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What’s on the shelves this week?
For six-year-old Sikandar, who flees with his family from riot-torn Belgaum, the glitzy early-1970s’ Bombay is the perfect setting to expand his wings. A chance meeting with an underworld don changes Sikandar’s life. In the course of the roller-coaster ride that ensues, he ends up at the pinnacle of the entertainment and celebrity management industry. The book takes you on Sikandar’s incredible journey, where reality appears stranger than fiction and every successful move must be made through the valley of failure.
Curry by Colleen Taylor Sen. Pan Macmillan
Part of ‘Edible History’ series, these books explore the rich history of curry and spices. Colleen Taylor Sen examines the Anglo-Indian origins of curry. She chronicles the curry as it exists in Thailand, the Caribbean, Japan, Indonesia, Germany and beyond. Fred Czarra writes on how spices shaped the first era of globalisation. It improved the economic conditions of some countries, but also caused great harm to others and to the cultures they encountered.
Murder At The Imambara by Raza Mir. Aleph. Pages 336. Rs 999
A young Mirza Ghalib, travelling home to Delhi, has been invited by the great marsiya poet Mir Anees to witness Lucknow’s unparalleled commemorations of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain at Karbala. Instead, he witnesses a man plunge to his death from the summit of the soaring minarets of the magnificent Asafi Imambara. Was it an accident or a deep political conspiracy? A prequel to ‘Murder at the Mushaira’, this historical mystery is a portrait of 19th-century Lucknow.
