JAIL DIARY OF BHAGAT SINGH

Rupa, Rs 195

A portrait of man with an acute scholarly mind and a cheerful socialist heart.

Between the years 1929 in September till March 1931 when he was sent to the gallows a day before his actual hanging date, Bhagat Singh wrote extensively. He maintained a diary which was full of notes of daily usage, his own thoughts on freedom, poverty and class struggle and thoughts of varied political thinkers and intellectuals like Lenin, Marx, Ummar Khayyam, Morozov, Rabindranath Tagore, Trotsky, Bertrand Russell, Dostoevsky, Wordsworth, Ghalib and many others. Through the pages of his jail diary, a real Bhagat Singh emerges — one who is without the hat or a gun, one who had an acute scholarly mind and a robust socialist persona.

WHEN THE WILDFLOWERS BLOOM

Rupa Bhullar

Rupa, Rs 295

After suffering public humiliation at the hands of her husband on what would have otherwise been a memorable evening, Tara Grewal, a homemaker and mother of two, finds herself thrust onto a crossroads. She cannot readily go back to the life she once knew, nor can she move forward without a career or life skills to sustain her.

As she transitions from questioning her choices to surrendering to the flow of life, an unfamiliar journey leads her to her grandmother’s village in Punjab. Amid the simple joys of rural life, and heart-wrenching struggles of daily survival, Tara unknowingly kindles a spark of hope. A hope that eventually lights her own fire.

As she casts off the reins of the predictable and embraces change, Tara unravels her fears and motivations, reaffirming her belief in what she knew to be true — about people, about life, about relationships, and most importantly, about love.