Poonachi

Swann's Way is Marcel Proust's literary masterpiece and the first part of the multivolume audiobook Remembrance of Things Past. In the opening volume, the narrator travels back in time to recall his childhood and to introduce the listener to Charles Swann, a wealthy friend of the family and celebrity in the Parisian social scene. He again travels back, this time to the youth of Charles Swann in the French town of Combray, to tell the story of the love affair that took place before his own birth.

Seventy years have passed since the Partition, and a momentous event now recedes in memory. Generations have grown up outside the shadow of the communal killings and mass displacement that shaped the contemporary history of the subcontinent. Despite being born into a family affected by the Divide, artist and oral historian Aanchal Malhotra too had thought little about the Partition until she encountered objects that had once belonged to her ancestors in an Undivided India. 

 In 1526, when the nomadic Timurid warrior-scholar Babur rode into Hindustan, his wives, sisters, daughters, aunts and distant female relatives travelled with him. These women would help establish a dynasty and empire that would rule India for the next 200 years and become a byword for opulence and grandeur. In Daughters of the Sun, we meet remarkable characters like Khanzada Begum who, at 65, rode on horseback through 750 kilometres of icy passes and unforgiving terrain to parley on behalf of her nephew, Humayun....

How different will people's lives be if they approach success the same way the medical profession does, as if it were a matter of life and death? What can medicine teach us about beating the odds? In our jobs and our work lives, do we genuinely do the best we can? Gynaecological endoscopic surgeon Dr Rakesh Sinha, a two-time Guinness World Record holder for his surgeries, draws lessons from his own profession to elaborate on success in simple, easy-to-understand steps.

This book talks about the experiences of hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett, during his years in the United Provinces, or what is now known as Uttarakhand. Here we see a different side to Corbett, not as the intrepid hunter of big cats but a man who blends seamlessly with the mountain folk of Northern India. Join him in his adventures and feel the thrills of hunting; follow him into dense forests as he encounters a dreaded dacoit who has a heart of gold; and enjoy the tales of love, loyalty, and resilience of simple villagers.

Extolled for his extraordinary courage and sacrifice, Bhagat Singh is one of our most venerated freedom fighters. He is valourised for his martyrdom, and rightly so, but in the ensuing enthusiasm, most of us forget, or consciously ignore, his contributions as an intellectual and a thinker. He not only sacrificed his life, like many others did before and after him, but he also had a vision of independent India. 

The Ramayana, one of the world's greatest epics, is also a tragic love story. In this brilliant retelling, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita's version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity and honour, it is also about women's struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men.

It is a time of violence as well as calm. Men of peace are spreading the message of the Buddha even as monks are being tortured in the dungeons of Pataliputra. In Magadha, all talk is about the impending war against Kalinga. While King Ashoka plots the movements of his ships and cavalry, Queen Asandhimitra broods over the growing unrest in the kingdom. There is only one man they can both trust to take them through this period of uncertainty and looming danger: the enigmatically named Brahmin, skilful spymaster and custodian of Magadha’s best-kept secrets. 

Assassin’s Creed: Gold follows Aliyah Khan, a card shark and hustler who’s been dealt a rough hand in life. Surviving through her smarts and street scams, Aliyah struggles to get by until she loses big time to a mysterious older man, Gavin Banks. Her only option to repay Banks is to become an Assassin. During her training, Banks tells Aliyah of the centuries-old battle between the Assassins and Templars, imploring her to help him decode a secret message inscribed on an illegal form of currency during the Great Recoinage of 1696.    

This is the complete Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn audio collection of the four original stories written by Mark Twain. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. Also included are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).

In this memoir, narrated in Karan Thapar's trademark incisive style, the author relates different stories from his life, from personal anecdotes about his childhood, college days and marriage to his encounters with various well-known personalities in the course of anchoring his TV shows. Find out about Karan Thapar's friendship in university and later with Benazir Bhutto; his short-lived yet memorable stint as a foreign correspondent with The Times under the tutelage of Charles Douglas-Home; his entry into news television; and more.

Asoka the Great discovers an ancient and terrible secret - a secret buried deep in the Mahabharata; a secret that could destroy the world; a secret hidden away for over 2,300 years....

Kali and Ponna's efforts to conceive a child have been in vain. Hounded by the taunts and insinuations of others, all their hopes come to converge on the chariot festival in the temple of Ardhanareeswara, the half-female god. Everything hinges on the one night when rules are relaxed and consensual union between any man and woman is sanctioned. This night could end the couple's suffering and humiliation. But it will also put their marriage to the ultimate test.

The 19th century was an exciting time of initiative and enterprise around the world. If John D. Rockefeller was creating unimagined wealth in the United States that he would put to the service of the nation, a Parsi family with humble roots was doing the same in India. The Tatas is a tribute to a line of visionaries who have a special place in the hearts and minds of ordinary Indians. Written by seasoned journalist Girish Kuber, this is also the only book that tells the complete Tata story spanning almost 200 years.

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets - and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.