India Books

I didnt even particualry like indian cuisine when this was given as a gift to me given my exposure to non-descript marsalas and confused blends of spices from the south. this book was originally part of a gift pack with all the spices named in it--amchoor, fenugreek, yellow mustard seeds, cardamom pods, black sesame seeds, panchforan, etc. They are easy enough to obtain now if you live near an indian grocery. They make a good case for grinding your own spices and, if you have a few extra hands ot help, you will never go back. The recipies are mostly northern indian, more grilled meats, lively vegatable casseroles, and a variety of starches that are exceptionally good. the only restaurant i have seen similar recipes in is the top rated Zaika in london. Recipes for Trout, lamb, chicken, cauliflower, green breans, are all fabulous.

Having travelled to India on four occasions and frequenting a large variety of Indian restauraunts here in the States, I feel on fairly solid ground when I say that the recipes and techniques described in these pages will yield authentic Indian cuisine. This book is certainly worth owning if you want to produce your own Indian food.

Several years ago I saw this advertized in a PBS catalogue. I received this as a gift and have always been grateful. In just 128 pages, one can learn a great deal about India, it's foods and its aromatic spices. My life has not been the same. I love cardamon, drinK lassi's and just wander through the pages frequently for inspiration. I made Chai (spiced milk tea) before it was the rage.In fact, I just came back from India, and this is the first thing I picked up to read. My book came with a kit of spices. I understand that the company went out of business. Sad, for the kit was a real treat and one I would give for gifts if it were still around. If you like to cook and like spices, then this is one for you.

If you own just one curry cookbook, this should be that book! Recipes are well explained, easy to follow, and each is accompanied with a detailed color photograph. I am a novice curry "chef" and after scouring the local public libraries for comprehensive but easy-to-follow curry cookbooks, I found this one at Amazon and now look no further! From basic to more complex, each recipe brings a bit of "fire and spice" to the kitchen, and palate. This is a book curry lovers should not be without!

I had this book on my Amazon wishlist and got it for Christmas. I couldn't be more pleased. I made Kashmiri Chicken & Potatos with Saffron Rice last night and it was delicious! The recipes are very easy to follow. Don't let this book fool you, not only are there tons of curry recipes, but rice bread & veggie recipies as well. This book also shows you how to make your own curry pastes and powders as well as an "about" section for the exotic and even not so exotic ingredients you'll be using. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who is a connoisseur of far eastern cuisine.

If you are looking for an easy to use authentic curry cookbook, then do not hesitate to buy this one.

This is my favorite collection of Indian cooking. The recipes cover a wide variety of foods, including soups, appetizers, rice, veggie dishes, and meat dishes. I particularly love the rice and cauliflower dishes. My friends are always impressed when I make a feast of Indian food from this cook book. The pictures are great too. The only criticism I have is that the recipes are written in the metric system.

If you want to cook curry like you'd get in a UK curry house, this is the book you need. There are no substitutes. A lot of curry authors give you recipes their Auntie used. This is not what you get in a restaurant. This book teaches you how to make a bucketfull of the curry 'gravy' they use in most restaurants, and how to adapt it to your favourite curry.

In no time you'll be making curries in 30mins that beat the ones you love from your local curry house.

One word of advice, make sure you put the lid firmly on the blender when liquidising curry sauce.

Curries made simple. Finally! This is a wonderful representation of the most popular curries along with sauces, starters and deserts.

This book is full of mouthwatering photos which is the only way you can decide which of the hundreds of recipes to choose from.

A basic for every kitchen.

I don't know what to say about "The Book of Shiva", other than I am renewing my love to Shiva. I mean, I love and adhere to all aspects of the Trinity, and I bow to the power of Vishnu to preserve the world. But Lord Shiva... I don't know. There's something within that Hermit of Kailash that amazes me. Perhaps His matted hair, from which Mother Gangga flows. Perhaps His hermit stage. Not His snake... not His snake...

But one thing for sure that makes me admire Shiva: His love to Lady Uma/Parvati. So beautiful, so sweet... A while ago, I wept the first time I learned that He too was broken hearted when Sati died. Now, after reading the story again here, I was crushed again. Shiva is the God who knows pain of separation. And the way Shiva expressed His feelings as He watched the All-Mother Uma turned into Kali: "It pained me to see my Uma like this. I wept when she howled like a wild beast... and turned on the blood-spawns."

Kudos to Saurav Mohapatra's script and Deepak Chopra's ideas. I really love the painting-like arts inside of the book - Tayade, Singh, and Subramanian did amazing works. My favourite part was when Shiva stopped the enraging Kali: "Uma, this cannot be. You must fight her." And then, the most beautiful painting, as He holds Uma's unconscious form and said: "The Sleeper slumbered again. For it was Uma who opened her eyes. Perhaps it was the fatigue of battle that quelled the primal will. Perhaps it was the power of the All-Mother. But sometimes I like to think...maybe... Just maybe... it was me."

Sweet, romantic Shiva...

My only nitpick is that Shiva was shown smiling only in 1-2 panels, particularly when Uma was around. I mean, yes - Shiva has the dark Rudra side, the destructive side. But He also has His sweet, beautiful side. The Dance of Life, as the Nataraj dances it, is danced with love. His love: sweet, tender, beautiful love. Such spirit is not really shown here, hence might mislead new readers or those who are not familiar with the Vedic tradition, that Shiva is the all-angry God who destroys everything.

Personally, I would rather have the cover depicting the benevolent Shiva, He who smiles peacefully as He watches the world from the top of Kailash. But I understand why from the sale point of view, the artists and creator preferred the scarier form of Shiva. Here's the hope for the second volume, where Shiva is depicted with gentler smile, as sweet and gentle as He gazes lovingly at Lady Parvati.

I heard about this comic series produced by deepak's son on tv and ordered the comic within minutes.Well written and awesome artwork,which complement each other perfectly.They should make a whole series and then
creat a coffee table artbook just perrrrfect!

I didn't know about this graphic novel series until Deepak Chopra mentioned his colaboration with his son during his Iconoclast interview with Mike Meyers.
Easy to follow storyline makes it easy to understand the basics about some of the Hindu Gods. If you have any interest in learning about Shiva, Ganesh, Shiva, Kali, Uma and many more this is a great start. Also, the illustrations and colors look outstanding on the glossy paper.

This comic book is great. I love mythology and this book proved to be good at teaching some legends. The story of the Gods is well written, and the illustrations are great. In fact, I have ordered the following one, and pre-ordered the third one!!!

I have owned this book for at least seven years now, and it continues to astonish me. These poems are brief, simple, universal, and beautifully translated. Most notably, Andrew Schelling spotlights Vidya, a poet that should take her rightful place beside Sappho and Japan's Lady Komachi. Although she wrote a thousand or more years ago, you read her and she comes to glorious life with what is, for me, some of the most erotic poetry ever written. Rapturous. Don't miss it.

Much of the available poetry translated from Sanskrit is still translations from the colonial period - translations which are accurate but stilted to our ears. Andrew Schelling has produced a translation which reads as poetry - as poetry that can be enjoyed without any cultural introduction - that can be enjoyed even more if one knows something of its context. An example: "Unable to cast / a semblance / of my girl's face, her dark eyes, / no doubt the moon / is reshaping its cold / disc, only / again to dissolve it"

Exquisite poetry in Sanskrit, exquisite poetry in English. Translations such as this create an easy bridge across cultures - and a step towards less European artistic norms.

The translation appears highly contemporized but the beauty of the sentiment comes through. I throughly enjoyed reading all the poems and continue to marvel at the power and transcendability of poetry written 2000 years ago. Have bought extra copies to give as gifts. Well worth the wait.

Yaseem lari is one of my favorite authors because her topics and writing style have a personal effect on me. I am also a Lari but that has nothing to do with anything...
The reason i chose to read this book was because i was born in Karachi and i wanted to learn about the wonderful city that i was from. This book does an wonderful job in describing the climate and history of the largest city in Pakistan. If you are not interested in such a topic then i don't reccomend reading this book but if u want to get an idea of Karachi and the changes it went through its history then its a great book for you!

This is a must read for anyone interested in Karachi and its history. I highly reccomend this book.

Disclaimer: Yasmeen and Mihail Lari are related to my wife. Regardless, I am going to provide as objective a review as I can.

I throughly enjoyed what I have read in this book so far! The maps, the illustrations, the descriptions, make this book come alive in a way that makes it simply a joy to read. Particularly if you have lived in Karachi for any length of time.

I have often seen that the inhabitants of a city - any city - are often the least knowledgeable of the history of their locale. This is not very surprising, I suppose, because there is a tendency to assume that "I already know my home town"! I find this book (and other history books that relate to my country!) opens up new revelations and provides knowledge that I simply did not have about Karachi.

I throughly recommend this book to everybody, particularly if you have any acquaintance with the region or the city. The book covers details that are not found elsewhere.

Both a seer and an artist, Bruce Luther's Elements Of Creation is a fascinating and engaging autobiographical memoir, presenting a journey of circles -- of his discovering the cycles that embody life, space, time, thought, and death. Seemingly conflicting choices beckon at every turn, testing the human ability to remember the right path. A soulful and moving metaphysical presentation of the author's own life, Elements Of Creation is highly recommended, challenging, insightful reading.

In his autobiographical page-turner, Elements of Creation, Author and seeker Bruce Luther offers a tale of discovery that kept this reviewer revitted. That discovery occurred in India...and it forever changed his life.

Bruce Luther found the circle of life, the body in time. He writes, "The body is a vehicle for an awareness in which to experience reality. The body shifts space and time and moves it so that the awareness has a vehicle in which to see materiality. Just like the water passing by the hull of the boat, as one we pass through this awareness, the contact we make with reality has a startling impact on our direction."

Elements of Creation takes the reader, as it did the author, in and out of time cycles...sometimes into the past, and sometimes into the future. They can reveal "...every experience we have had and those yet to come." Like watching a motion picture, awareness of choices unreel exposing selections "...made from our core being, before we take a body." And so we learn that the circle of life is not life and death, but a test of our ability to remember our way."

Bruce Luther is a seer and painter. Elements of Creation is his canvas and the reader finds his words are bright splashes of color representing images he's seen since childhood. His journey into the circle dance unveiled the validation of his direction. Elements of Creation will hold you, shock you, awaken you and rid you of the beast that blocks your way to attainment!

Elements of Creation is a transformative book presenting the idea that your life is not your body, your experiences, or even an apparition. While reading this reviewer was nudged into a state of introspective meditation with a burning question-what is true reality?
The author is initiated into The Circle Dance and encounters The Beast while traveling in India with a companion. During the trip Luther discovered a mind-bending new reality about life, our body, and the concept of time and space.
With postulations such as, 'Death is a symptom of paying too much attention to time,' Reader, fasten your seat belt. It's a brilliant work, and an exciting, wondrous trip!

Arun Shourie is once more at his cutting best in this exposé of the devious ways in which the cabal of "Eminent Historians" manipulate, massage, and murder History with all their undertones of Marxist ideology, masquerading a shabby brand of secularism.

Here you will find the excesses of such "eminences" as Romila Thappar, Satish Chandra, Irfaan Habib, R S Sharma, and an assortment of fellow travellers. A veritable brood who have cornered the writing of History as seen though their own warped, pinko tinted spectacles. And for this "service" to scholarship, the brood has lost no opportunity to monopolise state largess, siphon off grants for various projects without delivering. The few times this pretend-busy brood has deigned to deliver, then the output of any "research" has been so immersed in the ideology prescribed by some foreign, totalitarian, failed Party and State, that it defies the description of scholarship.

No wonder that none of the eminences or their intellectual offspring have had the guts to respond to the issues that Shourie raises here. They deploy the same strategy as they do in their historical "researches" - first ignore it, then decry it as petty, from an amateur, hurl personal insults, falsify facts.

Remember: these "eminences" have made a career out of claiming that Aurangzeb was a just ruler, that the Caste System was the sole reason for India's problems, that Islam brought equality, that the systematic destruction of countless temples was an economic exercise and had absolutely nothing to do with the hatred and contempt that the Islamic invaders had for Indian culture and traditions.

For "eminences" who deny the history as written by the chroniclers themselves of the invasions, of pillage, of destruction, of the rape that they carried out in honour of their iconoclasm, it is easy to falsify even recent history like the events around partition; like the Ramjanambhoomi dispute; like Secularism and minority rights.

Shourie's book is an excellent antidote to the .... from these eminences that still passes off as "academic research". It is shameful that the likes of Thappar still warrant respect in the academic community. But, the good news is that their time is nigh! Shourie and others like him are making sure of it.

"Eminent Historians: Their Techniques, Their Line, Their Fraud" is arguably the most important book published in India since 1947. Arun Shourie is the author of 14 other books, several of them brilliant exposé of the Indian Communist party's long-standing anti-national policies, the foreign Christian missionaries' covert activities in India, and the Congress party's corruption and pseudo-secular policies that culminated in the massacre of thousands of innocent Sikhs in Delhi in 1984.

His writings have won him major awards including the International Editor of the Year.
"Eminent Historians," the ironic title of his latest book comes from the self-description a group of Marxist historians, most of them academics, arrogated for themselves while signing a newspaper petition during the Ayodhya controversy. The Marxist party line is to project Hindus as exploitative feudalists and Muslims as liberators!

Arun Shourie's major thesis: During the past fifty years, "this bunch of Marxist historians have been suppressing facts, inventing lies, perverting discourse, and derailing public policy" by seizing control of institutions such as the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Council of Educational Research Training (NCERT), large parts of Indian academia, and nearly all of the English-media newspapers and publishing houses.

Included as principals in this group of Marxist historians are Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, K.M. Shrimali, K.M.Pannikar, R.S. Sharma, D. N. Jha, Gyanendra Pandey, and Irfan Habib. This group has, Shourie charges, "worked a diabolic inversion: the inclusive religion [Hinduism], the pluralist spiritual search of our people and land, they have projected as intolerant, narrow-minded, obscurantist; and the exclusivist, totalitarian, revelatory religions and ideologies -- Islam, Christianity, Marxism-Leninism-- they have made out to be the epitome of tolerance, open-mindedness, democracy, secularism!" By promoting each other's publications and puffing up their reputations, this group has long been "determining what is politically correct." One measure of the insidious control these "verbal terrorists" have been exercising over the English-medium publishing industry in India is that Arun Shourie, despite his huge readership, had to self-publish his books.

For several decades, these "eminent historians" have striven hard to continually denigrate Hindu cultural history, the oldest surviving civilization in the world, by "blackening the Hindu period and whitewashing the Islamic period." Indeed, Shourie should have challenged them to refute American historian Will Durant's assertion in his `The Story of Civilization": "The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within." Or that of French historian Alain Danielou's statement, in his Histoire de l' Inde : "From the time Muslims started arriving, around 632 AD, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoilations, destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of 'a holy war' of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilisations, wiped out entire races."

As the book's subtitle promises, Shourie succeeds in unmasking these self-proclaimed eminents of "their technology, their line, their fraud" by focusing on specifics as exemplified below: his own television debates with some of these "eminent historians"; their failures to respond to published challenges by historians and scholars of persuasions other than Marxist; their documented efforts at distorting established historical evidence.

In July 1998, Manoj Raghuvanshi, host of a popular ZEE TV program called Aap ki Adalat, Aap ka Faisla (Your Court, You Judge) invited Arun Shourie and one of the "eminents," K. L. Shrimali. Raghuvanshi posed the question first to Shrimali whether Aurangzeb was a religious bigot. Despite Raghuvanshi's repeating the question, Shrimali gave no clear answer, only asserting that Aurangzeb's court had many Hindu nobles. Shourie countered this by pointing out that there were many Indians among the persons honored by the British with titles - - and both for the same reason. In Shourie's words: "How does this wipe away the destruction of Hindu temples by Aurangzeb? Aurangzeb had entertained no doubt about the fact that his primary impluse was the religious one. And that he faithfully implemented an essential element of his religion, Islam, that is to destroy the places of worship of other religions." As evidence, Shourie read out several passages from Sita Ram Goel's book Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them, The Islamic Evidence. All Shrimali could mumble was that it was a "questionable source." When Shourie pressed the point that the source was the Akhbarat (Newsletter) of the Court of Aurangzeb himself written on the very day the news reached the court, the "eminent" historian merely repeated "questionable source." Shourie comments: "So, when an 'eminent' historian says that the sources were questionable, they must be questionable" - - this is their technology when cornered."

Satish Chandra's Medieval History, a textbook for Class XI students, asserts that "sometimes Sufi saints also played a role although they were generally unconcerned with conversions." Shourie comments: "If this eminent historian were to read the accounts of these Sufis, he would learn how they acted as the advance scouts of the armies of Islam!" In NCERT sponsored books, notes Shourie, "Two sentences from the Koran: 'To you your religion, to me mine,' and 'There is no compulsion in religion' which are flatly over-run by the text itself, to say nothing of the entire history of Islamic rule over 1400 years, those two sentences are flaunted as proof-positive of Islam being not just committed to peace and tolerance, they are proof that it is The Religion of Peace and Tolerance!"

Unfortunately, it will take a long time for undoing the harm done by the pseudo-secular historians to the Indian psyche: "they have used these institutions to sow in the minds of our people [the Hindus] the seeds of self-hatred."

For anyone interested in contemporary India, this is a must-read book.

This book is more than a book - it is a milstone in the history of history-writing in India. It contributed heavily to the on-going debate about distortions in Indian history, and put several academecians on the defensive. It is possible that sometime in future, this book will be identified as a turning point in Indian education also.
The book explains how a group of academic historians, of Marxist persuasion, has been tweaking Indian history and also lining its own pockets in the process. Shri Shourie backs his arguments with definite facts and impeccable logic. The narrative becomes livelier because he also brings in short side-stories describing the debates that went on during his research. The book also describes some of the distortions of history and how they have affected Indian psyche and contributed to the current political fury, sometimes described as Hindutva 'fundamentalism'.
Unfortunately, the book suffers from repetitions. An earlier argument or sequence is sometimes repeated again later on, sometimes even thrice. This is perhaps integral to the author's style of writing -- he wants to make sure that you are finally convinced, with no room for squirming out. Fortunately, the book is not as long as some of his other efforts.
Curiously, the author, a highly respected and famous investigative journalist, believed in Communism till 1980's and was proudly paraded at Marxist gatherings. Then his political thinking changed and he started writing against Marxists and other divisive groups, who generally are critical of most things Indian. In the '90s he formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and went on to become a Central Cabinet Minister. He has continued writing, and is currently considered to be a formidable opponent of Marxism.
I discovered this book because it had been brutally criticised in the Outlook magazine, and that made me curious. It took me nearly two weeks to read (it makes for fairly heavy reading), but the labor was well-worth the insights I obtained. Since then I had to buy an extra copy because people kept borrowing my copy, and I could not find it when I needed it myself!
Overall, an excellent introduction to the current Indian debate on history, and a good buy for those interested in Indian history.

Fantastic collection of short stories about Sikh women throughout the century and living around the world. Some of the best stories I've read about women and their need to follow honour,but also the anger and confusion this causes in a rapidly changing world. Very moving fiction. All the stories are told with excellent subtlety. A very strong recommendation for a relatively new writer of short fiction.

Probably one of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read. In fact, I asked my friends not to give me another book until it matched Singh Baldwin's quality.

The narrative and characters remain with me two years later. What more can a reader ask for?

This book is a wonderful account of the Indian (predominatly Punjabi) immigrant experience in America and Canada. The author's lyrical prose brings the reader into each character's life on an intimate level, rather than making the reader feel like a casual observer. Although most of the short stories are told from a female's point of view, readers across the board will be drawn in by the author's in depth afinity for character evolvment. The short story, Montreal, 1962, is the highlight of the collection, with it's tearful account of a Punjabi housewife's ability to see beyond the symbolism of her Sikh husband's turban.

I have to say that I would recommend this delightful book to anyone, and everyone looking for some insight into a family's experience abroad, in a totally foreign environment. This book perfectly conveys the experiences form all the characters and adventures, into a picture book infront of my eyes. A must-read for anyone and everyone.

The most meaningful travel is when one arrives at a destination and "makes camp", rather than doing the quick "5 cities in 5 days" route! But many of us can't manage that much time away. Traveling to India is a world away from the life that most Americans lead, and getting there is often beyond our budgets and time constraints. The book,Travels in India, allows the reader to visit India in all her vastness, cultural richness, and amazing diversity of every day life in one community for the small price of the book, and to experience a year there with Ms. Trembour and her family. We are transported to a community life similar to our own in its concerns and cause for celebration, and yet worlds apart. One may also gain an appreciation of the value of taking one's children out of the country for awhile to get another point of view. Read this book if you can't arrange to get to India to experience her for yourself, or read it to be inspired to go! (Or try, if you can, to get your kid to read it for a book report assignment, and give them a taste of another culture!)

As the mother of the author, I can truly say that although I had read this book as its email installments crossed my computer screen, when it arrived in the mail I couldn't put it down. It is full of delightful tales, some scary, many funny.

The adventures of this family in India provide a primer for any family on how to adapt to new surroundings and strange experiences quickly and well. If you are planning a trip to a developing country, this book should be in your luggage.