Neeraj's Books

Whenever a war happens, we tend to think, 'Why this war?' 'What's going through the minds of the leaders?' 'Why aren't some cooperating while others aren't? ' and more...  Samuel P. Huntington answers every such question based on how a country's ingrained culture drives its politics, economics, and more in his seminal work 'Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.'  The core of the book is Huntington's classification of the world into six civilizations encompassing nations based on their shared culture. The book justifies its stance on why it is naive to have assumed that the end of the Cold War is the end of the ideological conflict and, as the renowned historian and Huntington's contemporary Francis Fukuyama puts it, the End of History.  Instead, the book, based on an article Huntington published in the Foreign Affairs journal, shows that there will be new types of conflicts based on religion, culture, and oth...

  He is one of the biggest action stars to ever grace the silver screen. He has broken almost every bone on his body to excite his fans with his daredevil stunts. However, he wants to show that he is just like everyone: one with weaknesses and mistakes. He is Jackie Chan.  Never Grow Up, the memoir of action star Jackie Chan written by Zhu Mo and translated by Jeremy Tiang is a tour of how Jackie went from being a nobody to a famous star and how he changed and not changed in this journey.  The book develops a chronological story telling format, which makes it almost like Jackie himself is narrating the story to the reader (Kudos to the writer for that. You'll really enjoy it if you read it as if Jackie is speaking to you). The author also adds her own tidbits to the story as a supplement to the narration, which blend well with the story. The book does not try to hide the lesser-known vulnerable side of Jackie despite the trend of producing a perfect image of oneself when ...

When we have something that we value deeply, we tend to protect it at all costs. For people, it's their loved ones; for organisations and businesses, it's their MVPs, and for countries, it's what is known as strategic locations...  A strategic location is of great importance for any country, especially when seen from the perspective of national security. But what happens to the strategic location if it is coveted by two nuclear weapon-wielding nations, in a game both know they can't afford to lose?  Radha Kumar's Paradise at War: A Political History of Kashmir captures the grim realities of the politics of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (now Union Territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh) and the impact of the influences of India and Pakistan. It also sheds light on what the people of the erstwhile state (or present union territories) experienced and aspire about being Kashmiri.  The author first clears the air by showing Kashmir's problems did not sta...

  An ancient secret vital for the very survival of humankind stays guarded in the holy city of Kashi. An evil corporation has to find out this secret to succeed in its centuries-long goal of world domination. A successful, dashing and unsuspecting young businessman meets his grandfather after twenty long years in a matth in Kashi, only to find out that everything he had ever known and believed is not like what they seem...  What is the guarded secret of humanity? Why does the evil corporation want it desperately? How does the young, dashing businessman come in all of this?  These questions and many more await the reader in the scintillating Harappa trilogy by Vineet Bajpai. Spanning across two millennia, the author effortlessly weaves stories that we know with those we don't to create a gripping story that would leave every reader at the edge of their seats. As the story progresses, the lines between fiction and reality blur for the protagonist and the reader.  Vinee...

Year First Published: 2014 Revised Edition: 2019 How to run the biggest festival in the world? The festival called the Indian Elections? An enormous number of hands and minds spearheaded by the Election Commission of India or the ECI, along with the SECs! An Undocumented Wonder by former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi provides an insider's (in fact the top of the ladder) perspective about everything that makes the elections in India a global spectacle. The book covers everything from the grassroots and top-level initiatives, the responses to these initiatives and the controversies and court rulings about the initiatives.  The major plus point of the book is that it addresses all aspects of some of the frequently discussed topics about elections like making the Model Code of Conduct a legal provision, the hiccups in the process and why it's best to leave it as it is. Various people, both heard and unheard are elaborated on their contribution to the election process It ...