{"title":"Namita Gokhale","description":"\u003cp\u003eImmerse yourself in the rich, layered world of \u003cstrong\u003eNamita Gokhale\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of India’s most celebrated and versatile literary voices — a novelist, publisher, and cultural impresario who co-founded the Jaipur Literature Festival, the world’s largest free literary festival, and has spent decades championing Indian writing and storytelling in all its diversity. Gokhale’s fiction is distinguished by its extraordinary range, its deep roots in Indian mythology and history, and its unflinching, compassionate exploration of the lives of women across centuries of Indian experience. Her debut novel \u003cem\u003eParo: Dreams of Passion\u003c\/em\u003e (1984) was a bold, satirical portrait of Delhi’s social elite that caused a sensation on publication and established her as a major new voice in Indian fiction. Her subsequent works include the luminous historical novel \u003cem\u003eThings to Leave Behind\u003c\/em\u003e, set in nineteenth-century Kumaon; \u003cem\u003eA Himalayan Love Story\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Book of Shadows\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eShakuntala: The Play of Memory\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eIn Search of Sita\u003c\/em\u003e, a wide-ranging exploration of the Ramayana’s most beloved heroine. She has also edited numerous anthologies of Indian writing and mythology. Essential reading for lovers of Indian literary fiction, mythology, and the stories of women who refuse to be silenced.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-whispering-mountains","title":"The Whispering Mountains","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Whispering Mountains: Marvellous Folktales from the Himalayas is a collection of folktales handed down through generations―tales shared by grandparents sitting by the fire on cold nights, tales carried by the whispering winds, and echoing through the rivers and peaks of the Himalayas.In these tales, trees and flowers, animals and birds coexist with humans, one story ending as another one begins. The wicked and the good are not as they seem, and magic is always close at hand. Clever women outwit thieves, while fools reveal unexpected wisdom. The stories hold the teachings of nature and the playful mischief of tricksters, the marvel of creation myths, and the shimmering magic of shapeshifters. Across these regions lie the enduring secrets and strengths of the mountains, with doors that lead to hidden realms and windows which open to wonder.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46035624984633,"sku":"9780143470229","price":719.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/71nX035JvPL._SL1500.jpg?v=1782813444"},{"product_id":"voices-in-the-wind","title":"Voices in the Wind","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Himalaya has always been a land of folklore, carried across generations in the voices of its people. Villagers by a bonfire, grandmothers at the hearth with grandchildren at their knees, wandering bards, fakirs and mystics have all shaped a vast oral tradition. This is a world where rivers sing, animals speak, demons and tricksters lurk, and gods walk among mortals. In Voices in the Wind, celebrated authors Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal gather this living inheritance from across the length and breadth of the mountains―Kashmir and Ladakh, Himachal and Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan, and the sister states of the Northeast―into a single, enchanting volume.This collection of folktales, fairytales, spirit stories, legends and fables encompasses generational wisdom and contains within it traditional beliefs, local knowledge systems and a deep understanding of the contradictions of human nature. The tales span the spectrum of human and non-human experience: stories of lovers separated by fate and reunited by magic; of crows who nurture abandoned children; of serpent kings and shape-shifting brides; of feisty heroines, tricksters, and goddesses who challenge injustice; of the everyday courage and wit of villagers negotiating harsh but enchanted landscapes. Rooted in ecological memory, these narratives are also reminders of the delicate Himalayan balance between humans, animals, rivers and forests. Enriched with traditional woodcut illustrations, the volume has contributions from a vast repertoire of scholars, storytellers and folklorists. This collection preserves and resonates with voices that have travelled centuries and continents, and speak urgently to the present. At once an anthology of marvels and a cultural history, Voices in the Wind is a definitive treasury of myth and memory, as enduring and transformative as the mountains themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46035761758265,"sku":"9780143470267","price":899.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81dXTpI_Q5L._SL1500.jpg?v=1782813696"},{"product_id":"the-dream-builders","title":"The Dream Builders","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dream Builders is the story of one summer in a fictional city in India, told from the point of view of ten different characters and bookended by Maneka, a Creative Writing professor in the United States who returns to the country after six years away. In her absence, India has changed drastically. Maneka finds herself in the beguiling, new, Americanized city of Hrishipur, nicknamed Millennium City and known for its upscale malls, headquarters of global corporations, and booming real estate developments. What she doesn't realize, however, is that in Hrishipur, nothing is as it appears. Alongside Maneka, we also meet the immaculately groomed Ramona, her ambitious husband, their moonlighting chauffeur, a facialist at a posh spa, an entrepreneurial single mother, Maneka's aging father, his young live-in maid, an irreverent photographer, and a crippled electrician. All summer, as the temperature soars to record highs, the longings and resentments of the people of Hrishipur simmer until they come to a boil, culminating in a tragedy no one saw coming.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46037498134585,"sku":"9789356992917","price":449.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81Akw8p-f-L._SL1500.jpg?v=1782820021"},{"product_id":"a-dog-named-bob-and-a-cat-named-kit","title":"A Dog Named Bob and a Cat Named Kit","description":"\u003cp\u003eBob the dog, Kit the cat, and little miss Dolly are best friends. They have plenty of fun in their beautiful garden. But Bandar the Sundar, the monkey who also lives in the garden, has been greedy and now has a tummy ache. What will Bob, Kit and Dolly do to help him? A fun and charming adventure from a bestselling author about helping friends!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46037521203257,"sku":"9789393987372","price":248.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/816Tak9-FHL._SL1500_19916217-a581-47f3-bba3-bdda574702ae.jpg?v=1782820328"},{"product_id":"caged-memories-have-names","title":"Caged ...: Memories Have Names","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is my Abbu…my father. I never used to call him Abbu … I love to call him by this name in my memories of him…always.There’s so much ‘mamta’ in the word ma. More than in a mother herself. Just saying the word starts off a churning in the navel.Intimate, subtle and deeply personal, Caged … Memories Have Names is probably Gulzar Saab’s first autobiography in verse.Gulzar Saab ruminates and writes in rainbow colours. From Rumi to Pablo Neruda and Jibananda Das, among others, have coloured him in myriad of hues. With this he has painted the portraits of Birju Maharaj, Mehdi Hasan, Pancham, Asha Bhosle in words. Their palpable presence, thoughts and words are etched in Gulzar Saab’s existence. Then there are people, who have showered his life with love, affection with multitude of emotions: Meghna, Raakhee ji, Vishal Bhardwaj, and Javed Akhtar Saab, to name a few. And, words that remained unsaid to Abbu, search for his Ma within his own existence, they are the silken bonds of life. Gulzar Saab has ‘caged’ them deep inside his heart.They are for now … and … forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46037713846329,"sku":"9780670098231","price":539.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/71-mgvANcTL._SL1500.jpg?v=1782821436"},{"product_id":"unfolding","title":"Unfolding","description":"\u003cp\u003eRalph, in his thirties, desires a steady relationship. But his partner, Ojas, has other plans—he wants to keep it open. Meanwhile, Ralph’s house-help Zubina faces a crisis of her own. After walking in on Ralph and Ojas sharing a moment of tenderness, she starts questioning her own marriage—one that has produced two children, but little else; certainly not the kind of love she had borne witness to at Ralph’s. As Ralph tries to retain a sense of equanimity under the shadow of Ojas’s decision, and as Zubina struggles to understand the foundations of her own married life, both, from vastly different circumstances, find themselves beset similarly by deep restlessness and confusion. Both are in relationships burdened by words that have never been said. Both are waiting for a future to reveal itself—to unfold as it must. An exceptional debut novel that follows an affluent couple in Kolkata and a working-class Muslim mother in the city’s slums, Unfolding ventures where few stories go. It confronts the wayward ways of the heart; it articulates the true price of love; and it tells us what it means to find the road back home.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46037958099001,"sku":"9789365693683","price":539.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/61GEhIRY_AL._SL1500.jpg?v=1782821938"},{"product_id":"book-of-shiva","title":"The book of Shiva","description":"\u003cp\u003eShiva: Destroyer and Protector, Supreme Ascetic and Lord of the Universe. He is Ardhanarishwara, half-man and half-woman; he is Neelakantha, who drank poison to save the three worlds-and yet, when crazed with grief at the death of Sati, set about destroying them. Shiva holds within him the answers to some of the greatest dilemmas that have perplexed mankind. Who is Shiva? Why does he roam the world as a naked ascetic covered with ash? What was the tandava? What is the story behind the worship of the linga and what vision of the world does it signify? Namita Gokhale examines these questions and many others that lie within the myriad of stories about Shiva. Even as she unravels his complexities, she finds a philosophy and worldview that is terrifying and yet life affirming-an outlook that is to many the essence of Indian thought. Shiva: Destroyer and Protector, Supreme Ascetic and Lord of the Universe. He is Ardhanarishwara, half-man and half-woman; he is Neelakantha, who drank poison to save the three worlds-and yet, when crazed with grief at the death of Sati, set about destroying them. Shiva holds within him the answers to some of the greatest dilemmas that have perplexed mankind. Who is Shiva? Namita Gokhale examines this question and many others that lie within the myriad of stories about Shiva. 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Also, how to stop time?After the first wave of Covid had passed, the lockdown was lifted and travel resumed in earnest. Amitava Kumar found himself in London with a group of American students on a study tour-in the midst of the Omicron wave. A year later, he was in India, in his native Motihari among other places. Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine and Rushdie was assaulted with a knife in upstate New York. Amitava kept a journal-to record the times he was living through and how he would like to remember them.In these pages, through words and drawings, an acclaimed author and artist reveals how a writer observes the world around us-and the world inside us. 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This is the story of Parvati, young, beautiful and doomed, and Mukul Nainwal, the local boy made good who returns to the Nainital of his youth to search for the only woman he has ever loved. Told in the voices of these two exiles from life, this spare, sensitive book is a compelling read.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46039829119033,"sku":"9780143028727","price":269.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81GLIqYK-GL._SL1500.jpg?v=1782834856"},{"product_id":"things-to-leave-behind","title":"Things to Leave Behind","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2021 'A personal story of the way that the caste system in India [. . .] imprison[s] the humanity of those within them'-Gloria SteinemKumaon, 1856. History has already begun its steady march. Six native women clad in black and scarlet pichauras huddle around Naineetal Lake, attempting to cleanse it of ominous influences. These are the days of Upper Mall Road (for Europeans and their horses) and Lower Mall Road ('for dogs, servants and other Indians'). Amidst a theatre of British impunity, feisty young Tilottama Dutt, whose uncle is hung when he protests the reigning order, and her daughter, Deoki, confront change as Indians and as women.Things to Leave Behind brings alive the romance of the mixed legacy of the British-Indian past. Full of the fascinating backstory of Naineetal and its unwilling entry into Indian history, throwing a shining light on the elemental confusion of caste, creed and culture, illuminated with painstaking detail, here is a fascinating historical epic and Namita Gokhale's most ambitious novel yet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46039846649913,"sku":"9780143444596","price":359.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/811Gd1w_u9L._SL1500_0f942c7c-9a59-4a9b-8eed-b380aa9c7044.jpg?v=1782835195"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/collections\/image_40a27df4-836b-47dc-b633-1110d313ec89.png?v=1782674683","url":"https:\/\/duskysshrine.com\/collections\/namita-gokhale.oembed","provider":"Dusky's Shrine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}