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Why should we be good? How should we be good? And how might we more deeply understand the moral and ethical failings--splashed across today's headlines--that have not only destroyed individual lives but caused widespread calamity as well, bringing communities, nations, and indeed the global economy to the brink of collapse? In The Difficulty of Being Good, Gurcharan Das seeks answers to these questions in an unlikely source: the 2,000 year-old Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata. A sprawling, witty, ironic, and delightful poem, the Mahabharata is obsessed with the elusive notion of dharma--in essence, doing the right thing. When a hero does something wrong in a Greek epic, he wastes little time on se...
This majestic novel by the author of India Unbound is the extraordinary chronicle, rich in passion and incident, of a Punjabi family that is uprooted from its settled existence in Lyallpur by the violence of Partition and forced to flee to India. Everything is lost in the transition, but when a son is born into the family, hopes revive of rebuilding the family's fortunes, the efforts towards which mirror those of India itself as it struggles to build itself anew.
Indians wryly admit that ‘India grows at night’. But that is only half the saying, the full expression is: ‘India grows at night... when the government sleeps’, suggesting that the nation may be rising despite the state. India’s is a tale of private success and public failure. Prosperity is, indeed, spreading across the country even as governance failure pervades public life. But how could a nation become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies when it’s governed by a weak, ineffective state? And wouldn’t it be wonderful if India also grew during the day—in other words, if public policy supported private enterprise? What India needs, Gurcharan Das says, is a strong lib...
India Unbound is the riveting story of a nation’s rise from poverty to prosperity and the clash of ideas that occurred along the way. Gurcharan Das examines the highs and lows of independent India through the prism of history, his own experiences and those of numerous others he has met—from young people in sleepy UP villages to chiefs of software companies in Bangalore. Defining and exploring the new mindset of the nation, India Unbound is the perfect introduction to contemporary India.
A riveting account of love and desireIndia is the only civilization to elevate kama-desire and pleasure-to a goal of life. Kama is both cosmic and human energy, which animates life and holds it in place. Gurcharan Das weaves a compelling narrative soaked in philosophical, historical and literary ideas in the third volume of his trilogy on life's goals: India Unbound was the first, on artha, 'material well-being'; and The Difficulty of Being Good was the second, on dharma, 'moral well-being'. Here, in his magnificent prose, he examines how to cherish desire in order to live a rich, flourishing life, arguing that if dharma is a duty to another, kama is a duty to oneself. It sheds new light on love, marriage, family, adultery and jealousy as it wrestles with questions such as these: How to nurture desire without harming others or oneself? Are the erotic and the ascetic two aspects of our same human nature? What is the relationship between romantic love and bhakti, the love of god
The Elephant Paradigm: India Wrestles With Change Is, Quite Simply, About An Ancient Civilization&Rsquo;S Reawakening To The Spirit&Mdash;And Potential&Mdash;Of Its Youth. Following Up On The Success Of India Unbound, Which Took Up The Process Of India&Rsquo;S Transformation In The 1990S From A Closed To An Open Economy, The Elephant Paradigm Ranges Over A Vast Area&Mdash;Covering Subjects As Varied As Panchayati Raj, National Competitiveness, And The Sacred And Philosophical Concerns Of The Average Indian Consequent To India&Rsquo;S Entry Into What The Author Calls The &Lsquo;Age Of Liberation&Rsquo;. While India May Never Roar Ahead Like The Asian Tigers, Das Argues, It Will Advance Like A...
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In the nineteenth century, a tiny community from the deserts of Rajasthan spread out to every corner of India. The Marwaris controlled much of the country’s inland trade by the time of the First World War. They then turned their hand to industry and, by the 1970s, owned most of India’s private industrial assets. Today, Marwari businessmen account for a quarter of the Indian names on the Forbes billionaires list.// What makes the Marwaris so successful? Is it their indomitable enterprise, or their incredible appetite for risk? In this new book, Thomas Timberg shows how the Marwaris rely on a centuries-old system for conserving and growing capital which has stood them in good stead, alongside a strong sense of business ethics which has earned them respect.// Family businesses in general and the Marwaris in particular might have a vital role to play in shaping India’s economic future.
Three extraordinary plays by Gurcharan Das with a new introduction by the author The prize-winning Larins Sahib is a historical play set in the 1840s-a confused period after the death of Ranjit Singh when the British first arrived in the Punjab. Mira, 'a rite of Krishna for five actor-dancers', explores what it means for a human being to become a saint through the story of Mirabai, the sixteenth-century Rajput princess-poet. 9 Jakhoo Hill, the third play in this volume, is set in the autumn of 1962 in Simla. It examines a number of themes-the changing social order with the rise of a new middle class (while the old class foolishly clings on to spent dreams), the hold of Indian mothers on their sons and the eventual betrayal of sexual love. This trio of unusual plays, written by Gurcharan Das when he was in his twenties, will interest both general readers and theatre buffs.
The Elephant Paradigm: India Wrestles with Change is, quite simply, about an ancient civilization’s reawakening to the Spirit---and potential---of its youth. Following up on the success of India Unbound, which examined the process of India’s transformation in the 1990s from a closed to an open economy, The Elephant Paradigm ranges over a vast area---covering subjects as varied as panchayati raj, national competitiveness, and the sacred and philosophical concerns of the average Indian consequent to India’s entry into what the author calls the ‘age of liberation’. While India may never roar ahead like the Asian tigers, Das argues, it will advance like a wise elephant, moving steadily...