English

Man Manqué is a memoir and social commentary detailing the life of a Parsi-American man who grew up in post-independence Bombay and migrated to the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century. In the opening scene, the protagonist begins his ascent up Lone Mountain in Las Vegas, Nevada, contemplating the lifetime of disabling mishaps and toxic relationships that have driven him to undertake his solitary climb to the top of the mountain where he is resolved to answer what Camus deemed the “only one really serious philosophical question.” In the chapters that follow, he recounts a series of vivid stories about his childhood in the Parsi colony of Homiyar Baug, adolescence rife with sexual angst, and, finally, adulthood in which he faces the perfect storm of personal and professional betrayal, financial ruin, disillusionment with Parsi culture and Zoroastrian religion, and unresolved trauma from the past. The memoir is characterized by ironic overtones, and, at times, unfiltered dialogue that captures the raw human emotion of the characters. What sets this book apart from other written accounts of everyday Parsi life—and what sets the man, himself, apart from quite possibly all of Parsi society—is an unapologetic disregard bordering on intellectual contempt for all people and institutions that shroud malicious intention with social prudence. As author and storyteller, Lakdavala wields his dual cultural identity as a unique vantage point from which to adroitly paint an unapologetic and bitingly cynical picture of both Parsi and American culture and politics. And much else.

Author: Zend Lakdavala
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 184
Language: English

The beauty of Lakshmi Saravanakumar’s novel, Huntsman, lies in how masterfully Saravanakumar weaves issues of ecology and wildlife, rights of forest dwellers, and the clash between the traditional and the modern in a plot that is as gripping as the moments one might spend sitting on a machan on a tall tree in a dense forest on a full moon night, anticipating the arrival of a tiger.

What I specifically loved in Huntsmanwere the details that built up the novel when the bigger issues were not being narrated. For example, the naturalness with which polygamy and polyamory has been depicted. I am afraid I might give out spoilers, but I can not mention the relationship that Thangappan – the leading man, the eponymous “huntsman” of the novel – has with his three wives – Mari, Sagayarani, and Chellayi – and the feelings about other men that the wives might have. Then there is Thangappan’s masculinity which is fragile enough to be hurt by the disapproval of a child. I would just say that these details – apart from the important bigger parts which are already there – are what make Saravanakumar’s Huntsmansuch an engrossing and – I believe it is – important read.

-Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Author: Lakshmi Saravanakumar
Genre: Literature and Fiction
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 256
Language: English

A spectacular bouquet of a dozen stories travelling across time and space through colourfully multicultural contexts. The nonlinear narrative style helps the reader flow with the kaleidoscopic presentation of events.
– Dr. Lalitha Menon, retd Professor and HOD, Calicut, India

The stories are aptly published while we celebrate Singapore’s Bicentennial. ‘Punkah Wallah’, a delightful fiction worth re-visiting brings to life the different classes of our society, origins, cultures and how they functioned during the earliest days of the last century. ‘Did Churchill know?’ left me pleasantly surprised, shocked, and bemused.
– Angela Leong, Director of a Research firm, Singapore

Thoroughly enjoyed the short stories, finding them gripping and touching, with unexpected little twists. On my second reading, with real concentration, I found them even more interesting. They made me think more, and that is a good thing!
– Valerie Dümpelmann, EFL instructor, Germany

… is not only a story of how different generations relate to literature. A brilliant short story emblematically highlights many of the problems that characterize Tamil literature as a set of social practices in Singapore today.
– Sascha Ebeling, Associate Professor, University of Chicago, USA

Author: Jayanthi Sankar
Genre: Literature and Fiction
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 152
Language: English

On a misty morning nearly half a century ago, Baskaran watched in awe as a skein of Bar-headed geese landed in Devarayan lake near Tiruchi. Their honking calls through the surrounding fog rendered the moment with a certain magic. That morning sparked the beginning of Baskarans nature writing.
The articles he wrote over the years, published mostly in The Hindu, examined wildlife, ecology and conservation, reflecting his enduring concerns with environmental issues. His writing based on personal observation has a sense of immediacy that draws readers to the lived experiences of nature. The essays in this anthology range from an account of the stream-dwelling Brown dipper to a search for the lost orchid of courtallam.
As Peter Matthiessen said, ” one way to grasp the main perspectives of biodiversity is to understand the precious nature of a single living form, a single manifestation of the miracle of existence; if one has to truly understand a crane- or a leaf or a cloud or a frog- one has understood everything.”
The articles anthologised in this volume represent a lifetime’s pursuit of such an understanding.

Author: Theodore Baskaran
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 244
Language: English

When a ten-year-old Tanya discovers a mysterious, furry creature in her balcony, unbeknownst of its identity or origin, she embraces it into her life and unknowingly changes the course of her world’s history. The world little Tanya has inherited is centred around the fictional and futuristic colony of Kalpana Nagar, nestled somewhere in the locale of South Delhi, in the year 2050. It’s a land of flying advertisement drones and creeping city sludge, of miniature wearable ‘computers’ and lofty mountains of garbage. It’s where a strict Mamma and a kind, old ‘Jiji’ complete Tanya’s family and were, without telling them, Tanya hopes to rear a new family member, who she’s innocently taken to be her little brother. But the gutsy girl doesn’t realise that she and her ‘brother’ are separated by over 40 million years of evolution and in this fast choking world, there might not be a place for two little children of Mother Nature, or as an old African poacher likes to call her ‘Mama Asili’.

Author:  Sarthak Parashar
Genre: Children Books
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 130
Language: English

Journey Dog Tales is a humorous, mildly politically incorrect, goofy set of real and imagined stories breezy enough to make millions smile. Arindam shares bits about Bapia-his father, Musa, the tablet breaker, Meid Zais from some desert, Agarbatti and her Indian born James Bond, amidst their chaos he makes you want to be a part of his ragbag of imagined and the real world. Or failing that make Journey Dog Tales a single-sit read.

Author: Arindam Mukherjee
Genre: Literature and Fiction
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 110
Language: English

From the entrance of the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Trivandrum, Kerala one could clearly see the market spread across like a mini Trivandrum extending as far as one could see like a thick carpet. Each of the shops and the people in the market carried a story within them. The author has lived,and breathed,the bazaar as the back of his hand. It is only fitting that the author has conceived this bookkeeping the bazaar as the heart with each character and story unique. His imagination brings out the interesting characteristics of each of the players depicted in the stories. With intricate descriptions woven into the story, the author lets the imagination of the reader flow freely like a river. These stories talk about the bitterness, the wants, the dreams, ego, lust and everything else that the bazaar flows with, These stories bring out the volatility that depicts the very human nature in its most naked form.

Author: A.Madhavan 
Genre: Literature and Fiction
Publishing House: Zero Degree Publishing
No. Of Pages: 116
Language: English

A time travel fiction that begins in 2037 A.D with Dev, a Mars Mission specialist, traumatized by a Tsunami in Japan. Dev’s brain travels back and forth on a timeline when he is asleep and starts visualizing himself as Prince Rajendra Cholan of the ancient past, John Wilbur and Saravanan of recent times. He uncovers the truth behind the origin of the oldest language spoken on the surface of the earth – Tamil. If history, both ancient and modern coupled with scientific proofs, reveals that there is an entire race that wants to protect the sanctity of Tamil language, at the cost of sacrificing valuable human lives; it makes us wonder if there is more to it than what meets our eyes. From ancient Indus Valley Civilization to futuristic Altabs and Touch Sheets, interspersed with fact-based fiction, did Dev succeed in translating the visuals from his brain trenches to a substantial discovery?