Books Released
Rogues Among the Ruins
Author: Achala Moulik
Published by: Niyogi Books Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN: 9389136695
Size: 20 x 14 x 4 cm
No. of pages: 312
Price: Rs. 495
A satire on the workings of the Indian civil service machinery, the novel uses irony, humour and sarcasm to unveil the reality of powerful men and women who think they rule the country.
Rogues Among the Ruins portrays the conflict of civil servants caught between ideals and thirst for success. The novel adopts the style of great masters like Gogol and Cervantes who, in their search for truth, evoke laughter through tears.
The first part of the novel is a gripping fictionalized account of the workings of the Archaeological Survey of India and the painful predicaments of a dedicated but naïve scholar faced with temptations. The scholar's son, a morally indifferent bureaucrat, chronicles a later era in the second part. Through tawdry dramas, administrative acrobatics of sycophants and hypocrites, he encounters the sordid reality of powerful men and women who think they rule the country.
With sardonic humour, sympathy and reluctant respect, the narrator takes the reader on a journey through Glory Road where principles are discarded by the ambitious, where the proud encounter humiliations, where idealists are scorned, and sometimes those with stubborn strength overcome ordeals.
The first part of the novel 'Life Among the Ruins' provides a fascinating fictionalised account of the Archaeological Survey of India giving us a glimpse of its history and its workings.
A morally neutral civil servant caught in the conflict between power and ideals, chronicles a later era in the second part, 'Romance Among the Ruins'.
Not betraying any bitterness, the novel adopts the style of great masters like Cervantes and Gogol who in search of truth and justice, always evoke laughter through tears.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Calcutta in a family of scholars and diplomats Achala Moulik went to schools in Washington, New York and London where her father Moni Moulik was posted on diplomatic assignments. She graduated in Economics, Political Science, International History and Law from London University. Thereafter she studied Italian Renaissance in Rome. Her civil servant and writer husband Mohandas Moses encouraged her literary endeavours.
After graduation Achala joined the Indian Administrative Service. She has worked in various capacities among them as Education Secretary, Government of India when the national education programme 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' was formulated and as Director General, Archaeological Survey of India.
She has published books on international relations, political and cultural history, along with biographies on Tagore and Tolstoy, four acclaimed novels and a collection of poetry. Her play Pushkin's Last Poem was staged in Moscow and Petersburg to a standing ovation. For her contribution to Russian history and literature Achala received the Sergei Yesenin Prize and the prestigious Pushkin Medal from the Russian President.
