Rare classic on Indian travels

 

Mint condition. Rare book. 320pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From an award-winning author whose books have all become modern classics, "Indian Balm" is written beautifully - witty, poetic, informed, full of colour and insight. It is a fascinating journey through past and present India, explaining a region far off the beaten track. 

"Indian Balm" is the captivating account of a journey Paul Hyland made along the little-known course of the sacred Godavari river in Southern India: a pilgrimage through both his past and India's present. It is the story of the search for his ancestors, missionaries and traders, who settled in the region generations ago and of their Balm - a wonder cure for all sorts of ailments and afflictions. It is also a fascinating and enlightening journey through India today. 

Wading through the country's contradictions and irritations, its ugliness and its beauty, Hyland encounters both the exotic and the commonplace. He meets snake charmers and sadhus, bogi men and horn dancers, witnesses ancient rituals and observes the most simple aspects of daily life. Indian Balm is an extraordinary and, above all, unique journey - vivid, intimate and revealing - travel writing at its colourful best.

Phillip Adams on India

 

Excellent condition. 222 pages. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Tagore writes of his childhood

 

Very good condition. PB. 200pp. Amazon is selling an edition of this for over $30 plus postage. Our special price is $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, educationist, social reformer, nationalist, business-manager and composer. These memory paintings show the author's maturity in language and in his soul. Tagore writes about important matters with a lightness that belies their importance. "I know not who paints the pictures on memory's canvas; but whoever he may be, what he is painting are pictures; by which I mean that he is not there with his brush simply to make a faithful copy of all that is happening. He takes in and leaves out according to his taste. He makes many a big thing small and small thing big. He has no compunction in putting into the background that which was to the fore, or bringing to the front that which was behind. In short he is painting pictures, and not writing history." This is more than an autobiography; it is a look into a man's soul.

Another white hippy woman discovers India?

 

Mint condition. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD An Indian writes about the complexities of her nation

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney

RARE BOOK. Good condition. PB. 320pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia

India is a land of contrasts. It is the world's most populous democracy, but it still upholds the caste system. It is a burgeoning economic superpower, but one of the poorest nations on earth. It is the home of the world's biggest movie industry after Hollywood, as well as to the world's oldest religions. It is an ancient civilization celebrating fifty years as a modern nation. Now, as never before, the world wants to know what contemporary India is all about.

As she has proved in three previous books--her wry take on the marketing of the mystic East in Karma Cola; the rich historical saga of Raj; and the beguiling tales of A River Sutra--there is no better guide to India's multihued mosaic than Gita Mehta. She knows India in all its rich detail--its folkways and history, its culture and politics, its ancient traditions and current concerns. In Snakes and Ladders, she gives a loving but unflinching assessment of India today, in an account that is entertaining, informative, and wholly personal.

Gita Mehta is the author of the bestselling books Karma Cola, Raj, A River Sutra, and Snakes and Ladders. She divides her time between New York, London, and India

Queen Victoria and her Indian tutor

 

Mint condition. PB. 368pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Now a major motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench, Ali Fazal and Eddie Izzard, directed by Stephen Frears. 

'A tale of Empire and intrigue brought vividly back to life' - VIKAS SWARUP, author of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE 

The tall, handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail, he suddenly found himself a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year, he was established as a powerful figure at court, becoming the queen's teacher, or Munshi, and instructing her in Urdu and Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown, her Scottish ghillie, the queen had at last found his replacement. But her intense and controversial relationship with the Munshi led to a near-revolt in the royal household. 

Now a major motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul examines how a young Indian Muslim came to play a central role at the heart of the empire, and tells a tender love story between an ordinary Indian and his elderly queen. 

AUTHOR: Shrabani Basu is an author, journalist and historian. She has also written Curry: the Story of the Nation's Favourite Dish (2003) and Spy Princess: the Life of Noor Inayat Khan (2006). She is based in London. 31 b/w illustrations

SOLD A comprehensive study of the Indian diaspora

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney, NSW

Mint condition. HB. 416pp. $100 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora Book Description Brij V Lal has contributed to The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora as an editor.Brij V. Lal is professor of Pacific and Asian history at the Australian National University.

About the author:

Brij V. Lal AM, FAHA is an Indo-Fijian historian. He was born in Labasa, on the northern island of Vanua Levu. He was educated at the University of the South Pacific, the University of British Columbia and the Australian National University. A harsh critic of the Bainimarama government, which originated in the military coup of 2006 and retained power in the 2014 elections, he is currently living in exile in Australia.

"I am currently working on a large scale project about Australia's engagement with the South Pacific from the 1940s to the 1980s, focusing on the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu. My research on Fiji continues with a historical dictionary and a general interpretative volume for the University of Hawaii currently in preparation, along with a series of essays on the politics and culture of the Indian indentured diaspora. On the side, I continue to wrestle with the problems of writing about societies with unwritten pasts."

A powerful memoir of an Indian boy adopted by an Australian couple

 

Mint condition. PB. 272pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

You can buy this book along with Latika Bourke's memoir. You will only pay $30 for both.

A moving and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds, celebrating the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit – hope.

A true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds, now a major motion picture starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara.
When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines.

Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia.

Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall. When he was a young man the advent of Google Earth led him to pore over satellite images of the country for landmarks he recognised. And one day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for.

Then he set off on a journey to find his mother.

Lion: A Long Way Home is a moving and inspirational true story that celebrates the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit – hope.

'We urge you to step behind the headlines and have a read of this absorbing account ... With clear recollections and good old-fashioned storytelling, Saroo ... recalls the fear of being lost and the anguish of separation.' Weekly Review

'A remarkable story ... [Brierley] provides an informative and fascinating insight into how Third World families live with, and somehow survive, their poverty.' Saturday Age
'I literally could not put this book down ... [Saroo's] return journey will leave you weeping with joy and the strength of the human spirit.' Manly Daily

'A feel-good read about a remarkable journey.' Sun-Herald
'As well as the tale of his quest, he provides an informative and fascinating insight into how Third World families live with, and somehow survive, their poverty.' The Age

'An incredible story of how one boy survived and prevailed through extreme circumstances to change his fortunes.' femail.com.au

SOLD Travels through the Hindu Kush mountains

 

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PB. 400pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

High up in the Hindu Kush, between the ancient pagan Kalash people and the new medievalists of the Taliban, a charismatic young Spaniard, Jordi Magraner, made his home, mastering the local languages and customs before meeting his death in the most mysterious way. In this magisterial book, Gabi Martinez sets off in Jordi's footsteps to the land of the giants in order to try to solve the riddle of this murder and of Jordi's life.

Jordi Magraner was a brilliant student of the natural world, whose lab was the ravine and the scarp and the tent. His observational investigations led him to places where the legendary barmanu had been sighted, and he began to develop a thesis about the life of the wild man. His passion for pursuit and discovery took him onto ever more perilous terrain in the Pakistani-Afghan borderlands. And, one by one, Jordi turned his back on the Europeans who sought to assist him, preferring instead to entrust his safety to an Afghan youth fleeing the Taliban, and to a wondrous working dog called Fjord.

Jordi sought other rewards, and followed a winding, rocky path, down which Gabi Martinez resourcefully tracks him on this enthralling journey of detection and adventure in the Himalayas - where the truth is never as clear and pristine as the majestic mountains and the fast-flowing streams.

SOLD Indian women tell their stories of violence and love

 

SOLD

Rare book. Mint condition (apart from visible scratch on cover). PB. 272pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

India is one of the most dangerous places on the planet to be a woman – or so the international press keeps telling us. But behind the headlines, what is it really like to be a woman in India today?

Walk in the shoes of some of India’s finest women writers, and go on a journey into their intimate lives in Walking Towards Ourselves. From the film sets of Bollywood to a closeted marital home in a Tamil Nadu village; from the slick boardroom of an online dating app to a makeshift bamboo house in the post-cyclone Sundarbans; from a beauty parlour where skin bleaching is the norm, to a home for abandoned girls in Karnataka, walk with them.

Walk with them as they report from Mumbai’s streets alone at night, as they grapple with domestic violence, as they search for love through marriage brokers, as they learn to speak their minds, as they lay claim to their bodies, as they choose to be partnered or not, to become mothers or not, to make art, to make love, to make meaning of their lives.

Reaching across different strata of society, religion and language, this anthology creates a kaleidoscope of distinct and varied real-life stories. Told with startling honesty, piercing insight, moments of poetry, and flashes of humour, Walking Towards Ourselves explores what it means to be a woman in India in a time of intense and incredible change.

A definitive biography of Buddha

 

Ex-library. Excellent condition. PB. 240pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

With such bestsellers as A History of God and Islam, Karen Armstrong has consistently delivered penetrating, readable, and prescient (The New York Times) works that have lucidly engaged a wide range of religions and religious issues. In Buddha she turns to a figure whose thought is still reverberating throughout the world 2,500 years after his death.

Many know the Buddha only from seeing countless serene, iconic images. But what of the man himself and the world he lived in? What did he actually do in his roughly eighty years on earth that spawned one of the greatest religions in world history? 

Armstrong tackles these questions and more by examining the life and times of the Buddha in this engrossing philosophical biography. 

Against the tumultuous cultural background of his world, she blends history, philosophy, mythology, and biography to create a compelling and illuminating portrait of a man whose awakening continues to inspire millions.

SOLD The history of how we see India

 

SOLD

Mint condition. HB. 432pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From Thomas the Apostle to Slumdog Millionaire: how we imagine India, from the author of Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity.

A Strange Kind of Paradise is an exploration of India's past and present, from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in India for many years. Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans and Americans -- everyone really, except for Indians themselves -- came to imagine India.

His account of the engagement between foreigners and India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great toSlumdog Millionaire. It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco de Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, E.M. Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles and Steve Jobs. Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India.

The resulting is a spellbinding, 2,500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture and society, in the company of an author who informs, educates and entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies and overturns long-held stereotypes about race, identity and migration. At once scholarly and thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric and laugh-out-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic.

India's unruly politics

 

Mint condition. PB. 448pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

10 years ago, India was an emerging world power being courted by the world's most powerful political and business leaders, an upbeat story of unparalleled economic growth. Since then, it has failed to account for the human capital at the heart of its effort to modernize: more than one billion people clamoring for what has become known as the “Indian Dream”-an education, a career, and an opportunity to pull one's family out of poverty and into prosperity. Today, India is suffering an immense crisis of confidence-crippling political corruption, politicians mired in the status quo, economic inequality, brutal violence against women, and rampant social injustice.

Learn Hindi the easy way

 

Ex-library. Mint condition. CD included. PB. 288pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Hindi for Beginners is a Hindi self-study guide and language learning package aimed at helping students learn Hindi in a natural manner.

It engages them to actively use the Hindi language in the real life situations. An accompanying audio CD with clearly annunciated dialogues spoken by native Hindi speakers ensures correct pronunciation and builds listening comprehension. Clear task-based instructions, concise and to the point explanation of grammatical structures and lesson plans help enhance student's understanding and speed up their ability to learn Hindi.

Geared towards all learning styles, the subject matter is organized around day today conversations such as:

• Self- introduction
• Pleasantries
• Describing home
• Hiring transportation
• Hotel booking
• Reporting a theft
• Shopping
• And many more

Hindi for Beginners can be used for instruction purposes in a classroom setting or to maintain individual linguistic capabilities such as reading, listening, speaking and writing through wide array of activities. This book also includes the Romanization of vocabulary and dialogues as they are pronounced, to help learners pronounce them correctly and clearly in the absence of a Hindi speaker or a teacher, without any difficulty.

SOLD An Australian girl travels to India in the early 20th century

 

SOLD

Vintage. Very good condition. HB. 240pp. $30 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A gorgeous book on India's history and present

 

Mint condition. HB. Colour photographs. Glossy. 336pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

In The Story of India, Michael Wood weaves a spellbinding narrative out of the 10,000-year history of the subcontinent. Home today to more than a fifth of the world's population, India gave birth to the oldest and most influential civilization on Earth, to four world religions, and to the world's largest democracy.

Now, as India bids to become a global economic giant, Michael sets out on an epic journey across this vibrant country to trace the roots of India's present in the incredible riches of her past. The Story of India is a magical mixture of history and travelogue, and an unforgettable portrait of India - past, present and future.

About the author

For more than 20 years, historian and broadcaster Michael Wood has made compelling journeys into the past, which have brought history alive for a generation of readers and viewers. He is the author of several highly praised books on English history including In Search of the Dark Ages, The Domesday Quest, In Search of England and In Search of Shakespeare. He has over 80 documentary films to his name, among them Art of the Western World, Legacy, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, Conquistadors and In Search of Myths and Heroes.

Michael was born in Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oriel College Oxford, where he did post-graduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

SOLD The story of modern India

 

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Mint condition. PB. 288pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

Reversing his parents’ immigrant path, a young writer returns to India and discovers an old country making itself new.

Anand Giridharadas sensed something was afoot as his plane prepared to land in Bombay. An elderly passenger looked at him and said, “We’re all trying to go that way,” pointing to the rear. “You, you’re going this way?”

Giridharadas was returning to the land of his ancestors amid an unlikely economic boom. Yet he was interested less in the gold rush than in the cultural upheaval – what would happen when old traditions met new ambitions?

In India Calling, Giridharadas blends the objectivity of the outsider with the intimacy of the insider; the result is India seen at once from within and without. He introduces us to entrepreneurs, radicals, industrialists and religious seekers, but, most of all, to Indian families. Through their stories, and his own, he paints an intimate portrait of a country becoming modern while striving to remain itself.

About the author

Anand Giridharadas is a columnist for the New York Times and its global edition, the International Herald Tribune. A native of Cleveland, he worked in Bombay as a management consultant before joining the Times in 2005 as its first Bombay-based correspondent in the modern era. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Memoir of avoiding South Asian marriage

 

Excellent condition. PB. 304pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

An affectionate, often hilarious, memoir of growing up in London in the 1970s in an Indian household, and avoiding an arranged marriage.

‘From the age of fourteen, I was aware my parents expected me to have an arranged marriage, a big Bollywood wedding. There was just one hitch: nobody asked me.’

For Sushi Das, growing up in 1970s London was a culturally messed-up time. Feminists were telling women they could be whatever they wanted, skinheads were yelling at dark-skinned foreigners to go home and The Boomtown Rats were singing about ‘Lookin’ after Number 1.’

While Sushi was fabricating intricate lies and plotting harebrained schemes to get to the pub and meet ‘undesirable elements’ – boys – her parents were on the hunt for a respectable Indian doctor for her to marry. But how do you turn your back on centuries of tradition without trashing your family’s honour? How do you break free of your parents’ stranglehold without casting off their embrace? And how do you explain to your strict dad why there’s a boy smoking in his living room and another one lurking in his garden?

Breaking free meant migrating to the other side of the world, only to find that life in Australia had unexpected consequences. This is an intelligent, often hilarious memoir and a fascinating look at one of the oldest traditions of Eastern culture, which aims to join two families in economic prosperity, but whose reality is not always so blissful.

About the author

Sushi Das is an award-winning British/Australian journalist of Indian origin who worked for The Age newspaper for 22 years. She held various roles including news editor, columnist and opinion editor. Educated and raised in London, she migrated to Australia in 1991 and began her career as a news reporter at Australian Associated Press. Her work, which often focuses on race relations, culture clash and equality for women, has been recognised with two Melbourne Press Club Quill awards, including Best Columnist. She is an experienced public speaker and currently works as a freelance columnist and writing consultant and as a researcher for RMIT ABC Fact Check. Her memoir Deranged Marriage has been taught as a school text at Victorian secondary schools.

SOLD A Muslim woman discovers her Jewish roots

 

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Mint condition. PB. 264pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD Taxi rides and other travel adventures in India's largest city

 

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Very rare book. Mint condition. HB. 301pp. $30 including postage anywhere in Australia.

When Joe Roberts and his wife decided to spend the winter in Calcutta, they wanted to challenge the false impressions that Westerners have of the city. This informative history of the city mixed with the author's personal account intends to recast Calcutta in a positive light.