Maalgudi Ka Mehmaan [Talkative Man]

 Malgudi Ka Chalta Purza is the Hindi translation of R.K. Narayan’s English novel The Financial Expert (1952), where he explores the themes of greed and lust for money. The story takes place in the fictional town of Malgudi. Margayya is a petty money-lender who operates his business under the banyan tree in front of the bank. As his business flourishes though, he is faced with opposition and threats from the bank employees, forcing him to think of an alternative career. Angered with this humiliation, he vows to become a wealthy man.   

Malgudi Ki Kahaniyan (Hindi) is a set of stories that are based in the fictional town of Malgudi. The town of Malgudi is a South Indian village created by the author and offers a valuable peek into the quality of rural life during the pre-independence era. The characters in these stories come from different walks of life, and each has a unique tale to tell. These stories have characters such as astrologers, postmen, doctors, beggars and priests. 

This is a collection of stories written by the world famous writer Rabindranath Tagore. This collection includes stories such as Goongi, Prem ka Mulya and Nayi Roshini. 

In 1707, when Emperor Aurangzeb went to his grave, the Mughal empire began to crack into a hundred fractured pieces. It was the lure of the Deccan that drained this conqueror’s energies, putting him on a course of collision with his most threatening adversaries. After all, the Deccan was a land that inspired wonder. Its treasures were legendary, and its kings magnificent. It was a horizon of rousing adventure, attracting talent from beyond oceans.

For me travelling is like that constant feeling of retrospection and soul searching inside of me. For some reason, stories of people from faraway lands make my mind anxious and my brain go into a frenzy. It has been mentioned innumerable times that happiness cannot be found outside of you; it is inside of you - in one’s heart. Even then we go out in search of happiness - either through materialistic possessions or through someone else’s existence. 

Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most memorable books in the face of the holocaust that Nazi Germany and its collaborators unleashed on European Jews between 1941 and 1945 across German-occupied Europe. Anne Frank was a German-born Jew hiding in Amsterdam with her family in 1942 when Nazis occupied Holland. She started keeping a diary in hiding - a diary she’d received for her 13th birthday from her parents.

Swami is a talkative, mischievous boy whose life is all about having fun with his friends and avoiding school and homework. He lives with his parents, younger brother and grandmother. He has a set of friends in two schools that he gets removed from. But some innocent mischief gets him in trouble and leads him to leave his house and go on the run. Written in his unique style, R.K Narayan's book Swami Aur Uske Dost is simple yet truly entertaining.

Well into his 50s, Jagan runs a shop of sweets. A Gandhian by principle, he himself has given up both sugar and salt and announces his desire for an austere life. He spends his days attempting to enlighten those around him with his interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, faltering when his listeners pose deeper questions. His son, Mali, quietly rebels against his father’s way of life and holds him responsible for his mother’s death due to his reluctance to allow treatment through modern medicine.  

A Hindi translation of R.K. Narayan’s The World of Nagaraj by Rama Tiwari, the novel delves into the seemingly mundane yet secretly lively musings of a middle-aged man, Nagaraj. Residing in a small town, he lives by the conviction that there is some unfulfilled purpose in his life and is devoted to working towards this. But first, he must discover what his true calling is.  

At 26, Anu Singh Choudhary presumed that everything in life had become sort of perfect, and her life at that moment was really the happy fairy tale ending one had grown up striving for. A supportive family, a wonderful husband, and twins (that too a boy and a girl) - is this not what a woman ultimately wants? But what followed was a roller-coaster ride while she struggled through finding a balance between her quest for self and raising a family which demanded undivided attention.