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Katha Autobiography
ISBN 978-81-89020-73-6
2007. PB. Rs 350
5.5”x8”. pp 408
Translated from the Marathi
Cover Painting: Jagannath Panda
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

SKETCHES FROM MEMORY
Laxmibai Tilak
Translated by Louis Menezes

A writer par excellence. A woman who had the courage to go against the grain. Who thought nothing of flinging societal restrictions to the wind and plunging into selfless service. Who could take that magical and most difficult step that separated truth from hypocrisy.

Sketches from Memory is the autobiography of Laxmibai Tilak, who singularly championed the cause of girls' education in Maharashtra in the early twentieth century. Adeptly translated by Louis Menezes, it traces her relationship with her husband, the revolutionary Marathi poet, Narayan Wamanrao Tilak, through his conversion to Christianity and her self-education.

Katha presents the story of Laxmibai Tilak's zest for life, love and god.

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Katha Biography
ISBN 81-87649-91-7
2003. PB. Rs 250
“5.5x8“. pp 280
Cover Painting: N Krishnaswamy
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

A CHILD WIDOW’S STORY
Monica Felton

A moving and inspiring biography of a charming woman, and the story of her great reform.

“How can anybody get anything done if they are perpetually taking advice and wondering what other people will think of their actions? You have to be a little bit obstinate if you are to be of any use to this world … But who am I?”
After a lifetime devoted to public service in England, Monica Felton had been in Madras for over four years when one of Sister Subbalakshmi’s nephews suggested that she should try persuading the old lady to tell her the story of her life. Intimidated at first by the prospect of doing so, Felton was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful and charming lady. The first meeting was to be followed by many more, and the result is this moving and engaging biography of one of India’s greatest social reformers who changed the lives of the young child widows of southern India forever.

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Katha ALT Series: Approaches to Literatures in Translation
ISBN 81-85586-97-7
2000. PB. Rs 395
9.25“x7”. pp 304
Calligraphy: Anis Siddiqui
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

ISMAT: HER LIFE, HER TIMES
Various authors
Edited by Sukrita Paul Kumar and Sadique

Fascinating, vivacious, versatile. A rebel with a fiercely individualistic way of thinking, Ismat Chughtai is a multi-faceted icon of Urdu literature who spearheaded a social and literary revolution, startling readers with her iconoclasm. Her acerbic, lashing wit exposed the double standards of a patriarchal society hiding behind a façade of refined gentility. Unfettered by any labels, yet firmly humanist, feminist and secularist, she lived life and wrote of life itself, suffusing her writings with an effervescence that also bespoke a deep understand of human nature. This volume brings you idiomatic translations that have the immediacy and wit of their originals. It reveals the many different Ismats within Ismat Chughtai, attempting to bring her to the fore through her works, through her own eyes, and through the eyes of her peers. Rare family photographs, intimate letters, insightful essays by renowned writers and scholars, and memorable extracts from her own works make this volume an absorbing and compulsive read for scholars and laypeople alike.

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Katha Biography
ISBN 81-87649-90-9
2003. PB. Rs 250
5.5”x8. pp 248
Cover Photo: Nehru Memorial
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

RAJAJI
Monica Felton

A statesman. A visionary. A rebel. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, was the first Indian Governor General of India. An astute politician and an incisive thinker, he was one of the foremost thought leaders of India.
Monica Felton came to India to attend a peace summit in 1956. She met Rajaji and decided to stay on to write a book on him. In this comprehensive biography, her interaction with him has been distilled to capture the essence of Rajaji – not just the public persona but the private man, witty, caring and ready for ever newer challenges.

“Dr Felton has done for Rajaji what Boswell did for Johnson.” – Ludovic Kennedy

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Katha Biography
ISBN 81-89020-02-1
2004. PB. Rs 250
9”x6”. pp 232
Cover photograph: Ashk Nidhi
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

UPENDRANATH ASHK: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY
Daisy Rockwell

Bully. Outsider. Iconoclast. Villain. Antagonist. Misfit. This is how the Hindi literary world perceives Upendranath Ashk. In this powerful biography, Daisy Rockwell presents the many faces of the writer and his tumultuous life and times, unfolding in the process, the period, the literary history of Hindi and the Hindi-Urdu divide. She also traces the development of Modern Standard Hindi, participants in its evolution and Ashk's role in it.

Katha Biography
ISBN 81-89020-02-1
2004. PB. Rs 250
9”x6”. pp 232
Cover photograph: Ashk Nidhi
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan