8 Cookbooks for Chefs and Hungry Readers Alike

Today being Personal Chef’s Day, we browsed through a couple of books that chefs would benefit greatly from. Some of the books on the list are from the Pothi.com Store too- we have a great many titles under the cooking category at the store.

When we interviewed Bridget White-Kumar, author of several cookbooks, we asked her about some pointers while writing a cookbook.

“Writing a recipe book isn’t easy,” she said. “A lot of hard work goes into it since one has to get the recipe right after many, many trials and errors. Once a recipe is written, it will be the guide to be followed by many. Only when one has mastered the dish, can a foolproof recipe be written.”

Cookbooks to Nibble on:

Mastering the Pakodas: The Snack for all Seasons by Sangeeta Khanna

Come monsoon and there is the desire to indulge in pakodas and adrak (ginger) chai. The author of Mastering the Pakodas is a botanist and microbiologist and a hardcore home-made food believer.

 

An Indian Sense of Salad by Tara Deshpande Tennebaum

Many of us see salads as a purely Western concept but the local produce in India offers a green mine when it comes to potential salad ingredients. Tennebaum deconstructs the Indian vegetable and adds a splash of additional nutrition to the Indian meal.

The Dal Cookbook by [Krishna Dutta]The Dal Cookbook by Krishna Dutta

Dal is the staple diet of most Indians. Krishna Dutta examines the different dishes where lentils can be used including khichari, dosas, vadas, pappadam.

 

 

660 curries by Raghavan Iyer660 Curries by [Raghavan Iyer]

This book is an exhaustive compendium of cooking styles from across India. Feast on curries, appetizers, traditional cuisines, biryanis, breads, blends, you name it.

 

Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Nation by [Madhur Jaffrey]Quick & Easy Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey 

70 easy-to-prepare recipes by India’s favorite cook Madhur Jaffrey. Her recipes are great for newbies too. Watch Madhur Jaffrey talk about Indian cuisine and the history of Indian cooking here.

 

Cookbooks at the Pothi.com store

Indian Grandmas' Secret RecipesIndian Grandmas’ Secret Recipes

25 vegetarian recipes by 16 cooks in the age range of 70-95. The recipes span different parts of India.

 

 

Amader Barir Khawa Dawa: Bengali Recipes From My Mother's KitchenAmader Barir Khawa Dawa: Bengali Recipes From My Mother’s Kitchen by Ratna Mukherjee

The author collects a 100 of her mother’s incredible recipes of traditional Bengali dishes- day-to-day fare and festive occasions.

 

ANGLO-INDIAN DELICACIESAnglo-Indian Delicacies by Bridget White-Kumar

An easy and unpretentious guide to delectable Anglo-Indian Cuisine. The author has won the ‘Best Culinary History Book’ awarded by Gourmand International Spain, World Cookbook awards, 2012.

 

Which cookbooks have you indulged in? Do mention in the comments.

Wole Soyinka- Doyen of Drama Who Dons Many Roles

Wole Soyinka “who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence” won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. He was the first Nigerian, the first African to win this distinction. His life is a lesson to journalists and writers across the world. Wole Soyinka has never been afraid to speak his mind and he speaks not with the grating cynicism that we find on social media these days- all his speech is tempered with reason. You can watch him speak here.

While he has written extensively combining European and Yoruba tradition- plays, poetry, novels, short stories, essays, memoirs and screenplays, he is also an activist and has spent a large part of his life fighting corruption, racism and injustice. While he has won various prizes for his writing and has taught at many prestigious universities, he has also been incarcerated for his firm stand. His propensity for satire flourished in the arts but was not appreciated across the political spectrum in his home country.

Death and the King's Horseman (Student Editions)Myth, Literature and the African World (Canto)Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on EarthCollected Plays: Volume 1: A Dance of the Forests; The Swamp Dwellers; The Strong Breed; The Road; The Bacchae of Euripide...The Lion and the Jewel (Three Crowns Books)

Soyinka has produced nearly 30 plays and this is what stands out the most in his legacy. He combines traditional pantomimes, ritualistic practices and dance with the idea of independence and regeneration.

Happy b’day Wole Soyinka!

Remembering Manohar Malgonkar, the Prolific Writer Everyone Forgot

One contemporary of the writer Mulk Raj Anand we know little about is a writer who was born on this day in a village in Karnataka – Manohar Malgonkar. He donned many roles-army officer rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, columnist, civil servant, game hunter, mine owner at Jagalbet and farmer.

His experience in various spheres reflected in his prolific output of short stories, essays and fiction and non-fiction novels and those who have read his work (few and far between) know that his stories focus on India during British colonization (The Princes, A Bend in the Ganges) and India post-independence (Distant Drum). His novel A Spy in Amber was adapted into the Hindi film Shalimar.

He lived in ‘Burbusa Bungalow’  in Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka and he passed away in 2010.

The Ibis and its Whereabouts – Amitav Ghosh and Jhumpa Lahiri

On this day, two extraordinary authors share a birthday.

Ghosh in 2017Amitav Ghosh’s education spans from Dehradun to Oxford. For a short time he worked at The Indian Express and it was while he was studying at Oxford that he wrote his first book The Circle of Reason. From then, his writing career blossomed and his books have been translated into over twenty languages. Almost every book he has penned has won an award. He is probably the first cli-fi writer India has produced- his fascination for the sea,  human history and migration make his novels complex, educational and must-reads. Ghosh’s writing veers on the non-fictional even when he writes fiction.  A book that many readers I have spoken to love is The Hungry Tide, The Ibis Trilogy, The Glass Palace, Shadow Lines and Calcutta Chromosome.

Jhumpa Lahiri in 2015

Jhumpa Lahiri, an American author born in London,  is loved most for her debut collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies. Her book The Namesake was adapted into a popular movie and she has a string of awards under her belt. Her stories have captured the Indian immigrant experience but she hasn’t stopped there- she has moved on to finding the true language of her soul by delving into a completely foreign language – Italian. This is an experiment in the fictional realm, one that many writers and translators can learn from.

Read this interview with Lahiri to understand this prestigious author’s love affair with the Italian language.

Which books do you love by these authors? Tell us in the comments.

On International Mango Festival Day, 8 Book Titles That Feature Mangoes! 🥭

Every year since 1987 on July 9, the International Mango Festival is held in Delhi.  This is a great opportunity for mango gourmands, sellers and growers and a mango product bonanza for visitors. Favorite mango varieties on display are Langda, Malda, Dasheri, Alphonso, Chausa, Sindheri, Himgiri, Bombay Green and many others. Besides the achars, jams and shakes available at kiosks, there are folk song shows featuring mangoes and binge-eating mango contests.

This year the festival remains closed owing to Covid.

As part of honoring the festival this year, we put together a list of some books with Mango in the title and we came across many genres from literary to chicklit. Tell us if there are any more Mango-themed titles featured in your book collection!

House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street is a story of childhood and self-discovery. Sandra Cisneros started writing the book as a memoir but the book ended up taking a life of its own and became an exploration of otherness and identity. Read about her writing process here.

 

The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar

A generational saga of three generations of Dorais set in southern India during India’s freedom struggle. The house at Chethavar which is the fulcrum of the book is surrounded by the famous blue mango trees.

 

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

Wendy’s protagonist is a synesthete- she can smell colors and taste shapes. She must learn how to come to terms with her condition as her world is an explosion of the senses.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

Explosive writing! A Case of Exploding Mangoes is a satirical account of the conspiracies that clouded Zia-ul-Haq’s death. He chooses satire as a medium to expose hard truths and the comic touch to touch on subjects that are very much forbidden fruit.

 

Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in IndiaClimbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey

When you pick up a Madhur Jaffrey book, you are sure to be assaulted by a tonne of flavors. This memoir cum recipe account is a culinary autobiography not just of Jaffrey’s own experiences but India’s food journey as well.

Monique and the Mango Rains: An Extraordinary Story of Friendship in a Midwife's House in Mali by [Kris Holloway]Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali

Humor laces this book set in a West African village. The protagonist is a midwife who saves young lives and becomes a legend.

 

The Mango Season by [Amulya Malladi]The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi

Chicklit set with a protagonist from the Indian diaspora. Priya is expected to marry a nice Indian boy but over a mango pickle culinary exercise, she is in a dilemma about whether she should reveal more about her American boyfriend.

 

Imaculada de Bomba Cabral's Mango Tree and other nonsense talesImaculada de Bomba Cabral’s Mango Tree and other nonsense tales

At the Pothi.com store, we found a title that matches the mango theme- a book of humorous essays with Goa as the protagonist.

 

 

Dhan Gopal Mukerji- The Only Indian Writer Who Won the Newbery Medal

On 6 July, 1890, Dhan Gopal was born in a jungle village in Kolkata. His story reads like a piece of fiction- a boy steeped in Brahminical roots with a revolutionary brother who eggs him on to leave India goes on a subsequent journey to Japan and once the disillusionment of the assembly lines he witnessed there set in, he arrived at San Francisco. He ended up studying at Berkeley and then at Stanford, turning to the written word for solace.

His life was an intense enquiry into the unknown. This little-known writer of the 1920s laid the foundation for Indian writing in English.

Stanford critic Gordon H. Chang describes Mukerji as a person who ‘holds the distinction of being the first author of Asian-Indian ancestry who successfully wrote for American audiences about Indian life’. Dhan Gopal had a rich legacy – the sprawling jungle was rooted in his mind, his brother’s love for India and his own found a way into his longing for his country, and the reality of race relations in the US lit a fire in him.

Dhan Gopal is the only Indian writer who has ever won the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal –   for his children’s book Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon. Messenger pigeons during WWI, man and his friendship with winged animals, and the futility of war form the crux of this story.

Mukerji’s other children’s books include Ghond, the Hunter, The Chief of the Herd, Hindu Fables for Little Children, Rama, the Hero of India, The Master Monkey, and Fierce-Face, the Story of a Tiger.

Besides children’s stories, he also wrote non-fiction, poetry and translations, which were published in prestigious outlets. His autobiography Caste and Outcaste is one of the first books that talks about the experiences of an Indian abroad. Other writings include A Son of Mother India Answers  ( in response to Katherine Mayo‘s Mother India), Devotional Passages from the Hindu Bible and Visit India with MeDisillusioned India, My Brother’s Face, and  The Face of Silence.

He died by suicide in his home in New York in 1936.

Nine Times Kafka Was Splendid and Wildly Relatable

 

On this day, 138 years ago, notable novelist Franz Kafka was born. His writing has since become well-known for their “senseless, disorienting and menacing complexity”, with kafkaesque entering our cultural lexicon to describe situations similar to those found in his books.

Despite the reputation his books have garnered of being difficult to read and comprehend, a closer look reveals that Kafka would have fit right in with the rest of us as we navigate a pandemic, adjust to work-from-home, and juggle our emotions, needs, and physical and mental health.

Along with tempestuous and difficult personal relationships, Franz Kafka also struggled greatly with his mental health throughout his life. As a result, his writing literally represented a lifeline for this prolific author, and authors today continue to benefit greatly from his reflections on the life of a writer.

Kafka’s thoughts on depression, love, and anxiety give us a glimpse into the human condition, that has remained largely unchanged over the last one hundred years. And in the same way, one might be forgiven for thinking that he might not have been out of place in our meme-obsessed social media landscape with his bitingly sarcastic wit.

KAFKA WAS CLEARLY CENTURIES AHEAD OF HIS TIME WHEN IT CAME TO LIVE-TWEETING HIS DEPRESSION.

Basically it is nothing other than this fear we have so often talked about, but fear spread to everything, fear of the greatest as of the smallest, fear, paralyzing fear of pronouncing a word, although this fear may not only be fear but also a longing for something greater than all that is fearful.”

KAFKA ON SOCIAL ANXIETY, FROM LETTERS TO MILENA

NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING WHAT CAPTIONS HE’D HAVE ADDED TO HIS CAREFULLY CURATED FEED OF SOULFULLY ARTISTIC IMAGES ON INSTAGRAM. KAFKA WAS THE OG INSTAGRAM POET.

 

KAFKA, METAMORPHOSIS

Happy birthday, Franz Kafka. And finally thank you for these evergreen words of wisdom, that we are unlikely to forget as we struggle to work from our homes and manage our anxiety.

 

14 Doctors who are Accomplished Writers – A Doctor’s Day Special 🩺

While doctors are venerated for their frontline effort during the pandemic and well-known for their illegible prescriptions, not many of us know that a large number of physicians have succeeded in the writing arena. Doctors have the perfect opportunity to observe patients, empathize with them and make sense of the human condition.

Here are some stellar writers who are medical physicians as well:

Khaled Hosseini

Khaled HosseiniKhaled Hosseini began writing The Kite Runner while he practiced medicine, spending the early hours of the day to finish his writing quota for the day. The success of The Kite Runner led him to take a sabbatical from the medical profession. Listen to him talk about his medical career here.

Robin Cook

Pandemic (Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery)If there’s one writer who was incessantly worried about a pandemic-like situation, it’s medical thriller writer and physician Robin Cook. His character Jack Stapleton is a character who was concerned by the possibility of super spreader respiratory illnesses. Famous books by Robin Cook include Coma, Outbreak and Pandemic.

Atul Gawande

Atul-Gawande - Wikimedia CommonsAtul Gawande is a doctor by morning, writer by night sort of multi-tasker. His books are an intersection of medicine, compassion and solutions. His books The Checklist Manifesto and Being Mortal talk about treatment management and humanist interventions when faced with critical illness.

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Buy The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Book Online at Low Prices in India | The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.inSiddhartha Mukherjee wrote The Emperor of All Maladies intermittently during his medical practice and oncology research. At any one time, he juggles multiple disciplines with an effort to understand the root of the disease. Read about his writing experience here.

W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham - WikipediaThe famous novelist, short story writer and playwright Somerset Maugham once said, “I do not know a better training for a writer than to spend some years in the medical profession. The doctor, especially the hospital doctor, sees it [humanity] bare.” Famous books by him include The Razor’s Edge, Of Human Bondage, The Painted Veil, etc.

Anton Chekhov

File:Anton-chekhov-4 JAM.jpg - Wikimedia CommonsAnton Chekhov, one of the world’s most celebrated short story writers, was a dedicated doctor. He was fascinated by the lives of his patients and his compassion shines through in his writing. Many of his stories focus on aspects of the medical profession such as Anyuta, Ionych, A Boring Story, A Doctor’s Visit, etc.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle - Wikipedia

Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, practiced medicine for a decade. He focused on ophthalmology and his unsuccessful practice ended up being a boon to the detective fiction genre.

Abraham Verghese

Buy My Own Country: A Doctor's Story Book Online at Low Prices in India | My Own Country: A Doctor's Story Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.inAbraham Verghese studied medicine in Ethiopia and India and ended up practicing medicine in the United States. He took a swing at his writing dream by applying to the Iowa Writing Workshop. Books by him include Cutting for Stone and My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story. Learn more about his journey here.

Taslima Nasrin Sarkar

Most know this outspoken author and Ananda Purashkar winner for works like her 1993 novel, Lajja. But did you know that Nasrin also practiced as a gynecologist for many years before turning to full-time activism? Her experiences as a doctor have formed the cornerstone of much of her writing and played a central role in the development of her ideologies and passion.

 

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Kamal Kumar Mahawar

 

Nawal El-Sadaawi

Paul Kalanithi

 

Michael Crichton

Who doesn’t know and love the exciting action thrillers penned by Michael Crichton? Crichton holds an MD from Harvard, but never pursued a medical career, opting instead to devote his time to writing – his true passion. And lucky for us he did, or else the world may still have been waiting for a Jurassic Park to come along and shape our cultural landscape.

 

Let us know if you have any physician writers in mind and we can add to this list.

Here are some medical authors from the Pothi.com Store:
InVerse Medicine by Upreet Dhaliwal
Cricket Medicine Essentials by Naveen Bhansal
Drug Autobiographies in Pharmacology by Sushil Sharma
Power after B.D.S by Dr. Abhishek Jungi

 

Article contributors: Neelima, Anushka

Author Resource: Write a Book with a Markdown Text Editor novelWriter

novelWriter is a markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents.

Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax that makes documents readable without tags ( text modifiers like lists, bold, italics, etc are used). We use Markdown in Facebook message, Skype, Slack, Trello etc.

Novelwriter can run on Linux, Windows and macOS, and users have tested it on other platforms too.

What Does novelWriter Help Writers With?

novelWriter allows for easy organization of text files and notes, with a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. The plain text storage is suitable for version control software.  Version control software helps with ‘versioning’ of documents and helps keeps track of every modification to the doc so that we can go and see the last series of changes that were made.

Other features include:

  • View the doc you are editing and any other doc in a separate viewer panel
  • Write in Editor Focus Mode, focusing on text only
  • Assign tags to notes
  • Easy project overview
  • Docs can be dropped and dragged into folders
  • Overview of chapters and scenes
  • Syntax highlighting for the editor and syntax highlight themes
  • Autosave documents
  • Build and export
multiple screenshot
novelWriter
screenshot of novelWriter with default system theme
novelWriter with default system theme
novelWriter with Dark theme screenshot
novelWriter with dark theme

How is a Word Processing program like Scrivener different from an open-source app like novelWriter?

Opensource software essentially means that the underlying code that was used to produce the app is freely available to see or modify. Using open-source apps should not require more technical skills but in case of this app, not everyone is fluent in writing markdown and people are generally more comfortable with graphic interface to format a document.

There are people who find the markdown format easier and faster. So this leans toward that section of the audience.

Recommended or Not?

Sure, novelWriter is not a full-feature Markdown editor. It allows for a minimal, concentrated set of formatting needed for writing text documents for novels so it’s easy to use.
Looking for professional help to make your manuscript error-free and take it to next level? Check out our copy editing and proofreading services.

 

 

Author Resource: Master World Building Skills with Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator

Every fantasy novel has a fair share of world-building and maps are a great way to showcase new worlds.

Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator (FMG) is a free opensource tool you can use to generate highly customizable fantasy maps, either auto-generated ones or your own design. There are options to change default settings and even to draw maps from scratch using the paint brush option,

How to Build your Map

screengrab of Fantasy Map Generator

  • Check out the auto-generated map.
  • Customize parameters or create a new map.
  • Fashion your map according to layers of your choice- be it political, cultural, religious, etc.
  • You can give the map its own unique style and look.
  • Save the file.
Screengrab from https://awesomeopensource.com/project/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator
Source: https://awesomeopensource.com/project/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator
Map designed at https://awesomeopensource.com/project/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator
Source: https://awesomeopensource.com/project/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator
Map at https://awesomeopensource.com/project/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator
Source: https://awesomeopensource.com/project/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator

Check out this excellent resource to understand more about this map generator.

Recommended or Not?

Using this resource requires some patience and skill. I found it difficult to design a map on my own so it’s not something you can do in a hurry- there are communities on Reddit and Discord who can help.

You don’t need to install it on your computer and it’s completely free, so if you have the time and the vision, go for it!

 

Looking for professional help to make your manuscript error-free and take it to next level? Check out our copy editing and proofreading services.