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On the eve of 31 December 2019, as the world celebrated the start of a new decade, the province of Wuhan alerted the World Health Organization of several 'flu-like' cases. Less than a week later, a novel coronavirus, was identified. In February, the disease it caused was named COVID-19. Even now, as the global infection rate crosses 1,00,000 and the death toll surpasses 3000, we are yet to understand the threat posed by this new coronavirus. There is no vaccination to prevent it, and no antiviral to cure the sick. While high numbers are being reported daily, agencies may still be unaware of many cases.The Coronavirus is a timely must-read for everyone keen on understanding its impact and fallout.…

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Contest inside…

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Aum is under attack. The enemies are not external; rather, they are within the kingdom, each obsessed with the Crown of Seven Stars. Early one morning, Destiny rolls her dice. General Saahas, heir to the throne, becomes a hunted man and Aum plunges into chaos, submitting meekly to the tyranny of the self-appointed Raja Shunen and the wily Queen Manmaani.Turned into a fugitive, Saahas is forced to submit to the power of the saade saati--the dreaded seven and a half years befalling every person at least once in their lifetime. Bitter and full of despair, he vows to vanquish his biggest foe, Destiny.…

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Nine-year-old Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari and Faiz. When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighbourhood. Jai, Pari and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force and rumours of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.…

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When Amal finds out that her disastrous Tinder match is now going to be her boss, she can't be more annoyed. Qais Ahmed is everything she never wants to be: narcissistic, manipulative and arrogant.However, despite her relentless efforts, she is unable to resist his charm and wit and is drawn to him once she gets to know the real him.She soon discovers that he isn't just a part of her professional life but has a deep connection to a past she is trying to forget.Will this disturbing secret tear them apart or bind them together forever?…

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At the onset of her getaway to the hills of Himachal Pradesh in a secluded tourist spot, Writer's Hill, Nisha knew something terrible was going to happen. Less than seventy-two hours later, she goes missing under mysterious circumstances. When the police arrive and question the co-inhabitants, they're surprised at their statements. All of them describe an eerie, almost supernatural, occurrence on the night of Nisha's disappearance.To add to the strangeness is a unique coterie of travellers-Nisha's ignorant boyfriend, a reclusive but nosy writer and a young couple who are not what they seem. There is also the caretaker's visually impaired daughter who claims she can 'see things'.With barely any leads, the police know they have to work doubly hard if they want to find Nisha, but with each passing day, the mystery around her disappearance gets murkier.Where is Nisha?…

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Sarojini-Saz-Campbell comes to India to search for her biological mother. Adopted and taken to England at an early age, she has a degree from Cambridge and a mathematician's brain adept in solving puzzles. Handicapped by a missing shoebox that held her birth papers and the death of her English mother, she has few leads to carry out her mission and scant knowledge of Calcutta, her birthplace. Luckily, she has Chiru Sen, an Elvis lookalike, as her guide. Together, Saz and Chiru chase the mirage of a lost mother, helped by Chiru's band members and his friend Suleiman, master bookie of the racecourse. When luck leads them to a slum, Jamuna, a housemaid with a troubled past, presents herself as the likely candidate. As Saz settles into the routine of slum life, a second candidate, Urvasi, presents herself, emerging from the very opposite end of the spectrum.…

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contest inside…

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Have you heard about Janba and Janai and their incredible generosity?Do you know the story of the tiger who married a young woman?What about the story of the woman who bought a song?From Madhya Pradesh to Mizoram, Kerala to Maharashtra, Indians have for centuries had a treasure trove of folk stories to tell. Join Mishki, Pushka and Daadu Dolma to read these stories and several more traditional tales from across India!…

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There's more to Milind Soman than meets the eye (although, as his legions of female fans will agree, what meets the eye is pretty delish).Combining in himself the passion of an entrepreneur, the mind of a nerd, the discipline of an athlete, the curiosity of an explorer, the heart of a patriot and the soul of a philosopher, Milind has made the stunning-and apparently seamless- transition from champion swimmer to supermodel to actor to extreme sportsperson to women's fitness activist, enabler and proselytiser, all in one lifetime.How does he do it? What makes him tick? On the twenty-fifth anniversary of 'Made in India', the breakout pop music video of the 1990s that captured the apna-time-aagaya zeitgeist of post-liberalization India and made him the nation's darling across genders and generations, Milind talks about his fascinating life-controversies, relationships, the breaking of vicious habits like smoking, alcohol, rage, and more-in a freewheeling, bare-all (easy, ladies-we're talking soul-wise!) memoir.…

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Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) adores Christmas. It's always the same - Mum and Dad hosting, carols playing, Mum pretending she made the Christmas pudding, and the next-door neighbours coming round for sherry in their terrible festive jumpers.And now it's even easier with online bargain-shopping sites - if you spend enough you even get free delivery. Sorted!But this year looks set to be different. With sister Jess demanding a vegan turkey, husband Luke determined that he just wants aftershave again, and little Minnie insisting on a very specific picnic hamper - surely Becky can manage all this, as well as the surprise appearance of an old boyfriend and his pushy new girlfriend, whose motives are far from clear . . .Will chaos ensue, or will Becky manage to bring comfort and joy to Christmas?…

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Write the most cheesiest corniest love letter to your 'Dearest' person, place, pet , book character or anyone you have ever been in love with in 100 words.…

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A tale of borders and beliefs shaped by the games people play1947New Delhi. Cyril Radcliffe's hands are clammy, partly from the heat but mostly from the enormity of the task assigned. Mopping the sweat off his brow, he picks up his pen, draws a deep breath--and a dark line.Rawalpindi. A barbaric frenzy of rioters fills the streets, disrupting a game of pithoo between Toshi and her brother, Tarlok, shattering their lives unimaginably.2008Rawalpindi. Cricket-crazy Inaya is sneaking out behind her father's back for net practice when she discovers that she is not the only one in her family keeping a secret.New Delhi. Jai accidentally stumbles upon an old, hidden away diary in his kitchen. The date of its last entry: 17 August 1947.As Jai and Inaya's unlikely worlds collide, another story unfolds. A story that started with the drawing of a line. A story that shifts the truth in their lives.…

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I'll gift you a love story that every girl desires, but few get to live.'He'd told me once. And boy, did he stick to his words! Vanav Thakur is the perfect boyfriend that any girl can have. He ticks every box you can ever have for your Mr Right. Trust me on this. He cares for me, respects me, never objectifies me, never says no to me for anything, understands me, is progressive and has no shadow of any male chauvinism in him. Sometimes, I wonder if I really deserve him. My parents, like me, had no option but to accept him as my boyfriend. Everything was hunky dory and I thought I would be that one girl who would never have any relationship hiccup until I stumbled upon the reason behind his perfection.I'm Aarisha Shergill and my life is about to get ripped apart because I should have known some things should be left alone.…

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Write A 50 Word Poem on 'PEACE' in the comments below.…

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Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain's secret intelligence service, believes his years as an agent Runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow centre, the Office has one more job for him.…

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Bibi Amrit Kaur's life is literally torn apart in the 1947 riots. She's now in a different country with a different identity. She accepts this new life gracefully and begins a new chapter. She gets married and has two children. Life, however, has something else in store for her. It breaks her apart. Again.This time the pain is unbearable.But the hope that she will reunite with her children and be whole again keeps her alive. And she doesn't let the bitterness cloud her days, becoming a beacon of hope and courage for all.From the bestselling author of Calling Sehmat comes another hitherto untold story of strength, sacrifice and resilience.A must read.…

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At a time when Mumbai was plagued by underworld gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Iqbal Kaskar and Chhota Rajan, the batch of 1983 from the Police Training School (PTC) in Nashik-trained by the legendary Arvind Inamdar-produced a group of prominent encounter specialists who have been credited with bringing back the rule of law in the city.Famed even within this batch, trigger-happy senior police inspector Pradeep Sharma understood that to save the city from the clutches of the underworld, he would need to dilute rival gangs. 'The Class of 83' delves deep into the most famous (or infamous) encounters conducted by Sharma and his batch mates.…

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It is almost ten years since readers left Lyra and the love of her young life, Will Parry, on a park bench in Oxford's Botanic Gardens at the end of the ground-breaking, bestselling His Dark Materials sequence.Now, in The Secret Commonwealth, we meet Lyra Silvertongue. And she is no longer a child . . .This is a world at once familiar and extraordinary, and they must travel far beyond the edges of Oxford, across Europe and into Asia, in search for what is lost - a city haunted by daemons, a secret at the heart of a desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.…