Celebrating the Ayurvedic Way of Eating!
Sukham Ayu, the latest cookbook by award-winning authors Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain, is a celebration of ayurvedic way of eating. With easy to prepare flavourful recipes, Sukham Ayu is one of the most accessible tools to learn about self-healing food. Filled with gorgeous photographs, fresh flavours, and practical advice, the book presents the reader with delicious recipes against a backdrop of the rhythms of nature and food as medicine.
From slow-simmered curries with layered flavours to quickly sautéed dishes, these delectable recipes explore the wide world of ayurvedic cuisine beginning with a platter of sweet dishes followed by healthy soopas, an incredible range of aromatic vegetable dishes, tastefully spiced dals, home style breads and rice dishes, irresistible snacks, colourful salads and chutneys to soothing juices and thirst- quenching drinks.
Much more than a wonderful cookbook, Sukham Ayu serves as a concise introduction to ayurveda: the book opens with a primer on the three doshas or constitutions. Readers will learn how to identify their ayurvedic type; 
detect imbalances; select foods, and, most importantly, put the power to heal in their own hands. The recipes demonstrate how to vary ayurvedic meals to nurture each of the ayurvedic types.
Sukham Ayu both inspires and empowers; awakening the senses and unlocking the alluring world of ayurvedic way of eating. It is a great addition to any cookbook collection.
A quote from Sukham Ayu:
You are what you eat, claims the popular adage. Add to this the knowledge that what you need to eat is not elaborate menus with unavailable and exotic ingredients, but simple home-cooked food using regional and seasonal availables that suit your constitution. This is the quintessence of an Ayurvedic diet in a nutshell.
Read more:
- The Pritya site (http://pritya.com/books/sukham-ayu-ayurvedic-cookbook/)
- Review in The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/mp/2010/04/22/stories/2010042250710100.htm
- See the book on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Sukham-Ayu-Ayurvedic-Insights-Nutrition/dp/819029931X)
http://www.crossword.in/books/sukham-ayu-cooking-home-with-ayurvedic-insights-jigyasa/p-books-819029931x.htmlGuest Writer – Ammini Ramachandran
About the Writer:
Ammini Ramachandran is the celebrated author of ‘Grains, Greens and Grated coconuts’. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Slow Food USA, and Culinary Historians of New York. You can view her work at her site http://www.peppertrail.com/. She lives in Pleno, Texas.
Filed under Uncategorized
Expose
One word which suitably describes the book is brave! It is bold, courageous and out and out. It is well documented and honest. The president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward told Goldberg says, “of course there’s a liberal bias in the news. All the networks tilt left. We all know it- the whole damn world knows it- but that doesn’t mean that we have to put it on air!” Well Goldberg did.
He could have said all the things he said in the Wall Street Journal and a lot more, without using his name, but he had the guts to attach his name to what he believed.
Alan Keyes discusses media bias with Bernard Goldberg
The reaction at CBS was predictable: Goldberg, who had worked his way up to the top of CBS news, winning several Emmys, was almost fired, given no assignments for several months, and then marginalized to bouncing from one forgotten news magazine to another for four years, until he retired in 2000.
However, outside the media world, and even with a few quiet voices of support inside the media, Goldberg gained a national voice – all for saying what everyone else could see and yet what the media continues to deny.
The book is quirky and is heaped with sarcasm and is hence an interesting read. Goldberg has written his mind without as such sparing anybody, breaking ranks and naming names.
Liberal Media Bias – Bernard Goldberg on O’Reilly Factor
However, the book blatantly attacks not just the liberal bias but certain former colleagues of Goldberg’s as well. At times the criticism comes across to be greater than required, almost as if the book is a platform to get back at them. However the book is an invaluable aid and helps in carefully contemplating the implications of what we see in the media. We can use the knowledge gained in this process to challenge the media themselves.
Read more:
- http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics2admissions.asp
- http://books.google.co.in/books?id=SX2uNnWbvEQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bias+cnn+insider&source=bl&ots=pscxhq31gg&sig=7JcfbnRkc724ssuVHNEcpNYJ7d8&hl=en&ei=EKdJTbykNYLnrAeIlOCCDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Goldberg
- http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/
http://www.flipkart.com/bias-bernard-goldberg-cbs-insider-book-0060520841
Sanhita Sinha Chowdhury
Filed under Media, Politics, Professional
Partitions
Picking up this book to review wasn’t instant or even natural for me. The stories of partition heard from my grandparents had never left me feeling pleasant. Needless to say I was apprehensive about the book…but only till I opened it. The text enthralled me from the introduction itself. And the 50 stories followed.
Manto’s narrative art sweeps the readers along with the flow of events; he lets them suffer, fear, believe. He is a disturbing writer who shocks the reader with his candidness, sometimes with his crudity. 
Whether he writes of sex or the life of prostitutes, on social or on political issues, the stories are full of fire. The writing is simple and in that sense extremely powerful but in a few stories disconnect can be felt because of the lack of details.
His magnificent style of collecting visuals and putting them on paper justifies the use of the word ‘sketches’ in the title. With each story tugging at your heart in its own way, Manto almost recreates what must’ve prevailed in those days.
Generations later, the stories managed to move me the way they did. Each story is interestingly structured and sensitised me about the issues that haunted those times, some of which still exist in varied degrees and some which seem completely irrelevant today.
The partition has gone down in history as one of the most revolutionary and significant events in the subcontinent. Its knowledge is important. The frenzy then may not be replicated today in all its fervour and intensity, but the today’s reality of India, her communities and her people sometimes comes close and that renders the text relevant for most media personnel today.
The stories fired me up. They consumed me, overwhelmed me, jolted me and bared me…
Reading the book changed me somewhere and I believe if a book can do THAT for any reader, it has achieved its purpose.
Read more:
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About the Author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadat_Hasan_Manto
http://www.bookadda.com/product/mottled-dawn-fifty-saadat-hasan/p2a687b24-6087-102c-803b-123139007a57Guest blogger – Tapshi Dhanda
Filed under Uncategorized
The Weaker Voice
In Waves in the Hinterland, Naqvi talks about the barriers that Dalit women – uneducated, poor, schedule caste, female – broke through to be journalists. It would have been very easy for these women to just accept that they were dealt bad cards in life. But they chose to gamble (and win) using those cards. The issues of being a woman – the sexual innuendoes constantly thrown, the derogatory once-overs and the condescending attitudes are ubiquitous. But if these women, who are far more disadvantaged than I, can do it, I have no excuses.
Naqvi’s chronicling of Mahila Dakiya (MD)’s story serves as a lesson in elementary journalism. Very simply she addresses the problems that MD faced in its lifetime and emphasizes many basic premises – “the written word is permanent”, conversion of oral narratives into the written form without compromising on meaning or essence, writing simply, interviewing skills, the difference between a writer and a journalist, “e
thics and perils of journalism” and language versus not so much dialect but colloquial speech. Even more practical are the Nirantar Workshop Reports that detail exactly how they dealt with these issues.
With the stories of MD and KL, Naqvi manages to allay my cynicism to a certain extent with respect to the journalism industry. The journalism seen in MD & Khabar Lehriya (KL) is true, honest journalism which Naqvi quotes, “is not guided by commercial interests … But the paper, like all the others before and since… has an agenda: To empower the women … to give them a voice, to strengthen their fragile literacy skills, and give them power to construct their own wor(l)ds”. She makes you believe that even in an age of commercialisation, true journalism can still make waves – in the hinterland or the urban jungle.
Read more:
http://www.flipkart.com/waves-hinterland-farah-navqi-story-book-8189884565
Jerusha Chande
Filed under Culture, Language and Communication, Women
Femina’s Leading Lady
Vimla Patil’s motivation for penning her memoirs My Times is to tell “the story of the impact of such a journal [Femina] and … [paint] the portrait of an organisation which made such a journal possible. I don’t feel that she manages to do either in entirety.
Patil’s book seems to be divided into two; the good and the bad. In the first few chapters successes seem to be around every corner. She appears to have Midas’s touch. Femina does well consistently, with almost no pitfalls. And so does the 
Miss India venture. Any problems or hindrances that might have been there are usually skimmed over or overcome. This makes her memoirs appear not entirely genuine, like a part of the story is being withheld. I feel her achievements would have had a greater impact on the reader if equal importance had been given to shortcomings and successes.
Furthermore, her intention was to tell the story of the impact of Femina. This she does only in one chapter when she talks about eminent doctors demystifying women’s health issues in the journal. In many of the other chapters she details what how women’s status changed in three decades but does 
not clearly outline Femina’s contribution to the cause.
The last half a dozen chapters all focus almost entirely on the negative. She writes about Samir Jain and his abhorrent management policies, and has dedicated an entire chapter to Pritish Nandy’s inadequacies. She did have to deal with Nandy quite a bit but not so much with Jain. Thus most of her criticisms concerning Samir Jain are just hearsay and not based on firsthand knowledge.
As the editor of one of India’s longest running women centric journals, I expected much more from Patil’s memoirs. But unfortunately, My Times fails to deliver an impact the way it was intentioned.
Read more:
http://www.a1books.co.in/my-times-memoirs/itemdetail/8174761489/
Jerusha Chande
Filed under Culture, Entertainment, Language and Communication, Lifestyle, Women
Behind the Scenes
The first thing that one tends to notice about the book is the honesty with which it has been written. Simonelli and Frumkes do not shy away from acknowledging their short comings, doubts and mistakes. The book doesn’t unnecessarily glorify them. From the very beginning, Simonelli, recovering from surgery, is ensnared by Frumkes, his partner, into agreeing to direct The Sweet Life. He openly accepts that at the beginning he underestimated the project and even admits that he lacked knowledge of direction. Laid out in a logical, methodical manner, the book takes the reader through the way, step by step, the movie takes shape. It includes dozens of legal forms, checklists, sample budgets, and other ready-to-use tools and describes the daily challenges faced while producing an “indie” shoot on a budget. Since it’s a book about serious film making, a normal reader might find certain chapters a little boring and may not always be able to connect with the script. However being witty, the book will not
bore a movie fan with some amount of interest in the back-story or behind the scenes of a movie. For an aspiring film maker on the other hand, the book is the closest they can be to getting an insider’s perspective of producing an “indie”. The book also acts as an eye opener for all. It breaks the stereotypical notion of film making being all about artistic self realisation, but also introduces the difficulties faced and the business acumen and inner growth demanded. However, at certain points, the book comes across as whiny and too detailed about the difficulties faced, most of which can be easily overcome by some amount of planning, thick skin and an optimistic attitude. But then again, this simply helps to reaffirm a number of things that you simply should not do when making a low-budget movie.
Read more:
http://www.flipkart.com/shoot-me-rocco-simonelli-roy-book-1581152477
Sanhita Sinha Chowdhury
Filed under Culture, Entertainment, Films, Professional
Readers Inc 