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ISBN: 978-93-82536-00-0

Binding: Paperback

The story begins in Calcutta of the 1970s where a young lady, Binapani, is sucked into a revolution. Her story and those of others unfold through idealism and tragedy, stretching across the wide canvas of the South Asian subcontinent.

Binapani’s dream moves through many lives and finally finds realization. In the background is the story of the birth of the three nations that splintered out of colonial India. The lives of the characters move within the landmark events of post-Independence India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but their sources are traced back in time through history and oral narratives and brought forward to the present. The characters represent aspects of the diverse cultures of the sub-continent and the novel is richly flavored with parables from folklore, revelations from sacred texts, legends and mythologies.

Author : Lopa

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-01-7

Expected Publishing Date: Dec. 2012

This controversial, thought-provoking novel, originally written in Telugu, takes a fresh look at the man-woman relationship.

The story is that of an attractive, educated, young woman, Usha Rani, who marries and dreams of spending a wonderful time with her husband. But soon she comes to know that he suffers from nightmares and does not want the two of them to even sleep in the same room. Frustrated with her conjugal life, she takes lovers. She convinces herself that her affairs have only made her a better wife to her husband.

The book, through the characters, decries the double standards in society: one for the man, another for the woman. It is a comment on the changing persona of the modern woman and the hypocrisy in attitudes and perceptions. A man, who insists there should be some regulations in society, rejects those very regulations as a lover. As lover, he says there is nothing wrong in loving a woman who excites him, even if she happens to be someone else’s wife… but he wouldn’t say the same if he were the husband concerned. Sexually a nonconformist, Usha Rani, realizes that her husband will only have troubles on her account and resolves not to make a mess of his life…

Author : Tripuraneni Gopichand

Tripuraneni Gopichand (1910-62) won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963 for his last novel, Pandita Parameswara Sastri Veelunama. Telugu novelist, short story writer, editor, essayist, playwright and film director, Gopichand tried his hand at various jobs, but continued writing throughout his life. His works are remarkable for interplay of values, ideas and ‘isms’ – materialism, hedonism, existentialism, rationalism, spiritualism, realism, humanism... This novel, Merupula Marakalu, published in 1961, became instantly popular and raised a major controversy.

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-02-4

Expected Publishing Date: Dec.2012

The novel is about the coming of age of two youngsters, Nachiket and Tejas. Epiphanies do not wait for a suitable time or place. Tejas experiences his in the arms of a hooker in Bangkok. It makes him realize that the earth revolves around money with a capital ‘M’. Nachiket, his partner, eavesdrops upon a rich Italian businessman who utters these golden words, “there are two businesses in which one can’t lose money: Pizza and Porn.” Manipal is a libertine’s delight. The city has everything to offer a growing kid – drugs, booze, sex and, if one is lucky, a good Degree. But before the pizzeria starts, they have to overcome several hurdles: an unwilling bank, a corrupt bureaucracy, a lousy work ethic, a python, even eunuchs. Everyone from the banker to Mrs. Sehgal, Tejas’s nosey neighbour, brace themselves for Tejas’s downfall. Surprisingly the Pizzeria is a hit among students.

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-04-8

Binding: Paperback

Sonam Dorji has come to India with a bagful of hopes from his motherland Bhutan. He has been sent under a complete scholarship from the Royal House of Bhutan. He is amazed to see India live before his eyes. Seeped in the ethics of Buddhism, he witnesses conflicts while experiencing college life like everyone else in his batch. He finds a nurse for his broken heart in his lab partner, Sarika and falls in love all over again, crossing the limits of physical touch and sex.

Sonam is shocked and perturbed as he sees the happenings at his college: the suicide of a fellow student that becomes history in no time and some intoxicated seniors of the college beating up his Bhutanese friends on racist grounds. He is further disturbed by his inability to respond well to such situations. A disturbed Sonam goes to find refuge in Sarika’s arms, where he learns someone else is already in her heart, and he is being cheated. By the end of the day, he is informed of an academic backlog for no valid reason and the need for him to repeat the semester.

Deceived by the professor’s fake promise, Sonam derives a way that would lead him to the bottom of the River Barak where he could kill himself in peace. His college mate Salil leads the protests following Sonam’s suicide and the director of the NIT is replaced. It is thus the story of a system, revolutionised, a divide, destroyed, a community, rejuvenated and a friend, lost.

Far across in a Buddhist monastery, the sound of police sirens apprehends a young bald monk, dressed in orange hangovers. Sonam’s retreat is discovered, and it is found that he didn’t commit suicide but went on to find his way to real enlightenment.

Author : Harsh Agarwal

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-08-6

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Dec.2012

This is a story of a young medic: how he struggles through life as a student and emerges triumphant as a fully qualified doctor. The story reflects the joy and frustrations of campus life, love gained and lost, and rigours and sacrifices of the profession. Aesculapius had handed over his Staff to Hippocrates, together with its healing power, its knowledge and its immense responsibilities. This Staff has been carried through generations of medics. Now a young generation is ready to take charge of this Staff.

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-09-3

Expected Publishing Date:Jan.2013

The novel revolves around the life of Naina, a student of literature at the University of Delhi. Naina’s life is always eventful with a dash of the not-so-ordinary - when she has somebody or the other to stand by her side. She has her own way of living life... Naina, who has had a couple of failed relationships, is now smitten by a young designer who happens to hit her on the road. Meanwhile her roommate, Niti, a docile, focused girl and Naina’s dearest friend, suddenly vanishes one fine day asking Naina not to look for her anywhere. The story then takes a twist as Naina pays a visit to her hometown, Jalandar with her childhood friend, Kritti. What follows changes everything in Naina’s life. A youth forum brings, Aarian, the guy in the ‘khadi kurta’ into Naina’s life; he turns out to be her saviour whenever Naina’s life tends to get filmy. This is the story of a just another girl who is singular in so many ways.

Author : Priyanka Bhardwaj

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-10-9

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:Feb.2013

In an urban landscape of fluctuating relationships, man and woman come together, they love and hate; some sleep is lost, much memory retained; the body keeps a tab of all war, all battles of the heart and mind, in the movement of togetherness. Then there is a thing called time, in which people live and people exist in relation to oneself and another. The characters in the tales dance in tune to each other. They track life through the lives around. Broken marriages, secret pain, abandoned desire, remembered childhood set the plots for the stories. The women and their men weave moments into the daily tapestry of mundanity; they try to figure out what is this togetherness, that causes so much hurt, that the songs are about. They recall their roots and scatter the seeds of thought in urban life.

Author : Adwaita Das

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-15-4

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:May.2013

Novelists have always described a woman’s beauty from a man’s point of view. Here, for the first time, the beauty of a woman has been described from a woman’s angle. It is about the female beauty that is ever so delicate as it has a heart touching feel... it is soft, sweet and so fascinating… full of a deadly charm which when attains its peak can vibrantly glow like a fire... A man who aspires for a woman can enjoy a woman’s charm, only if the woman so allows him to. But the irony of the lovely magnetic trick between man and woman is that when the female charm is not aspiring, the male forces his desire. The female youth fire can burn him down to ashes; a woman is so powerful. The novel depicts emancipated womanhood through figures like Sunita Williams, Kalpana Chawla and Ujjwalas - women who are very daring and with dashing ideals for the world at large. It describes the sex passion of pythons, proving that the sexual mortality of any geographical entity is a myth, the real passion of lust has no bar for eligion, culture, country, age or complexion... it is just a passionate fire...

The present novel Marriage without Marriage is an exceptional work depicting the hot passionate experiences of a young lady. It is presented from the female point of view, indicating how complete is a woman in her thoughts too.

Author : Dr S.K. Sood

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-18-5

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: May.2013

The novel is a story of three women who mean so much to each other that they live inside each other’s lives, dangerously. It is the story of a family that plays many lives out under many roofs yet remains bonded by something more than blood.

The narrative appears to begin when the elder daughter, Janaki, is about to enter into a conveniently arranged marriage. Events break out in unanticipated patterns. There is a marriage; a daughter is banished from the sanctuary of her home while another attempts to build her own. Someone dies, caught in the vindictive shadow-play of life.

Janaki tells most of the story, meticulously observing everyone including herself while pausing to let Amma and Leela interweave their voices too. The past that speaks constantly to Janu speaks the loudest – through walls and shadows that can kill. Janaki finds answers she didn’t know she needed. But, in a sense, the story never ends. This is because the survivors are merely that - survivors.

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-13-0

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:Jun. 2013

When Yatin requests Pia to accompany him to the Red Club where only couples are allowed entry, her friend Mita is sure that Pia will refuse the invitation, for Pia despises male company in general. However, Pia not only agrees but also enjoys herself. And, by the end of the day, she realizes that she has fallen in love with Yatin, a feeling which is more than happily reciprocated by him.

In a strange twist, Yatin is found absconding the very next day. The days pass by, yet there is no news of him. No one seems to know his whereabouts. Desolate and forlorn, Pia resigns from her job and joins a top-ranking management college as a student. And, as luck would have it, Yatin also joins the college as a professor. They do not speak to each other. But ghosts of the past haunt Pia. An accident in which Yatin had lost one of his feet prevents him from approaching Pia and declaring his love for her.

Meanwhile, Pia’s proximity to another ex-colleague Atul increases and the two begin sharing a special relationship.

Soul Seekers is the love story of two simple people who keep struggling with their own feelings and difficulties till destiny finally brings them together.

Author : Neelam Saxena Chandra

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-16-1

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Jun. 2013

The tribal people, the original inhabitants of India, were displaced from their well-developed settlements in various parts of the country for various socio-economic reasons like the clash with the settlers coming from the north, dwindling of forests, change of course of rivers and so on. Epics and scriptures from the Vedic Period depict the tribal people as savages, slaves and cannibals. The vanquished tribes went deeper inside the hills and forests but could not escape further onslaught on them for fertile land, minerals and forest products. The feeble resistance offered by them had been decimated using brute force by the rulers of the land through the ages, irrespective of their religion, colour of the skin or nationality.

The novel revolves around two young men, one from the Santhal tribe and the other a caste Hindu, in the south of Bengal, the hot bed of extremist movement. The men were witness to the violent Food Movement of 1964, the uprising of the landless in 1967 and finally the large-scale violence with the advent of Naxals who resorted to armed revolution and guerrilla warfare. There were fratricidal battles, savage killings and infighting going on in the name of political movement.

The novel traces the history of the ‘Harrh’, the tribal people, as well as the ‘Dikus’, the gentlemen, and their love-hate relationship during the process of settlement. It deals with the manner in which initially the tribal people were treated as savages but gradually were assimilated into the mainstream.

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-19-2

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:Jun. 2013

The novel presents the story of Agnirekha Roy. Unhappy because her career isn’t taking off despite her talent and seniority, Agnirekha turns vicious, without getting to the root of her problems.

Calcutta has few options in the mid 1980s. Nevertheless, Agnirekha focuses on her career, crushing all those that come in her path. The exquisitely beautiful Agnishikha, a small town girl from Bisrampur who is unused to city life, comes to Calcutta as the new bride of an ambitious, but low ranking government servant. Brought up to be a good and dutiful wife by poor but proudly respectable parents, all Agnishikha ever wants is to lead a happy domestic life, but all that changes when she is brutalised by political goons and thereafter becomes a pawn in Agnirekha’s reportage. Agnishikha struggles to keep her sanity as her life crumbles away and she is sucked into a vicious circle of corrupt politicians and their goons and her own ineffectual husband.

In her struggle, her only allies are a mad woman and her maid servant. Ten years later, Agnirekha, as a PHD student in Boston, discovers who and what she really is. She finds the right person, Sally, her partner, who helps Agnirekha come to terms with her sexuality. But Agnirekha can never forget the ones she destroyed.

Author : R.K. Biswas

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-03-1

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Nov. 2012

India has become a phenomenon in the contemporary world. It is capturing everyone’s attention from businessmen Hollywood stars in the west, intriguing them and challenging their notions of what India represents. But how real is the Indian story on the ground? India Unlimited is an attempt bare the lives of the Indian people and their surroundings that define an ambivalent India trapped between hype and hope.

The stories are set in villages, towns and metro cities of a country under overhaul. It is an attempt to depict pain, pleasures and prejudices of everyday Indians as they adjust to the change that fate has thrust upon them. Inspired by real life incidents this collection slides through various themes like appalling lives of street children, new perceptions of love or hate, rampant organized crime, urban disorder, corrupt politicians, influence of western values, depraved spiritual and Yoga gurus etc.

Author : Kulpreet Yadav

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-19-2

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:Dec. 2012

This is a collection of eighteen short stories on different aspects of life. Some stories are hilarious, some are somber, some are simply enjoyable, and some are sad. There are a few ghost stories as well. In all, the variety of stories, dealing with a range of emotions and themes, has a special appeal. Most of the stories are set in rural Bengal, although there are some that have the metro city for a setting.

Author : Dr. Sayantan Gupta

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-07-9

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:Dec. 2012

This set of thirty powerful short stories takes the readers on a journey from the absurd to the sublimely sensitive, from the mundane to the esoteric and from the depths of extreme sorrow to the heights of humour. It explores the boundaries of imagination and holds the attention of readers with unusual storylines, tight and subtle language and a unique narrative style.

This is a book for the intelligent reader who is willing to be challenged and provoked on practically every issue of emotive significance – the soul, the meaning of time, love, ghosts, loneliness, death, the future, obsessions and music. What happens when you sleep? Who consumes music to live? Is poetry being outsourced to a cellar in Bangalore? Are you being watched every second?

Read a story a day from this collection. Liberate yourself.

Author : Vasudev Murthy

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-05-5

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Jan. 2013

This collection of stories from across the world has a common theme—that of emotions. Be it the East or the West, the sentiments felt are the same. Be it the hot and sunny beaches of Miami or the cold, wet, foggy London streets, people react the same way. It may be a father sharing vignettes from his father’s life with his son, a doting grandson. Or it may be an immigrant bracing himself for survival in a foreign country. We feel the same pathos when we see pain and suffering. A child being exploited touches our hearts irrespective of whether it happens in Thailand or in India. We laugh the same way when we find a thing funny no matter where we are. All this goes to show that in today’s global village, despite its many tensions and conflicts, people are people. It is only universal brotherhood that counts.

Author : Sudhir Kekre

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-11-6

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date:Feb. 2013

This collection of short stories may be seen as a continuation of the author’s first collection of stories: it once again showcases her skills as a writer of historical fiction engaged with depicting the life of urban and rural Indians especially the disadvantaged and marginalised groups.

The stories, through their refreshing characters and unforgettable situations, belong to the fantasy genre. The magic realism in some of her stories ‘The Tree’ are bewitching and revealing at the same time. Her vignettes of the past and of modern Indian society along with her new literary experiments render the stories insightful, sensitive and charming, all at the same time. The stories make the collection one of the most readable volumes to emerge from women fiction writers in the recent past.

Author : Dr. Bina Biswas

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-21-5

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Mar. 2013

This is a collection of stories that span the lives of women and girls caught in the snare of history and society. The travails of the partition of the Indian sub-continent, a neo-liberal India, non-resident joys and fears, and also coming of age in surroundings that are familiar or held hostage to a politics of fear – these are the themes subtly addressed in this volume. There are also stories about men searching for identity and justice, as well as ideal and memory – their portrait framed all along by the normative environment around. The House of Twining Roses is a collection that examines lives from various linguistic and cultural contexts. It peers delicately at the faults and fears of the protagonists. It reaches out to a pan-Indian as well as an international audience.

Author : Nabina Das

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-17-8

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Apr. 2013

Life in itself is a story. It unfolds in moments and becomes a discovery. There is much for the discerning eye to choose from – lived experiences, observations, reaction to happenings in life and a continuous interaction with life. The short stories collected in this volume offer a kaleidoscopic view of life in all its charms, vagaries, humor and pain. These are not strictly autobiographical pieces but the emotions and feelings that go into the making of a story by blowing up a small situation or a chance remark are real. The rest is play of language. These stories mirror social changes and the process of social evolution. They are the reflection of our times, our individual and social problems, the psyche of the community vacillating between its inherent values and the anger generated by oppressive power structures. Though they are not in typical feminist mode, some of them do bear witness to the sad yet vibrant existence of women – the pain of separation sung through folk songs; the essential agony of a woman who questions her own decisions; and women trying to find a solution to their mid-life crisis.

Some of the stories take a humorous dig of life while some others represent the margins.

Author : Dr. Usha Bande

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-12-3

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: May 2013

These stories, which were originally written in Marathi, comment on the social and familial values, concerns and commitments; interpersonal relationships; and the spaces of experience. They have a definite local flavor and a relish of the soil. They have played a crucial role in sensitizing the reader about the various cultural issues specific to the region and yet, they exude universal appeal. The stories collected here do not fall in the category of feminist fiction though some do offer a portrayal of the aspirations and disappointments of a woman’s life. Here we see the travails of a disabled girl reaching her puberty and the confusion of her parents; the agony of a mother of a daughter in coma; the helplessness of a mother pitted against an adamant husband and the fear of a wife of her own intense and suppressed feelings. Shubangi Bhadbhade takes up the issues related to the aged citizens who are left to fend for themselves in their twilight years. But her aged protagonists are able to see the colors of sunset.

Author : Shubhangi Bhadbhade

Shubhangi Bhadbhade is an award winning writer from Nagpur. She is a novelist and short story writer, playwright and a columnist for Marathi newspapers. As a novelist she has authored more than two dozen novels, her works having been translated into Hindi, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali and Telugu. Her plays Idam N’ Mam and Swami Vivekanand have been staged all over India, including far flung places like Andaman-Nikobar Islands and Leh-Ladakh. They have received several prestigious state and national awards. A large body of research work at M.Phil and Ph.D levels is being done on her oeuvre at universities like Nagpur and Jabalpur.

 

Translator – Dr. Usha Bande

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-20-8

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: May 2013

The stories in the volume seek to examine the grave face of life, mainly its tragic side from a socially-oriented perspective. While seeking to conceive reality in terms of the individual life of the people, the treatment has aimed at contextualizing individual life in the socio-political ethos of India, and more specifically of Kerala, the area from which the author hails. They explore some of the commonly-represented aspects of that ethos such as consumerism, social evils such as corruption and communalism, and the rapid changes that have been ushered in by the digitalized and globalized age in human relations. Human rights violations and issues of women too make their thematic presence felt in this collection.

Author : Dr. Prathap Kamath

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-14-7

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Jun. 2013

The stories in the volume are an attempt to capture life in action through the prism of human emotions and complexities. The soulful, sensitive, evocative and pulsating stories cover the entire spectrum of human emotions right from love, romance, anger, animosity, frustration to the indifference, neglect and pathos of youth and old age. They are a reflection of the author’s deep probing into the human psyche and her study of human behaviour, relationships and feelings. Written against the milieu of rural and urban India, her stories focus on the underprivileged, the unfortunate and the oppressed. The stories portray the anguish and pain of the author as she feels strongly about women and their continued struggle on a day-to-day basis to secure their individual identity in family and society. Her earliest memories of stories are of those stories she listened to while cuddled close to her mother as a kid. No craft, no glitz, no packaging can ever outlive a meaningful story told from the heart. Her stories, concerned with human goodness, values, hope and love, assert this simple truth.

Author : Archna Pant

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-22-2

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Apr. 2013

The book has been written to demolish the scientific community’s disdain for Serendipity. It is neither simply luck or chance; in fact, it has branched out into multiple directions and to the profoundly perceptive non-sceptics, it seems parallel to what the Sufi thinker Idries Shah said about a directorate of angels (or forces) that intervene in human affairs. It emphasises on the important role of providence or destiny in human life, for life is akin to a treasure hunt wherein Serendipity strews enough clues. But these would elude anyone who does not have a ‘prepared mind’ and a fire in the belly to understand Serendipity. The keyword therefore is sagacity.

Author : Max Babi

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ISBN: 978-93-82536-23-9

Binding: Paperback

Expected Publishing Date: Jun. 2013

This is an English translation of the great Bangla epic Meghnaad Badh Kabya authored by one of the greatest of Bengali poets, Michael Madhusudan Dutt. It is based on the epic Ramayana by Valmiki. The story revolves round the cowardly slaying of unarmed Meghnaad by Lakshman, the brother of Rama, whose wife, Sita had been abducted by Ravana, the king of Lanka and the father of Meghnaad.

The epic is in nine Cantos. Unlike the popular versions of the Ramayana, Meghnaad is depicted here as a patriot, a loving husband and a dutiful son. The protagonist is Ravana, painted as a villain in the Ramayana, but shown to be a responsible, valiant king by Michael. The influence of Western, especially Greek classical epics is evident in this epic poem by Michael Madhusudan Dutt.

Author : Michael Madhusudan Dutt

Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824–1873), a 19th-century Bengali poet and dramatist, is considered a pioneer of Bengali drama. He is hailed as the father of the Bengali sonnet. He introduced the blank versein Bengali literature. His works indicate a high level of intellectual sophistication and an ability to fuse the technique and style of the West with thematic elements of the East. The richness of Bengali literature initially became evident to the whole world through his writings.
 

Co-Translators – Dr. Bina Biswas ; Dr. Sayantan Gupta

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