Name: 1990, Aramganj
Author – Rakesh Kayasth, translated by Varsha Tiwary
Publisher – Eka, an imprint of Westland Books
Price – Rs 499
About the book:
A SEARING NOVEL ABOUT HOW SMALL-TOWN INDIA GOT POLARISED BY ADVANI’S RATH YATRA AND HOW THE SEEDS OF A MILITANT HINDU NATIONALISM WERE SOWN.
Mohalla Aramganj is abuzz with speculations and debates about the impending arrival of L. K. Advani’s Ram Rath.
This mohalla is made up of high-caste families that live at and near the Aramganj Chowk. Branching off the chowk are lanes and bylanes the residents of which are from low and backward castes, as well as Muslims.
The lane in which the Muslims of Aramganj reside known as Rayyat Toli. One of the residents of Rayyat Toli, Ashiq Miyan, is a tailor who is the only Muslim to have a shop at Aramganj Chowk. He is known to be an expert dancer who performs awe-inspiring feats in the Dussehra immersion procession. He is also known to be a devotee of Ram, with a keen knowledge of the scriptures.
But now that the Mandal Commission recommendations have been implemented and the storm thus created by Prime Minister V.P. Singh has been overshadowed by Advani’s trump card, the Rath Yatra, social equations are changing in Aramganj, and Ashiq finds himself caught in a web of politics and communal tension. Ashiq Miyan is at the heart of this brilliantly crafted novel. His fate is tied to the tectonic shifts caused by the news of the Rath Yatra, and it’s his fate that forms the ominous, macabre climax of this story.
Name: Radha: The Princess of Barsana
Author: Neelima Dalmia Adhar
Price: Rs 599
Publisher: Westland
About the book:
A RETELLING OF THE CLASSIC TALE OF KRISHNA AND RADHA AND THE SPECIAL BOND THEY SHARED.
The princess of Barsana, Radha Rani, of the perfectly formed conches on the soles of her feet, knows from her childhood that she is not mere mortal. Her dreams are of a blue-skinned deity who lives only in her mind. As she grows older, she marries Ayan Gopa, the powerful and handsome chieftan of the Yadavs, but her heart still belongs to the blue-skinned one. When she actually meets the mysterious dark boy of her dreams, he is but a child. Radha knows her love is true and not bound by the rules of the world she lives in, but will others understand? Or will she be branded an adulteress and punished for loving the only Lord she has ever wanted—Lord Krishna.
Name: Behind The Startup
Author: Benjamin Shestakofsky
Price: Rs 599
Publisher: Westland Books
About the book:
THIS BOOK ANALYSES HOW VENTURE CAPITAL INFLUENCES THE FUNCTIONING OF STARTUPS AND AFFECTS ALL STAKEHOLDERS, INCLUDING EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS AND FOUNDERS.
This systematic analysis of everyday life inside a tech startup dissects the logic of venture capital and its consequences for entrepreneurs, workers, and societies. In recent years, dreams about our technological future have soured as digital platforms have undermined privacy, eroded labor rights, and weakened democratic discourse. In light of the negative consequences of innovation, some blame harmful algorithms or greedy CEOS. Behind the Startup focuses instead on the role of capital and the influence of financiers.
Drawing on nineteen months of participant-observation research inside a successful Silicon Valley startup, this book examines how the company was organized to meet the needs of the venture capital investors who funded it. Investors push startups to scale as quickly as possible to inflate the value of their asset. Benjamin Shestakofsky shows how these demands create organizational problems that managers solve by combining high-tech systems with low-wage human labor.
With its focus on the financialization of innovation, Behind the Startup explains how the gains generated by these companies are funneled into the pockets of a small cadre of elite investors and entrepreneurs. To promote innovation that benefits the many rather than the few, Shestakofsky compellingly argues that we must focus less on fixing the technology and more on changing the financial infrastructure that supports it.
