And can virtue actually kill people?

Motivated by the impulse to heal; to prove her genius; and to win love, fame, and ‘enlightenment’, Ramachandran unravels the entire idea of the self. In the process, she studies dysfunctional family dynamics and her relationship with her quintessentially #IndianParents, her upbringing as a Tamil Brahmin girl, confronting the ideas of caste, religion, morality, gender, and sexuality that define and often betray her generation.

Above all is her insight into the universal nature of suffering—the dynamics of who gets to suffer publicly and why, and also how no privilege—whether in terms of caste, class, gender, or sexuality—can ever really escape it. Unafraid to be disliked, she talks plainly about millennial narcissism and her own ‘supposed’ transition away from it, towards spirituality, authenticity, and self-acceptance. From describing life in Big Tech to days spent in Vipassana meditation, this is a book unafraid of contradictions, a heartfelt chronicle of the ‘modern’ Indian woman’s tumultuous journey from needing to achieve everything to searching for wholeness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sanjana Ramachandran is a writer and marketer from Bengaluru. Her essays and reportage have appeared in The Caravan, The Print, VICE, NDTV, Fifty Two, New Lines Magazine, and other Indian and international publications. She was part of the South Asia Speaks fellowship for outstanding emerging writers in the class of 2022. She has led marketing for brands across consumer goods, media, and tech start-ups, and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and BITS Pilani, Goa.

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Books of The Week -5TH October, Saturday 2024

Once Upon A Prime Time 

 by Ananth Mahadevan

MEET THE AUTHOR MR ANANTH MAHADEVAN ON THURSDAY, 

10 OCTOBER 2024, 7:00 PM AT THE ENGLISH BOOK DEPOT, DEHRADUN.

ABOUT THE BOOK

"In Once Upon A Prime Time , Ananth Mahadevan pens the memoirs of his journey on Indian television. From first hand experiences with film makers who were the founding fathers of television serials to today's consumerism driven shows, he has tasted them all. The book reads like an autobiography yet covers virtually every major player who was responsible for the nostalgia that Indian television now evokes. It incorporates exclusive moments with many celebrities and award winning directors. Join the actors on their sets as they perform for television and learn about the stories that made the shows come to life. Covering artistes and makers who impacted our world, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Sai Paranjpye, Basu Chatterjee, Kundan Shah, Ravi Chopra, Ramesh Sippy , Farouque Shaikh, Aziz Mirza, Gulzar and Govind Nihalani. The book is in all probability, the first ever story of Indian television. Besides taking one down memory lane, this could be a throw-back for all those connected with the medium, past and present. It gives you a feeling of travelling through time and watching history being made – behind the scenes."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANANTH NARAYAN MAHADEVAN ‘s career as an actor and film maker traverses nearly 40 years now. From theatre to television and then cinema, it has been, as he puts it, “ an academic progression”. Mahadevan has been an integral part of 36 years of sponsored television in India, both as an actor and director.

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Our mail order service ships books in India and Overseas
Email: sales@ebd.in, Phone: +91 135 2655192