The Gandhi Cap and Other Short Stories by Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Singh
₹345.00
The book The Gandhi Cap and Other Short Stories offers a glimpse into the lifetime of work of a forgotten pioneer of Hindi fiction, Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha. It is ironic that one cannot find a single book by this author who was so dedicated to Hindi literature. The stories in this collection are a testament not only to the contributions of Sinha to Hindi fiction but also, reflect the depth of political and social milieu of the times. Many readers will be moved by the elements patriotism, feminism, secularism, and spiritualism in these stories. Strong female characters are common in most of these stories. These characters provide both a moral fulcrum to the stories as well as reflect the struggle of women to balance prevailing customs with modernity. Some of these stories provide sharp political and social commentary that still have currency (The Gandhi Cap). Sinha incorporates a unique style of writing that uses lyrical prose and poetry together. He even employs a dialogue between the storyteller and a social gathering in the form of an epilogue, to offer a discourse on social dilemma about women?s plight to become modern while admonishing them to retain their Indian essence (An Expensive Bargain). We hope the readers will enjoy this wonderful collection.
Categories: | Fiction, General Interest, Translation |
---|
Author | |
---|---|
Format |
Related products
-
Bhāratīya Trikoṇamiti Śāstra
Indian Trigonometry was developed as a powerful mathematical tool for Siddhantic Astronomy. The book, Bharatiya Trikonamiti sastra (Hindu Trigonometry) deals with all the relevant topics of Indian trigonometry, including trigonometrical identities and other formulas, trigonometrical tables, methods of interpolation and trigonometrical series, etc. The subject matter is discussed in eleven chapters divided into 80 sections and 50 sub-sections, involving translations of 250 verses spread over in 38 classical Sanskrit works and based on 42 research articles published in 16 research journals. By including material of the late Aryabhata School or Kerala Aryabhata School, the author has made the book comprehensive and up-to-date. Indeed, the book is fascinating and significant. It is a definite contribution in the study of the history of Indian mathematics. The book is the English version of the Kannada book of the same title.
-
Valmiki Ramayana – Critical Essays
This book critically engages with several important events and statements found in Valmiki’s epic poem, the Ramayana composed over 2500 years ago. Though certain methods were followed to preserve the Vedic texts, no serious methods were adopted to preserve the text of Ramayana. The poem spread to all parts of India and beyond through narrators of the epic who sometimes added their own explanatory verses to conform to local customs and traditions. In the second half of the 20th century, scholars at the Baroda Oriental Research Institute, after many years of labour and examination of over 2000 different manuscripts, compiled what is now accepted as the most reliable version of the poem. Based on this critical edition, a condensed English version by Dr Parameswaran was earlier published by the Manipal University Press. In the present book, Dr Parameswaran reviews the critical interpretations of scholars like Sheldon Pollock, R P Goldman and Wendy Doniger and has analytic responses to many unanswered questions. About the book: Dr M R Parameswaran has taught Mathematics as well as Sanskrit at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. His work Studies in Srivaishnavism, has been well received by academic scholars and Srivaishnavas.
-
Pot of Butter and other short stories
Pot of Butter and other Short Stories is a collection of nine short stories, originally composed by Sunanda Belgaumkar in Kannada, handpicked and translated from her collections – Kajjaya and Koduvudenu Kombudenu. The bulk of her literary work including the stories in this book are inspired by the experiences in her early life, in the rustic and robust atmosphere of Dharwad. Her stories are predominantly semiautobiographical, laced with a liberal dose of artistic freedom.
This collection weaves together her writings on the underprivileged and marginalized as seen from the comfort of her palatial home, but rendered with compassion and empathy. Often, we find her narrative infused with self-directed questions such as, “What if I was in her shoes? ” or “Could that have been me? ” These stories are reflections on human nature, suffering, and destiny. There is hope, there is despair. There is love, there is longing. There is defeat, and there is triumph. In her stories, an oft-recurring metaphor for picking up one’s life after loss is a scorching summer followed by a torrential downpour and subsequently a plant springing to life.
As a translation, this book attempts to introduce Sunanda Belgaumkar’s literary and artistic creations to the non-Kannada reader, retaining as much of the indigenous elements of the original writings as possible. In doing so, it seeks to preserve the cultural climate of North Karnataka as it was around fifty years ago.
-
Just a few pages: Some Memories of Saraswati Bai Rajwade
This book is a coming together of two women writers of modern Kannada literature; one from its early period, the other, a contemporary. Saraswati Bai Rajwade, the early writer, became a fable, a mythology, leaving behind only the shadows of her writing. Vaidehi, the contemporary writer, reinvents Rajwade from the folds of history and gives her a life in the present. Saraswati Bai Rajwade was born into a poor family in the Dakshina Kannada of yore. By chance, she stepped into theatre and later into films. But all the glory that came to her unexpectedly, vanished just as suddenly. She later became the wife of a rich and high official, travelled abroad and underwent immense suffering. In her pain and loneliness, she took to books and also began to write and attained glory as a writer. In the last years of her life, she returned to a life of austerity and anonymity. Vaidehi has collected bits and pieces from her life and writing, presenting before us a unique tapestry. In this tapestry, Vaidehi?s perceptions criss-cross with Rajwade?s life and writing. Art does not reside in the object, but in its close encounter with life. This work unfolds before us as a grand illustration of such twin narratives.
-
Ancient Stone Riddles: Megaliths of the Indian Subcontinent
Ancient Stone Riddles is an introduction to the fascinating but less-known monuments called megaliths in the context of the Indian subcontinent. The book seeks to present the current understanding among archaeologists and other researchers in a lucid manner to the general reader, while stimulating thought on the many questions that linger about these remnants from our distant past and the people and cultures that built them. It also discusses recent research about the knowledge systems possessed by the megalith builders, including the possibility that some of these monuments were erected to observe celestial cycles.
Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
Vaidehi Kathana
Vaidehi Kathana is the first full-length literary critical study of the fictional, non fictional and poetic narratives of Vaidehi, who is considered to be one of the most celebrated contemporary Indian writers in Kannada. This work reviews, introduces, discusses and interprets all the writings of Vaidehi, which include short stories, poems, essays and a novel. The book examines how this great Indian writer has been reacting and responding to her time and space for the last four decades. The book shows how Vaidehi?s poetics has so subtly blended with her politics thereby creating some of the outstanding masterpieces in poetry and fiction of our times. The book discusses the special features of Vaidehi?s feminist perspectives as well as the uniqueness of her narrative skills. Arguing that Vaidehi?s spiritual triumph is demonstrated in her technical triumph, the book draws the attention of the non-Kannada readers to the entire body of Vaidehi?s writings. Lucidly translated into English by the noted translator O L Nagabhushana Swamy, T P Ashoka?s Vaidehi Kathana provides a meaningful opportunity for the non-Kannada readers to familiarize themselves with one of the greatest contemporary writers of India. T P Ashoka?s Vaidehi Kathana is a significant contribution to modern Indian literary criticism. The book provides an interesting reading not only to the students of literature, researchers and teachers but also appeals to the general readers.
-
Retro India
Retro India is, in essence, a trip down the memory lane, meandering through the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties of the twentieth century. Today?s youth would battle with the fact that India had experienced a sweeping change from what it was in just as recently as thirty years ago. What kind of a moribund economy could engender a continuing state of shortages, high inflation, low growth, a paucity of jobs, rampant smuggling, and a foreign exchange situation that was perpetually perilous! It took major political and economical transformations to remove the shackles that then bound the economy. This narrative provides a clear bridge between the then and now for the younger generations. And for the older reader, it provides a heap of nostalgia. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the changes in India have been vast and comprehensive. In these decades, economic indicators such as India?s growth in GDP rate, the proliferation of the number of Airlines in the Indian skies, the multiplying of car models, the flourishing of telephone connections and moving on to the world of mobiles, televisions going colour from black and white to operating with over a thousand channels, India turning digital, and so on clearly directs that India had taken a crucial turn in its history. India has changed. And how! The Indian consumer grins. This is notwithstanding the fact that poverty is endemic and the gulf between the rich and the poor
-
Post Googlism and Other Short Stories
This collection of short stories is for the fast-paced millennials, whom the author calls ?The Post Googlist Generation? who want everything hastily, at their finger-tips and on the go. The language has also shrunk in size to allow the pace. The world-view of this generation is that what cannot be done through an app cannot and should not be done. Their expectations of a story are a striking start, a quickly built middle and an interesting end. Stories in the collection seek to meet these expectations of this generation talking to them in their own language. They also echo the changing lives and changing aspirations of the time.