Friday, March 23, 2012

Midnite Sale and Celebrations !

Hi all,

Greetings of Gudi Padwa, Ugadhi, Sindhi New Year!!!! May the New Year be prosperous and joyous for all of you and your families.

Thank you for your great response to our Sale.. Many of you timing your work hours to synchronise with our happy hours  Makes us happy too!

And for all those of you who have not yet found the time, yes, there’s happy news for you too. Sat, 24th March is the last day of our Sale, and we will have happy hours from 10pm to 12 midnight. So, be there for our Midnight Sale, on Sat, 24th March when the Store will be open way past our normal working hours. And yes, there will be freebies too!


And please make time for us in the evening hours of 28th March, Wednesday when we actually complete our ten years. It’s been a long journey for us, and for many of you who have been a part of this magnificent journey for large parts of time. Do join us for the mega celebrations at the Store on Wed, 28th March.

For us behind the scenes in twistntales, it has been a joy and pleasure to connect with folks like you and build relationships and understand your book needs, both for you and your kids.

And our model of working mainly with students has been unique and extremely rewarding. Tnt-ians are now all over, accomplished in their respective fields and continue to stay in frequent touch or visit. You will see many of them on Wednesday, the 28th. All of us share wonderful memories of working together and twistntales has had the pleasure of handing over the “first salary cheque” to almost all these students. That these students have done brilliantly both in academics and in the real world is a matter of great pride and joy.

Many of these students are now returning “home” to join us in our party time.

Of them, Reshma Valliappan is one of them, who is truly a creative genius. Reshma is creating a unique graffiti abstraction on our shutter, which is a delight to see. We have been updating the progress on face book on a daily basis. For those who have not seen it on fb, you are most welcome to the Store before/ after Store working hours to see the shutter. We are sure that your kids and you can identify numerous characters on the shutter!

Books are not or have not been a profitable business. When you are faced with a scenario of bookstores closing down around the world, what is it that wants us to go on? Because we have you! Bookstores are a reflection of the times and cultures we live in.

Over time, twistntales has created a niche for itself and is an articulation of the “space” that we crave for. A safe place in the neighbourhood where you can be you, and we can be we. Some conversation, some activity, some re-charging. Something fresh, a liberal thought, a protest activity, a space for disconnects to connect. Yes, we have become a little more than a bookstore and it is your recognition and support for all these activities that makes us feel wanted and supported and gives us renewed energy to carry on.

Sometimes, when we think back and see how long ten years has been, well:

How come we have a hotmail id? Well, then there were only two! Yahoo or Hotmail! how come we have a yahoo group ? Well, msn didn’t have groups and google wasn’t born!

Do you remember a time when there was no google? Well, we have been around from before that?

Do you remember an Aundh with no DAV, no petrol pump, no Bonsai and no Crossword? Well, we have been around from before that!

In many things, we have been ahead of our times. Whether it was our mailer service, which is personally written and sent through yahoo groups or creating a net based book club. Long before Ecommerce became “happening”, our mailers through your inbox allowed you to select books and respond though mail. But we have been slow to allow freedom of purchasing on the net. Soon we shall have all books on the net, and give you the flexibility to browse from home and place orders with us.

We at twistntales feel robust and look to the future with confidence. Currently, we have no plans of adding more outlets anywhere. We prefer to stay small but do a good job. From the numerous responses that we receive from you, we know we are on the right track!

Thank you again for your support!

From the team at,

twistntales

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

SALE !! SALE !! Tenth Anniversary Bonanza !!

Hi all,

Thank you again for your response to our Women’s Day event, which happened on Sat, 10th March.

As we have been shouting from the rooftops, our tenth birthday is fast approaching and we need you to participate in our joy. This series of events has been building towards more excitement. Last week, we had a special promotion for Libraries and Schools and we have had a great response from all the Schools, both near and far. A big thank-you to the teachers and Principals/ Directors who made the time to come and make their selections. Thank you very much.

And now it’s your turn! After having patiently waited, it is now your turn to visit us – Yes, it is ANNUAL SALE time, starting on Thurs, 15th March and on till Sat, 24th March. Do check in, and we are sure, you will love the selections as well as the discounts on offer. There will be happy hours announced every day, where additional discounts will be given, so keep in touch on Facebook, to check out happy hours every day.

So, do make sure as school ends and vacations begin, both you and the kids are well stocked up to last your summer break!

Happy Buying and see you at the Store!

From the team at,

twistntales,

"Songbird" in the Indian Express

http://epaper.indianexpress.com/28595/Indian-Express-Pune/12-March-2012#page/26/2

Sunday, March 11, 2012

"Songbird on my Shoulder" - Event photos !

Here are some snaps from the event "Songbird on my Shoulder - Confessions of an unrepentent madam". Saaz Aggarwal, the author was in conversation with noted columnist, Gouri Dange on the "changing role of the madam" - an International Women's Day event which happened on Sat, 10th March.

Saaz and Gouri answering questions from the audience



Saaz reading from her book



A section of the audience


Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Happy Holi and Women's Day Event !

Message sent to twistntales@hotmail.com on 05/2/2012

Happyyy Holi! Here’s welcoming spring with the festival of colours. Play safe, with natural colours and conserve water! In a city threatened with water cuts starting now for the next four months, Holi does seem a luxury ;-)

Also, all you women out there, hope you have plans to celebrate your day in fun and style! As part of twistntales celebrations of the International Women’s Day (8th March), we are having a reading and discussion with the author, Saaz Aggarwal. “Songbird on my Shoulder – Confessions of an unrepentant Madam” is the book released recently, and Saaz will be with us to read from her book (book is reviewed below)

As a take-off from the book, we will have noted columnist and author Gouri Dange in conversation with Saaz Aggarwal on the changing role of women today. Don’t miss this! All of us are experiencing this in one- way or the other, so please do attend – and this invite is for men and women!

This event is scheduled for 7pm, Saturday, 10th March. Do attend and make it a fun event!

New books at the Store:

“Travelling to Infinity – My Life with Stephen” by Jane Hawking @ Rs. 399/-
In this compelling memoir Jane Hawking, Stephen Hawking’s first wife relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. An open and moving memoir where Jane Hawking confronts not only the acutely complicated and painful dilemma’s of her first marriage, but also the faultlines exposed in a relationship by the pervasive effects of fame and wealth. The result thus is a book about optimism, love and change.

“Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo @ Rs. 499/-
Set in Mumbai, in the Annawadi slum near the Airport, the book explores the lives of Abdul, a reflective teenager and Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty. Both the characters are trying to find “the full joy” but face many obstacles and surprising consequences. This book is a beautiful account, told through real life stories, of the sorrows and joys, anxieties and stamina, in the lives of the precarious and powerless in Urban India, whom a booming city has failed to absorb and integrate. A brilliant book that simultaneously informs, agitates angers, inspires and instigates.

The Monk, the Moor & Moses Ben Jalloun” by Saeed Akhtar Mirza @ Rs.450/-
This book is a novel about a deliberately forgotten history- a history that remains hidden in the hallowed inner sanctums of Western academic institution. Four young students in an American university in 2008 set out to discover those truths on their own: not just because they need to know, but because they see how the past affects their own lives in very real ways. Using intersecting narratives, soliloquies, legends and a host of colourful characters, real and imagined, Mirza dismantles the carefully manufactured European myth about the making of the modern world. He brings to life an Islamic civilization that was flourishing, crackling centre of sciences and liberal arts.

“The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” With an Introduction by Lewis Leary @ Rs.175/-
Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the New World.

Written initially to guide his son, Franklin’s autobiography is a lively, spellbinding account of his unique and eventful life. Stylistically his best work, it has become a classic in world literature, one to inspire and delight readers everywhere.

“Ganesha on the Dashboard” by V. Raghunathan & M. A. Eswaran @ Rs. 299/-
Can the educated, smart and tech-savvy Indian be surprisingly unscientific in his daily life? This unsparingly critical and analytical book points out the shocking lack of scientific temper among the vast majority of Indians, and that is the hypothesis this book builds on. On reading this book you may just think differently about the Ganesha on your Dashboard!

“Bollywood Quiz Book” @ Rs. 150/-
Here’s a quiz book and that too on one of our favorite subjects - Hindi Cinema! Filled with fascinating titbits and trivia, this book travels through the Hindi Film Industry to give you an entertaining peek!

“Wilful Blindness: Why we ignore the obvious at our peril” by Margaret Heffernan @ Rs. 399/-
What makes us blind to the things around us? What is it in our human nature, in the structure of our brain and our institutions that makes us so prone to the weakness of Wilful Blindness? In this book Margaret Heffernan examines the answers to these questions. She also looks at the comforts and costs of our refusal to see and at the inspiring individuals who prove that we could see better. This thought provoking book forces us to open our eyes to the dangers of willful blindness.

“On Tagore: Reading the Poet Today” by Amit Chaudhuri @ Rs 399/-
This book comprises of a collection of masterly written essays On Tagore from one of India’s finest novelist and critics, Amit Chaudhari. Through his essays he illustrates on how Tagore’s real concern were with life, play and contingency, with the momentary as much as it was with the eternal. It is this strain of unacknowledged modernism as well as a revolutionary life- affirming vision that gives his work, the author argues, its immense power.

“The Puffin Book of Magic Stories for 8-Year-Olds” @ Rs. 150/- (pgs 111)
Meet Amar, the little boy who catches an infection of magic, Dewdrop the fairy who grants wishes and Mogu the magician who forgets his charms. Dragons, genii, fairies and many other extraordinary creatures are ready to bewitch you. So say Abracadabra and dive into a world of enchantment with these funny, amazing, magical stories.

“The Puffin Book of Funny Stories for 7-Year-Olds” @ Rs. 150/- (pgs 127)
Meet a cat named Jawaharlal who goes missing; a dragon called Blaze who spouts water; Gulab and Jamoon, dogs who eat recipes; and Shyam the boy who can bark and moo. It’s a comical world here. So if you are feeling blue, or just need a laugh or two grab The Puffin Book of Funny Stories for 7-Year-Olds.

“The Puffin Book of Animal Stories for 6-Year-Olds” @ Rs. 150/- (pgs 111)
This zooful of animal stories is a treat for all you animal lovers and those who share that special bond with your pets. There’s Aman whose visit to the zoo changes his views on animals; Adil who prevents his pet chicken Noor from being eaten at Eid; and Arthy whose tortoise-theme birthday party turns out to be a hit! So stop monkeying around and get safari with these animal stories!

“The Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins @ Rs. 295/-
“Catching Fire” series by Suzanne Collins @ Rs. 295/-
“Mocking Jay” series by Suzanne Collins @ Rs. 295/-

“Everything Begins Elsewhere” by Tishani Doshi @ Rs.299/-
In this, her first collection of poetry since the award-winning “Countries of the Body”, Tishani Doshi returns to the body- a theme she extends beyond the corporeal to challenge the more metaphysical borders of space and time. As much about reclamation as they are about loss, Doshi’s poems guide us through an ‘underworld of longing and deliverance’, where only through the act of vanishing can we be shaped into existence again.

“Emoti-coms: A Marketing Guide to Communicating Through Emotions; From Shouting to Singing your Message” by Xavier Quattrocchi- Oubradous and Charles Bal” @ Rs.295/-
The Marketing strategy is shifting from eyeballs to emotions. A share of heart, not a split second of attention must now be the goal of all marketers. Emoti-coms is the revolutionary guide to this new approach. Lucidly covering the theoretical ground work and introducing actionable ideas, hints and tips for your own emotion based campaigns; it also addresses the ethical dimensions of this new and powerful way of getting your message out to the world. This is a fascinating and provocative read for all marketing and communications professionals.

“Hot tea across India” by Rishad Saam Mehta @ Rs. 195/- (pgs 191)
Travel the length and breadth of India with Rishad Saam Mehta as he interacts with people, places and much more; enjoying honey and saffron infused tea, creating stories and collecting memories along the way! There’s a particular observation he made on his journeys which is that there isn’t a highway, road or dirt track in India where you can’t find a cup of Chai! Chai makes us happy and here’s a book which reinforces the average Indian’s ever willing aptitude for a cup of hot Chai!

“The Illustrated Lives in The Wilderness: Three Classsical Indian Autobiographies” @ Rs. 375/-
Rare Visuals- photographs, line drawings and sketches- this illustrated edition brings together the life stories of Jim Corbett, India’s most well-known hunter conservationist; Verrier Elwin- one of the greatest champions of India’s Tribal Peoples and Salim Ali, the celebrated ornithologist. So read these perennial Classics which rarely lose sight of the long term effects of Human Footprints in the Natural World!

Spartacus The Gladiator: Warrior, Slave, Hero” by Ben Kane @ Rs.550/-
As winter approaches in 74 BC, few traveller are abroad. But one man is making the long and weary last stage of his way home. Large parts of his homeland, Thrace, a land north of Greece, have fallen under the hated power of Rome. This Thracian has fought in the Roman Legions for nearly a decade. Skilled, hardened in battle, a sophisticated fighter: Spartacus. But home is no longer the safe haven of his imagination. When a Roman slave trader comes to the village in search of men who will fight as gladiators, Spartacus is betrayed and sold. His odyssey has begun. The legend that Spartacus has come down to us through the centuries- the story of a man who took on the might of Rome and nearly brought her down.

“The Songbird on my Shoulder: Confessions of an Unrepentant Madam” by Saaz Aggarwal @ Rs.300/-
Around the Occasion of Women’s Day comes this humorous take on life lived as a madam! It’s witty and a quick casual read as the book entails short articles on a wide variety of subjects, surprising perspectives and some wise or un-wise worldly wisdom! A man’s read to be proud of the women in their lives and a Woman’s book to enjoy and bask in the Flattery! A wonderful pick to read through any mood!
Read this book and be a part of the discussion with the Author Saaz Agarwal in conversation with Gauri Dange at twistntales this coming weekend!

‘A Second Sunrise’ Poems by Cheran: Edited and translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom and Sascha Ebeling @ Rs.195/- (pgs 158)
A Second Sunrise showcases some of Cheran’s best works, an accomplished poet of our times. The Sri Lankan civil war looms over much of his work. Poems of the precariousness of love are interwoven with poems of war:
The sea swallowed the sun
Splitting open, spraying
Crimson blood
Over the clouds.
The translators treatment with the poems is both fresh in its particularity and as part of the poets oeuvre. Their English renditions capture the resonance and rhythms that connect Cheran to a long Tamil poetic tradition that spans over two hundred years.

New Books
“And all is Said” By Zareer Masani @ Rs. 299/-
“The Extras” by Kiran Nagarkar @ Rs. 599/-
“Her piece of Sky” – Contemporary Hindi Stories by Deepa Agarwal @ Rs. 295/-
“Inside Apple – The secrets behind the past and future success of Steve Job’s Iconic Brand” by Adam Lashinsky @ Rs. 499/-
“The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief” by V.S. Naipaul @ Rs.399/- (pgs 324) (Now in Paperback!)
“The Story of Indian Business Series” edited by Gurcharan Das @ Rs.399/-
Titles in the Series:
• ‘Merchants of Tamilakam’ by Kanakalatha Mukund
• ‘Arthashastra’ by Thomas R. Trautmann
• ‘The East India Company’ by Tirthankar Roy
Between Democracy and Nation: Gender and Militarisation in Kashmir’ by Seema Kazi @ Rs.375/- (pgs 222)
‘Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971’ by Yasmin Saikia @ Rs.600/- (pgs 304)
‘Shabari: A Novel’ by Vibhavari Shirurkar (Translated by Yashodhara Deshpande Maitra @ Rs.325/- (pgs 181)
‘The Persistence of Caste’ by Teltumbde @ Rs.200/- (pgs 192)
‘Making a Difference: Memoirs from the Women’s movement in India’ edited by Ritu Menon @ Rs. 3502/- (pgs 384)
‘Daughter Deficit: Sex Selection in Tamil Nadu’ by Sharada Srinivasan @ Rs.595/- (pgs 293)
“Anna: 13 Days that Awakened India” by Ashutosh @ Rs. 199/- (pgs 226)
“Mindfulness: A Practical Guide” by Tessa Watt @ Rs.199/- (pgs 216)
“The Other Side: Redefining Bharat” edited by Dominic Emmanuel, Francis Gonsalves and John Dayal @ Rs.495/- (pgs 211)
“Shakti: Real- life stories Celebrating Women Power” by Maloy Krishna Dhar @ Rs.325/- (pgs 381)
“Flight of the Hilsa” by Amit Shankar @ Rs.245/- (pgs 335)
“The Gods of Atlantis” by David Gibbins @ Rs.350/- (pgs 561)
“All about THE FLAG of India: Protocols, Rules, Etiquettes” by Lt. CDR. KV Singh @ Rs.199/- (pgs 108)
“National Motoring Atlas: Get. Set. Explore!” by MapmyIndia @ Rs.350/- (pgs 274)
“Times Food Guide 2012: Pune” by Karen Anand @ Rs. 199/-
“Three Plays: Larins Sahib; Mira; 9 Jakhoo Hill” by Gurcharan Das @ Rs.250/- (pgs 205)
“Messi: The Inside Story of the Boy who became Legend” by Luca Caioli @ Rs.299/- (pgs 311)
“The Prisoner of Paradise” by Romesh Gunesekera @ Rs, 550/- (pgs 389)
“Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose your Mind and create a New One” by Dr. Joe Dispenza @ Rs.399/- (pgs 329)
“TakeCharge! - Building an Entrepreneur Mindset” by Gaurav Marya @ Rs.295/- (pgs 199)
“Tea for Two and a piece of Cake” by Preeti Shenoy @ Rs. 125/- (pgs 265)
“The Forest of Stories (Mahabharata Series Book One)” by Ashok K. Banker @ Rs.295/- (pgs 350)
“The End of Illness” by Dr. David B. Agus @ Rs. 599/- (pgs 335)
“44 Charles Street” by Danielle Steel @ Rs. 350/- (pgs 381)
“The Mine” by Arnab Ray @ Rs. 195/- (pgs 282)
“The Buddha in the Attic” by Julie Otsuka @ Rs.399/- (pgs 130)
“My Way is the Highway” by Urvashi Gulia @ Rs.150/- (pgs 265)
“Kiss & Tell” by Nistula Hebbar @ Rs.150/- (pgs 189)
“No Country For Women” by Taslima Nasreen @ Rs. 325/- (pgs 301)
“The Lords and The New Creatures” by Jim Morrison @ Rs.325/- (pgs 133)
“JS & The Times of my Life: A worm’s- eye view of Indian Journalism” by Jug Suraiya @ Rs.495/- (pgs 340)

Happy reading and see you at the Store,

From the team at,

twistntales