Dreams of the Mango People by Anis Bari

Blurb (from the jacket):

Do yourself a favor. Read this book. Your dreams will come alive, in a light, sometimes in a humorous way. You will relate to the stories and be gently awakened to make your story a reality. 

Ghanshyam Tiwari, Harvard Kennedy School

The conceptualization and execution gives the reader a feel that dreams and reality co-exist on the same horizon. Dreams of the Mango People will set you free for all your inhibitions and hesitations which come along with a desire to dream. 

Vikas Choudhary Harvard University, IIT Kharagpur Director, Eduvision.

Dreams of the Mango People will force you to think and visualize your dreams. A self-refection guide that helps to believe in the power of dreams. 

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Actor

This book is not only inspiring but also shows you the ways to start the business with strong foundation. The success of any business is determined by courage of its founders and preparedness of its leader. Dreams of the Mango People will act as a comprehensive guide for both these essential ingredients of success. 

Abhinav Chanakya, Wharton Business School (ISEP)

Dreams of the Mango People explains the importance of living each moment without pressure, without forecasting the result, because some experiences cannot be explained by a function and the life itself is too mysterious to be managed mathematically. 

Micro Di Maio, Bacconi University, Italy

Dreams of the Mango People is so much about what I believe and teach. The 'heroes' of stories whether myths, folk-tales, novels, plays or films are created not just for our entertainment but for our edification. Take up the struggle and change whatever needs changing to make the world a better place. 

Barry John, Writer and Director

Manhattan Mango by Madhuri Iyer

Blurb (from the jacket):

Q. What happens when three ambitious, high-achieving, 20-something Mumbaikars become New Yorkers?

A. Madness.

Zipping through life’s ups and downs like a high-speed elevator during rush hour, buddies Shri, Shanks, and Neel hold on to each other, and their sanity, with a bro-hood bonding that chipkos them together, fevicol se.

Neel’s the driven hedge fund guy, with a weakness for scotch and women. Tam Brahm Shanks, a techie, falls for the "wrong” girl. Good Son Shri, a banker, holds a secret he means to take to his grave. Their intertwined lives buzz with high-voltage drama — explosive secrets, super-charged romances, and a-fuse-a-minute meltdowns.

There’s alcohol-fueled passion, Devdas style. Inter-racial hook-ups. Even a fake affair, because money can’t buy the real thing. When their skyscraper-sized dreams are tested, this “desified” saga of friends in Manhattan is like the city’s rapid transit express subway line. You won’t want any stops in between.

Far Beyond The Dead End by Saikat Baksi

Blurb (from the jacket):

They called it the 'mound of dead'. In other words, Mohenjo-Daro!

But beneath those layers of ruin, once flourished a town pulsating with life. There lived Koli with her enigmatic charm, Sindhu with an eyeful of dreams, Girad with his raging passion, the decrepit priest prophesying the doom and many others. They loved, hated and chased their fixations in manic rage. A series of mysterious deaths ensued from such frenetic hunt for lust, riches and glory. Yet, the inexorable game of destruction did not cease to play, until they ventured Far Beyond the Dead End only to be discovered under a heap of rubble four thousand years later.

Caravan to Tibet by Deepa Agarwal

Blurb (from the jacket):

'The thud of hooves hammered at Debu's ear, the swishing of whips, the shrill exclamations of the boys goading their sleeds on. Slowly, steadily, they left one horse behind, then another, than another.'

In the last years of the nineteenth century, a caravan of traders sets off from the high hills of Kumaon, India, for Tibet. They traverse dangerous passes and brave blinding snowstorms, in order to carry on their traditional trade in the Tibetan markets. Among them is fourteen-year-old Debu’s father. Many days later, when the caravan returns, Debu is heartbroken to learn that his father was lost in one of the treacherous passes. Somehow he cannot believe it, and when a Tibetan trader turns up in the local market wearing an amulet remarkably similar to his father’s, he is convinced that his father is alive, somewhere in Tibet. 

Debu joins the next caravan to Tibet to look for his father, little knowing he is setting out on the most perilous, yet most exciting journey of his life. The adventures follow thick and fast—a forced stay in a monastery with a young lama who takes a fancy to him; his capture by a band of bandits led by the cruel, mysterious Nangbo gifted with magical powers; a stay in the goldfields of Thok Jalong; and finally ending with a heart-pounding, breathtaking horse race.

An action-packed adventure story, Caravan to Tibet teems with memorable characters and fine descriptions of life in the Himalayan kingdoms of Kumaon and Tibey at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Rage in the jungle, Raj on the street by Doctor Kesi

Blurb (from the jacket): 

'Rage in the Jungle, Raj on the Street', is a story that captures the essence of a group of people caught in a strange predicament. 

Political activist Neema unwittingly puts her family - a widowed mother, old husband, a little daughter in jeopardy, while pursuing Buddha, the encounter specialist, for his false encounters. Buddha, with his dogmatic belief in an extreme definition of patriotism, was tempted to stage false encounters on a terrorist couple. Chased by his pursuers, he finds himself in an awkward place, which he must have not dreamed of in the wildest of his dreams. 

Sambhu, an absconded bonded labor-turned Maoist was in Neemas company, knowing precious little of how fast his criminal past would catch up with him. Or that he would again meet the same terrorist-cum arms peddler from whom he had purchased the AK47s, in exchange for hashish, cultivated to fund Maoist activities.

What fate awaits Sambhu, Neema, her husband Dr. London and Buddha?

Will justice prevail?

The Crossover by Sunil Sandeep, Betty Bileterka (Illustrator)

Blurb (from the jacket):

The poet reflects. The soul speaks. God enlightens. These are three distinct parts of the same voice. The soul yearns to connect with other souls, looking for the way home. Sunil Sandeep’s poetry is both map and compass pointing the way. The first step is questioning, WHY (the first poem in the collection). “An unexamined life is not worth living”, Socrates tells us. Sunil Sandeep, the young philosopher-poet, reminds us of this great truth as well, in his own gentle way. Time-old voices echo here and there, supporting the young philosopher-poet whose message can be heard loud and clear, capturing the essence of life, lamenting the downward spiral of humanity as she sells her very soul to Mammon; “muted” and paralyzed, her heart is locked and the key thrown away. Suddenly “a voice in the wilderness” is calling: “Stop. Look and see, listen and hear, act. Not all is lost, there’s hope... Journey within.”

This unique piece of poetry, epic in proportions, speaks to our whole being. Engrossing, beautifully written, it invites us along with the poet to think, reflect and contemplate the meaning of life, the self, humanity, the universal... Line after line sparkles with gems of wisdom pointing the way to higher worlds, to the tenderness of the human heart, to the realm of the soul, to spiritual depths and heights, and to God. Love, pain, wisdom, action... an Indian soul is talking to the world. 

Keep writing Sunil, enriching the world with beauty and purity of heart and thought and by all means LOVE – what the world needs now more than ever before.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Blurb (from the jacket):

What happens when innocence is confronted by monstrous evil?

Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas.

Bruno's friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation. And in exploring what he is unwittingly a part of, he will inevitably become subsumed by the terrible process.

Sita's Curse by Sreemoyee Piu Kundu

Blurb (from the jacket):

Somewhere, behind closed doors, in her solitary world; somewhere, under the sheets with an indifferent lover; Somewhere, is a woman who will not be denied...

Trapped for fifteen years in the stranglehold of a dead marriage and soulless household domesticity, the beautiful, full-bodied and passionate Meera Patel depends on her memories and her flights of fancy to soothe the aches that wrack her body; to quieten an unquenchable need. Until one cataclysmic day in Mumbai, when she finally breaks free...

Bold, brazen and defiant, Sitas Curse looks at the hypocrisy of Indian society and tells the compelling story of a middle-class Indian housewifes urgent need for love, respect, acceptance and sexual fulfillment.

The Celestial Hunt by Devikumar Ramalingam

Blurb (from GoodReads):

Millions of galaxies, countless stars, numerous planets and infinite asteroids and comets constitute this universe. Its formation is clueless and so is life. Earth, our dear world, which is one among the trillions of the celestial objects in this universe (we are not sure if we have another / many universes), is the only celestial object that can support life. We? Who are we?

We are just one among the innumerable species that live on Earth. When we compare the species of human beings to the hugeness of the Universe and the multitude of species, we seem very small. Is it not? This does not stop there. There are 7 billion humans in the world. You, I or anyone is just one among the 7 billion humans which is among 1.5 million species on Earth which is one of the trillions of celestial objects in the Universe. 

Questions arise often when we start thinking about this mystery. So who has created this entire set up? And what are we expected to play in this short life? Are all the happenings and events pre-defined? Why some people alone reach greater heights in life and make their life a never fading saga?

Some term the super natural power above us as God and some try to explore it through science. Both God and Science have their own demerits. Yes, may be because both are created / altered by us. The ‘No God Concept’ seems to lack discernment and ‘Multi God Concept’ lacks sanity. Science, a repository of wonders, has also taken part in killing a large number of humans, the most intelligent species. 

God (or) the Creator could be only ONE. All His messengers and their preachings iterate the same. The different versions of the result of the decoding process of God are these different religions. God Himself helped people in this process by sending Messengers at various times. The only identity for us is we are ‘humans’, very tiny living units of this gigantic universe created by our Creator. The discriminations originating on the basis of God has made us to lose our identity. Addicted to religion we have started moving away from God, our Creator.

Our only possessions are love & kindness – these attributes differentiate us from other species. The puzzling part is they increase when we give them to others. Do we all possess them? Not really! If we do, why are so many destitute and suffering people? Are we done with all our love & kindness that we don’t have any to assist these poor people? Poor? What is this new term?

Yes. Money is another term which is behind this term ‘Poor’. People with no/less money are poor and underprivileged people in this world. They are neglected of all the basic needs. Money is the transactional material ruling many greedy minds to live a rich life at the cost of hundreds of miserable lives. Greed of money drives one to pursue power and in the race many are killed in the stampede. Addicted to power & money, we are moving away from life. Triggered by communal differences and greed for power, and fuelled by science, violence has started reaching a new height and we are losing our face as humans. 

The messengers of Our Creator have appeared several times and restored the love and humanity through their divine principles and everlasting life. We all carry a message from Our Creator and unfortunately many of us fail to follow and convey the doctrines to the next generation, thanks to addiction to religion, power and violence. We all hope a messenger appears again and turns this world which is full of nemesis into a garden of bliss. Every day, every one among the seven billion humans knowingly or unknowingly hope for a savior to save this tiniest of His celestial objects and one of His million species from self extinction.

“The Celestial Hunt” starts with Koushik, one among the seven billion humans taking a mysterious book from his father’s mini-library.