Once Upon a time by A. Sethumadhavan, is a novel which surrounds priyamvada, who is an HR professional, and a single parent at the centre of its narrative. The strong undercurrent of this award-winning title is the way woman asserts her independence and deft strokes in the book suggest how a professional woman scores. The novel very beautifully depicts the personal journey of a single parent, where are dilemmas which priyamvada faces, doing a tightrope walk between the labor force and the managements, trying to fill the vacuum in her daughter’s life and consciously attempting to steady her own emotional moorings.

Raghavendra Patil (b.1951) belongs to the postmodernist group of writers in Kannada. Like his predecessors, U.R. Anantamurthy, Yahvant Chittal, Tejasvi and Shantinath Desai, he arrived at the novel through the short story. The Chariot (Teru), which won him the Sahitya Akademi Award, is his second novel. Though Patil belongs to the postmodern era, he does not share the thematic concerns or techniques of Western postmodernism. He is closer to the nativistic movement, which has already produced major writers like Chandrasekhar Kambar and Kum. Veerabhadrappa. He has also inherited some of the qualities of his famous uncle Anandakanda, such as an interest in local history and closeness to rural life. The story that Patil tells in The Chariot spans more than a hundred and fifty years, beginning with the years when the Peshva extended his rule to North Karnataka and ending with the years after the Emergency, and it relates to the Belagavi region, with its epicentre in an imagined but fully realised village named Dharamanatti. The novel offers two images of Teru, which in Kannada means both the chariot and the festival associated with it. The first is centred on an atrocious human sacrifice made in the name of religion by an autocratic ruler, and the second, distanced in time by a century and a half, mirrors the change from the feudal order to a democratic one, where religious superstition and feudal practices have been replaced by scepticism and the politics of power. The novel is remarkable for its innovative technique, which handles myth and reality with equal success.

it is a collection of 25 travel tales that talk about his trips around the world.

Thattakam is the story of a generation of people who lived in a small village called Kandanasseri in Kerala. The village as well as the people, had a glorious historic past studded with myths, legends and real events of social and political significance. It is both a real and an imaginary story at the same time. Even today, the village retains elements of its traditional past while peeking into modernity. English translation by Vasanthi Sankaanarayanan of the Sahityā Akademi Award-winning Malayalam novel Thattakam by Kovilan (V. V. Ayyappan).

The Saga of the Cactus Land: A novel that comes from the very soul of the writer, a book that germinated within the innermost recesses of his heart and exploded into this brilliant, heart-warming, gentle and yet scorching tale of his family's life in the inhospitable dry lands and the experiences of his people when everything that they owned and cherished was suddenly lost following the construction of the Vaigai dam, which resulted in their village finding itself deep down on the river-bed of the Vaigai. The story revolves around the central character of Peyathevar, a quintessential good man, hard-working, unremittingly honest, strong, manly and yet with the capacity to break down and cry, as also the incredible will-power to pull himself up and fight. His relationship with his grandson Mokkarasu, a very salient element in the novel, is a throbbing vein of tenderness and love that runs through the story. The simple, hard-working villagers lose their beloved land, on which they had lived, loved, ploughed, weeded, harvested, played and procreated - in short, spent their entire lives. They become refugees in their own country. The story of these innocent, largely unlettered people comes vibrantly alive because the characters are based on real people and because of the compassion and empathy that permeate its telling. 'The mud of this earth is our food...it is our medicine' says Peyathevar at one point. But alas, that mud becomes the underwater grave of the village of Kallikkadu.

This book carries 51 poems of Kuvempu in translation with a long introduction to give the pan India audience an understanding of Kuvempu's major concerns. Prof Raghunath has made his choice carefully to represent Kuvempu's social concern, and that seems to be at the heart of his introductory piece.

आभास साहित्य अकादमी से गुजरती भाषा में पुरस्कृत अड़सार उपन्यास का हिन्दी अनुवाद है। इस कृति में कथाकार ने कुष्ठ रोगियों के पुनर्वास और इस बीमारी के साथ जुड़े सामाजिक कलंक की समस्या को उठाया है। यह प्रत्येक संवेंदनशील व्यक्ति को अंतर्मुख करनेवाली तथा जीवन्मूल्यों का अन्वेषण करने के लिए प्रेरित करने वाली कृति है। "अड़सार" का अर्थ है - 'ईश्वर की घंटी'। हर किसी के मन में ईश्वर की एक घंटी होती है। हर एक मन में सत-असत् प्रवृत्तियों का संघर्ष जारी रहता है। संवेदनशील व्यक्ति के मन में जब उस ईश्वर की घंटी की आवाज़ आती है और वह संघर्ष जब अस्तित्व को ही चुनौती देता है, तभी उस घंटी की गूंज सुनाई देती है और मनुष्य की 'मनुष्यता' ही अपनी चरमसीमा तक पहुँचती है। इस उपन्यास में मोह और विमोह के दो ध्रुवों को इस कौशल के साथ स्पर्श किया गया है कि कथाचरित्र का दारुण कष्ट और निर्मोही समाज का वास्तविक चेहरा बयाँ हो जाता है।

‘नौकर की कमीज़’ भारतीय जीवन के यथार्थ और आदमी की कशमकश को प्रस्तुत करनेवाला उपन्यास है। इस उपन्यास की सबसे बड़े ख़ासियत यह है कि इसके पात्र मायावी नहीं बल्कि दुनियावी हैं, जिनमें कल्पना और यथार्थ के स्वर एक साथ पिरोए हुए हैं। कहीं भी ऐसा नहीं लगता कि किसी पात्र को अनावश्यक रूप से महत्त्व दिया गया हो। हर पैरे और हर पात्र की अपनी महत्ता है। केन्द्रीय पात्र संतू बाबू एक ऐसा दुनियावी पात्र है जो घटनाओं को रचता नहीं, बल्कि उनसे जूझने के लिए विवश, है और साथ ही इस सोसाइटी के हाथों इस्तेमाल होने के लिए भी। आज की ‘ब्यूरोक्रेसी’ और अहसानफ़रामोश लोगों पर यह उपन्यास सीधा प्रहार ही नहीं करता, बल्कि छोटे-छोटे वाक्यों के सहारे व्यंग्यात्मक शैली में एक माहौल भी तैयार करता चलता है। विनोद कुमार शुक्ल की सूक्ष्म निरीक्षण शक्ति का ही कमाल है कि पूरे उपन्यास को पढ़ने के बाद ज़िन्दगी के अनगिनत मार्मिक तथ्य दिमाग़ में तारीख़वार दर्ज होते चले जाते हैं। उनके छोटे-छोटे वाक्यों में अनुभव और यथार्थ का पैनापन है, जिसकी मारक शक्ति केवल मिलमिलाहट ही पैदा नहीं करती बल्कि बहुत अन्दर तक भेदती चली जाती है।

‘खिलेगा तो देखेंगे’ विनोद कुमार शुक्ल का बहुत चर्चित उपन्यास है। आदिवासी जीवन और परिवेश के दृश्यों में रचे-बसे इस उपन्यास में भी विनोद कुमार शुक्ल की वह कथा-शैली देखने को मिलती है जो उनका अपना आविष्कार है। बिना किसी ठोस कथा-सूत्र के ‘खिलेगा तो देखेंगे’ एक सामूहिक जीवन की कथा कहता है, जिसमें असाधारण शिल्प में बुनी दृश्यावली और कल्पनाशील बिम्बों के द्वारा साधनहीनों और अकसर मूक रहनेवाले लोगों के सुख और दु:ख ख़ुद-ब-ख़ुद सामने आकर अपने आपको दिखाते हैं। यह उपन्यास जो आप को बताता है, आप उससे ज़्यादा महसूस कर पाते हैं जिसका श्रेय विनोद कुमार शुक्ल के जादू जैसे गद्य, उनकी दृष्टि और भाषा को जाता है। प्रकृति इस कथा में जीवन की भी सहचरी है, पीड़ा और प्रसन्नताओं की भी, और उस उम्मीद की भी जिसे विनोद कुमार शुक्ल हर हाल में बचाए रखते हैं।

कहानी को लेकर होनेवाली तमाम चर्चाओं को ध्यान में रखा जाए तो यह विश्वास करना पड़ेगा कि किसी के लिए कहानी केवल भाषा है, किसी के लिए केवल स्थिति चित्रण, कुछ के लिए केवल विचार है तो कुछ के लिए सिर्फ संवेदनाओं का अभिलेख। हरेक के अपने-अपने प्रवर्तक और समर्थक हैं, जो कभी इसे तो कभी उसे कहानी का शिखर घोषित करते रहते हैं। अपने उत्साह में वे यह भुला देते हैं कि कथा साहित्य के व्यापक कैनवस पर अलग-अलग रंगों के रूप में तो उनका कुछ महत्त्व हो सकता है, लेकिन किसी एक को ही कहानी का सर्वोच्च पैमाना नहीं बनाया जा सकता। अर्थरहित भाषा का झुनझुना कब तक बज सकता है, या जीवन-स्थितियों से रहित संवेदना का या संवेदनाविहीन जीवन-स्थितियों का क्या अर्थ है? बहुत से रचनाकार ऐसे हैं, जो प्रचलित मुहावरों और फैशनों से अप्रभावित रहते हुए इस बात के प्रति सचेत हैं कि कहानी वह सबकुछ है और इन सबसे मिलकर बनती है। चित्रा मुद्गल इन्हीं सचेत दृष्टि सम्पन्न रचनाकारों में हैं। उनकी कहानियों का मुख्य सरोकार समकालीन जीवन-स्थितियों में मनुष्य के भीतरी संसार का उद्घाटन है। लेकिन यह भीतरी कशमकश भी बदलते जीवन-परिवेश का आत्मीय ब्योरों और कलात्मक नजर के साथ अंकन भी करती चलती है। इस तरह ये इकहरी अभिव्यक्ति की कहानियाँ न होकर कई स्तरों पर प्रभावित करनेवाली कहानियाँ हैं। ये कहानियाँ मानवीय सम्बन्धों की आन्तरिक जटिलताओं का अंकन पात्रों को उनके परिवेश से काटकर शिमला या कश्मीर के डाकबँगलों में ले जाकर नहीं, बल्कि उनके दैनन्दिन जीवन के संघर्षों के बीच, सामाजिक व्यवस्था की पृष्ठभूमि में करती हैं, जहाँ रोजी-रोटी का संघर्ष भी है और पारिवारिक परम्पराओं तथा जीवन की रूढ़ स्थितियों से टकराव भी।     —रमाकान्त

मैं बारह-तेरह बरस की उम्र से शेर कहने लगा था। मेरा माहौल शायराना था। घर में उर्दू-फ़ारसी के सभी नामवर शायरों के काव्य-संकलन मौजूद थे। ख़ास ख़ास मौक़ों पर घर में क़सीदे की महफ़िलें होती थीं। कभी-कभार तरही मुशायरे भी होते। उस ज़माने में रोज़ ही कुछ न कुछ लिख लिया करता था। कोई नौहा, कोई सलाम, कोई ग़ज़ल। उस ज़माने की सब चीजें अगर समेटकर रखने लायक़ न थीं, तो मिटा देने लायक़ भी नहीं। मुझे उनकी बर्बादी का अफ़सोस भी नहीं है। इसलिए कि उस समय तक..... शायरी की सामाजिक ज़िम्मेदारी से वाक़िफ़ हुआ था, न शेर की अच्छाई-बुराई से। 1936 में प्रगतिशील लेखक संघ के जन्म लेने और उसके असर से पैदा होने वाले अदब ने मुझे बहुत जल्द अपनी पकड़ में ले लिया। मैंने इस नये साहित्यिक आन्दोलन और कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी से सम्बद्ध होकर जो कुछ भी कहा, उनसे मेरे तीन काव्य-संकलन तैयार हुए। प्रस्तुत संकलन देवनागरी लिपि में मेरा पहला प्रकाशन है। यह मेरी कविताओं का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है। इसमें 'झंकार' की चुनी हुई चीजें भी हैं और 'आखिरे-शब' की भी। 'आवारा सज्दे' मुकम्मल है। मेरी नज़्मों और ग़ज़लों के इस भरपूर संकलन के ज़रिए मेरे दिल की धड़कन उन लोगों तक पहुँचती है, जिनके लिए वह अब तक अजनबी थी।

Chaso, short for Chaganti Somayajulu, was born in 1915 in Srikakulam and spent most of his life in Vizianagaram. He began his literary journey as a poet in English and later in Telugu. He was also an essayist and wrote one play. However, his true passion was the short story, which he considered a lyrical poem. His first short story, 'Chinnaaji,' published in 1942, was critically acclaimed, and by 1945 he was recognised as a leading figure and master of the genre. He set high standards for himself and, throughout a life dedicated to literature, published only about 50 stories. He was the first Telugu writer to incorporate Marxist ideas into short stories, though his stories are notably free of rhetoric. His narratives often portray the raw lives of the poor and the very poor, characterised by brevity, reticence, and compression. He was a founding member of the Progressive Writers Association. An atheist, Chaso willed his body for medical research, which his family honoured after his death in 1994.

This collection of twenty-two short stories, written mostly between 1930 and 1950 by various authors, offers a snapshot of contemporary Indian short fiction. Twenty stories are translations from fourteen Indian languages, and two are original works in English. This demonstrates, if proof were needed, that Indian literature, despite being written in many languages, is unified - not by sameness, but by its rich diversity.

Introducing Mayil Ganeshan, a lively 12-year-old who finally has the opportunity to express herself fully in her diary. This is a significant step towards achieving her goal of becoming a writer, as she hopes to make up for all the unfinished stories and the aimless novel she had written before. In her diary, Mayil shares a spontaneous, sensitive, honest, intimate, and often humorous account of her life and thoughts as a perceptive young girl going through the ups and downs of adolescence. This coming-of-age book is a must-read, with enough humor, heart, and wisdom to entertain and inspire readers of all ages. Age 10+

Marathi has an unbroken literary tradition of over eight centuries, divided conveniently into two distinct periods, classical and modern. The Classical period spans six centuries, remarkable for poetry, devotional and heroic. Jnandev, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram and Ramdas have become household names throughout India. While Virasaiva, Jain, and Muslim poets have enriched the secular and spiritual content, wandering minstrels have sung heroic ballads. New forms of literature have flowered from the nineteenth century under the impact of English education and western thought. The Chiplunkar, Apte, Anil Despande, Phadke, Khandekar, Mardhekar, Rege and Gadgil. Tracing the earliest reference to Maharashtra in a rock inscription of the fourth century, the history concludes with the formation of the state in 1960.

A comparison of the lives and writing of Devkota and Nirala by Murari Madhusudan Thakur. Sahitya Akademi Award 2021

The Kashmiri short story was born with the progressive movement in Kashmir and its acceptted the standards and values dictated by the movement unquesioningly. Nationalism and the desire for reaching out to people inspired most of the writers to switch over to Kashmiri, even though they had strated writing in Urdu. Dinanath Nadim's Javabi Card (Reply-Card) and Somnath Zutshi's Yell Phol Gash (when there was light) are the first two short stories written in Kashmiri

Selected Readings of Sri Ramanuja: Sri Ramanujacharya is one of the three great acharyas whose Sahasramanotsava was recently celebrated with joy and grandeur. His efforts to uplift the poor and oppressed are remarkable. Over his 120-year life, he authored numerous works to inspire devotion in the masses by emphasising the concept of Saranagati or Prapatti (self-surrender to God). Scholars from both Eastern and Western traditions, including Swami Vivekananda and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, as well as Goethe and Ninian Smart, have honoured Ramanuja with high praise. His altruistic service, compassion, and love for the uneducated and impoverished remain relevant today. This book, in 25 chapters, explores the influence of the Vishishtadvaita philosophy within Indian tradition, organised into three sections: Predecessors of Ramanuja, Ramanuja himself, and his Successors. The final chapter discusses Ramanuja's enduring significance for the 21st century, offering a comprehensive overview of his contributions to Indian thought.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHER AWARDS 2021 (BEST AUTHOR - CHILDREN) This isn't just a story about humans making history.So, step aside, chroniclers and historians. For centuries, we've been overlooked, forgotten, and only occasionally footnoted (thanks a lot). It's time we took our rightful place in the spotlight. We've been the strongest allies, loyal friends- and we might even say we were the soulmates of great kings and queens, princes and princesses, warriors and officials. From risking our lives to save theirs and leading them to victory in battles to providing constant joy and love, we've done it all. Explore Akbar's dazzling court with his favourite cheetah, Samand Manik. Discover the heroic Battle of Haldighati from Chetak's perspective. Learn what Chhatrapati Shivaji was really like, straight from his dog, Waghya. Packed with daring adventures, epic romances, and touching moments, these underdog stories- oh, don't get upset, Bucephalus, it's just a figure of speech!- are unlike anything you've read before!

Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah's short stories are the English translations of the Telugu book Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah Kathalu, which has won the Sahitya Akademi Award. This collection includes thirty-four stories that explore a variety of themes, delicate issues, unique events, and different incidents. These stories vividly depict society, social realism, and social consciousness. Each story sheds light on a different facet of social reality, showcasing sharp and perceptive observations of society. The collection mainly concentrates on middle-class struggles, jealousy, and daily life.