Indian Preview: Our Top New Releases from March

 

1. Corporate Yogi by Arvind Lal

This book presents Dr Arvind Lal’s journey as a spiritual seeker and an accidental entrepreneur. How did a saint from a remote Himalayan village called Hairakhan transform Arvind’s life? How did Lal pathlabs become a household brand in India? How does spiritualism shape his thoughts as an entrepreneur? Can work and spirituality gel in a ‘karma yoga’ form as mentioned in ancient Hindu scriptures? Woven around Arvind’s life, this book answers these and many other questions about work, life and spirituality.

 

2. A Gluten-free Life by Jeeva Anna George

When Jeeva was diagnosed with celiac disease, she realized just how hard it was to find food that suited her. Every trip to the grocery store was an arduous exercise in reading ingredients and researching the effects of certain foods. She also discovered that gluten-free food was expensive.

Jeeva understands the nightmare of living with Celiac in India. To her, gluten-free is neither a fad nor an allergy. It is an auto-immune disorder – a disorder that can only be controlled, not cured. This book is her journey of trying to lead a gluten-free life while dealing with a disorder that goes largely undiagnosed but affects 1 per cent of the world’s population.

 

3. Swear You Won’t Tell by Vedashree Khambete-Sharma

When Mumbai Daily journalist Avantika Pandit is asked to interview her childhood nemesis Aisha Juneja, she knows it’ll be like an express bikini wax – painful, but quick. Then Laxmi, her former best friend, shows up dead. And suddenly Avantika finds herself turning into the reporter she used to be – a nosy little newshound with the self-preservation instincts of a dodo.

The investigation could get her killed. But if the choice is between churning out listicles on handbags and death, dying might not be that bad after all.

 

4. Return to Jammu by V. Raghunathan

Return to Jammu is a story of growing up, with its heartache of losing close friends and a childhood sweetheart, and eventually making one’s way in the world. Warm, personal and deeply evocative of an innocent time in one’s own as well as the life of a nation much like R.K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends, this is bestselling author V. Raghunathan’s first foray into fiction and announces him as a talent to reckon with in the world of Indian writing.

 

5. Lean Days by Manish Gaekwad

Fed up with his tedious desk job as a content writer, a young man decides to quit on an impulse. He wants to write a novel but does not have a story to tell – a lack of clarity that afflicts most of those who are stuck in a rut. The inexperienced writer sets out across the country without a map, looking for inspiration and love. Travelling across several cities, mixing history with imagination, he encounters stories of people and places that help him discover his place in the world. Poetry, art, music, and a yearning for romance shape his words. Written as a travel diary, the journey of the nameless protagonist of Lean Days is the story of an artist’s struggle to find an echo in life.