Recalcitrance still on shelf after nearly 2 yrs!

I was overjoyed to see this - Recalcitrance still on bookshelf of the most famous bookshop in Lucknow - Universal Booksellers ! This is heaven !

Reviews of my novel

You all know how reviews are generated by big publishing houses and who writes those reviews. I neither have the money nor the contacts to have those kind of reviews published and perhaps I should thank God for not blessing me with those means.

Here are links to reviews by highly discerning people of my novel. I may add here that I have never met these awesome people but eagerly look forward to meeting them soon. Their review speaks volumes about their good breeding, education, taste and aesthetic sense. Do take a bit of time to read their blogs too, I found them really interesting.

Review of Recalcitrance novel by Mr. Paul Mathers
Review of Recalcitrance novel by Mr. Sarthak Varma

Review of Recalcitrance novel by Ms. Mridula Dwivedi
Review of Recalcitrance novel by Mr. AH

Review of Recalcitrance novel by @@NeutralBeholder
Review of Recalcitrance novel by Ms. Sangeetha Kodithala

Review of Recalcitrance novel by Mr. Akhtar Husain



Excerpt from a review of my novel 'Recalcitrance' by Mr. Paul Mathers, himself an author and a poet ...
What happens to Lucknow in the story is really something I think everyone should know. Although the story goes as it goes and ends how it ends, there is hope at the end of it all I think. Narenderlal says earlier in the book at one point "Remember what Mahatmaji at the Ghat told us: the mother conceives a baby and thanks God for His blessing. She goes through enormous trouble during those nine months and then there is the horrible pain of childbirth but it brings forth a wonderful creation, an image of God Himself. On being shown the face of the infant the mother forgets all her pain and hugs the little creature to her bosom. Also sometimes the baby is still born but the mother does not say to God: do not give me anymore babies, but eagerly looks forward to another birth. Similarly, he had said that our country is going through a painful phase but this will end bringing in a new life. However, this struggle must be continued if any such thing is to happen."Those words have stuck with me so much in the past few weeks.

The building which witnessed outbreak of 'mutiny' of 1857

Though I was interested in the so called Mutiny of 1857 from the age of 8 when I heard stories about that event from people who were born in late nineteenth century. However books on 1857 were not easily available or I did not know about them. Also as a student I never had the money to buy a lot of books. When I dropped out of medical college I had a lot of time on my hands and started research on 1857. I got to know about Mandiyaon or as western historians call it Muriaon - that was the site for the original cantonment for the British in Lucknow. The present cantonment only came up after events of 1857. So one day I took a primitive film camera and went to Mandiyaon. I did not expect to see any buildings from 1857 still standing - and lo what happens I saw Polehampton bungalow the only surviving building from that cantonment site that was left standing by the 'mutineers' really ex soldiers of the Nawab's army and 'native' soldiers of the company's army. They had burnt down everything else if we are to believe contemporary British accounts. There was a well beside the Polehampton bungalow and there were also traces of a gateway and a bit of boundary wall so it appeared to me that the bungalow was surrounded by some sort of garden and had a wall all around it. Due to tremendous hurry I was not able to incorporate this building and events that occurred around it, in my novel but I want to in a subsequent edition. I have the only photographs of this building in this world. I wrote about this building and one Hindi newspaper published the article on front page.
About three years back I got a digital camera and took this colour photograph of the building. Sadly an year back the building was demolished and a school has come up in its place. So it was not just a building but the only tangible trace or relic of that brilliant episode - the start of the First War of Independance in Lucknow.

Now all that is left to commemorate that event is a sandstone and marble memorial dedicated to the British soldiers and erected by the British after things cooled down.

Where can u buy 'Recalcitrance' ?

I have received a number of queries from Lucknowites living abroad about availability of my novel. Well! As of now you can buy it either in bookshops in Lucknow or you can buy it online on

Ebay India or

Ebay International

If you live in Lucknow it is very likely that you have passed by this monument. It figures in my novel.

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I personally know a lot of people in semi government organizations who never took a promotion after being posted in Lucknow - why - because they did not want to leave Lucknow! A couple of them took VRS recently! Such is the magnetism of this city. Why are people attracted to Lucknow? I do not know the whole answer!