Announcement: Indic Book Club To Launch Two Books - ‘Soul Call’ And ‘Oh My Gods’ - On 9 July

You are cordially invited to the launch event of these books on 9 July 2017 at 6.30 PM in The Gulmohar Hall of India Habitat Centre , New Delhi.

‘Oh My Gods’ By Manish Jaitly

Revolutions give slogans that can make or break a country. In India, slogans have brought people together and have led them to independence. Slogans also pit people against each other. They mark ideologies and define causes. They beget anger. In February 2016, some slogans were raised at Jawahar Lal Nehru University, a bastion of the left, in New Delhi. The slogans were anti-India.

The students raising these slogans wanted to commemorate the death by hanging of Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. The anti-India slogans shook the conscience of the entire nation, including the author’s. His life changed. Oh My Gods, the book was born. Indic Book Club presents the launch of Oh My Gods, a book by Manish Jaitly. Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain will be the chief guest at the event at the India Habitat Centre, on July 9.

Oh My Gods reveals the travails of the protagonist who inadvertently gets embroiled in the events of February 9, 2016, when these slogans were raised. In the process, the protagonist understands the nefarious designs of the communists who have picked up arms against the nation. The book brings out very clearly the intentions of naxalites.

It also reveals the reasons why the atrocities of communists are kept hidden from people in general. It is a befitting reply to those who still believe in an ideology which is fast failing itself. Failing for 50 years.

A revolution which has not succeeded in 50 years will never succeed. The communist ideology has been proven to be an unsuccessful and unnatural system of governance around the world. Its success in China — moderate. The rare sparks of success have come at a very high cost in terms of human lives, especially in erstwhile USSR, China, Cambodia and North Korea. Unfortunately, these things are never talked about. What motivates some people in India towards this ideology? Can slogans from this failed ideology affect someone in such a manner that he picks up a weapon against his nation? Yes, they can. Oh My Gods, written by a bold author who has served the uniform and held the pen, hits such questions.

Manish Jaitly retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving for more than 20 years in uniform, including most part of his service in Jammu and Kashmir. In 1995, he volunteered to serve in Siachen Glacier. Deployed in Baramulla during the Kargil War, he has also seen action against Pakistan in Uri, Akhnoor and Gurez sectors, and against the Chinese in Ladakh Scouts. He retired from the army in Jan 2012. An alumuni of IIM Ahemdabad, he helped establish a stock trading company in Gurgaon. He quit the company, in June 2016, to write this book on the JNU episode. The slogans shook his conscience. The brave man picked the pen.

‘Soul Call - Of Love and More’ by Dimple Kaul

The second launch presents Soul Call – of love And More, a collection of poems from Dimple Kaul. Her poems on love, wrapped in the scent of a crumpled rose and memory of a rose that inspired her to pen her first poem, build gentle ripples of pain, drowsily, into the “cycle of love”.

Soul Call – of Love and More, will be launched by Prof Makarand Paranjpe. If love poems were assigned a time, morning is for Soul Call – of love and more. Morning — when the “You” and “I”, as Dimple visions them, become crystal clear and pure, as pure as her thoughts of love, pure in expression and conversation, pure in meaning she has assigned to her words and phrases. The “You” and “I”, in poem after poem, become destinations to an emotion. The emotion of love. “How different is our love”, “No Time” and “Mirage” establish the “I”. Love gives Dimple’s words enormous firmness — in love, pain, separation, questions, answers, “I” and “You”.

Dimple’s poems do not come straight from a rose or tulip garden. They come from the folds of memory. She says, “Early this year, as I lay convalescing from a near death accident, I remembered the promise and felt compelled to complete it.”
She managed to write more and visit memory from the dull surface of recovery and the confines of her bed. “…Delightfully surprised, that in the midst of writing articles, short stories, satire on Politics, Society and History”.

Reflections on Browning’s life led to poetry. Dimple explains the inspiration behind the craft. “I was enraptured by her life of love, ailment, resolve and brilliance! It was then that I promised to myself that I would write at least ten Love poems fashioned after her inimitable style that offers a wonder amalgamation of ballad and lyrical poems.”

There is a poem “For Elizabeth Barrett Browning!” in Soul Call – of Love and More. Dimple has dedicated the collection of poems to Browning, one of her favourite English poets. She says, “Many years ago, I chanced upon her How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43 from her Sonnets from the Portuguese). It resonated with me and made me ponder over the emotions beneath the words.”

The book is a beautiful tribute to Browning and Love.