Tag: Books

Favourite authors! – Observations & Analysis.

Over the years, I have enjoyed reading a few authors again and again and here i have shared some of my favourite authors and what to expect of them when you read their book.

Murakami :The Writing style of Murakami is simple, yet has a depth in the stories and narration that makes you loose yourself in the world he has created for the reader. Books worth reading from the author : Kafka On the shore, Strange Library, Men Without Women, Norwegian Wood and The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Seshi Yokomizo: His stories revolve around A Detective, an island, A large joint family and a family member that’s missing for years. Books worth reading from the author: The Inugami Curse, The Devils Flute, The Honjin Murders

Ogawa : Her stories are about Memory Loss, Death ,Relationship with the past and life in Japan. Books worth reading from the author: The Housekeeper & The Professor and The Memory Police.
Keigo Higashino : His Content is about A detective like no other, a story set in Japan, And how science & Physics studies are used to solve the mystery.
Books worth reading from the author. Malice, The Midsummer equation and Salvation Saint.

Perumal Murugan : His stories are set in South India with A woman as central character.
It’s also about how the society perceive people who behave and react different from the society norms. Books worth reading from the author. One Part Woman & Poonachi

Pico Iyer: His Writing style soothes you and calm your nerves, the elements are always nature and a beautiful setting.
Books worth reading Art of Stillness & Cuba by the Night.

Satyajit Ray: A detective, who with the help of his team solves mysteries in India. That could be based on simple objects or family disputes, through his observations. The Complete Adventures of Feluda Vol 1 & Vol 2

Ravi Subramanium: It’s about Banking Scams, Friendship, and the Race to succeed to
The top. If God was a Gamer & Bankster

Henning Mankell: A Story set in Sweden with connection in Africa and a foreigner who has travelled and started living in Sweden. A neighbourhood that has been peaceful and an alcoholic Inspector.
Books worth reading Sidetracked & Faceless Killer

Jo Nesbo : A police inspector, who handles cases around Sweden & internationally, And some one within the field is responsible for the crime.
The Snowman & The Bat

Agatha Christie: Stories about a detective that’s smart enough to know who might be responsible through his style of investigation. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Lucy Foley :A Thriller without a detective, but has the same surprise and interest for the readers. The Guest list

Paula Hawkins: A writers who’s first book was an introduction to thrillers for me , the way they should be written and since than haven’t found anything like the Girl on the train.

Elif Shafak : A story set in Turkey, keeping in mind the challenges faced by woman for woman’s right. Books worth reading The Gaze & Bastard of Istanbul

Malcolm Gladwell: A writer who uses psychology as the backdrop to explain the fundamentals of human behaviour & Success. Blink & Tipping point must read books.

Paulo Coelho: Writing that keeps you searching for more, And leads you to a journey of self discovery. Alchemist & Birda

Best Books on Food!

Taste by @stanleytucci.
A book, that you would enjoy reading not just if you like eating, but if you like cooking too! The tone used in the book, the way it has been written, takes us back to his childhood days and memories! This book has Taste on every page, while some pages are sweet, some are Bitter. The whole read is a meal! You wouldn’t like to miss it!

The Food Mood Connection by @drumanaidoo
Haven’t you always said or heard? I am in the mood to eat this meal today for lunch, Breakfast or Dinner.
Well! Food and Mood does have a connection and this book highlights how it affects us. An interesting book on focusing correlation between Mental Health, Food and Diet.
Research and written by Uma Naidoo who has studied nutritional & lifestyle psychiatry at Harvard.

Pancake in Paris by @craigcarlsonauthor
A story of an American who lived his American dream in Paris!
By starting a cafe – Pancake in Paris!
This story is about how he succeeded in living his dream and the challenges he faced in getting the right ingredients and introducing a Breakfast meal that wasn’t part of the French culture.
A good American breakfast.

How I Quit Google to Sell Samosas @munafkapadia
The Story about Borhi Kitchen – A home experience of cultural cuisine, that started a decade ago and gained popularity for the food and the experience it, it later also grew with food experience as a delivery service and for Catering at events! With a simple idea of bringing in local cultural food. This is an inspirational story set in India, Mumbai since it’s also a challenge to diversify from well-paid jobs to starting something of your own. This book also highlights the challenges one faces in the Food & Beverages and Hospitality business.

Forgotten Foods @taranahusainkhan
A book on looking back at some of the food specialities that aren’t very popular these days and are well known only in certain parts of the country.

The Rise of Disability stories.

In the Year 2023, I read a few books on Disability characters, And all of them have been written around in the last decade They all have had a personal connection with the author and the story.

The disability ranging from intellectual to physical disabilities. Have only made it more human to have a sense of fulfilment of how fortunate they are those who haven’t gone through any of these experiences, that challenges ones existence for a small task that seem simple to the ones who are completely mobile or have all their senses functioning to the fullest.

Whether it was The housekeeper and the professor. A story about a professor who has only 80 minutes of memory in a day and he likes to associate with numbers. To Elena a story about a missing daughter and a mothers struggle to find her daughter while the mother is suffering from Parkinson’s.

To the injustice the disabled have to deal with in the “disability visibility by Alice Wong.”

To a child who suffers from autism is being curious about a dogs death and how he associates certain daily activities for his day or week to go by.

“True Biz about Deafness “in a world that can see. Through sign language one could learn to communicate with another deaf person.

“Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow “protagonist who has been physically hurt by an accident. And how he has to bring certain changes into his life.

These stories have been pushing the acceptance of what these disabilities are and why one shouldn’t take advantage and be more considerate to the ones who have to deal with so much from the ones around them.

These stories aren’t just about children, but also about Adults who have more challenges to face than the younger ones.

While these are the books! The question that comes to mind is Films and television.

What controls them & stops them from adapting these stories, that could have a wider reach and be more influential in accepting disabilities?

These books out there only have pushed the boundaries of acceptance of the existence of disabilities that we haven’t made any arrangements for.

Best Books on Disability: I have Read 

  • Disability Visibility by Alice Wong
  • Elena Knows by Claudia Pinerio
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
  • Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow by Gabriell Zevin
  • True Biz by Sara Novic
  • The Housekeeper and the Professor by Ogawa
  • The Diary of Murder by Kim Young-ha

The Roastery Tour -Blue Tokai

Having been a home brewer for years, and enjoying a good cup of coffee daily!

The Roastery tour was fascinating.

The effort, that goes into the brew of a single cup of coffee is huge, and within a few sips/Slurps, we have our verdict of liking or disliking the coffee.

The tour began with all those interested in assembling in a room and introduction of themselves, and what interested them about coffee and the tour.

We then moved to the storage room, where 1000 Kg gunny bags of green coffee beans were stored.

Each bag had a variety of green coffee beans which is sorted manually for good, bad and damaged beans.

They are then collected into a storage box before they go into roasting.

Each day 180 Kgs of green coffee beans are sorted manually at the Roastery.

There are a couple of green coffee varieties. They are Natural, Washed, Honey Processed (Red/Yellow) Malabar, and anaerobic fermentation.

Each of these beans have their own texture and size.

Natural: They are the natural ones. No Water or machines used to remove the coffee beans

Washed: They get washed away by water and then dried.

Malabar: A variety that’s popular in India. Is salt-panned coffee beans.

Honey Processed: A Process where coffee beans are de-pulped and dried without being washed. The golden sticky substance that remains is something like honey, which is why it’s known as honey processed.

Anaerobic fermentation: This is when the coffee cherries are locked into an airtight fermentation tank after being harvested, to stop any Carbon -dioxide from escaping.

The second room was the roasting room. 

The green coffee beans that has to be roasted are thrown into a hopper then a roasting profile is set ,that the roasters thinks  is the most appropriate for the coffee beans and then the coffee is roasted into the roaster. There are three drums within the roaster. 

And the coffee once roasted is flushed out in a section and spun over a few minutes where it cools down, before it can be taken into production for the cafés brewing, for cafe retailing, for E-Commerce purchases and other outlets that source beans from the Roastery. 

The packaging is done within minutes and ready to be sent all over.

The beans Preferably should be consumed within a month from the date it has been roasted to enjoy the flavour profile and taste of the coffee.

Post our Tour we also tried the coffees at the Roastery.

We brewed the pour over method and tried the drip bags too.

Oh! Please note before the Roastery brews a large batch of coffee, they have a portable roasting machine, that they use to sample beans.

The Roastery has to choose coffee from about 800 odd samples from which they choose about 40 odd samples they would produce under their Roastery.

Hampiness – An adventure in the waiting!

Virupaksha Temple

A journey that had been on the bucket list for the last few years.

And having explored India from the north and west.

South had a been little unexplored and was waiting to be explored.

Hampi is a city full of temples that have references not just mythology ( Ramayan) Hanuman’s Birthplace. But, also with Shiva- A single monolith statue that’s one of the most visited sights of the city. To the Dynasties battles Kilji, Chanayaka and later the British coming to existence.

No Wonder a city filled with so much history and mythology feels like one place with many world heritage references that the The Ministry of Tourism, on 29th September, declared Karnataka’s iconic destination as the Best Tourism Village of India-2023.

Hampi was selected one among the 795 applications received from 31 states and UTs.

Some bits of Hampi feel like you are in Macchi- Picchu to some feel like you are in Greece. While some truly belong to India.

The city has many world heritage sites.Think your ₹50 currency and you will observe the chariot stone. Hampi is also referred to as India’s Rome with so many ruins and history to the sights.

The historians at Hampi, also mentioned to explore the whole of Hampi that has 80 monuments worth exploring would take you an ideal 45 days here! So much history!

And if you would like to travel to Hampi some of the most important sites are Vitthala temple, that’s full of interpretations of history and the home to the stone Chariot. To the Virupaksha temple an active temple that has rituals performed daily including feeding of elephants as an experience of lifetime.

Elephant Stables a monument that was built for the kings elephant many centuries ago is another site worth visiting.

At times Hampi makes you believe you are In Stonehenge with the rocks here beautifully placed naturally or makes you believe you are In Grand Canyon with trekking around on rocks that are placed with boulders for support.

The sunset and sunrise view points of the city, give you an overview of the lush green landscapes covered with sugarcane’s and Banana plantations.

With so much to offer for history & nature buffs.Hampi still has the rawness and beauty of India.

Hampi is still not considered a tourist destination, with only one flight to Mumbai! And limited advertising for tourism in Hampi.

Stay: Evolve Back Resort

Did You Know?

Karnataka once served as the capital of one of the largest kingdoms of India the Vijayanagara Empire around the 1500 AD. And during that time it was known to be one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world.

The Virupaksha temple dates back to 7th-century, which makes it one of the oldest functional temple in the country is dedicated to Virupaksha, an incarnation of Lord Shiva, built with a pillared hall, three.

One of the must things to do before you leave the temple take blessings from Lakshmi elephant

The pillars in the Vittahla temple would also be used as musical instruments by the locals. Each pillar would have a different sound and rhythm.

Elephant Stables
Vitthala temple