By Rumki Chowdhury

The First Bangladeshi Version of a Cinderella Story written in English

Her Feet Chime, published under Author House, has been revered by critics and readers. Set in Bangladesh, the story takes the reader on the journey of 17-year-old protagonist, Asha, whose parents die in a tragic horse carriage accident. It is when her tyrannical aunt and cousin take control over Asha’s household that Asha is forced into servitude and renamed, Thamsha. Hereafter, Asha slowly transforms into someone she no longer recognizes. Will she ever find herself again?  With Bengali terms (written in English) scattered throughout the novella and detailed description of Bangladeshi settings, costumes, food, and traditions, Her Feet Chime achieves the goal of enhancing cultural awareness. Rumki tells Islam Online, “The story is didactic, but it is also based on the readers’ perception. I do not wish to tell them what to take from Her Feet Chime, but hope is one aspect.”

Asiana Magazine says, “You can’t lose your culture, even if you try and escape it. It will come back to haunt you!”

East End Life says, “Never give up on your talent: Critical acclaim for determined young author’s book.”

Dan Brown’s follow-up to The Da Vinci Code has sold more copies in its first 36 hours of UK release than any other adult hardback novel, say publishers

The Lost Symbol, formerly known as the working title The Solomon Key, is a novel by American writer Dan Brown. The Lost Symbol is the third book to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon, after 2000’s Angels & Demons and 2003’s The Da Vinci Code. On its first day the book sold one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

The book’s story takes place over a period of 12 hours in Washington, D.C., with a focus on Freemasonry.Langdon is summoned to Washington to give a lecture, apparently by his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon. However instead of an audience for his lecture he finds the severed right hand of Peter Solomon tattooed and pointing in a peculiar way. Langdon begins a rapid chase through the basement of the Capitol building, solving a series of cryptic clues. He joins forces with Solomon’s sister, Noetic scientist Dr. Katherine Solomon, while matching wits with Mal’akh, a tattooed, self-castrated and brilliant villain who is in search of an ancient source of power. The climax takes place in a Masonic Lodge. Mal’akh believes he has the “lost symbol”. His death minutes later has a description of his soul being received by devils. The final chapters reveal more about the “lost symbol”, and the book ends with the word “Hope”.

The book begins with the initiation of a thirty third degree Freemason, later revealed to be Mal’akh. After successfully infiltrating the highest level of Freemasonry, Mal’akh intends to use his newfound position to find the Ancient Mysteries, a mythical source of lost knowledge.

Later, Robert Langdon receives a call from his old friend Peter Solomon, a thirty third degree Mason, inviting him to deliver a speech at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. However, Langdon finds Solomon’s severed hand in the Rotunda and quickly discovers that he had been fooled into coming by Mal’akh because he possesses the knowledge and the key required to unlock the Ancient Mysteries. Mal’akh reveals that he has Peter hostage, and demands that Langdon unlock the Ancient Mysteries in return for Peter’s life. He is then quickly apprehended by Director Inoue Sato of the CIA Office of Security, who demands that he solve the mystery since it is a matter of national security. Langdon interprets the symbols on Peter’s hand as the acronym SBB13, a room in the subbasement of the Capitol Building. They discover that Peter had converted the room into a Freemason meditation chamber, and find an incomplete pyramid in the back. Sato quickly realizes that Langdon is in possession of the pyramid’s capstone, which Peter had given to him for safekeeping years ago. She orders him to hand the capstone over, but he is rescued by the Architect of the Capitol Building, Warren Bellamy. Bellamy, revealing that he is also a Freemason and a friend of Peter, and takes him to a hidden room in the Library of Congress. Bellamy insists that the secret of the Ancient Mysteries must be protected at all costs, including Peter’s life, but Langdon remains skeptical about the exitence of the Mysteries.

Meanwhile, Peter’s sister, Katherine Solomon, is performing Noetic experiments in the Smithsonian Museum Support Center. Her experiments in the nature of human consciousness have the potential to unlock the secrets of the ability of thought to affect matter. However, Mal’akh is determined to kill her and destroy her research. He manages to break into Katherine’s lab and destroy her research, but Katherine herself manages to escape. She recognizes Mal’akh as the man who assaulted her family years ago in an attempt to interrogate Peter. Their mother was killed in the incident, while Mal’akh was shot and believed to be dead. She makes her way to the Library of Congress to get help but inadvertently runs into Langdon and Bellamy.

However, their meeting is short-lived, as Sato sends a CIA special forces team to pursue them. Bellamy helps Langdon and Katherine escape, and lets himself be captured as a decoy. Katherine, wanting to Peter, attaches the capstone and pyramid together, which reveals the phrase “The secret hides within The Order” and a code deciphered by a magic square. The decoded message reads Jeova Sanctus Unus, Latin for “One True God”. Langdon is contacted by a friend of Bellamy’s, Reverend Collin Galloway, who instructs them to go to the Washington National Cathedral. After eluding their CIA pursuit, Langdon and Katherine meet with Galloway, who provides them with additional insight into the Ancient Mysteries. Langdon then realizes that “One True God” was actually a pseudonym for Isaac Newton, and the answer lies in his works. Meanwhile, Sato shows Bellamy top secret information which horrifies him and instantly turns him to her side.

As the CIA begins to close in on the cathedral, Langdon and Katherine escape to the nearby Cathedral College. Katherine realizes that the pyramid must be boiled in water to reveal the next clue, as Newton’s temperature scale records the boiling point as thirty three degrees, a signficant number in Freemasonry. The process causes additional words to incandesence. The new phrase reads as: “The secret lies within The Order Eight Franklin Square”. They then receive a phone call from the police, informing them that they have located Mal’akh’s house as well as Peter. However, they are caught by Sato. Langdon tells Sato everything he knows, and in return, she lets him go with Katherine to see Peter. Unfortunately, it is a trap set by Mal’akh, and he captures them both. He interrogates Langdon and forces him to solve the next step in the puzzle, and reveals that he is searching for the Word, a secret word kept by the Freemasons that can grant a person unimaginable power. He leaves Langdon and Katherine to die while he takes Peter to the location of the Word.

Langdon and Katherine are then rescued by Sato. Langdon tells them that the phrase actually refers to the Order Eight Franklin Square, another magic box. They correspond to a set of symbols on the underside of the pyramid, and Langdon quickly deduces that Mal’akh has taken Peter to the Freemason Temple House in D.C. En route, Sato shows Langdon why Mal’akh poses such a threat to national security. He had secretly taped his initiation ceremony, implicating a number of influential Americans. Langdon knows that the Freemason’s archaic rituals would not be understood, and they would face a massive backlash of persecution. Meanwhile, inside the Temple House, Mal’akh reveals that he is in fact Peter’s son Zachary. Unhappy with the way he was treated by his father, he faked his own death and experienced a religious epiphany, finding the need to learn the Word and complete his transformation into a godlike being. Thinking he has learned the Word, Zachary goads Peter into killing him in order to complete the ritual. Fortunately, Langdon tackles Peter before he can carry out the act, while a CIA helicopter disables Zachary’s laptop to keep him from distributing the video. However, the helicopter inadvertently shatters the Temple House’s skylight, mortally wounding Zachary in the shower of glass. Shortly before Zachary dies, Peter reveals that Zachary did not actually know the true Word.

With the night’s events over, Peter decides to show Langdon the true Word. He shows Langdon that it is hidden in the cornerstorne of the Washington Monument, and that the Word is actually the Bible. Peter reveals that the true Ancient Mystery is in fact the realization that people are not God’s subjects, but in fact possess the capability to be gods themselves. Once they realize this fact, they will open the gateway to a magnficent future. Katherine remarks that her research that was destroyed by Zachary was safely backed up in a separate location, and that her studies in Noetics are set to revolutionize the scientific field. Peter decides to give them one last present, and arranges for them to be able to view the sun rise over D.C. from the roof of the Capitol Building. Langdon reflects on all that he’s learned in the past twelve hours and feels a certain emotion swelling up within him.

Watch Now

Oxfam reports on its emergency & reconstruction projects.        

On May 12, 2008, the worst earthquake to hit China in 50 years destroyed lives and livelihoods in western  China. Centered on Wenchuan in Sichuan Province, it also seriously affected people in the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

Oxfam Hong Kong responded with relief work in the first few months following the disaster, bringing relief supplies to 125 impoverished communities and getting children back into safe, temporary schools. As of March 31, 2009, we have worked alongside 20 organizations in 3 provinces, supporting about 700,000 people as they rebuild their communities; allocation for these 37 relief and reconstruction projects total over HK $33 million.

One year on from that terrible morning, the relief phase is over. As a poverty-relief agency, Oxfam’s task is not only to help lives return to normal, but to improve economic well-being and permanently reduce people’s vulnerability to future natural disasters. In this task, Oxfam’s priority is to assist the poorest and most marginalized survivors of the disaster: women, children, the elderly and ethnic minorities.

‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’

HARRY POTTER 6

 
Voldemort is stronger in both Muggle and Wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is in danger just like it was before. Dumbledore prepares Harry for the final battle.

THE ARMAGEDDON MANDALA

BY GOPAL MUKERJEE

when a mysterious stranger, Gyani shows up in his office with a lucrative PI gig that Ginsberg can’t refuse. What starts out as a small, but eccentric assignment quickly turns sour and Ginsberg soon finds himself trapped in a vortex of increasingly bizarre rituals and life-threatening ordeals that defy all reason and explanation. When Gyani hits Ginsberg with a revelation that “flips his life-world ass over tit”, Ginsberg discovers that the fate of the world rests in his hands and nothing will ever be the same again. Excerpt: I didn’t see him at first. What I saw was an image of the sun in total eclipse, a dark disc with a flaming corona. Then the image changed and a face appeared. Not a human face, no such luck. More like one of those extraterrestrial mugs you see in UFO movies. Here  we go, I thought, another alien abduction. They’re going to beam me up to the Mother Ship, stick probes in my favourite orifice and sap my dugs for their breeding program. I stared at that face a moment, my vision unfocused. Then I tipped back my hat, wiped drool off my chin, swung my feet off the desk and blinked. That’s when I saw him clear: a stocky little guy, brown, stone bald, in a metal gray Nehru suit. A red rose showed at his breast pocket, his shoes gleaming black. Casa Ginsberg appeared at left, picturesque as ever. The sight of it shoud’ve gladdened me, but it didn’t. Not this time.

All it did was remind me of Little Boy and the trouble I was in. I had a definite sense of foreboding now. Not just foreboding. I was past the ‘fore’. This was pure, undisguised boding, a tangible augury of doom.

About the author: Gopal Mukerjee is a writer, imagist and provocateur of Indian origin. He was born in Mumbai and has lived in India, Britain and the United States. As a writer of novels and screenplays, Gopal favours the lurid, the hypertrophic and the Rabelaisian. He has a penchant for cult narratives that resemble drug-addled nightmares and surreal mind-trips

About Revenge Ink: Revenge Ink is a revolutionary new publishing company that launched to challenge the conventions of the mainstream, highbrow publishing industry by showcasing cutting-edge works from subversive new writers. Dynamic siblings Amita and Gopal Mukerjee founded Revenge Ink to promote strong voices and take on emotionally driven and inspiring projects to encourage edgy ‘outside-the-box’ thinking. 

www.revengeink.com  

A Winning Attitude

FEELING DEPRESSED – LOST YOUR JOB – YOUR RELATIONSHIP – LOST HOPE THAT LIFE COULD BE BETTER AGAIN

Well today is your lucky day – this pocket size book A Winning Attitude is about to change your life – packed with motivational quotes written to lift your spirits, make you feel glad to be alive, accept responsibility, make changes and help motivate you into new levels of thinking and feeling, which will ensure your life takes off in a new direction towards your dreams and desires.

YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS CREATE YOUR LIFE

You can have both GOOD and BAD feelings about your current situation, but remember if you are thinking bad thoughts and can’t change or lift yourself out of this negative thought pattern, you will constantly attract the same negative and situations to you. Start now to have GOOD positive thoughts and feelings about how grateful you are to be alive, to have good health, grateful for your loved ones and family, interests and friends, then from this more secure positive standpoint you can start to re-build a new life, just by changing your thoughts.

This new approach and positive attitude will inspire you to THINK and FEEL differently, to believe in yourself, and with this added self confidence and self belief, you will be motivated to take charge of yourself and your situation, by taking responsibility for motivating yourself with positive THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS creating a better future.

Whether you are going through repossession, bankruptcy, broken relationship or any other unhappy experience, it is now time for you to take ‘responsibility’, (meaning ‘the ability to respond’) and respond to the situation by changing the way you THINK and FEEL about yourself and your life.

Quote “All that we are is the result of what we have thought”   Buddha

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD AND MAKE CHANGES

You have to now take control of your life, you have to start by thinking and believing that your life is now improving. To help your thoughts become more positive and focused you have to understand that our FEELINGS play a huge part in determining our THOUGHTS and APPROACH to any situation. 

Our FEELINGS let us know what we are thinking, we all have good and bad feelings, but to move forward and make changes for improvement, you must rid yourself of feelings of DEPRESSION, GUILT, RESENTMENT and ANGER, as these BAD NEGATIVE FEELINGS  don’t make you feel good, but make you feel worse and thus attract more negative situations. REMEMBER – everything in your life right now you have attracted, all the good things you can be proud of and any negative situations you may find yourself in right now, that we are addressing. 

This may be difficult for you to accept – but once you DO accept that you have attracted situations through your THOUGHTS and FEELINGS – this can be truly LIFE TRANSFORMING for you.  Your Feelings control your thoughts and any thoughts in the past of FEAR, SEPARATION and POWERLESSNESS you have attracted these situations to you. When you FEEL bad you are on the frequency of attracting MORE bad things to you.  But GOOD feelings make you think GOOD.

These thoughts and feelings will attract, EXCITEMENT, JOY, GRATITUDE & LOVE into your life.  Keep up these good positive thoughts to attract more good things. You have to FEEL GOOD to attract all the good situations and things you want to attract. FEAR or NEGATIVE thoughts will NOT attract GOOD THINGS. Our FEELINGS are a ‘feedback’ mechanism of what we are thinking and let us know what we are attracting into our lives – GOOD positive feelings for GOOD things and BAD negative feelings CREATE bad situations. Your thoughts and feelings MAKE YOUR LIFE. 

START NOWTo change your thoughts to THINK something GOOD, from this action you will have GOOD FEELINGS for advancement and achievement.  Purposely use your good feelings to feel LOVE, PEACE & GENEROSITY. Demonstrating these good feelings towards others, ensures you will receive love, peace and generosity back from other people. Remember, what you give out – you get back but 10 fold.

When you are FEELING GOOD THOUGHTS then you are on ‘track in your life’ and attracting good things to you. When you FEELING NAGATIVE THOUGHTS then you are ‘off track in your life’, you need to change your thinking to get back ‘on track’.

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE AND CREATE A NEW LIFE – it’s all starts with you, YOUR ATTITUDE, THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

Quote: “You create your own universe as you go along”Winston Churchill

ORDER NOW A Winning Attitude book in hard copy, e-book  or audio @ £2.99 at www.awinningattitude.com

Lose Your Weight Not Your mind - Kareena Kapoor

The secret to Kareena Kapoor’s much coveted size zero is finally out in the open. She spent Valentine’s Day encouraging people to love their bodies and shed flab. The actress was present for a book launch of her trainers book Loose Your Weight Not Your Mind.

Kareena. ‘First and foremost it’s about eating right, only then can one start beginning to love their body. And when loves their body they don’t abuse it’

Don’t Lose Your Mind Lose Your Weight – ‘Rujuta has not just changed my body but also my mind and soul. She is the best thing to have happened to my life!’—Kareena Kapoor.

Want to know how Kareena Kapoor managed to achieve the perfect figure? Let Rujuta Diwekar tell you how. India’s top celebrity fitness guru has worked with the who’s who of Bollywood including Kareena, Karishma, Saif, Lisa and Sonali. Now she lets you in on her secret—you can eat anything you want just as long as you plan for it. No crash dieting, no carb deprivation, no unbidden cravings. Rujuta teaches you the three simple steps to dieting heaven: learn about your body, create the right plan for it, and slowly adjust your food habits.

What’s more, she even lets you in on Bebo’s secret, in a special chapter on how exactly our favourite heroine got that phenomenally fit bikini bod for Tashan. So whether you’re apple or pear-shaped, soon you’ll be eating all you want—including those irresistible parathas—and still shedding those kilos. Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight is the ultimate diet for daily life. It’s worked for the stars—now make it work for you.
 

Kareena Kapoor

‘An absolutely incredible book…equal parts comedy and tragedy…I promise you will not be able to put it down.’Steven D. Levitt, co-author, Freakonomics 

To be published in paperback by Penguin Books on 5th February 2009, priced £8.99

Sudhir Venkatesh

The Robert Taylor Homes are one of Chicago’s most notorious housing projects.  Gang Leader For A Day takes us there, right into the heart of the Black Kings gang, and is an absorbing and fascinating exploration into the morally ambiguous underbelly of gang culture. When Sudhir Venkatesh was looking for people to take part in a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty, he never imagined that he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade in the projects, under his protection. Venkatesh’s unique access to dealers, crackheads, squatters, prostitutes, pimps, activists, cops, organisers, and officials paints an honest and exposed portrait of an urban war zone.  Populated by fascinating characters such as JT, T-Bone – JT’s henchman, a prostitute called Peanut and Ms Baily, the all powerful president of the building, Gang Leader For A Day uncovers the complex organisational structure of the crack-selling trade and crime culture, and answers the question: what is it like to live in hell?           

Sudhir Venkatesh is Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Columbia University, New York. He has written extensively about American poverty. He is currently working on a project comparing the urban poor in France and the United States. His writings, stories and documentaries have appeared in the mainstream national media in the United States.  

 mari.yamazaki@uk.penguingroup.com

Catch a fish from the Sea

Nasreen Akhtar, the ‘real Asian Bridget Jones’, has just been named one of  ten finalists up for the Book to Talk About award 2009 for her raw and inspiring memoir about her search for love online, ‘Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet)’ (greenbirds, £12.99).

Ever since the book was released by small independent publisher, greenbirds which she set up with help from the Prince’s Trust, 34 year old Nasreen, who also illustrated and designed the book’s striking cover, has been inundated by outstanding reader response.

The  comments board on the Books to Talk about 2009 website is buzzing with praise. So too at the Daily Telegraph when it announced the long list. Amazon readers have published ravishing reviews awarding it an average rating of the highest possible five stars. The book was Asian Woman magazine’s Book of the Month (Issue 36).

Said Nasreen:

“The scary part about dreams is when they start to come true! I am delighted both as the author and the publisher of the book that it has started its journey of a thousand miles with such wonderful first steps!”

Now she hopes her book will win the coveted award, chosen by readers who can vote for her book here on the Spread the Word website (http://www.spread-the-word.org.uk/index.asp). Spread the Word is part of World Book Day, the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland. Voting reopens on 30th January. The winner will be announced on World Book Day – Thursday 5th March 2009.

Nasreen is available for interviews for all media.

 RRP: £12.99

Ultimate Guide to Beauty

The world’s first comprehensive beauty guide for Asian women is out now.  
The Ultimate Guide to Beauty (Glentree Publishing) by Anjana Gosai is a one-of-a-kind dressing table guide containing everything a girl needs to look and feel her best.

Over 210 pages and 12 chapters, Britain’s leading Asian beauty expert Anjana Gosai shares her essential tips and trade secrets. The hardback book is crammed with practical advice on how to achieve inner and outer beauty with chapters on ‘skin’, ‘understanding your face’, ‘tools’, ‘foundation’, ‘eyes’, ‘cheeks’, ‘lips’, ‘nails’, ‘hair’, ‘unwanted hair’, ‘bridal beauty’, ‘henna’, ‘catwalk’, ‘Bollywood beauty’ and ‘body & mind’.  Author, Anjana Gosai, a former model and health and beauty journalist with over eight years experience, says: “I was inundated with letters from readers asking for beauty advice and soon realised that there was nothing out there which catered to the needs of today’s Asian woman.“Whether it’s lipstick junkies searching for the perfect shade or confused brides-to-be unsure about their look for the big day, the Ultimate Guide to Beauty has the answers.” 

THE BOOK FEATURES:

•  Step-by-step instructions and illustrations to help you choose the right foundation for your skin tone, how to create smoky eyes, perfect brows, long-lasting lip colour and many more essential beauty looks and tips.

• Stunning photography of trend-setting looks featuring some of India’s leading supermodels such as Ujjwala Raut, Sheetal Mallar, Indrani Das Gupta, Tinu Verghese and Upen Patel.

• Exclusive advice from leading hairdressers, skincare gurus, make-up artists from around the world, including Bollywood make-up maestros Mickey Contractor, Kapil Bhalla and industry experts Adhuna Bhabani-Akhtar, Ruby Hammer, Clint Fernandes, Ash Kumar, Naveeda, Dar, Philip Kingsley, Bastien Gonzalez and many more. 

• A guide to inner wellbeing from leading life coach Robin Sharma (author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari), yoga masters at the Ananda Spa in the Himalayas and Ayurvedic tips from the renowned Somatheeram Health Resort in Kerala.

• Essential tips on hair removal 

• A bridal beauty guide 

A round up of classic and contemporary Bollywood beauty looks from the last 50 years

• A global beauty directory – so readers can choose where to have their beauty treatments all over the world.

The Ultimate Guide to Beauty is a must-have for every girl’s dressing table. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anjana Gosai has been working as a health and beauty journalist in Britain for over eight years during which she has contributed to several publications including: The Daily Mail, Daily Express, Elle, Sunday Times Style, Harper’s Bazaar, First, Celebs on Sunday (Sunday Mirror), Tesco magazine, The London Paper, London Lite, and Vogue Japan.  Although countless publications are available for Caucasian and black women, there is very little available for South Asian women in the beauty world.

As a former Beauty editor for Asian Woman and Asian Bride and currently the beauty editor of Asiana and Asiana Wedding magazine, Anjana has understood this, constantly offering advice and tips to her loyal readers.  Anjana takes pride in researching and recommending the relevant beauty solutions for her readers and meeting their needs for guidance and advice. Her fresh, simple and honest style has won her a loyal following of readers. 

Stockists: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEAUTY, by Anjana Gosai (£19.95, Glentree Publishing) Is available to buy from www.amazon.co.uk.