All posts tagged: Books

Chinese passport, religious books, AI device found on US national arrested near Nepal border

Chinese passport, religious books, AI device found on US national arrested near Nepal border

A 36-year-old American national arrested while allegedly attempting to cross the India-Nepal border illegally was carrying a Chinese passport along with several other documents and electronic devices, officials said on Tuesday. Officials said that no evidence of suspicious or anti-national activities has emerged from the investigation so far. (Screengrab/ X: @GouravGKRepots) The accused, identified as Jordan Brown, a resident of California, was apprehended in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj district on Saturday. His arrest prompted questioning by multiple central intelligence and security agencies, given the nature of the documents recovered from him. Officials, however, said that no evidence of suspicious or anti-national activities has emerged from the investigation so far. “Different agencies are independently verifying the details provided by him, including his identity, travel history, previous visits to other countries and the circumstances under which he entered India,” a senior police officer said. According to investigators, Brown is believed to have entered India by sea in November last year. Authorities are now piecing together his movements over the past several months and examining whether his account matches …

Joe Sacco traces anatomy of Muzaffarnagar riots with care, without closure | Books and Literature News

Joe Sacco traces anatomy of Muzaffarnagar riots with care, without closure | Books and Literature News

6 min readJul 12, 2026 06:00 AM IST First published on: Jul 12, 2026 at 06:00 AM IST Even a prolific cartoonist like Rajinder Puri, not known to shy away from anything political, was wary of commenting on communal riots. The topical news cartoon has no space to reflect on the collective violent outburst. Pithy punchlines made under the day’s deadline could, in the middle of conflict, be grabbed by either side to further polarisation. It took Joe Sacco to break this self-imposed cartooning reticence. Now we see how a riot in India could be talked about in book-length cartooning with precision, empathy and, most of all, perspective. Like every chronicler of Hindu-Muslim strife, Sacco goes back to the birth pangs of the two nations — the trauma of millions displaced like the Karachi-born Puri. Sacco does it early on, on page 7, in a masterly stroke that sums up the 1947 Partition of the subcontinent in one page. He doesn’t dwell on it, urges you to read on. This urge to narrate without a …

Meg Mason wants to keep the ‘grittiness’ in literature. Just don’t ask her to Tweet about it. | Books and Literature News

Meg Mason wants to keep the ‘grittiness’ in literature. Just don’t ask her to Tweet about it. | Books and Literature News

Meg Mason’s 2020 novel Sorrow and Bliss was an international bestseller and a Women’s Prize for Fiction finalist. Her follow-up, Sophie, Standing There, focuses on a lonely, self-taught sound technician who works literary festivals and falls for an author she will never actually meet. Speaking to indianexpress.com over a video interview, Mason talks about where Sophie’s voice came from, why she still writes for an audience of nobody, and why she would rather see writers go quiet than let AI anywhere near a manuscript. I was working on something else, a novel that wasn’t going very well. Then one day she just came into mind, encapsulated in that very first sentence of the novel. I let myself pursue it quite nervously. But she was the real thing, and I realized that quite quickly, and then I just let it take off. I know she came from all the hours I’d spent backstage at literary festivals since my previous novel came out. I felt much more connected to all the staff, the backstage staff running around …

The Divorce is no Housemaid, but Freida McFadden still delivers a twisty thriller | Books and Literature News

The Divorce is no Housemaid, but Freida McFadden still delivers a twisty thriller | Books and Literature News

“When police arrive, how will I explain the dead bodies in the house? Only one dead body would be easier to explain. People die after all – circle of life, etc., etc. But more than one becomes trickier.” Thus begins bestselling author Freida McFadden’s latest twisty domestic noir thriller, The Divorce. McFadden’s ability to churn out smoothly flowing, twist-laden thrillers based around relationships has made her one of the most popular authors of the past decade. And she is in peak form in The Divorce. There is no Housemaid here (from her popular series), but the book is classic McFadden, which means you will race through in a few feverish, page-turning sessions and put down feeling slightly shaken at all the twists that you did not quite see coming. All is well…and then it isn’t! Like all McFadden’s books, The Divorce’s main story (after that extremely dead-body-laden preface) gets underway in a seemingly routine setting replete with domestic bliss. You come back home, after picking up your five-year-old son from school. Your husband, who totally …

‘My Mother Has Thrown Books at Me, She Beat Me Up a Lot’

‘My Mother Has Thrown Books at Me, She Beat Me Up a Lot’

Gentle parenting, strict boundaries, and respecting a child’s autonomy—mention these terms to your grandparents, and they would probably draw a blank. But Kajol understands them intimately. In a recent interview, the actor opened up about her highly disciplined upbringing. “My mother was very strict. She beat me up a lot. According to my mother, I couldn’t digest food until I was beaten up a couple of times. And she beat me up with everything. My mother has thrown books at me,” Kajol told Mashable India, adding, “I had a very good upbringing. She prepared me for life”. DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to. Reflecting on her statement, Muskan Marwah, a psychologist at Mpower, Aditya Birla Education Trust, shared that parenting is a delicate balance of providing guidance, structure, and love while allowing children the space to grow and learn independently. “One of the most challenging tasks parents face is finding the right balance between being strict and overbearing. While boundaries are necessary for development, …

Samay Raina books entire theatre to support Alia Bhatt, Sharvari

Samay Raina books entire theatre to support Alia Bhatt, Sharvari

Alia Bhatt’s recent appearance on India’s Got Latent 2 has been receiving mixed reviews. The actress appeared on Samay Raina’s show with Alpha co-star Sharvari. As the film releases, it has recorded a modest opening and received a mixed response. Amid this, Samay Raina revealed that he booked an entire theatre as a small gesture to thank Sharvari and Alia. Samay Raina books entire theatre In an Instagram post, Samay announced, “Tomorrow I’m going to watch Alpha in Mumbai. I have booked an entire theatre, and I will send 250 of you guys tickets on WhatsApp (if you are registered on my pre-sale list). It’s just a small gesture from me to show love to Alia and Sharvari for being soooo cool that they came on my show’s first episode. Love them both and super excited to see their movie! See you guys tomorrow!” Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or text presented here. All rights belong to their respective owners. For more information and to view the original source, …

Samay Raina books entire theatre in Mumbai to watch Alia Bhatt and Sharvari’s Alpha: ‘Just a small gesture to show love’

Samay Raina books entire theatre in Mumbai to watch Alia Bhatt and Sharvari’s Alpha: ‘Just a small gesture to show love’

Bollywood actors Alia Bhatt and Sharvari‘s spy action thriller, Alpha, was released in theatres on July 3. While Alpha continues to divide critics and audiences, comedian Samay Raina has extended his support to Alia Bhatt and Sharvari by booking an entire theatre for a special screening after the actors appeared on the first episode of his revived show, India’s Got Latent. India’s got latent season 2: Alia Bhatt, Sharvari on Samay Raina’s show. (Netflix/YouTube) Samay Raina books entire theatre to watch Alpha On Saturday, Samay took to Instagram and wrote, “Alsooooo. Tomorrow I’m going to watch Alpha in Mumbai. I have booked an entire theatre and I will send 250 of you guys tickets on WhatsApp (if you are registered on my pre-sale list).” He added, “It’s just a small gesture from me to show love to Alia and Sharvari for being soooo cool that they came on my show’s first episode. Love them both and super excited to see their movie! See you guys tomorrow!” Samay returned with the new season of his show, …

J&K pulls school library books over content ‘glorifying’ separatist leaders, suspends 8 officials | India News

J&K pulls school library books over content ‘glorifying’ separatist leaders, suspends 8 officials | India News

The Jammu & Kashmir government Saturday withdrew two books from its school libraries on the ground that they contained “highly inappropriate content” on separatism. Eight officials from the school department have been suspended, and one contractual employee terminated, after the row broke out. The withdrawn books – ‘Personalities and Legends of J&K’ by Hilal Ahmed and Santosh Meena, and ‘Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir’ by Dr Sushant Giri — were published by Oberoi Book Service, Jammu, and Anurag Prakashan, Delhi, and supplied to school libraries as part of Samagra Shiksha for higher secondary classes. According to an order by Ram Niwas Sharma, Commissioner/Secretary, School Education Department, the books contained references with the “potential to create law-and-order issues”, and their selection reflected “serious negligence, dereliction of duty and lack of due diligence”. The order also blacklisted the authors and their publishing houses from publishing any other material in the Union Territory. While 123 copies of the first book were supplied to school libraries in Jammu, Ramban and Udhampur districts, 128 copies of the second were …

The chilling, charming mystery of tradwife Natalie Heller Mills in Yesteryear | Books and Literature News

The chilling, charming mystery of tradwife Natalie Heller Mills in Yesteryear | Books and Literature News

An unflickring yearning for things of the past, a time one had never lived in, can make the premise of Yesteryear, the celebrated new novel by Caro Claire Burke, sound like a dream. Summaries floating about the internet described a social media influencer who suddenly found herself in the 19th century. For the hopeless romantics among us, it was enough that someone in the novel is waking up in the past, in the 1850s no less, when Dickens and the Bronte Sisters were writing their masterpieces and Uncle Tom’s Cabin was beginning to create waves. Never mind that it is a trad-wife, a creation of the internet age, that goes back to the past, it is still the past. But then there is another kind of anticipation for readers who pick up on the subject of that line: a trad wife – a woman who claims to love all that is traditional including the imposed gender roles and the lack of modern tools. She is going to a time when what she has been preaching …

A 700-year old Banyan tree in Bihar’s Munger just entered history books, here’s why

A 700-year old Banyan tree in Bihar’s Munger just entered history books, here’s why

For centuries, the age of India’s ancient banyan trees has largely been a matter of folklore, local legends and historical records. Now, scientists have, for the first time, accurately dated one using radiocarbon analysis. A banyan tree in Bihar’s Munger, estimated to be around 700 years old, has been identified as the oldest accurately dated banyan tree using radiocarbon dating. (Representative Image) A banyan tree in Bihar’s Munger, estimated to be around 700 years old, has been identified as the oldest accurately dated banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) using radiocarbon dating – a method based entirely on scientific evidence rather than oral histories or historical accounts, according to a PIB press release. Also Read | Lovely, dark and deep: The lessons ancient trees can teach us Radiocarbon dating and the oldest Banyan tree Banyan trees, with their vast canopies and intricate networks of roots and branches, support diverse ecosystems by providing habitats for birds, insects and other wildlife. They have also occupied a central place in India’s social and cultural life for centuries. Yet determining their …