Showing results by narrator "Deepti Gupta" in All Categories

Hari, a remarkably well-set-up young lad, has spent his entire life in a small village with his pious widowed mother, and the purity of his soul is largely uncorrupted by worldly sophistication. But now, poised on the brink of manhood, he feels himself moved by strange new urgings - urgings that will lead him far from the quiet life he has known. Though these strings are unfamiliar to him, virtuous Hari recognizes them for what they are: a hunger for spiritual enlightenment.

In England, far from his desert home, Ali bin-Massoud serves as apprentice to the famed Charles Babbage. One night a mysterious box is delivered by a clockwork falcon and Ali's world is never the same again. Heartache, danger, and thieves mark his journey as Ali is summoned home at the death of his father. It will take faith, knowledge, and yes, love to realize his destiny, and more than a little skill with steam-driven technology.

An inspiring personal story by the most prominent Muslim woman activist and legislator for women’s rights in Pakistan. In the fall of 2001, a newlywed English professor took on a job editing the “women’s section” of one of Pakistan’s leading Urdu newspapers. She soon transformed pages of celebrity gossip and fashion advice into a vehicle for the investigation of the true lives of Pakistani women. News of acid attacks on hapless women, the trading of girls as currency in tribal disputes, and other abuses transformed this young mother into a fiery advocate for women’s rights.

A collection drawing from the many areas of Mary Anne Mohanraj's work, Silence and the Word includes everything from enticing erotica to Sri Lankan-American immigrant tales, from romantic poetry to provocative essays, like “Esthely Blue” (a magical-realist semi-autobiographical story of sex, work, and disappearing body parts), “At the Gates of the City” (a Mormon ghost story), and the award-winning story “A Gentle Man” (an affecting tale of an immigrant father’s attempt to reconcile his own yearning for home with his children’s individual needs and desires). Mohanraj boldly explores sexuality, ethnicity, and their interactions with the human heart.

A young bride shuts herself up in a bedroom on her wedding day, refusing to get married. In this moving and humorous look at contemporary Israel and the chaotic ups and downs of love everywhere, her family gathers outside the locked door, not knowing what to do. The harder they try to reach the defiant woman, the more the despairing groom is convinced her refusal should be respected. But what, exactly, ought to be respected? Is this merely a case of cold feet? A feminist statement? A mourning ritual for a lost sister?

Laxmi never paid much attention to the tiny hairs above her lip. But one day while playing farm animals at recess, her friends point out that her whiskers would make her the perfect cat. She starts to notice body hair all over - on her arms, legs, and even between her eyebrows. With her parents' help, Laxmi learns that hair isn't just for heads, but that it grows everywhere, regardless of gender.

Healthy relationships across cultures are possible. Dr. Michelle Reyes takes a close look at the concept of cultural accommodation found in Scripture—and especially in the letter of 1 Corinthians—to redefine how Christians interact with cultural narratives that are different from their own.

Building from his acclaimed anthology Tales of Two Americas, beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together a group of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live. In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality as it is experienced.