Kim's Review : The Essential Kodava Cookbook

C B Muthamma & P Gangamma Bopanna's - The Essential Kodava Cookbook has been out of print for a couple of years now, but I've constantly been keeping my eyes open for it. The other day there was an online offer of an old copy, but I immediately snapped it up.

The book starts with a brilliant introduction into Kodava Philosophy and Culture. What stands out especially is the role of a woman in Coorgi society. Even when she is married, she still is treated as an important and essential member of both households. Its an outstanding essay and definitely worth a read.

The Recipe Section is divided into Rice, Meat & Poultry, Fish & Prawns, Vegetables, Chutneys & Pickles and Desserts & Snacks.

Coorgi recipes do have a lot of local ingredients like Sannakki rice, kaachambuli etc which aren't easily available outside Coorg (although, recently Bangalore has had quite a few Coorgi ingredient shops open up). The authors have kindly provided alternate ingredients.

The Meat section focuses on mutton & pork with chicken only being advised as a substitute for mutton.

The number of recipes is quite limited (given the other titles in the Penguin - Essential Cookbook series), but it is quite comprehensive and the popularly known dishes are all in the cookbook.

The recipes are quite easy to reproduce at home for someone who is familiar with general cooking techniques and there isn't too much specialised equipment that is required to cook these dishes

While a lot of the rice based dishes are similar to what is cooked in Mangalore and Kerala, the meat and vegetable preparations have their own unique flavour.

If you are looking for something new, I would quite recommend this book to you, but there's no need to buy this book, if all you are looking for is - the famed Pandi Curry (there are enough online recipes for the dish)

Rating : 4 / 5

For Amdavadis, printed word holds and irreplacable charm

Brajesh and this blog featured in today's DNA Ahmedabad (Page 2 of Main Paper) article on Booklovers

For Amdavadis, printed word holds an irreplaceable charm

The adage – ‘Wear the old coat and buy a new book' — goes very well for Amdavadi bookworms who are still hooked to the woody aroma of the printed pages. These bibliophagists appreciate Kindle, but say digitisation cannot replace the charm of printed words. dna’s Himali Doshi finds out how the city-folk declare their undying love for printed books on Book Lovers Day


‘Begin reading today and change your life’
Brajesh Bajpai, business head, Vodafone Ltd Gujarat, owns a 1,500-book library. An active blogger on http://whichbooknext.blogspot.in/, he and wife Karishma summarise and rate the books they read across all genres. ‘My library grew naturally when my wife Karishma brought home her own large collection of books,” he says revealing how he thought of making a library. “The print form is being challenged by lower costs and easy accessibility of e-books, but will survive for its own unique reasons,” he says with hope. His favourite author is Devdutt Pattnaik whose “Mahabharata” he rates highly, with all its renditions, versions and speculative fiction.

‘Read books and let your imagination soar’
“When my family moved from Sindh, my grandmother brought with her only a few clothes but a trunk full of books,” says Prakash Ramrakhiani who has a 5,000-book library which he calls 'Danai' meaning 'knowledge' in Greek. His love for books soared when he began receiving books as a prize for standing first in class.” His favourite authors are PG Woodhouse, W Dalrymple, John LeCarre and Frederick Forsyth. That books would be redundant soon was speculated even 20 years ago, he remembers and feels e-books can never replace the smell of fresh paper or the charm of holding a book in the hand. His message for the young is that they should read all genres to develop mind and thought.

‘Food for thought weighs more than food for stomach’
Founder of 'The Riverside School', Ahmedabad, Kiran Bir Sethi has about 1,000 books in her personal library. Lending and borrowing books was an essential the part of growing up she remembers and insists that parents should encourage their kids to make their own collection. Though she loves e-books she says, reading printed books gives her unparalleled pleasure. “Youngsters read a lot of stuff on social networking sites, but they need to be inspired to read books” she says. Among her favourite books are 'The difficulty of being good' by Guru Charan Das and MK Gandhi's 'My experiments with truth'.

Published Date:  Aug 11, 2014

Kim's Review : Devi 1, 2 & 3- Shekhar Kapur's Graphic Novel

When Virgin comics launched itself in 2006, their brief was to create Graphic novels with original story lines, that were Indian culture based, but for the international market. the company itself was a collaboration between Richard Branson's Virgin Group (Virgin Airlines, Virgin music etc), acclaimed movie director Shekhar Kapur, spiritual Guru Deepak Chopra (and his son Gotham) and Gotham Entertainment Group (South Asia's largest comics publisher)

They created 4 distinct lines of comics.

Director's cut for Directors to get into print, projects that may not have been viable on the big screen. Collaborators here include : Shekhar Kapur, Guy Ritchie and John Woo.

Voices / Maverick line to feature new talent and collaborations with actors and musicians. The line's first release was written by Eurythmics frontman Dave Stewart.

The Shakti line featuring Indian mythology, art, history, classical stories, and other related themes, often with a modern twist. This is the line that debuted with "Devi" and "The Sadhu"

And Others to tap into innovative creators in comics, film and entertainment from around the world.

While created by Virgin Comics, they soon went out of circulation in India, but some of these Graphic Novels are now published in India by Westland & Graphic India (who made the pages smaller, the paper less glossy, but seem have kept the colour and print quality intact - to my unprofessional eyes). And Virgin Comics has been remodelled as Liquid Comics.

Devi features "a modern take on a very ancient myth", in which the title character Devi becomes a "warrior of the light" after the pantheon of gods rebirth her in response to "the rapid decay of the city of Sitapur" caused by "fearsome renegade god Bala."

Each book is divided into 5 parts / chapters and the entire series has had a couple of different authors. the first 2 parts were written by Siddharth Kotian. 3 - 10 were written by Samit Basu (whose Gameworld Trilogy, I simply adored) and 11-15 (maybe ~20 too)have been written by Saurav Mohapatra who is the author of Mumbai Confidential and has converted the Bengali classic Chander Paher / Moon Mountain into a Graphic Novel for kids.

The artists of the series so far, include - Mukesh Singh, Aditya Chari, Saumin Patel, Siddharth Kotian and Edison George.

Devi - Part 1 starts with the origins.

Bodha is the King / Father of the Gods. During the second century of Mankinds arrival on Earth, Bala - one of Bodha's sons, rejects the old ways of the Pantheon and forces mankind to worship him, he feeds off that and becomes too powerful for the pantheon to take him on.

The Gods then all sacrifice a part (power) of themselves to create an entity who is - "Devi"!

Devi is placed among the Durapasya clan - warrior/priests who fight alongside the pure Gods and she leads an Army of Goda & Warriors against Bala. She wins, but just as she is about to kill him, Bodha steps in to save his sons life and instead imprisons him in what he hopes is a secure location - Jwala - the prison of Fire & Stone, deep within the Earth.

To prevent another incident of a God getting too egoistical and powerful, Devi is awakened in a mortal woman who will die, each time her mission is accomplished and lie dormant until she needs to be brought back to life again.

Cut to present day and Bala is threatening to raise his ugly head again in the fictional town of Sitapur. And Tara Mehta is destined to be the Devi for this Generation. Tara is currently dating Iyam (one of Bala's generals) unaware of her potential, the Durapasya ae looking for her, they intend to sacrifice her life, so the Devi can inhabit her body (as they have done for centuries), but Agantuk - one of the priests, believes that they should let the human Tara live and the Devi and her share the body.

Through a series of events, the priests are unable to kill the mortal Tara before the Devi inhabits her body and with the help of Inspector Rahul Singh, she temporarily defeats Bala's army and leaves the Durapasya behind to manage on her own and take her own decisions.

 The artwork is brilliant, very well thought out and you should definitely read the notes and sketchbook at the end to see how Devi's look was conceptualised.

Devi - Part 2 has Bala playing a more prominent role and there seems to be trouble in the ranks of his followers, with each one battling for supremacy and some of them involved in Double Crosses.

Devi & Tara learn to share their body and the mind. Devi starts to trust Tara's judgement more and Tara realises that she can use Devi's powers to do good. Devi's judgements and actions are tempered by Tara's emotions.

However, it is Tara's emotions that leave them devastated in the end, inspite of her almost vanquishing Bala, who is again saved by Bodha.

Bodha wants to take Devi back to the Citadel in Akarshit, but Devi & Tara decide to stay behind to right the many injustices on Earth.

Most of the Chapters in Part 2 have outdoor locations and the architecture that has been conceptualised is complex and beautiful.

Devi - Part 3 starts with a lovely explanation by Shekhar Kapur on how Devi was conceptualised. This is the book, where the story reveals its roots with the backgrounds of Tara, Kratha (the Apsara Assassin) and Inspector Rahul Singh.

With Bala vanquished (for the time being at least), a new Anti-Hero was needed. This position is first played out by Ismael Bhai who stands for everything that devis against, but Ismael is mortal. The Superhuman anti-hero comes in the form of the "Horseman of the White Steed" who is drawn to this world as he feels that Devi & Tara sharing the same body is an abomination that needs to be ended.

Tara who is depressed with the events of Part 2 finds the uglier part of her raising its head, who finally manifests as Daani - the Demoness.

Do not miss Saurav Mohapatra's note on "Enter the Demoness" at the end, its a beautiful insight into the story creators perspective.


The stories are well written and engaging.  Based in Mythology and Indian Culture and even a bit of Mythology from other parts of the world thrown in (Refer - Devi's gifts)

The colours, the dream sequences, the action sequences, it is all a testament to the artists translating the writers visions beautifully.


Its a very interestingly done series. Its strange to see an Indian Goddess dressed in a Bollywood Item Number costume, but she grows on you.

Part 4 was re-released by Westland & Graphic India in February this year and I have just placed my order for it.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Private India

If I pick up an Ashwin Sanghi, I want to be sucked into the complex, multilayered world of symbols, rituals and mysteries. If I pick up a pure thriller, I like to be entertained like Lee Child. Unfortunately this collaboration between a historical fiction writer & symbologist (Ashwin Sanghi) and a thriller master (James Patterson), falls somewhere in-between.

This collaborative writing effort between the two authors, where one writes a part and then the other builds and writes some more and then it all comes together in final editing, is an interesting experiment and never compromises the fluidity of the narrative. Where the experiment failed is giving depth to the story, both from a point of view of a thriller and a historical fiction.

While Ashwin Sanghi ensures a few mandatory symbols and rituals in the story-line, these are fairly elementary and remain incidental to the main story line. The Mumbai showcased in the book is clichéd with the presence of Dharavi criminals, Colaba’s page 3 parties, Bollywood-Underworld Nexus, Local Train chases and equally clichéd Mumbai landmarks like Haji Ali Durgah, Mahim Church, VT Station, Muhammad Ali Road and Arthur Road Jail.

The story is a serial killer’s revenge saga with a liberal dose of sex, action, murder, terrorism and corruption.

Legendary James Patterson has built the “Private Series” as a franchise where he uses protagonist Jack Morgan’s US based PI service as the anchor. The franchise expands into India through the character of a troubled cop Santosh, who leads the India practice of Private.

This model is flexible to extend the Private franchise to newer countries and the inner jacket gives us a peak into a few such titles like Private London, Private Berlin, Private Down Under and Private L.A.

I was also introduced to the legend of James Patterson through the list of his published works printed at the end of the novel. This listed over 100 titles of his. I have attached a picture of these to give you an idea of how prolific James Patterson has been. It only clicked to me, once Kim started rattling off all the James Patterson - Alex Cross movies (mostly starring Morgan Freeman) that we have watched.

Unfortunately “Private India” was a disappointment for me and I will be careful in choosing my next James Patterson.

Rating : 3 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Malavikagnimitram (Sanskrit Translation)

Malavikagnimitram is a Sanskrit Play by Kalidasa, recently Translated into English by Srinivas Reddy. Thanks to this translations, I had a chance to read one of Kalidasa’s work.

This play is about the love affair of King Agnimitra with Malavika his Queen’s maid servant. Early in the play the king is smitten by the beauty and dance of Malavika. The play then unfolds through the King’s friend and Vidusaka Gautama, who plots one scheme after another to ensure an opportunity for King to express his love.

The play is classically constructed over 5 acts and has a relatively simple story line with a happy ending. In the simplicity of plot the character development, poetic language and situational nuances hold the audience. This translation has done a great job of ensuring that the poetic flavor of the original Sanskrit isn't lost.

The first part of the book, give us a peek into the world of Kalidasa and his literature, through sections on History, Art, Language and Translation and prepares us well to appreciate the craft.

This play is part of the early literary work of Kalidasa and is relatively of simpler construction. The introduction also prepares us to enjoy the nuances of the play through a series of insights like Sanskrit being the language of elite and Prakrit being the language of commoner.

Kalidasa is the most translated Sanskrit poet, and possibly the most translated Indian writer of all times, I look forward to finding similar good quality translations of his other epics of Abhigyaanshakuntalam & Meghdoot.

The rating is for the translation, as I am obviously inadequate to rate the great poet, without reading this in the original form.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Kim's Review : Divergent Trilogy - Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant

You might think that Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy is just another fantasy trilogy aimed at Young Adults. But Divergent is host to much more "human" characters. The characters themselves aren't superhuman / werewolves / vampires / ghosts or zombies. Think Hunger Games rather than Infernal Devices.

This world (of Divergent) is confined to a fenced-in semi fantasy dystopian Chicago, where the lake has dried up, but the EL still zips across town. The town itself is crumbling in places. This world is divided into 5 factions. Each faction has its own manifesto, values, beliefs, demeanour and dress code. They are mostly grouped along the lines of what they think is the cause for errors in human nature and this decides their values, vocations and faction.

The factions are :
Abnegation - Blame selfishness and hence promote selflessness. Volunteer to help the city and individuals and always place others above themselves. Because of this selflessness, they are thought to be morally incorruptible and hence most of the City Leaders are chosen from this faction.

Dauntless - Blame cowardice and prize bravery. Their responsibilities to the city, center around security, so they work at protecting the borders, weapons manufacturing, tattoo artists and the like.

Erudite - Blame ignorance for the ills in society and pursue learning and wisdom, prizing intelligence. They form the city's librarians, doctors, scientists, and teachers.

Amity - Blame conflict and value democracy and peace. They take care of the farms which produce the food for the city.

Candor - Blame dishonesty and prize truthfulness over everything else. They see the world in black and white and mostly work as lawyers.

This whole world seems self contained and no one knows what exists (if anything does) outside the city fences.

While children live with their parents until 16, once they attain this age there is a ceremony every year in which the 16 year olds can choose which faction they want to belong to, in a public ceremony.

Once they choose their factions, there is a series of training and tests depending on the faction and whoever fails is deemed factionless condemned to live in slum like areas and get jobs like garbage disposal. If they clear all the training, they are initiated into their faction and become part of the faction family. If they choose a different faction than that of their parents, very often the parents cut of ties with their children or the new faction discourages their holding on to old ties, because they firmly believe "Faction before blood"

*** Spoiler Alert Begins  ***

To give a gist of each book, there area few plot lines revealed here. Skip ahead to 'Spoiler Alert Ends' if you want to keep the suspense alive.

The First Book in this trilogy - Divergent - is a complete page turner. It tells the tale of Beatrice 'Tris' Prior who chooses the Dauntless faction over her families Abnegation faction. But she hides a deep secret. In the faction test, she turned out to be "Divergent" - the rare case of someone who displays the aptitude and characteristics of more than one Faction. Beatrice could remain Abnegation or choose between Dauntless and Erudite. She chooses Dauntless and the rest of the book hurtles forward in true Dauntless fashion, you really don't know what to expect next.

The story development is really strong and all the ensemble characters are memorable. The plot line intriguingly weaves in romance, suspense, excitement, political maneuvering, back room deals etc which makes this a racy thriller to read. Tris has to do her best to save her parents from a Machiavellian Plot with serious repercussions for her world.

Of course, since this is a Young Adult Fantasy novel there is enough Romance to get the young female audience hooked and much like Edward and Jacob from Stephanie Meyers - Twilight series, I foresee a huge Tobias 'Four' Eaton fan following.

The Second Book in this trilogy is Insurgent. It starts off immediately where Divergent ended. With most of the Abnegation faction dead, a few refugees seeking shelter in the Amity compound. The Divergent army wakes up from the simulation. Those who are horrified with what they were forced to do, leave the faction, the rest unite with Erudite to control the city under Jeanine Matthews.

It turns out that "Divergent" is not really as rare as it was though to be, and there are plenty of them in the factionless section of town.

While quite a few lead characters die in Divergent, there is one character who comes back to life in Insurgent and plays a very important part in this book and Allegiant.

There is another upheaval within Tris's city and a lot more bloodshed, but finally the secret that the Abnegation wanted to reveal to the general population, but Jeanine Matthews wanted to keep concealed is out.

In Allegiant - the third part of the trilogy, a lot more is revealed. While the factionless have a grip on all the weapons and hence hold the power of the city forcing everybody to forget their original factions, a couple of the original cast join up with the resistance and head outside the city fences and realise that whatever they believed about their lives was almost a complete lie. Their lives have been almost like the Truman Show. a Genetic Experiment. And then a larger caste system is shown to be at work on the "outside" one based on genetic purity.

Where do Tris and Tobias stand on this genetic scale ? what can they do about it? What can they do to save their city which is on the brink of another major meltdown?

*** Spoiler Alert Ends ***

Each of these books was a page turner, I cannot really say that one was better than the other. They are all very well written. While the first 2 books are written from Tris' perspective, I loved the fact that we got to see a couple of chapters from Tobias' perspective in Allegiant. I think he has a much more complicated world view and that makes him more interesting.

I definitely am not a great fan of the ending, but I can see why Veronica Roth took that direction. 

Tris and Tobias are quite engaging characters and I loved Christina, Will, Zeke, Uriah and Marlene too. My only frustration with Tris is that she takes on too much responsibility on her own shoulders and would have greatly benefited from 'talking things out", but I guess this character flaw helps keep the story line moving.

There is one scene in a hotel room in Allegiant which was reminiscent of watching a Hollywood movie on Indian or Egyptian television, where it feels like a scene was cut out and just jumped to the next scene. This however helps keep the series PG 13, except for some heavy kissing scenes in all 3 books (for those who are considering whether to buy it for their kids)

Really glad I read this series after all 3 books came out. The suspense would have frustrated me if I had read them serially as they came out. (The George Martin Game of Thrones series is still driving me crazy, wondering about what is yet to come)

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Moon Mountain

As I was putting my last graphic novel - Mumbai Confidential back in the book-shelf, I noticed that this graphic novel - Moon Mountain - in our shelf, also had Saurav Mohapatra’s name on the cover.

What turned out to be a bonus, was the fact that this one is an adaptation of a Bengali classic “Chander Pahar” written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay.

Now if not for this graphic novel, there was no chance for me to get a glimpse into the magical world of this Bengali writer who wrote an amazing narrative of the pre-war African landscape, without ever traveling to the continent.

Even this small graphic novel gives a peek into the amount of research the author had undertaken with only the State Library as the source of his information in pre-Independence Calcutta.

I used the modern Googlemaps and Wikipedia to follow the route of the adventure which starts in Mombasa and travels across Kenya before crossing over modern day Tanzania, Congo, Angola and Namibia before culminating in the South Africa Forest of Richtersveld.

The graphic part of the novel is ordinary, but I am thankful to the adaptation, which introduced me to this legendary writer who I discovered also wrote the famous Pather Panchali.

Since I am already in love with Africa, discovering a well-researched story of this wild and mystical land was deeply satisfying.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Also Read : Kim's Review of Moon Mountain

Brajesh's Review : Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential: Good Cop, Bad Cop is one of the best graphic novels that I have read, in a very long time.

The book uses all the power of graphic art to bring the narrative alive. More often than not in Graphic Novels, the style ends up hampering the story. This book is an excellent example of how the style can add to and amplify a story.

The novel uses 3 different graphic styles to distinguish the three time lines and one doesn’t get confused with the flashbacks and interludes.

The story by Saurav Mohapatra, is a crime drama set in 80's-90's Mumbai of encounter cops, underworld dons and dirty film producers. The plot twist is inspired by “Zanjeer” and the story isn’t particularly inspiring, but the brilliant use of graphic components makes this a must read.

Rating : 4 / 5

Also Read : Kim's Review of Mumbai Confidential

Brajesh's Review : How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Every corporate slave is secretly in love with Dilbert, and I am no different. When I saw Scott Adam’s autobiographical advice book, given my recent delight with a similar book by Stephen King, I snapped this one up.

"How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" is conveniently divided into 38 small chapters and starts smartly.

Scott’s personal battle with speech dystonia gives it the feel of a thriller. Unfortunately the book does not keep its pace and loses the reader in the second half.

Some of the advice is truly amazing and connected with me big time. I will list them here in the order that they appear in the book. Reading the list, you will realize how powerful and revolutionary these thoughts are.
“Passion is Bullshit” 
“Have a System not a Goal” 
“Decide, Don’t just Want” 
“Be Selfish 1st – Selfless 2nd” 
“Manage Odds for Success” 
“Humor – Diet – Fitness – Luck”.

The part which totally put me off was the “Affirmation Piece” I have never been a fan of Rhonda Byrne's “The Secret” and finding it embedded strongly towards the latter half of the book was quite disappointing.

The biggest take-away for me, was the happiness formula of Scott which goes something like “Happiness = Eat Right + Exercise + Sleep Well + Imagine a Great Future + Flexible Schedule + Progressive Improvement in Tasks + Help Others + Reduce Daily Tasks to Routine”.

I also loved his 6 Filters for Truth in the form of “Personal & Others Experience, Experts, Scientific Studies, Common Sense, Pattern Recognition” and the advice that unless a situation passes more then 2-3 filters simultaneously, one should always be wary of it.

I will round-off this review with the list of skills, which as per Scott Adams, increase the probability of individual success, and like the book I only agree with the first 7 in this list :-
1. Public Speaking
2. Psychology
3. Business Writing
4. Accounting
5. Design
6. Conversation
7. Second Language
8. Overcoming Shyness
9. Golf
10.Proper Grammar
11. Persuasion
12. Technology
13. Voice Technique.

Do read this as your tribute to all those Dilbert induced smiles.

Rating : 3 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Anti-Social Network

"Anti-Social Network" is part of “Mumbaistan Series” written by Piyush Jha, whose introduction tells us that he is a director of films like Chalo America, King of Bollywood and Sikandar.

A quick check on IMDB revealed that these were small budget movies which didn’t earn much in terms of eyeballs or critical acclaim. The book which came to us as a review copy turned out very similar to a B grade Bollywood thriller.

Full of coincidences and lucky breaks for the protagonist Inspector Virkar, the book leaves you with little hope for our Police Department, Bollywood Directors or Thriller Writers.

The cover says it’s an up-all-night kind of thriller, and I can tell you nothing could be further from the truth. It is an ordinary story filled with cocaine snorting informers, internet porn loving criminals, a misguided psychology professor and an extremely ordinary story line.

The scenes are smartly crafted individually, but the narrative doesn’t flow. A lot of focus and intensity has been spent in getting the mood and setting right for each episode but nothing holds it together. The result is similar to a jerky, ordinary movie where the scenes are smartly shot.

One could feel Piyush’s film-making background influencing his writing significantly. I would recommend that you avoid this one.

Rating : 2 / 5

Also Read Kim's Review of Anti-Social Network

The book was received as part of Reviewers Programme on The Tales Pensieve.