HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a book that challenges perceptions of sex work, a collection of stories from the ancient text, Vetala Panchavimshati, featuring King Vikram and the vetala, and a volume on the author’s epic journeys down the mighty Brahmaputra
Of pain, sisterhood and survival
In the heart of Mumbai, where neon lights barely mask the shadows of suffering, lies Kamathipura – India’s most infamous redlight district. Into this world walks the city’s Postmaster General, a woman with power, principles and an open heart. What begins as an official visit soon turns into something far deeper. In the alleys of Kamathipura, she meets women hardened by life but full of quiet resilience and buried dreams.
Through their stories – of pain, sisterhood and survival – Swati Pandey discovers not only the brutal truths of systemic exploitation but also the small acts of grace that make life bearable. Invisible in Plain Sight is her powerful account of bearing witness – to empathy, friendship and the redemptive power of human connection in the most unexpected places.
Unflinching yet compassionate, this book challenges our perceptions of sex work, dignity and the human spirit.*
Vikram and Vetaal redux
The great Raja Vikramaditya is assigned a task by the tantric yogi Kshantisheela. He is told by the holy man to bring him a corpse that is hanging on a shisham tree. This leads to a battle of wills between the raja and the vetala that has possessed the corpse. Every time the raja tries to haul the corpse to the tantric, the ghostly trickster begins to narrate a tale that he says will end with a riddle that the raja must solve: all that the vetala tells the raja is that if he knows the answer and doesn’t give it, his head will shatter into a thousand pieces. The stories he tells and answers he demands are the vetala’s way of testing the raja to make sure he is worthy of the rewards the vetala intends to bestow on him (instead of on the yogi, whom the vetala has deemed unworthy). Will the clever raja finally manage to carry the ghoul to the tantric yogi? Will he be able to outmanoeuvre the vetala? Will he be able to negotiate the lies, intrigues, and deceptions hurled at him?
Bestselling author Meena Arora Nayak brings to vivid life the ancient text of Vetala Panchavimshati in The Undead Ghoul and the Clever Raja. Drawing from multiple sources — including the versions of Shivadasa and Jambhaladatta, Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara, and Lallu Lal’s Baital Pachisi — she weaves together the best elements of this extraordinary feat of the imagination. In all, there are 24 curveball tales narrated by the vetala — the frame story is the twenty-fifth tale. At one level, this is a classic book of horror — the descriptions of secret rituals that resuscitate the dead, a chilling prologue about murder and deceit, and the backdrop of a cremation ground succeed in creating an eerie atmosphere and the vetala is a sinister and creepy figure.
However, what makes this a masterpiece that transcends its genre is the manner in which the tales range across and probe subjects like life, love, sexuality, human desire, the vagaries of human nature and death (especially unnatural ones like murder and suicide). The blend of suspense, wit, and philosophical enquiry to be found in this masterful retelling of one of India’s most intriguing works of classical literature should win it a wide audience of contemporary readers.*
Flowing down a mighty stream
River Traveller tells the story of a great river, as powerful as it is mysterious. The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet, travels through three countries and, after travelling over 2,900 kilometres, flows into the Bay of Bengal. It has fascinated cartographers, lured adventurers, attracted kings and dynasts, and has supported life and ways of living by its banks. It is one of the world’s longest and widest rivers sustaining entire civilizations and agrarian systems.
Alongside, its unmatched fury has destroyed human overreach for centuries. In River Traveller, veteran journalist and writer Sanjoy Hazarika makes epic journeys down the mighty river and describes all of this and more.
In his travels spanning over two decades, Hazarika gets to know the river intimately, and brings both a journalist’s eye for reportage and a writer’s fine sensibility to his descriptions of places, people and events, and his accounts of the river’s historical burden.
He describes a Tibet that is trying to hold on to its cultural legacy in the face of Chinese rule and the land’s exploitation for its resources. He recounts stories of explorers, spymasters and map-makers who discovered the route of the river. Travelling with the river in Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Bangladesh, he notes the changing face of the expansive waterbody. Making historical connections with conquerors and colonialists, studying natural disasters, and minutely observing the contemporary lives of people, he creates a narrative as majestic as his subject.
From extremism to environmental responsibility, politics to ethnography, River Traveller touches on a multitude of subjects, and is an enduring study of human life and natural history. It is a rich and memorable portrait of one of the mightiest rivers on our planet.*
All copy from book flap.
