Narrating the human experience, one word at a time…
Award of Recognition for Outstanding Contribution to Literature by the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi.
About the author
Dr. Vandana R. Singh, honoured with the Award of Recognition for Outstanding Contribution to Literature by the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, is the author of The Bhagavad Gita – A Life-changing Conversation. This book decodes the Gita’s teachings into modern life lessons, with all proceeds from the book supporting philanthropic activities.
She founded the RS Foundation, which focuses on education, empowerment, and empathy in health, education, and environment. With a Ph.D. in Indian writings in English, Dr. Singh has authored several books and translated 11 literary works, promoting cross-cultural understanding.
As an Independent Director qualified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, she serves on several corporate boards, contributing significantly to education technology, digital literacy, and skill development.
The Gita evokes Krishna addressing Arjun on a battlefield, a familiar scene in calendars, diaries, and paintings. We instinctively grasp its context without needing explanations. Despite limited exposure, this pictorial depiction raises profound questions about life’s fairness, suffering, and why events unfold as they do.
Book Collection
The Written Word is planned as a comprehensive text on written communication and study skills
for use at the undergraduate level. The book has been specifically designed to fit the UGC
syllabus for the Functional English course, BA ( I ), which has been introduced in colleges all
over the country. Although designed primarily for this syllabus it has proved useful to all those
who use language for professional purposes.
This book uses excerpts and exhibits from real-life sources to help students arrive at a clear
understanding of each topic. Going beyond the elementary guides to vocabulary, grammar and
composition, it familiarizes readers with all practical aspects of both areas – from an
understanding of language registers and literary genres to getting the most out of libraries,
reference books, audio-visual media, and technological aids.
The Written Word is a prescribed text in several universities and colleges in India including Punjab University, Guru Nanak Dev University and Punjabi University. The book is also being used in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Iran.
(special edition for Punjabi University, Patiala)
The Written Word is a comprehensive textbook specially designed for the Communication Skills
Course, BA III, Punjabi University, Patiala. Among the important topics discussed are: effective
writing, vocabulary and its usage, tips on using a dictionary and thesaurus, paragraph and
essay writing, assignments and report writing, narrative writing, and critical reading and
comprehension. Also discussed are structural analysis, note-making, summarizing, abstracting,
transcoding, and locating bibliographical information. The book covers key topics in written communication which are explained through numerous solved examples and specimen formats
of writing.
Book Collection
For National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
Woven Words is based on the syllabus in English for National Curriculum Framework 2005 for
students who have opted to study English as an elective subject in Class XI. Dr. Vandana R.
Singh was a member of the Textbook Development Committee which was set up by the
National Council of Educational Training & Research (NCERT) for the purpose of developing
this book.
Published by NCERT, New Delhi, India, 2006
Kaleidoscope is based on the syllabus in English for National Curriculum Framework 2005 for
students who have opted to study English as an elective subject in Class XII. Dr. Vandana R.
Singh was a member of the Textbook Development Committee which was set up by the
National Council of Educational Training & Research (NCERT) for the purpose of developing
this book.
Published by NCERT, New Delhi, India, 2006
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For Oxford University Press ( OUP)
Avenues is a comprehensive graded course in English that aims at developing a strong foundation of language skills among learners in a holistic and integrated manner. It fully meets the concerns expressed in the National Curriculum Framework, 2005. The course components are: Starter, Primer, Coursebooks 1 to 8, Workbooks 1 to 8, and teacher’s kits for each level, including audio CDs, visual aids, and Teacher’s Books.
Published by Oxford University Press, India, 2006
Avenues
Avenues
Avenues
Avenues
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Avenues
Avenues
Avenues
Avenues
Avenues is a comprehensive graded course in English that aims at developing a strong foundation of language skills among learners in a holistic and integrated manner. It fully meets the concerns expressed in the National Curriculum Framework, 2005. The course components are: Starter, Primer, Coursebooks 1 to 8, Workbooks 1 to 8, and teacher’s kits for each level, including audio CDs, visual aids, and Teacher’s Books.
Published by Oxford University Press, India, 2007
Avenues – Nagaland edition
Avenues – Nagaland edition
Springboard – An Integrated Term Course for Classes 1 – 5 comprises a series of 15 books (three for each class and one per term) with the core subjects – English, Mathematics, EVS/Science, and Social Studies – in each book. The course contents are broadly based on the guidelines provided in the National Curriculum Framework for School Education, 2005.
Published by Oxford University Press, India, 2014. Revised edition 2018
Springboard
Springboard
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Springboard
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Spotlight: A Multi-skill Course in English is designed to enable effective learning, teaching and testing of English as a second language. Following the guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework, 2005, the books in this series provide opportunities for Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). The series comprises of Starter, Primer, Coursebooks 1 to 8, Workbooks 1 to 8, Teachers’ Resource Pack with e-book and test generator.
Published by Oxford University Press, India, 2013
Spotlight
Spotlight
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Spotlight
Springboard – An Integrated Semester Course for Classes 1 – 5 comprises a series of 10 books (two for each class and one per semester) with the core subjects – English, Mathematics, EVS/Science, and Social Studies – in each book. The course contents are broadly based on the guidelines provided in the National Curriculum Framework for School Education, 2005. Published by Oxford University Press, India, 2013
Springboard
Springboard
Springboard
Springboard
Springboard
Springboard
Spice World – A Holistic Term Course is a subject-wise term course for Classes 1 – 8. The English books for Casses 6 to 8 are designed to equip learners with the English language skills and confidence they would need to communicate proficiently in real-world scenarios. The course is broadly aligned to NCF-SE, 2023.
Published by Oxford University Press, India, 2025
Spice World
Spice World
Spice World
Book Collection
Vandana R. Singh has translated a 219-page novel from Hindi to English. Originally titled Shesh Kadambari the novel is authored by Sahitya Akademi award winning writer Alka Saraogi.
Over to You, Kadambari revolves around Ruby Gupta – heiress, social worker, mother of two – who has built, brick by brick, a wall around herself to soak up the fire within. It is her granddaughter, Kadambari, who manages to connect with her precious Nani. They live individual lives, die fleeting deaths, trying all the while to grasp the silences in between. And then a stranger comes into Rubydi’s life…
This fascinating collection of short stories selected and translated by Vandana R. Singh, focuses on women writers whose stories emerge largely from a contemporary, urban experience. With representative stories by Alka Saraogi, Chitra Mudgal, Geetanjali Shree, Krishna Sobti, Mamta Kalia, Manjul Bhagat, Mannu Bhandari, Mridula Garg, Nasira Sharma, Rajee Seth and Rekha, this collection, appears for the first time in English translation. It brings together some of the finest pieces of women’s writings in contemporary Hindi literature.
Vandana Singh has translated this anthology of ten stories written by Vijai Dan Detha. The stories in New Life, many of them path-breaking in Indian writing, are refreshingly free of stereotypes. Detha’s dep understanding of human relationships and his matter-of-fact engagement with unconventional themes make this an unforgettable collection.
Translated by Vandana Singh from Hindi to English, The Tale Retold is an anthology of 17 stories by Sahitya Akademi Award winning writer, Alka Saraogi. The writer understands the undercurrents of the human mind and engages easily with the inner worlds of her characters. Her ability to look for the extraordinary within the ordinary and to elegantly shatter seemingly permanent stereotypes makes this an exceptional collection.
Dalit Millionaires, translated from Hindi to English by Vandana Singh, is a collection of profiles of fifteen entrepreneurs who have braved both societal and business pressures to carve out highly profitable niches for themselves. The book is a vivid chronicle of how the battle has moved from the village well to the marketplace. The common thread through these stories is the spirit that if you can imagine it, you can do it.
Originally titled Tum Chup Kyon Rahe Kedar in Hindi, the work was translated by Vandana R Singh into English. Rage of the River – The Untold Story of the Kedarnath Disaster is a riveting commentary on the socio-environmental landscape of Uttarakhand and is filled with vivid imagery of a natural calamity.
On June 2013, a normally calm Mandakini came crashing down from the hills of Uttarakhand and destroyed everything in its path: houses, bridges, dams and the town of Kedarnath. The author Hridayesh Joshi was the first reporter to reach Kedarnath after the disaster and brought to light stories from the most-remote parts of the state.
Zindagi Live, authored by Priyadarshan, is a racy thriller that grips the imagination of the reader as it narrates the events of a couple of days. Translated from Hindi to English by Vandana R Singh the novel is unputdownable in every sense of the word.
It’s the night of 26/11 in Mumbai but turmoil also finds its way to Delhi when TV news anchor Sulabha and reporter Vishal forget to pick up their son from the office crèche. When they find him missing, they set off on an increasingly desperate search. Will this turn out to be their worst nightmare?
Originally titled Bihar se Tihar Tak, this is an autobiography of the talked about student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, is translated from Hindi to English by Vandana R Singh.
In March 2016, Kanhaiya Kumar, president of the JNU student union, was arrested on charges of sedition, locked up in Tihar Jail and beaten up by lawyers in Patiala House court. He came out of the crisis a young political star. This is his story, from his childhood in rural Bihar to sudden stardom
Originally titled Unt Haazir Ho, this contemporary play by Meera Kant was translated from Hindi to English by Vandana R Singh. The play exposes the hypocrisies of middle-class India focusing on sexual abuse that exists within what apparently are close-knit traditional Indian families.
Munshi Premchand, widely lauded as the greatest Hindi fiction writer of the 20th century, wrote close to 300 short stories in the course of a prolific career spanning three decades. His range and diversity were limitless as he tackled themes of romance, satire, gender politics and social inequality with unmatched skill and compassion. By turns poignant, acerbic, comical and tragic, many of his stories powerfully invoke the countryside – its pastoral simplicity as well as its harsh realities – while others capture the hopes and anxieties that accompany life in a teeming city where the underdog and the exploiter are caught in an age-old conflict.
For the first time ever, Penguin Classics bring together Premchand’s entire short fiction oeuvre for the delight of the English-speaking world. This path-breaking anthology features several stories not hitherto accessible, either in Hindi or Urdu. Also included are comprehensive notes that provide the publication history of each story, highlighting the differences, sometimes significant and radical, between the Hindi and the Urdu versions of the same story, as well as a definitive chronology making this a truly singular collection.
Evocative and crisp, Joginder Paul’s Urdu stories from Dharti Ka Kaal are translated into English in Land Lust. His stories offer poignant glimpses of multiracial relations in colonial Kenya and evoke insightful moments of compassion from within harsh xenophobic environments. Paul’s characters breathe life into paper and touch readers not just intellectually, but also viscerally.
In these stories, we confront Nature and its wildness and see a palpable connection between people and their land. Land Lust attracts empathetic attention to divisive policies of race and colour and interrogates notions of progress and development. The writer deftly asserts the dignity of black people by including their voices and predicament in these stories.
Book Collection
Aasha: Short Stories by Contemporary Indian Women Writers was published by The Nehru Centre, Indian High Commission, London, to mark the coming of the new millennium. The anthology could be of immense literary and sociological interest in the light of the mainstream prominence and critical praise generated by literature originating in the Indian subcontinent in recent times.
Vandana R. Singh’s English translation of prominent Hindi writer Alka Saraogi’s story Aak Egarasi appears in this anthology of twenty-three stories.
Published by The Nehru Centre, Indian High Commission, 2003
‘Aak Egarasi’ – By Alka Saraogi,, also published in Muse India, a literary e – journal, May-June 2006 edition.
Dispensable – By Mamta Kalia, published in Muse India, a literary e – journal, May-June 2006 edition.
Beauty Parlour – By Rekha, published in Muse India, a literary e – journal, May-June 2006 edition.
Reference: http://www.museindia.com – Muse India – the literary journal
Book Collection
Dr. Singh has been a Research Associate for Speaking for Myself – An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writing, a project of India International Centre, New Delhi, published in 2009 by (India International Centre) IIC and Penguin, India. The anthology includes women’s writings from 34 Asian countries namely, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macau, Sumatra, Taiwan, Tibet, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen.
Indian Women Novelists in English is a collection of essays that critically examine the work of eminent Indian women novelists such as Kamla Markande, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Ruth P. Jhabvala, Shobha De, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and Shashi Deshpande.
Vandana R. Singh’s literary paper titled Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: An Expatriate Eye and A Piercing Pen looks at the writings of the expatriate writer. Focusing on the angularities and peculiarities of Jhabvala’s prolific writing an attempt is made to bring to the fore the distinctive aspects that make Jhabvala a unique writer.
The Journal of Indian Writing in English is one the most prestigious journals on Indian writings. Edited by G. S. Balarama Gupta the journal, also known as JIWE, has been performing exemplary service in terms of focusing on Indian writings at a time when indigenous writers and their work was largely ignored by most critics. The journal is a biannual of creative and critical Indian writing in English.
Vandana R. Singh’s literary paper titled Women’s Lib in Malgudi – the Winds of Change and the Emergence of the New Woman in the Novels of R. K. Narayan’ was published in JIWE in Vol. 28, January 2000 edition.
podcast
A podcast series by Dr. Vandana R Singh explores contemporary perspectives on the Bhagavad Gita, offering modern life solutions. Proceeds support RS Foundation’s education and healthcare initiatives.
Discover how the written word can inspire, heal, and empower us, providing valuable insights and tools for nurturing our mental health.
Dr. Vandana R. Singh is an author, translator, and editor with a Ph.D. in English-language Indian texts. She has worked as a bilingual teacher for the Manchester Education Committee in the UK and served as an Associate Professor of English at GCG, Panjab University. She has translated Premchand, Krishna Sobti, and Geetanjali Shree’s writings from Hindi to English. She has written several books on communication skills and ELT for Oxford University Press.
A PhD in Indian writings in English, VANDANA R SINGH is an author, translator and editor. She has been Associate Professor of English at GCG, Panjab University, and has worked as a bilingual teacher for the Manchester Education Committee, UK. Her literary translations from Hindi to English include works of Premchand, Krishna Sobti and Geetanjali Shree.
Contact
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