Audiobooks narrated by Ranjit Madgavkar

The Last Courtesan: Writing My Mother's Memoir

"The 1993 Bow Bazaar bomb blast in Calcutta brought an end to the kothas in the busy commercial district. Over the next few years, as dance bars and disco music replaced the old-world charm of mujras, kathak and thumri, the tawaifs began to abandon the profession. Rekhabai, a courtesan, found herself at a crossroads, facing an uncertain future. Where should she go? What should she do next? Originally from the Kanjarbhat tribe, Rekhabai was sold and trained as a tawaif while she was still a child. In the 1980s, when kothas were no longer recognized as centres for aesthetics, and society disapproved of the tawaif's art, as they felt it was sex work in the guise of adakari (performance), Rekhabai made a name for herself in Calcutta and Bombay as a singing-dancing star. It was an era when she had to dodge guns, goons and Ghalib's ghazals to carve out her own destiny, provide for her large family and raise her son in an English-medium boarding school. In this poignant memoir, she narrates the unbelievable story of her survival to her son with candour, grace and humour, never missing a beat and always full of heart."

Manish Gaekwad (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar, Richa Sayal (Narrator)

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Karma's Child: The Story of Indian Cinema's Ultimate Showman

"Subhash Ghai is the man behind some of Hindi cinema's most iconic movies. Of the sixteen films he made between 1976 and 2008, twelve-Kalicharan, Karz, Vidhaata, Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Meri Jung, Saudagar, Khal Nayak, Pardes, Taal and Yaadein-were blockbusters, and the others were critically acclaimed. Known for the strong stories, the memorable music and the grandeur of his films, Ghai not only helmed dream-cast multi-starrers but also signed on rank newcomers who went on to become established names in Bollywood. With his innovative thinking, he brought the crowds flocking back to the theatres when video piracy was at its peak, was the first in India to release the music of a film on audio CD and was a pioneer in taking Hindi cinema to global markets. A self-made man who rose to dizzying heights, Ghai proved the adage that destinies are created-and destroyed-every day in the Mumbai film industry. Today he runs Whistling Woods, the country's foremost film institute: his legacy to future generations of filmmakers. Karma's Child, his memoir, written with Suveen Sinha, tells the story of a man who believed he was destined to direct his own future, no less dramatically than a Subhash Ghai film-and did so."

Subhash Ghai, Suveen Sinha (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Sky High: The IndiGo Story

"In 2006, IndiGo was one of the late entrants into the low-cost airline business in India. The market already had many strong players by then-several of them new-including Captain Gopinath's Air Deccan, Ajay Singh's SpiceJet, Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines and Wadia Group's GoAir. In the next seventeen years, while some struggled and others were grounded, IndiGo became not only the largest airline in the country, but also the most valuable in the history of Indian aviation. No other Indian airline has come close to matching these numbers since Indian aviation took off in 1932 with J.R.D. Tata's Air India. What does IndiGo do differently-and right? What makes it prosper in a troubled and often loss-riddled industry? Why has IndiGo continued to grow despite the rift in the nearly twenty- five-year-long friendship of its promoters Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal? What is the road ahead for IndiGo as it defends its supremacy in Indian aviation from Tata and Singapore Airlines-backed Air India? In Sky High, award-winning journalist Tarun Shukla presents a detailed account of how one dream, two media-shy friends and some great execution created an aviation behemoth. Based on years of research, extensive interviews and authoritative data, this is a fascinating story of patience, planning and persistence."

Tarun Shukla (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Adventures Of A Travelling Monk: A Memoir

"'With my time in the Marines behind me, I gradually found myself on a personal quest for answers, a spiritual journey. I had left behind the disciplined life of a soldier and was wandering in search of meaning.' Deeply affected by the death of his entire platoon in the Vietnam War, Lance Corporal Brian Tibbitts embarked upon the pursuit of the real meaning and purpose of life. To his dismay, none of the major spiritual and religious texts he read could fully answer his questions, until he found Bhagavad-gita As It Is and met its author, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). At the age of twenty-one, Brian Tibbitts became his disciple, and at the age of twenty-nine, became Indradyumna Swami when he entered the renounced order of life. Instructed by his spiritual master to 'preach boldly and have faith in the holy names of God', he left the USA initially for Paris. What followed over the next five decades was a rollercoaster journey across the globe. From surviving attacks in post-war Sarajevo to being mistaken for a terror suspect in North America to losing his clothes and his way amid the 125 million pilgrims at the Kumbh Mela, his life has been one adventure after another. Inspirational and engrossing, Adventures of a Travelling Monk is a riveting account of the fifty years of Indradyumna Swami's active service in the Hare Krishna movement."

Indradyumna Swami (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Just Aspire

"'When I left Jabalpur, the small town where I grew up, to pursue a career, I could not have dreamt that I would find myself at the vanguard of pathbreaking revolutions that would transform India.' Entrepreneur, sportsman, salesman, engineer, educationist, jazz aficionado and investor-meet Ajai Chowdhry, the HCL cofounder who dons many hats, all with equal ease. Growing up in the sleepy town of Jabalpur in a family that had migrated from Abbottabad post India's Independence, Ajai's life was set for a linear trajectory-engineering, a well-paying job and a comfortable life-but for the year 1975. This was the year when Ajai quit his job at DCM Data Products and jumped into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship, founding HCL with Shiv Nadar, Arjun Malhotra, Yogesh Vaidya, Subhash Arora and D.S. Puri. In the 1970s, leaving a stable job with one of India's leading brands was nothing short of crazy. To add to that, not many Indians knew what a computer was. The word 'start-up' was decades away from its use in common parlance. Over the next four decades, HCL would go on to become one of the largest IT companies in India and a household brand. In Just Aspire, Ajai not only shares the story of a successful business behemoth but also of dreams, aspirations, hope and achievements from the eyes of a small-town boy. Along this journey, he shares timeless lessons on entrepreneurship, technology and the future. For all dreamers and doers, this book is a treasure trove of inspiration."

Ajai Chowdhry (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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The Glass Palace

"The International Bestseller from the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author 'An absorbing story of a world in transition’ JM Coetzee 'A Doctor Zhivago for the Far East' The Independent Rajkumar is only another boy, helping on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and all the Court into exile. He is rescued by the far-seeing Chinese merchant, and with him builds up a logging business in upper Burma. But haunted by his vision of the Royal Family, he journeys to the obscure town in India where they have been exiled. The story follows the fortunes – rubber estates in Malaya, businesses in Singapore, estates in Burma – which Rajkumar, with his Chinese, British and Burmese relations, friends and associates, builds up – from 1870 through the Second World War to the scattering of the extended family to New York and Thailand, London and Hong Kong in the post-war years."

Amitav Ghosh (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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The Hungry Tide

"A profound and absorbing saga from the Internationally Bestselling and Man Booker Prize shortlisted author 'Amitav Ghosh is such a fascinating and seductive writer… I cannot think of another contemporary writer with whom it would be this thrilling to go so far, so fast' The Times January 2001: A small ship, led by wealthy Scotsman Daniel Hamilton, arrives in the Sundarbans, a vast archipelago of islands in the mythical river Ganges, a half-drowned land where the waters of the Himalayas merge with the incoming tides of the sea. In the Sundarbans the tides reach more than 100 miles inland, and every day thousands of hectares of forest disappear only to re-emerge hours later. Dense as the mangrove forests are, from Hamilton’s point of view, it is only a little less barren than a desert. The eccentric Scotsman and the scientists on board the ship disembark to study this little-known environment, and to trace the journeys of the descendants of this society. Their goal? To create a utopian society, of all races and religions, and conquer the might of the Sundarbans."

Amitav Ghosh (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Sultan: A Memoir

"The official autobiography of Wasim Akram, the 'Sultan of Swing', one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of cricket. For twenty years, Wasim Akram let his cricket do the talking - with his electrifying left-arm pace, his explosive striking as a batsman, and his inspirational leadership. For another twenty years, he kept his own counsel about his cricketing days - full of drama, controversy and even mystery - in a country, Pakistan, that to outsiders is a constant enigma.Sultan tells the story of cricket's greatest left-arm bowler, and one of its enduring survivors, who was chosen from the streets of Lahore and groomed by Imran Khan to become champion of the world - he was Man of the Match in the final of the 1992 World Cup which Pakistan won. Along the way were unforgettable rivalries with the legends of his time, from Viv Richards and Ian Botham to Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne. All of this against a backdrop of conspiracy and intrigue over ball tampering and match-fixing, about which Wasim finally sets the story straight. Sultan provides an unprecedented insight into the life - both on and off the field - of a cricketer who revolutionized the sport with his speed and swing, and a patriot buoyed and burdened by the expectations of one of the game's most fanatical publics."

Gideon Haigh, Wasim Akram (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Not Just Cricket: A Reporter's Journey through Modern India

"Prominent writer Pradeep Magazine's diary is an account of lived, genuine encounters, of satisfaction, distress, dread, misfortune and trust, and about how an evacuated character shapes one's mentality towards society and the country. From the Kashmir of the 1950s to fearful Punjab, from the Mandir-Masjid partition and the effect of Mandal governmental issues to the grievous outcomes of the Kashmir circumstance Magazine lays out an interesting picture of present day India. At the center of the book are records of the absolute most epochal occasions in India's cricketing history, woven around private experiences with a few notable cricketers. The creator exposes the horrendous maneuvers that are a staple eating regimen of sports administration and uncovers until recently obscure realities about the gratings and self image conflicts that are unavoidable in a game that rules India's donning talk."

Pradeep Magazinne (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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The First World War Adventures Of Nariman Karkaria: A Memoir

"Amazing! An astonishing find! - AMITAV GHOSH Nariman Karkaria, a young Parsi from Gujarat, had always wanted to see the world. So he left home as a teenager with fifty rupees in his pocket to do just that. After working in Hong Kong and Peking for a few years, in 1914, when war was in the air, he decided to volunteer for the British Army. Passing through China, Manchuria, Siberia, Russia and Scandinavia, he reached London early in 1915 and managed to register as a private with the 24th Middlesex Regiment. He was now a Tommy. Incredibly, Karkaria saw action on three major fronts in the next three years. In 1916, he was in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme. After convalescing from an injury, he was sent off to the Middle Eastern Front where he fought in the Battle of Jerusalem in 1917. He was then transferred to the Balkan Front in 1918, where he served in Salonika. After being discharged, he returned to India and wrote a book in Gujarati about his years of travel and adventure, which was published in 1922. Karkaria's war memoir is truly one of a kind. And in Murali Ranganathan's brilliant translation, this astonishing story comes alive with rare immediacy and vigour."

Murali Ranganathan, Nariman Karkaria (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Mahaparbat: Ek Kahani Hamare Daur Ki

"The Hindi translation of The Living Mountain. A new story from internationally renowned author Amitav Ghosh, Mahaparbat is a cautionary tale of how we have systematically exploited nature, leading to an environmental collapse. Recounted as a dream, this is a fable about Mahaparbat, the Living Mountain; the indigenous valley dwellers who live and prosper in its shelter; the assault on the mountain for commercial benefit by the Anthropoi, humans whose sole aim is to reap the bounty of nature; and the disaster that unfolds as a result. Mahaparbat is especially relevant today when we have been battling a pandemic and are facing a climate catastrophe: both of which are products of our insufficient understanding of mankind's relationship with nature, and our sustained appropriation and abuse of natural resources. This is a book of our times, for our times, and it will resonate strongly with readers of all ages."

Amitav Ghosh, Naved Akbar (Author), Pallavi Bharti, Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Not Just Cricket: A Reporter's Journey through Modern India

"'A wonderful memoir . . . richly insightful, and deeply moving' - Ramachandra Guha 'A fascinating and insightful read.' - Vir Sanghvi 'Delightful... A wonderful read.' - Pritish Nandy Eminent journalist Pradeep Magazine's memoir is a story of lived, real experiences, of joy, sorrow, fear, loss and hope, and about how an uprooted identity shapes one's attitude towards society and the nation. From the Kashmir of the 1950s to terror-stricken Punjab, from the Mandir-Masjid divide and the impact of Mandal politics to the tragic consequences of the Kashmir situation-Magazine paints a fascinating portrait of modern India. At the core of the book are accounts of some of the most epochal events in India's cricketing history, woven around personal encounters with several well-known cricketers. The author lays bare the vicious machinations that are a staple diet of sports governance and reveals hitherto unknown facts about the frictions and ego clashes that are inevitable in a game that dominates India's sporting discourse. Whether it is cricket that you're keen on, or India's troubled history, Not Just Cricket is a must-listen."

Pradeep Magazine (Author), Ranjit Madgavkar (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Ranjit Madgavkar