A heartwarming collection of short stories from towns within India, possibly from a place near yours and about someone familiar.... The sisters in Benares, whose fate led them to different cities, one to mercurial heights of stardom and the other to the depths of misfortune. Now, thirteen years later, they are back in the same city where they started; will the ghats change the course of their lives? Sethji had been an astute and successful diamond merchant, and his grandson’s passion for “paper money” or stocks was wiping the family fortunes. Ironically, he learnt the most valuable lesson of his life from the old, toothless, homeless, flower seller. Too late or just in time? Where was the property, which the whole family was searching for, hidden? Who was the mysterious old man that Raghu had seen from the train? Will Anirban get away with murder? Why was Priyanka dreaming of her dead daughter’s blue stilettos? Will the women in Kumaon save the trees by “hugging them?” Would the ghosts who lived in the library let the young couple in love live happily ever after? Find the answers to these and many more…. These fourteen delightful tales may end with a twist, but they bring with them the powerful lessons of Hope!

George Lucas spoke about the didactic role of cinema and about his own work being presented through the "moral megaphone" of the film industry. A considerable body of scholarship on the six-part Star Wars series argues (unconvincingly) that the franchise promoted neo-conservatism in American culture from the late 1970s onward. But there is much in Lucas' grand space opera to suggest something more ideologically complex is going on. This book challenges the view of the saga as an unambiguously violent text exemplifying reactionary politics, and discusses the films' identity politics with regard to race and gender.

2020 – When the year throws two lemons at you, what do you do? Think of what you can make. A sweet sorbet to comfort you on a hot, summer afternoon? A spicy pickle to relish with a meal? Or would you cut it into bits, sprinkle spicy salt on it and keep in your pocket to lick it and to share it with friends? This year, like a ‘gondhoraj nimbu’, is uniquely fragrant, pungent and sharp, exceptional if you slow down to savour it and, in spite of the thorns, very humbling in life experiences. Scripted in this book are the tales of men and women who struggled, partied, connived, loved, laughed, fought and cried but eventually emerged as winners, with hope and positivity, during the time they faced an adversity, be it a virus or a war. Will the old man hang himself? Who is the young Krishna who had come to help? Who has stolen the emerald necklace? And was Madam killed for that? A masterpiece painting is replaced in a party. Was it by the guests, friends or invitees? Will Shankar ever find his home with a promise of peace? How much must the migrant couple walk to reach the village? Will they get help? The queen is betrayed by her kin-men. What’s the price of escape? Crisis in mid-air. Can the air hostess trust the men she thinks are brave? A teenage girl’s diary of 1971, living with war and the enemy versus the invisible one. Life, like 2020, tests us. The secret is to stop to smell the flowers and smile at those around. In your story of being handed lemons, remember to add a dash of lime to make the cocktail tangy! Enjoy reading the stories, each set in a different mood and locale. While the lockdown may keep us indoors, our can thoughts fly freely everywhere!

Not So Long Ago is a collection of short stories set in a Sussex town in the 1960s. The interlocking themes are of chance meetings and changing lives and all stories cluster around one group of characters Here we read about Jos’s and Annette’s meeting at the swimming club, which ignites a long relationship. Melissa and Fred collide when she knocks him over while riding her bike and both stumble towards a relationship. Alfredo and Maria meet at school and stay together, despite arguments. Chris, artistic with wealthy parents, falls for Dora, but on seeing her in a pub is beaten up by her boyfriend. By the end, all the characters have progressed in life and in relationships. This new collection will appeal to readers who want stories that engage them, are prepared for sudden plot twists and enjoy a nostalgic 60s setting. Not So Long Ago offers readers the narrative intensity of the short story with the character development associated with a novel.

A dazzling collection of original essays by some of America's most notable young writers on the cultural impact of the Star Wars films A Galaxy Not So Far Away is the first ever exploration of the innumerable ways the Star Wars films have forever altered our cultural and artistic landscape. Edited by Glenn Kenny, a senior editor and critic at Premiere magazine, this singular collection allows some of the nation's most acclaimed writers to anatomize, criticize, celebrate, and sometimes simply riff on the prismatic aftereffects of an unparalleled American phenomenon. Jonathan Lethem writes of the summer he saw Star Wars twenty-one times as his mother lay dying of cancer. Neal Pollack chips in with the putative memoir of a certain young man having problems with his father, written in the voice of Holden Caulfield. Erika Krouse ponders the code of the Jedi Knight and its relation to her own pursuit of the martial arts. New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell meditates upon the mysterious figure Lando Calrissian. A classic assemblage of pop writing at its best, A Galaxy Not So Far Away is a book for everyone who loves Star Wars films and seeks to understand just what it is about these films that has so enchanted an entire generation of filmgoers.

Bringing critical attention to a particular set of science fiction and fantasy films--Larry and Andy Wachowski's The Matrix, George Lucas' Star Wars saga, and Joss Whedon's Avengers--this book utilizes a wide-ranging set of critical tools to illuminate their political ideologies, while also examining any resistant and complicating turns or byways the films may provide. What they all have in common ideologically is that they--or at least the genres they belong to--tend to be regarded as belonging to politically conservative frames of sociocultural reference. With the Star Wars saga, however, this idea is shown to be superficial and weak.

Upon its initial release in 1977, many critics regarded Star Wars as a childish retort to the mature American cinema of the seventies. Though full of sound and fury, some felt that it signified nothing. Four decades later, the significations are multiple as interpretations of the film's strange imagery and metaphoric potential continue to pile up. Interpreting Star Wars analyses and contextualises the dominant trends in Star Wars interpretation from the earliest reviews, through Lucasfilm's attempts to use its position as copyright holder to promote a single meaning, to the 21st century where the internet has rendered such authorial control impossible and new entries to the canon present new twists on old hopes.

Released in May 1977, the original Star Wars movie inaugurated the age of the movie blockbuster. It also redefined the use of cinematic special effects, creating a new textual universe that now stretches through three decades, two trilogies and generations of fascinated viewers. The body of critical analysis that has developed from this epic focuses primarily on the Star Wars universe as a contemporary myth. However, like any fiction, it must also be viewed--and consequently analyzed--as a product of the culture which created it. The essays in this book analyze the Star Wars trilogies as a culturally and historically specific phenomenon. Moving away from the traditional myth-based criticism of the films, the essayists employ a cultural studies model to examine how this phenomenon intersects with social formations such as economics, technology, race and gender. Critical approaches are varied and include political and economic analysis informed by feminism, contemporary race theory, Marxism, new media studies and post-humanism. Among the topics covered are the connections between the trilogies and our own cultural landscape; the problematic issues of race and gender; and the thematic implications of Lucas' presentation of technology. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

This groundbreaking book uses observations made by Marshall McLuhan to analyze the aesthetics of science fiction films, treating them as visual metaphors or probes into the new reality dominated by electronic media: - it considers the relations between the senses and sensuality in Blade Runner, the visually-tactile character of the film, and the status of replicants as humanity’s new clothes; - it analyzes the mixture of Eastern and Western aesthetics in Star Wars, analyzing Darth Vader as a combination of the literate and the tribal mindset; - it discusses the failure of visual society presented in the Terminator and Alien franchises, the rekindling of horror vacui, tribalism, and the desire to obliterate the past as a result of the simultaneity of the acoustic space; - finally, the book discusses the Matrix trilogy and Avatar as being deeply related in terms of the growing importance of tactility, easternization, tribalization, as well as connectivity and the implosion of human civilization.

Since it first opened on Broadway in September, 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has constantly been onstage somewhere, including four Broadway revivals, four productions on London's West End and thousands of schools, army bases and countries from Argentina to Japan. Barbara Isenberg interviewed the men and women behind the original production, the film and significant revivals--Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, Austin Pendleton, Joanna Merlin, Norman Jewison, Topol, Harvey Fierstein and more--to produce a lively, popular chronicle of the making of Fiddler. Published in celebration of Fiddler's 50th anniversary, Tradition! is the book for everyone who loves Fiddler and can sing along with the original cast album.