BookaHolic

It is time to get sex out of the closet.

Though sex is considered a ‘dirty’ word in Indian society, the indispensable role it plays in our lives cannot be denied. The Toilet Seat takes a good look at how sex is perceived and portrayed in society, the social stigma attached to sex, especially the premarital and extramarital kind, and the perversions that suppression of sex can cause.

The book reflects upon the grey areas in relationships, the hypocrisy of people and the so-called values that bind people in a knot, redefines perceptions, and dispels myths with respect to love, sex and the female orgasm. It also gives valuable suggestions to improve relationships by understanding the sexual needs of partners and talking about them openly.

Well, what does the title of the book The Toilet Seat have to do with all this? Read on to find out.

There are very few literary works in Tamil that show how our society response to love marriages as well as inter caste marriages. But such marriages happening every now and then before our eyes. Perumal Murugan’s novel describes the problems experienced by two lovers who marry inter caste and how they solved them. The pookuzhi novel raises various questions on the issue from different angles.

There is nothing wrong with my stories. If you can not bear my stories, it means that you can not bear our time.

- Sadat Hassan Manto

The lyricism of Carnatic ragas permeate the pages of this quiet and powerful book in which love is rendered in all its immeasurable avatars—parental, carnal, platonic, romantic, divine. There is the woman who reinvents the notion of love in a unique way that amalgamates technology and spirituality through the internet; a man full of love who can sing Bulleh Shah and the woman who has lost her all in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots; the woman in the title story who stands by her deaf daughter but understands why her husband must leave the home they have built with love all these years; the man who finds out what it is to be a woman after a dip in the pond... These short stories are shorn of sentimentality but have a deep understanding of what it means to live, to love and to die.

CS Lakshmi, writing under the pseudonym Ambai, has been a significant voice in Indian literature for the past four decades. A Red-necked Green Bird is the writer’s seventh collection of short stories.

A shocking exposé of the India behind the shining Bollywood mask. Roy’s collection of essays spanning the first eight years of the 21st century will make you question what you thought you knew about the subcontinent.

Oru Visaavukkaaka Kaaththiruththal (Waiting for a visa) book autobiographical life story of B. R. Ambedkar written in the period of 1935–36. It consists of reminiscences drawn by Ambedkar, related to his experiences with untouchability, in his owner handwriting. The book is used as a textbook in Columbia University.

The novel 'Thottiyin Magan' is a Malayalam translation of the novel 'Thottiyin Maga' written by Thakazhi Sivasankarappillai in 1946. It was translated into Tamil by Sundara Ramasamy. The novel focuses on the lives of scavengers and their feelings and expressions in the Alappuzha Municipal Council.

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney,. So let us try to loot more Here, Welcome to BookaHolic, ALL ABOUT BOOKS !!!

What is the future life of a man. Symbols that you would have done if you had dared, courage that you would have shown if you had been compelled. Diseases that he could have gotten if he wanted to, shame that he could have gotten if he had, these are his life. We do not know about his next day; Because to him - like many of us - tomorrow is an another day!

Through a seeming act of providence, an old couple receives a day-old female goat kid as a gift from the cosmos. Thus begins the story of Poonachi, the little orphan goat. As you follow her story from forest to habitation, independence to motherhood, you recognise in its significant moments the depth and magnitude of your own fears and longings, fuelled by the instinct for survival that animates all life. Masterly and nuanced, Perumal Murugan’s tale forces us reflect on our own responses to hierarchy and ownership, selflessness and appetite, love and desire, living and dying. Poonachi is the story of a goat who carries the burden of being different all her life, of a she-goat who survives against the odds. It is equally an expression of solidarity with the animal world and the female condition. The tale is also a commentary on our times, on the choices we make as a society and a nation, and the increasing vulnerability of individuals, particularly writers and artists, who resist when they are pressed to submit.