“I will feel privileged even if I die for my country, I have firm belief that every drop of my blood will make my country strong and progressive”. These were the last words of Indira Gandhi. Our beloved Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ruled our hearts for seventeen years, had sacrificed her life for the unity and integrity of the nation. The country progressed in all fields under her leadership and she hoisted the nation’s prestige and fame in the global reckoning. Full of ups and downs, her life was a saga of struggle. She faced difficulties with dedication and fortitude. Today’s generation can certainly derive inspiration from her philosophy of life.

As the title of the book suggests, this is a memoir of the long life that I have lived. Towards the end of my life, I have an inner compulsion to speak about my time on this planet which has been mixed, on the whole, not bad at all. This book is a kind of putting together entries in diaries and scribbles on paper that I did from time to time, almost like a compulsive habit. I have also written about certain aspects that have deeply affected me, like nature, friends, relationships and of course, death.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is among the most enigmatic, charismatic, deeply revered and equally reviled figures of the twentieth century. His Autobiography, one of the most widely read and translated Indian books of all time, is a classic that allows us to glimpse the transformation of a well-meaning lawyer into a Satyagrahi and an ashramite. In this first-ever critical edition, eminent scholar Tridip Suhrud shines new light on Gandhi's life and thought. The deeply researched notes elucidate the contexts and characters of the Autobiography, while alternative translations capture the flavour, cadence and quirkiness of the Gujarati. In the highly original and insightful introduction, Suhrud traces Gandhi's transformation into a Satyagrahi, a seeker of Truth as God, and explores possible modes of reading the Autobiography. This edition is an absorbing, illuminating text about the life-affirming journey of the most public yet most complex figure of Indian history.

-Padma Shri and late Hindi author Shivani's memoirs of studying at the experimental school set up by Rabindranath Tagore. -A rare view and stories of life inside the Ashram, of how the students' intimate relationships and interactions with Tagore and other towering personalities shaped them. -Includes tributes to other iconic personalities who called Shantiniketan their home, such as Satyajit Ray and Pandit Hajari Prasad Dwivedi. -Written with such warmth and filled with laughter, this book can be enjoyed by both adults and children. -Translated into English for the first time by Ira Pande, the author's daughter and Sahitya Akademi winner for her translation of Manohar Shyam Joshi's T'ta Professor This charming memoir is a loving homage to a grand institution and its legendary gurus. Written from the perspective of a child and young girl, it retains the freshness and innocence of an age when experimental education was not merely a trendy movement. Shivani's vivid pictures of the Ashram and portraits of her teachers and fellow students remain as alive as they seemed when she first wrote this memoir nearly fifty years ago. Along with the moving tributes she wrote when some of her beloved contemporaries passed away, this slim memoir is a sort of diptych that captures the spirit of the Ashram and the liveliness of its inmates, many of whom went on to become iconic Indians. Shivani's recall of her time there takes the reader into an enchanted garden that remains as inspirational to her as it was when she went there all the way from Kumaon a lifetime ago.