Download or read book Jadoowallahs Jugglers and Jinns written by John Zubrzycki and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jadoowallahs Jugglers and Jinns written by John Zubrzycki and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India’s association with magic goes back thousands of years – from the seals of Mohenjodaro that depicted sorcerers and yogis, to the jugglers and acrobats that dazzled spectators at the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. Tales were told of ropes being thrown up in the air, strong enough for a boy to climb; of fakirs being buried alive for months and brought back to life; and of sanperas charming deadly cobras with their flutes. In the early nineteenth century, touring Indian magicians mesmerized audiences abroad, prompting generations of Western illusionists to emulate them. Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India tells the story of how Indian magic descended from the domain of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment, and its transformation from the street to the stage culminating with the rise of the great P. C. Sorcar Sr. Drawing on ancient religious texts, colonial records, newspaper reports, journals and memoirs of Western and Indian magicians, John Zubrzycki offers us a vibrant narrative on Indian magic from ancient times to the present day.
Download or read book Empire of Enchantment written by John Zubrzycki and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become a popular amusement for the masses around the globe"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Kohinoor written by William Dalrymple and published by Juggernaut Books. This book was released on 2016 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This riveting tale of the Kohinoor, the worldÕs most coveted gem, unearths fascinating new information as it moves from the Mughal court to Persia to Afghanistan; from Maharaja Ranjit Singh's durbar in Punjab to the Queen of England's Crown. A thrilling tale, full of violence, drama and intrigue.
Download or read book Footprints on Zero Line written by Gulzar and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2017-08-25 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Partition of 1947 has influenced the works of an entire generation of writers, and continues to do so. Gulzar witnessed the horrors of Partition first-hand and it is a theme that he has gone back to again and again in his writings. Footprints on Zero Line brings together a collection of his finest writings -- fiction, non-fiction and poems -- on the subject. What sets this collection apart from other writings on Partition is that Gulzar's unerring eye does not stop at the events of 1947 but looks at how it continues to affect our lives to this day. Wonderfully rendered in English by well-known author and translator Rakhshanda Jalil, this collection marks seventy years of India's Independence. Footprints on Zero Line is not only a brilliant collection on a cataclysmic event in the history of our nation by one of our finest contemporary writers, it is also a timely reminder that those who forget the errors of the past are doomed to repeat them.
Download or read book The Mysterious Mr Jacob written by John Zubrzycki and published by Transit Lounge . This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a scandal that rocked the highest echelons of the British Raj. In 1891, a notorious jeweller and curio dealer from Simla offered to sell the world's largest brilliant-cut diamond to the fabulously wealthy Nizam of Hyderabad. If the audacious deal succeeded it would set the merchant up for life. But the transaction went horribly wrong. The Nizam accused him of fraud, triggering a sensational trial in the Calcutta High Court that made headlines around the world...
Download or read book The House of Jaipur written by John Zubrzycki and published by . This book was released on 2023-03-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping royal saga of charmed lives in a changing world. The Jaipurs were India's mid-century golden couple; its answer to the Kennedys, or Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Jai and Ayesha, as they were known to friends like Frank Sinatra, Truman Capote and 'Dickie' Mountbatten, entertained lavishly at their magnificent palaces and hunting lodges in Rajasthan--and in the nightclubs of London, Paris and New York. But as the Raj gave way to the new India, Jaipur--the most glamorous and romantic of the princely states--had to find its place. The House of Jaipur charts a dynasty's determination to remain relevant in a democracy set on crushing its privileges. Against the odds, they secured their place at the height of Indian society; but Ayesha would pay for her criticism of Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. From the polo field and politics to imprisonment and personal tragedy, the Jaipurs' extraordinary journey of transformation mirrors the story of a rapidly changing country.
Download or read book Hitler And India written by Vaibhav Purandare and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2022-08-18 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, is a perennial bestseller in India, with even street-side bookstalls prominently displaying stacks of it. The name 'Hitler' -- anathema almost everywhere else in the world -- is tossed about casually in the Indian subcontinent, not infrequently invoked in praise. Many Indians still harbour the notion that the Fuhrer was a friend of the Indian people and had extended wholehearted support to their freedom struggle. To journalist Vaibhav Purandare, this clearly suggested that Indians continued to be largely unaware of the German dictator's views on India, in spite of the fact that they are unambiguously expressed in his own writings. This lacuna spurred him on to delve into the archives -- in Germany, India and elsewhere. The result of Purandare's research is this comprehensive and painstaking portrait and analysis of Hitler's outlook on India and its people, his opinion of their struggle against the British Raj, and his take on Indian history, culture and civilisation. Also within these pages are surprising details of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's entanglement with the Reich, the experience of other Indians living in Nazi Germany, the mission that Hitler sent to the Himalayas in search of 'pure-blood Aryans', and a number of other little-known historical nuggets. Accessible and rich in detail, Hitler and India is the very first examination of what India meant to a figure who, perplexingly, remains quite alive in the country.
Download or read book The Last Nizam written by John Zubrzycki and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Last Nizam is the story of an extraordinary dynasty, the Nizams of Hyderabad, and how the heir to India's richest princely state gave up a kingdom and retired to the dusty paddocks of outback Australia. With vivid detail and anecdotes, John Zubrzycki charts the rise of the Nizams to fabulous wealth and prominence in the detritus of the Mughal empire, giving a rich and vibrant portrait of a realm soaked in blood and intrigue. Above all he describes the strange and sometimes tragic life of Mukarram Jah, His Exalted Highness, the last Nizam, the man who left behind the diamonds of Golconda and the palaces of Hyderabad to drive bulldozers in the Australian bush. Meticulously researched, The Last Nizam adds a crucial chapter to the history of India, capturing the conspiracies and machinations that kept the Nizams in the news while simultaneously deepening their legend.
Download or read book Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India written by Akshaya Mukul and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-08-16 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1920s, Jaydayal Goyandka and Hanuman Prasad Poddar, two Marwari businessmen-turned-spiritualists, set up the Gita Press and Kalyan magazine. As of early 2014, Gita Press had sold close to 72 million copies of the Gita, 70 million copies of Tulsidas's works and 19 million copies of scriptures like the Puranas and Upanishads. And while most other journals of the period, whether religious, literary or political, survive only in press archives, Kalyan now has a circulation of over 200,000, and its English counterpart, Kalyana-Kalpataru, of over 100,000. Gita Press created an empire that spoke in a militant Hindu nationalist voice and imagined a quantifiable, reward-based piety. Almost every notable leader and prominent voice, including Mahatma Gandhi, was roped in to speak for the cause. Cow slaughter, Hindi as national language and the rejection of Hindustani, the Hindu Code Bill, the creation of Pakistan, India's secular Constitution: Kalyan and Kalyana-Kalpataru were the spokespersons of the Hindu position on these and other matters. Featuring an extraordinary cast of characters - buccaneering entrepreneurs and hustling editors, nationalist ideologues and religious fanatics - this is essential (and exciting) reading for our times.
Download or read book Jahangir written by Parvati Sharma and published by . This book was released on 2020-02-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jahangir was perhaps the most fascinating, and most underestimated, of the Mughal emperors. This compelling, beautifully written biography reveals him to be more than just a great lover of art and nature, ruling alongside his powerful wife nurjahan -
Download or read book Prince of Gujarat written by Rajmohan Gandhi and published by Rupa Publications. This book was released on 2014 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the surge of interest in personalities from Gujarat, not least because of the election of the controversial Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India, there is no better time for a biography of a great son of Gujarat and one of India's forgotten heroes. Born in 1887 into a clan of princely Patels, Darbar (or Prince) Gopaldas was not only a beloved and just ruler of the people of his tiny state in Saurashtra, he was an active and courageous participant in the struggle for India's freedom and for social justice. Championing Dalit rights long before that became acceptable, he declared, when his wife Bhaktilaxmi was pregnant with their last child, that if it was a girl he would marry her to a Dalit boy, he stood out also for his concern for Gujarat's Muslim minority and for his defence of women's rights. Egalitarian at a time when rulers 'measured status by the capacity to humiliate their subjects', he was quick to give up his life of privilege when it became necessary. After he joined the freedom movement in 1920, his life as a prince rapidly became a distant memory, with no fixed abode, he and his family would shuttle between prisons, ashrams and the homes of well-wishers. Remarkably, although he grew close to Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, he spurned high office for himself, choosing instead to raise and mentor others, including four who became chief ministers, as well as Tribhuvandas Patel, who founded the famous milk cooperative that made Amul possible. In this biography, bestselling author Rajmohan Gandhi uses letters, rare documents, personal accounts and historical narratives to recreate in vivid and moving detail the life and times of a leader of supreme honesty and unalloyed patriotism who a hundred years ago also battled, as a prince, against the hierarchies of Indian society.
Download or read book Splendours of Royal Mysore written by Vikram Sampath and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was the summer of AD 1399 that disaster struck a small principality of southern India. Mahisuru, which later went on to become Mysore, had lost its chieftain and was vulnerable to the machinations of a cunning upstart. At around the same time, two young aspirants left their ancestral home in Dwaraka, Gujarat and proceeded southwards in search of fame. Yaduraya, the elder of the two aspirants, was destiny s chosen man, to lead a valiant attack against the vile upstart, rescue the family in distress, wed the princess and assume the lordship of the place. This event marked the birth of the Wodeyar Dynasty.
Download or read book Calcutta Yoga written by Jerome Armstrong and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An often surprising and always sure-footed survey of the magic of yoga and Calcutta's role in bringing it to the world' JOHN ZUBRZYCKI 'Interweaving historical facts with Armstrong's own experiences ... the result is a book which is neither an autobiography nor a purely scientific work - quite a unique mixture ... it moves me' CLAUDIA GUGGENBÜHL 'I wish I was doing what he is doing [in Calcutta Yoga]' BISHWANATH GHOSH The epic story of how Buddha Bose, Bishnu Ghosh and Yogananda took yoga from Calcutta to the rest of the world. In Calcutta Yoga, Jerome Armstrong deftly weaves the multi-generational story of the first family of yoga and how they modernized the ancient practice. The saga covers four generations, the making of a city, personal friendships, and shines light on the remarkable people who transformed yoga and made it a truly global phenomenon. Along the way, we also meet the people who founded the schools of yoga that are so well known today. Enriching the cast of characters are the internationally renowned B. K. S. Iyengar, Mr Universe Monotosh Roy, even as the book uncovers the truth about Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga. We follow them and others from the streets of Calcutta to the United States, London, Tokyo and beyond, where they perform astounding feats and help revise Western perceptions of yoga. Cleverly researched and enjoyably anecdotal, Calcutta Yoga gives a holistic picture of the evolution of yoga, and pays homage to yogic heroes previously lost from history, while highlighting the pivotal early role the city of Calcutta played in redefining the practice. A culmination of rigorous fieldwork and numerous interviews, this book is as much about yoga as it is about history, relationships and human nature.
Download or read book Cultures of London written by Charlotte Grant and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-12-14 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its origin as the Roman city of Londinium through to its latest incarnation as a super-diverse World City in the twenty-first century, London's history and culture has been shaped by migration. This book expresses and celebrates the plurality of the capital's cultures and affirms the importance of migration in the making of the modern city through thirty-three short essays written by academics, artists, broadcasters and curators. Subjects range from the mediaeval to the contemporary: buildings and institutions, individuals and communities, objects, visual art, street performances and literary texts. Some contributors focus on famous people and places, like Shakespeare and St Paul's, while others explore less well-known subjects, like the Free German League of Culture (1939-46) or Ignatius Sancho, the eighteenth-century musician, grocer and man-of-letters. It is not only London's cultures which are diverse, migration is also plural. This book engages with the very many human migrations from across the globe and within the British Isles that have taken place over the last two-thousand years, as well as with the movements of plants, animals, and ideologies from other countries and continents, and the movement of natural resources and manmade toxins into and through the city. Composed of a vivid collection of snapshots, the volume offers a kaleidoscopic vision of the city and provides new insights into the successive migrant communities that have come to London and made it their own.
Download or read book The Shortest History of India From the World s Oldest Civilization to Its Largest Democracy A Retelling for Our Times Shortest History written by John Zubrzycki and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 5,000 years of history—from the Bhagavad Gita to Bollywood—fill this masterful portrait of the world’s most populous nation and a rising global power. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. India—a cradle of civilization with five millennia of history, a country of immense consequence and contradiction—often defies ready understanding. What holds its people together—across its many cultures, races, languages, and creeds—and how has India evolved into the liberal democracy it is today? From the Harappan era to Muslim invasions, the Great Mughals, British rule, independence, and present-day hopes, John Zubrzycki distills India’s colossal history into a gripping true story filled with legendary lives: Alexander the Great, Akbar, Robert Clive, Tipu Sultan, Lakshmi Bai, Lord Curzon, Jinnah, and Gandhi. India’s gifts to the world include Buddhism, yoga, the concept of zero, the largest global diaspora—and its influence is only growing. Already the world’s largest democracy, in 2023, India became the most populous nation. Can India overcome its political, social, and religious tensions to be the next global superpower? As the world watches—and wonders—this Shortest History is an essential, clarifying read.
Download or read book Here Is Real Magic written by Nate Staniforth and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary memoir about finding wonder in everyday life, from magician Nate Staniforth. Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder--what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don't have to be frivolous. Magic doesn't have to be about sequins and smoke machines--rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment. But after years on the road as a professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit. Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth's evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment--and the importance of wonder in everyday life--during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us--to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.
