Rachna Books is southasia’s Bookstore of the Year

Gangtok’s Rachna Books was awarded the Publishing Next Industry Award 2015 in the Bookstore of the Year category Panaji, Goa last Saturday, a press release informs.
Rachna Books was among the five bookshops shortlisted and nominated for the South Asia’s only award in the publishing industry. The award, for which Rachna Books had been nominated last year too, was announced at the event at the end of the 2-day conference. The event was held at Krishnadas Shama State Central Library in Goa.
Raman Shresta, the owner of Rachna Books, in his message on being informed about the award, conveys: “Running a bookshop is a labour of love. To be counted among the best certainly boosts our confidence. We are a small town bookshop with only a handful of dedicated readers - the number of whom visiting the bookshop is fast dwindling. It warms my heart to think of all the friendships that were forged over the years all because of our common love for books. It is also saddening to see how many friends have been lost as time has gone by.

Himalayas and East South Asia with Sujeev Shakya

GANGTOK, 06 Sept: Rachna Books at Development Area is hosting a talk on Himalayas and East South Asia by Kathmandu-based author and columnist Sujeev Shakya on 08 September at 5:30 pm onwards.
Author, columnist and "Thought Leader" Sujeev Shakya (www.sujeevshakya.com) will share his views on the emergence of new sub-regional blocs within Southasia. He is based in Kathmandu heading beed management private limited, a management consulting and financial advisory firm working in Bhutan, Nepal and Rwanda. He is author of Unleashing Nepal (Penguin Updated 2013) and travels globally to speak on economy, business, management and leadership. He also Chairs Nepal Economic Forum.
With the coming of new leadership in New Delhi, and the Prime Minister of India reaching out to the neighbors, the general mood of optimism runs high.
Southasia will not be the same as the neighboring countries will draw more attention. Further, there is also a new perspective in looking at the Indian Northeast.
All this provides an opportunity to relook at sub-regionalism within Southasia. East Southasia comprising of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Eastward of Bihar in India. China is talking about a Trans Himalayan corridor.
What this would mean to the region? Where are the economic opportunities in store? What we can see happening over the next couple of years?
The entry fee for the talk is Rs100.

Talk on role of Limboos in 17th and 18th century Sikkim at Rachna Books

GANGTOK, 07 Nov: Friends@Rachna is organizing a talk followed by interactive session on the role and importance of the Limboos in the Politics, Society and Economy of 17th and 18th century Sikkim.
A press release informs that the talk is to be delivered by Dr Saul Mullard at Rachna Books on 11 November  at 3 PM. Dr Mullard, who has been researching on Sikkim’s history for almost ten years now, has had his book “Opening the Secret Land - a New approach to Sikkimese history” recently published by Brill.
This sunday, Dr Mullard’s talk will focus on the Limboos in early Sikkim. The Limboos are in many ways the hidden people in the early history of Sikkim. A lot of research has focused on the Lepcha and Bhutias with only a few publications, many by Limboo scholars, on the Limboos in early Sikkim.
In this talk, using original sources from Sikkim and from the period of the 17th and 18th centuries, Dr. Saul Mullard will discuss the various roles of the Limboo in early Sikkimese history, the release mentions.
It may be recalled here that in September 2010, Dr Mullard had made some ground breaking revelations about the Lho Mon Tsong Sum Agreement based on his extensive research at a similar talk at Rachna Books.
The registration fee for the talk is Rs 200. Students with ID cards however can attend the talk for an entry fee Rs 50.

Interactive session on ‘Everyday Religion’ at Rachna Books today

GANGTOK, 11 Jan: Rachna Books is organizing a Word of Mouth event, ‘Everyday Religion: Turning Religion On Its Head’, an interactive session with Mark Larrimore,
Director of the Religious Studies Program at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts in New York, USA, on 12 Jan from 5 30 PM to 7 PM.
Mr Larrimore will be talking about the new movements in the study of religion and how it is changing our understanding of the history and nature of religion in human life. Challenging received views which support religious elites and hierarchies, a focus on everyday religious choices of ordinary people has the potential to revolutionize the way we see religion.
Mark Larrimore works at the intersection of the theory of religion, comparative ethics, and intellectual and cultural history. Editor of ‘The Problem of Evil: A Reader’ (Blackwell, 2001) and ‘The German Invention of Race’ (SUNY 2006), with Sara Eigen, he has published essays on Augustine, Immanuel Kant, G. W. Leibniz, Henrik Steffens, Watsuji Tetsuro, Max Weber and Christian Wolff.
His most recent essay examines the difficulty of theorizing religious happiness. His current research projects concern the problem of good, interpretations of the Book of Job, and the future of religion. He is here in Sikkim on an invitation by Sikkim University.
There is no entry fee for the event organized by the “Friends@Rachna” at the new Rachna Books which has recently opened to public on the first floor of the earlier location.

Exhibition of Roerich paintings of Khangchendzonga at Rachna Books

GANGTOK, 04 March: Rachna Books here at Development Area will be hosting a special exhibition which will offer audiences here with a rare peek into the art of Russian mytic, Tibetologist, philosopher and artist, Nicolas Roerich, and his equally gifted son, Svetoslav Roerich. Starting Saturday evening [5:30 p.m.], “Painters of Kangchenjunga”, an exhibition of paintings by the duo will be opened for public viewing at the First Floor at Rachna. The event, hosted here by “Friends at Rachna”, has been brought to Sikkim by the Darjeeling Goodwill Centre, and will include an introduction to the Roerich family by Fiorenza Bortolotti.