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Waiting: A Collection of Stories
From ₹ 213
In this new collection by well- known author Nighat Gandhi, the private worlds of women open themselves up to the reader. Inside their homes are women trapped in a state of continuous limbo, waiting for change; young girls struggling for the ‘purity’ that religion demands of them; new mothers who wonder at the absence of desire. Outside, the seasons change, trees shed their leaves, the sky becomes overcast, sounds float in to them and they wonder about the meaning of life. Each of the stories bring questions for the reader, their nuanced telling and their unsparing truthfulness leave readers with a sense of discomfort as they confront their own demons. Love, longing, loss, aging, survival, hope and self-invention—in other words, life— are what these stories are about.
NIGHAT GANDHI is a mental health counsellor, a mother, a South Asian, queer-feminist, Vipassana meditator, and a student of Taṣawwuf (Sufism). She wrote many of these stories armed with cups of Leo coffee, riddled with self-doubt, and bothered by back pain as a result of spending hours hunched over her laptop, in the comforting company of her two dearest companions, Dodi and Heidu, who snoozed on the floor and kept sleepful watch over her. Waiting is her fourth book.
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This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page “A clear-eyed view of life’s innate contradictions” —Mita Ghose, The Hindu
“Allahabad may just have found her Chekov” — Irwin Allan Sealy
“Touches of poetry” — Anjana Basu, Outlook
NIGHAT GANDHI is a mental health counsellor, a mother, a South Asian, queer-feminist, Vipassana meditator, and a student of Taṣawwuf (Sufism). She wrote many of these stories armed with cups of Leo coffee, riddled with self-doubt, and bothered by back pain as a result of spending hours hunched over her laptop, in the comforting company of her two dearest companions, Dodi and Heidu, who snoozed on the floor and kept sleepful watch over her. Waiting is her fourth book.
Foxy Aesop: On the Edge
From ₹ 213
Very little is known about Aesop who was supposed to have been a slave on the island of Samos in the sixth century BC. It is his fables (and those attributed to him) that have come down to us through the centuries.In this version, a fabulist from the future, referred to as Sprite, hoicks herself back to his century. “Why didn’t you save the world?” That’s the Sprite’s cry. Aesop, meanwhile, is trying to save his skin, make up his fables and live his life. Given the pitfalls of human nature, are the fables an Instruction Manual for staying out of trouble? What about morals, what about reform, what about the castigation of social evils? Sprite nags and cajoles and begins to wonder how much power a writer really has. The book offers a virtuoso display of how the building blocks of a fable can be used in a variety of ways. It’s witty, it’s satirical and the Sprite herself is a comical figure. But at the end, when she has to return to her own time, that is to our own time and to our broken world, her central question suddenly seems less absurd, and far more urgent.
Suniti Namjoshi is a poet, a fabulist and a children’s writer who has written over thirty books. A selection of her writings is published in The Fabulous Feminist (Zubaan, 2012). Suki (Zubaan-Penguin, 2013), a memoir about her beloved cat is both a book about a relationship and an elegy. Her latest work, Foxy Aesop, asks point-blank whether it is the function of writers to save the world. She has recently completed a dramatic sequence, ‘The Dream Book,’ which is based on the dream imagery in The Tempest and is also concerned with saving the world – over and over and over again.
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This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page “Think of the vicious wit of Virginia Woolf, laced with the tender melancholia of Hélène Cixous, spiked with the subtle eroticism of Anaïs Nin.” — Somak Ghoshal, Livemint
“Her writing is both wry and brave, rooted and uprooting. It is, in fact, as the title suggests fabulous writing.” —Annie Zaidi, author of Gulab and Love Stories #1-14
“Namjoshi’s radicalism is not simply one of overturning structures, or of arguing for the recognition of women but, in the best practice of feminism, investigates, rethinks and revalues.” —Robyn Cadwallader, Verity La
Suniti Namjoshi is a poet, a fabulist and a children’s writer who has written over thirty books. A selection of her writings is published in The Fabulous Feminist (Zubaan, 2012). Suki (Zubaan-Penguin, 2013), a memoir about her beloved cat is both a book about a relationship and an elegy. Her latest work, Foxy Aesop, asks point-blank whether it is the function of writers to save the world. She has recently completed a dramatic sequence, ‘The Dream Book,’ which is based on the dream imagery in The Tempest and is also concerned with saving the world – over and over and over again.
Lifelines: New Writing from Bangladesh
From ₹ 325
Lifelines is an enthralling collection of short stories that will take you on some unforgettable journeys —journeys that span continents and decades, transgressing social boundaries and raising ethical dilemmas along the way.The protagonists of these tales find themselves re-drawing their own destinies as they map their lifelines in unique, often unanticipated ways. The rapidly changing realities of the 21st-century require these individuals to navigate through uncharted waters, in a world increasingly shaped by the forces of globalisation, development and migration. One where the old ways are being challenged as never before, even in the traditionalist heartlands of South Asia.Lifelines portrays the trials and triumphs of men, women and children who find themselves facing unexpected challenges—and discover that the decisions that they take, for better or worse, have consequences they never envisaged.
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Women and The Hindu Right: A Collection of Essays
From ₹ 395
This work attempts to break new ground by posing questions about women's activism within the Hindu right, a crucial issue that has barely been addressed.These essays look at gender within the framework of larger questions: the organizational history of the formation - still developing - we call the Hindu Right; its relationship to change in religious processes, economic developments, caste politics and constitutional crisis over the last few decades. The essays also pose difficult questions for the theory and practice of feminist politics which has tended to identify women's political activism with emancipatory politics. Right-wing movements, it has been assumed, have - because of their emphasis on "tradition" - an inverse relationship to women's politicization. Yet violently communal politics have pulled women into militant politics.What do these and other questions and paradoxes mean for the theory and practice of "feminist" politics, and how do right-wing strategies and tactics compare with those developed by radical women's groups?
URVASHI BUTALIA is a publisher, teacher and activist, involved in women’s publishing and research and activism on gender issues..TANIKA SARKAR is a historian of modern India. She is author of several books and articles on issues relating to gender and history.
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This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page URVASHI BUTALIA is a publisher, teacher and activist, involved in women’s publishing and research and activism on gender issues..TANIKA SARKAR is a historian of modern India. She is author of several books and articles on issues relating to gender and history.
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Lunatic in My Head
₹ 399During the current COVID-19 surge we are shipping orders from Delhi once per week. Please allow 8-10 business days for delivery.
SHORTLISTED FOR 2007 CROSSWORD BOOK PRIZE It's raining in Shillong. Eight-year-old Sophie Das has just realised she is adopted, but there is also the baby kicking inside her mother's stomach whom she's dying to meet. IAS aspirant Aman Moondy is planning a first-of-its-kind Happening and praying the lovely Concordella will come. College lecturer Firdaus Ansari is going to finish her thesis, have a hard talk with her boyfriend, and then get out.Poetic, funny, tender, Lunatic In My Head is a moving portrait of a small town and of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small town destinies."A classic" -- BIBLIO"Here is a writer of worth, and worth reading" -- The Hindu"The delicacy and pungency of her portraits of these characters is very striking, as is her evocation of the provincial milieu of 'the hill-encircled town' in which they live, and against whose ingrained codes they beat their wings" -- Mint"Compelling" -- Hindustan Times
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Close to Home
From ₹ 200During the current COVID-19 surge we are shipping orders from Delhi once per week. Please allow 8-10 business days for delivery.
All Mrinalini Singh wants, she has. A loving husband, a competent cook, the vague hope of a book deal one day. But when her old roommate Jahanara accuses her of being selfish, Mrinalini is forced to practise altruism on the nearest available target: her maid’s toddler. All this caring doesn’t come easy, though; and it hardly helps that her husband Siddhartha has quit his lucrative job and acquired parental ambitions. Or that Brajeshwar Jha, her upstairs tenant and literary rival, has not only published his book before Mrinalini, but also lampooned her and Siddhartha in it. Close to Home is a wry look at the small compromises, manipulations and sustained self-delusion of young men and women possessed of good fortune... and only looking for good lives.
Seeing like a Feminist
From ₹ 280
Incisive, eclectic and politically engaged, Seeing like a Feminist is a bold and wide-ranging book that reorders contemporary society.For Nivedita Menon, feminism is not about a moment of final triumph over patriarchy but about the gradual transformation of the social field so decisively that old markers shift forever. From sexual harassment charges against international figures to the challenge that caste politics poses to feminism, from the ban on the veil in France to the attempt to impose skirts on international women badminton players, from queer politics to domestic servants' unions to the Pink Chaddi campaign, Menon deftly illustrates how feminism complicates the field irrevocably.
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This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page "Wonderfully engaging and perfectly lucid."" - Tanika Sarkar
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Unmoored
From ₹ 280In Unmoored, Ramachandran Usha crafts an intimate exploration of migration and belonging. Three women—Ayesha, Indu, and Ameera—return to Chennai from the Gulf, each looking to reunite with the loved ones they left behind. Despite differences in religion, social status and age, they are also united in their quest for a true sense of home. Usha’s novella dwells on the seldom-told yet pervasive story of women who travel to the Middle East and beyond, driven by the need to secure their families’ futures.
The protagonists of the two short stories featured in this collection, ‘Khushka’, and ‘Success’, have much in common with the women of Unmoored, even as they grapple with crises of faith and finance.
______________________________________________________________________________________Ramachandran Usha has been writing in Tamil since 2003. She was awarded the second place in the KiVa Jagannathan Centenary Novel Award Competition for Karai Thedum Odangal (translated as Unmoored). She also won a short story competition held by Kalki and has been published widely in leading magazines and online journals.
Krupa Ge is a writer from Madras (Chennai). She is the author of a novel, What We Know About Her (2021) and a narrative non-fiction book, Rivers Remember (2019). Her reportage and cultural writings have appeared in Indian and international publications over the last 14 years.
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Zubaan Tote Bag: Manjula Padmanabhan
₹ 395Artwork: Manjula Padmanabhan Features:
- 15" x 16" Size
- Cotton material
- With Zipper
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Zubaan Tote Bag: Malvika Raj
₹ 395Artwork: Malvika Raj Features:
- 15" x 16" Size
- Cotton material
- With Zipper
Women in Indian Film: Part Two
₹ 395
These ebooks are DRM-free!Following on the stories in our earlier Women in Indian Film collection, comes this vibrant new mini-series that focuses on the work of the next generation of film practitioners: Zoya Akhtar, Vidya Balan, Rima Das, Priya Seth and Shefali Shah. Under the editorship of the leading film scholar, Nasreen Munni Kabir, writers Kaveree Bamzai, Charu Gargi, Udita Jhunjhunwala, Namrata Joshi and Nandini Ramnath bring to light new acting styles, editing choices and directorial innovations that put women in Indian cinema at the heart of change and experimentation today.
NAMRATA JOSHI is an independent journalist and film critic. A consulting editor with The New Indian Express and freelance film critic with Screen International, she works as associate programmer (India) for the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA). In 2004 she won the National Award for Best Film Critic in India. Among her published work is Reel India: Cinema Off the Beaten Track (2019).UDITA JHUNJHUNWALA is an entertainment, culture and lifestyle writer, film critic and author. Formerly Entertainment Editor of Mid-Day and Hindustan Times, her writings have also appeared Vogue, Screen International, Mint, Scroll.in, Firstpost.com, The Hindu and others. A member of the Film Critics Guild (India), and a festival curator, Udita was a contributing author to Women in Indian Film (Zubaan 2008) and Bollywood’s Top 20 Stars. NANDINI RAMNATH is a film critic and journalist. She has worked with The Indian Express, NDTV, Time Out Mumbai, Mint and Scroll.in. KAVEREE BAMZAI was editor of India Today and has worked in The Times of India and The Indian Express. She is the author of The Three Khans and The Emergence of New India and No Regrets: The Guilt-free Woman's Guide to a Good Life, and several monographs and essays on Indian cinema. She is a TEDEx speaker, and presenter of Tiffin Talks, a video magazine on books and cinema.CHARU GARGI is Founder member of Mediastorm, India’s first women’s film collective, a documentary film maker, an author and academic. She has made video lectures for the Electronic Media Production Centre, Indira Gandhi National Open University and taught in the School of Media and Culture Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
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NAMRATA JOSHI is an independent journalist and film critic. A consulting editor with The New Indian Express and freelance film critic with Screen International, she works as associate programmer (India) for the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA). In 2004 she won the National Award for Best Film Critic in India. Among her published work is Reel India: Cinema Off the Beaten Track (2019).UDITA JHUNJHUNWALA is an entertainment, culture and lifestyle writer, film critic and author. Formerly Entertainment Editor of Mid-Day and Hindustan Times, her writings have also appeared Vogue, Screen International, Mint, Scroll.in, Firstpost.com, The Hindu and others. A member of the Film Critics Guild (India), and a festival curator, Udita was a contributing author to Women in Indian Film (Zubaan 2008) and Bollywood’s Top 20 Stars. NANDINI RAMNATH is a film critic and journalist. She has worked with The Indian Express, NDTV, Time Out Mumbai, Mint and Scroll.in. KAVEREE BAMZAI was editor of India Today and has worked in The Times of India and The Indian Express. She is the author of The Three Khans and The Emergence of New India and No Regrets: The Guilt-free Woman's Guide to a Good Life, and several monographs and essays on Indian cinema. She is a TEDEx speaker, and presenter of Tiffin Talks, a video magazine on books and cinema.CHARU GARGI is Founder member of Mediastorm, India’s first women’s film collective, a documentary film maker, an author and academic. She has made video lectures for the Electronic Media Production Centre, Indira Gandhi National Open University and taught in the School of Media and Culture Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Chandrabati’s Ramayan
From ₹ 250
Chandrabati, the first woman poet in Bangla, lived in the sixteenth century in Mymensingh district in present day Bangladesh. She was also the first poet in the Bangla language to present a retelling of the Ram story from the point of view of Sita. Idolised as a model of marital obedience and chastity in Valmiki’s Ramayan, Chandrabati’s lyrical retelling of Sita’s story offers us a fresh perspective. Written in order to be sung before a non-courtly audience, mainly of womenfolk of rural Bengal, Chandrabati’s Ramayan adds new characters and situations to the story to provide new interpretations of already known events drawing richly on elements of existing genres. Its location in the tales of everyday life has ensured that Chandrabati’s Ramayan lives on in the hearts of village women of modern-day India.
NABANEETA DEV SEN was one of Bengal’s best-known writers. Equally adept at poetry (her most favoured genre) she also wrote novels, plays, travelogues, critical and academic pieces. She was for many years a teacher of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata and remained involved at the level of activism and support in women’s causes. Chandrabati’s Ramayan was a work that was very close to her heart and this manuscript was completed on her 80th birthday, just under a year before she passed away. Its publication is our tribute to her.
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This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page NABANEETA DEV SEN was one of Bengal’s best-known writers. Equally adept at poetry (her most favoured genre) she also wrote novels, plays, travelogues, critical and academic pieces. She was for many years a teacher of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata and remained involved at the level of activism and support in women’s causes. Chandrabati’s Ramayan was a work that was very close to her heart and this manuscript was completed on her 80th birthday, just under a year before she passed away. Its publication is our tribute to her.