Abha Thorat

Guest: Abha Thorat- Abha left Cambridge University with a degree in Social and Political Science,two
theatre productions under her belt and having established the first International Students Office
under the University's Students' Union.
Abha dances Bharatnatyam(a dance form typical of Sothern India) that she has trained in for years.
She is also embarking on a project with her dance school, Beeja, to take Bharatnatyam to new UK
audiences in the UK and explore its potential in outreach work in Schools and the community.
For more information on how to get involved visit- http://raindesign.info/beeja/

A Death in Brasil by Peter Robb

Delving into Brazil's baroque past, Peter Robb writes about its history of slavery and the richly
multicultural but disturbed society that was left in its wake when the practice was abolished in the
late nineteenth century. Even today, Brazil is a nation of almost unimaginable distance between its
wealthy and its poor, a place of extraordinary levels of crime and violence. It is also one of the
most beautiful and seductive places on earth.Using the art,food and the books of its great nineteenth
-century writer, Machado de Assis, Robb takes us on a journey into a world like Conrad's "Nostromo".
A world so absurdly dramatic, like the current president Lula's fight for power, that it could have
come from one of the country's immensely popular TV soap operas, a world where resolution is often
only provided by death. Like all the best travel writing, "A Death in Brazil" immerses you deep into
the heart of a fascinating country.

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth

A chance sighting on a bus; a letter which should never have been read; a pianist with a secret that
touches the heart of her music ...AN EQUALl MUSIC is a book about love, about the love of a woman
lost and found and lost again; it is a book about music and how the love of music can run like a
passionate fugue through a life. It is the story of Michael, of Julia, and of the love that binds
them.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth's novel is at its core a love story, the tale of Lata - and her mother's attempts to
find her a suitable husband, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. Set in
post-Independence India and involving the lives of four large families and those who orbit them, it
is also a vast panoramic exploration of a whole continent at a crucial hour as a sixth of the world's
population faces its first great General Election and the chance to map its own destiny.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Namesake is the story of a boy brought up Indian in America, from 'the kind of writer who makes
you want to grab the next person and say "Read this!"' (AMY TAN)'When her grandmother learned of
Ashima's pregnancy, she was particularly thrilled at the prospect of naming the family's first sahib.
And so Ashima and Ashoke have agreed to put off the decision of what to name the baby until a letter
comes...'For now, the label on his hospital cot reads simply BABY BOY GANGULI. But as time passes and still no letter arrives from India,American bureaucracy takes over and demands that 'baby boy Ganguli' be given a name. In a panic, his father decides to nickname him 'Gogol'--after his favourite writer.
Brought up as an Indian in suburban America, Gogol Ganguli soon finds himself itching to cast off
his awkward name, just as he longs to leave behind the inherited values of his Bengali parents. And
so he sets off on his own path through life, a path strewn with conflicting loyalties,love and loss
...spanning three decades and crossing continents.

Snakes and Ladders by Gita Mehta

India is a land of contrasts. It is the world's most populous democracy, but it still upholds the
caste system. It is a burgeoning economic superpower, but one of the poorest nations on earth. It is
the home of the world's biggest movie industry after Hollywood, as well as to the world's oldest
religions. It is an ancient civilization celebrating fifty years as a modern nation. Now, as never
before, the world wants to know what contemporary India is all about.

As she has proved in three previous books--her wry take on the marketing of the mystic East in Karma
Cola; the rich historical saga of Raj; and the beguiling tales of A River Sutra--there is no better
guide to India's multihued mosaic than Gita Mehta. She knows India in all its rich detail--its
folkways and history, its culture and politics, its ancient traditions and current concerns. In
Snakes and Ladders, she gives a loving but unflinching assessment of India today, in an account that
is entertaining, informative, and wholly personal. (Courtesy of Amazon.com)

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slaving-ship, The Ibis.
Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and
stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a truly
diverse cast of Indians and Westerners,from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager,from an evangelical
English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As their old family ties are washed away they,
like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An
unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations. The vast sweep of this
historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas,and the exotic
backstreets of China. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed
colonial history of the East itself, which makes Sea of Poppies so alive.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

The time is 1975; the place is India,in an unnamed city by the sea.The corrupt and brutal government
has just declared a State of Emergency, and the country is on the edge of chaos. In these precarious
circumstances, four characters form an unlikely alliance: two tailors, uncle and nephew, who have
come to the city in flight from the cruel caste violence in their native village; a middle-aged
widow desperately trying to preserve her fragile independence; and a young student from the northern
mountains, bewildered by the end of his idyllic childhood and his parents' slow collapse. Through
the dramatic and often shocking turns their lives take, we get an intimate view not only of their
world but of India itself, in all its extraordinary variety. (courtesy of readinggroupguides.com)

Maximum City by Suketu Mehta

Bombay's story is told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who
live there. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked
at the city through their eyes. The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together
by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year
absence, and in looking through the eyes of his found the city within himself. Part memoir, part
journalism, part travelogue, and written with the relentless observation and patience of a novelist,
Maximum City is a brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people-a book as vast,diverse,
and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself.

Coming up week, Author James Miller, to talk about his latest- Lost Boys.