Library
Vicky Mason
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What is South Asian Heritage Month?
South Asian Heritage Month was established in 2020. The event runs every year from the 18th of July to the 17th of August. The month seeks to understand the diverse heritage and cultures that continue to link the UK with South Asia and to acknowledge the impact the South Asian community has had on various aspects of British culture. Such as food, clothing, music, writing, religion, which are already built within our towns and cities. Every year the month takes on a specific theme. The theme for 2024 is, ‘Free to be me’, focusing on how the theme resonates within the South Asian community and embodies the spirit of, ‘Free to be me’.
Image above taken from the South Asian Heritage Website
Libby and South Asian Heritage Month.
To celebrate South Asian Heritage Month, the Library Team have curated, a new collection of resources accessible via Libby app.
Ready for you to virtually borrow with no added cost. Here are just a few of the new resources ready for you to explore below.
Libby logo taken from Libby website
New fiction
The Roles we Play by Sabba Khan.
The Roles we Play by Sabba Khan available as an e-book.
Two-thirds of today’s British Pakistani diaspora trace their origins back to Mirpur in Azad Kashmir, a district that saw mass displacement and migration when it was submerged by the waters of a dam built after Partition. Sabba Khan’s debut graphic memoir explores what identity, belonging and memory mean for her and her family against the backdrop of this history.
Anita and Me by Meera Syal.
Anita and Me by Meera Syal available as an audiobook.
Nine-year-old Meena can’t wait to grow up and break free from her parents. But, as the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington, her struggle for independence is different from most. Meena wants fishfingers and chips not chapati and dhal; she wants and English Christmas, not usual interminable Punjabi festivities – but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang. Anita and Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath.
Hidden Fires by Sairish Hussain and Raj Ghatak.
Hidden Fires by Sairish Hussain and Raj Ghatak available as audiobook.
How can you live in the present when you’re trying to bury the past? Ramadan, 2017. Yusuf wakes up in the middle of the night to pray. His routine is always the same, but something tells him that tonight is different. Yellow flames blur Yusuf’s vision, and the laughter of a small child echoes in his ears. But this time, the red, smoke-filled skies aren’t just in his memory.
Miles away, Rubi is also awake. On the television, she watches reports of a devastating fire in London. She is already anxious when her parents send her to stay with her Grandpa Yusuf, whose conservative house rules are almost unbearable as the loneliness she feels at home. Yusuf’s lifestyle does not gel with Rubi’s.
Hidden fires explore grief and loss, the power of family ties, and the long arm of history.
She will build him a city by Raj Kamal Jha
She will build him a city by Raj Kamal Jha available as an e-book.
As night falls in Delhi a mother spins tales from her past for her sleeping daughter. Her now grown-up child is a puzzle with a million pieces whom she hopes, through her words and her love, to somehow make whole again.
Beautiful, beguiling and audacious, this is the story of a city and its people, of love and horror, of belonging and forgiveness: a powerful and unforgettable tale of modern India. Shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
Nonfiction
Milk and Honey by Rup Kaur.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur available as an e-book.
Milk and Honey is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you’re just willing to look.
Suncatcher by Romesh Gunesekera.
Suncatcher by Romesh Gunesekera available as an e-book.
Taut and luminous, graceful and wild, Suncatcher is a poignant coming of age novel about difficult friendships and sudden awakenings. Mesmerizingly it charts the loss of innocence and our reoccurring search for love – or consolation – bringing these extraordinary lives into our own.
History, culture and traditions
Sophia by Anita Anand.
Sophia by Anita Anand available as an e-book.
The enthralling story of an extraordinary woman and her part in the defining moments of recent British Indian history. Winner of the Eastern Eye Alchemy Festival Award for Literature.
Partition voices by Kavita Puri.
Parition voices by Kavita Puri available as an e-book.
Newly revised for the seventy-fifth anniversary of partition, Kavia Puri conducts a vital reappraisal of empire, revisiting the stories of those collected in the 2017 edition and reflecting on recent developments in the lives of those affected by partition.
The division of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 into India and Pakistan saw millions uprooted and resulted in unspeakable violence. It happened far away, but it would shape modern Britain.
Queen of months by Ibrahim Farajaje and Katherin George Golitzen.
Queen of Months by Ibrahim Farajaje and Katherin George Golitzen available as an e-book.
A Sufi shaykh and a Russian princess have combined their passions for justice, beauty, serving others, and food! – to bring a wonderful collection of reflections on fasting, together with recipes for feasting in the holy month of Ramadan.
Lifestyle, fashion and beauty
Cosmopolitan India magazine.
Cosmopolitan India is accessible as an e-magazine.
Cosmopolitan is the world’s largest selling magazine, with 200 million readers annually in 100 countries. Cosmopolitan India is now in its 15th year. Back issues are also available for you to read and borrow.
Harper’s Bazaar India magazine.
Harper’s Bazaar India is available as an e-magazine.
Harper’s Bazaar India is a magazine that celebrates the best in luxury, design and style. It’s where fashion gets personal. While it’s a fashion magazine, and the emphasis is on fashion, it is also a champion of personal style.
Business and travel
T3 India magazine.
T3 India available as an e-magazine.
T3 India is packed full of the latest tech news and analysis, gadget reviews, intelligent features and a buying guide. Back issues are also available to access and borrow.
Travel and Leisure India and South Asia magazine.
Travel and Leisure India and South Asia as an e-magazine.
Travel and Leisure India and South Asia is a stylish and authoritative guide for today’s global traveler, offers stunning photography, incisive commentary, vivid narratives and practical travel information with a strong emphasis on Asia. Back issues are also available to access and loan.
Meditation, mindfulness and wellbeing
South Asia is the birthplace of yoga, meditation, ancient practices that promote spirituality and wellbeing.
Meditation by Armani Murphy.
Meditation by Armani Murphy available as an e-book.
There are many benefits to meditation. Increased relaxation and can decrease stress. The tools and tips described in this book will help you focus more during meditation, think better than before, and result in finding the peace you need in a chaotic world.
Meditation: techniques for anxiety and stress relief by Athena Doros.
Meditation by Athena Doros is available as an audiobook.
Are you curious about how you can make these creative meditation methods work for you? Then go ahead and start listening to this book.
Light of consciousness magazine.
Light of consciousness is available as an e-magazine.
An interfaith spiritual magazine with articles on wisdom teachings, spiritual practices, science and spirituality, prayer and meditation, healing, personal journeys, sacred ecology, transformational art, spiritual cinema, reviews, and more. Back issues are available to access and borrow.
Yoga: The Complete Manual by Imagine Publishing.
Yoga: The complete manual by Imagine Publishing is available as an e-book.
Yoga The Complete Manual, you will find guides to the four main forms of yoga: Iyengar, Viniyoga, Astanga Vinyasa and Sivananda, as well as Tantra – the root of yoga. Follow the simple step-by-step instructions and illustrated postures and movements to discover which forms of yoga best suit you.
South Asian Heritage Collection on Libby.
You can check out all the titles for the South Asian Heritage Month collection on Libby by clicking on the following link: South Asian Heritage Month 2024 collection on Libby
Further information
If you would like to know more about South Asian Heritage Month, please do have a look at the display located on the ground floor at Augustine House Library from now until the 17th August.
You can also access the South Asian Heritage Month online resources here: https://tinyurl.com/SouthAsianHeritageMonth24
Or browse the South Asian Heritage Month website here: https://southasianheritage.org.uk/
References
South Asian Heritage Trust (2024) South Asian Heritage Month. Available at: https://southasianheritage.org.uk/ (Accessed: 21 June 2024).
Featured image taken from Adobe Stock included within Education license 2024 created by Annne
