Monsoon Diary
Monsoon Diary

Author: Shoba Narayan

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0307431487

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Shoba Narayan’s Monsoon Diary weaves a fascinating food narrative that combines delectable Indian recipes with tales from her life, stories of her delightfully eccentric family, and musings about Indian culture. Narayan recounts her childhood in South India, her college days in America, her arranged marriage, and visits from her parents and in-laws to her home in New York City. Monsoon Diary is populated with characters like Raju, the milkman who named his cows after his wives; the iron-man who daily set up shop in Narayan’s front yard, picking up red-hot coals with his bare hands; her mercurial grandparents and inventive parents. Narayan illumines Indian customs while commenting on American culture from the vantage point of the sympathetic outsider. Her characters, like Narayan herself, have a thing or two to say about cooking and about life. In this creative and intimate work, Narayan’s considerable vegetarian cooking talents are matched by stories as varied as Indian spices—at times pungent, mellow, piquant, and sweet. Tantalizing recipes for potato masala, dosa, and coconut chutney, among others, emerge from Narayan’s absorbing tales about food and the solemn and quirky customs that surround it.

The Monsoon Diaries
The Monsoon Diaries

Author: Calvin D. Sun

Publisher: Harper Horizon

Published: 2022-09-27

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0785291768

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"There are heroes among us, and Dr. Calvin Sun is one of them. Read this book." -Lisa Ling, journalist The Monsoon Diaries is the firsthand account of Dr. Calvin Sun, an emergency room doctor who worked tirelessly on the front lines in multiple hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon the lessons he learned from his adventures traveling to more than 190 countries in ten years, as well as from the grief he experienced as a teen when his father died, Dr. Sun shares his journey, from growing up as a young Asian American in New York to his calling first to medical school and then to the open road. He believes that the fight for a better world creates meaning when all feels meaningless, and he hopes that telling his story will help readers reframe this tragic moment in our lifetimes into possibility, with the goal of building a more empathetic society.

Spring, Heat, Rains
Spring, Heat, Rains

Author: David Shulman

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-08-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0226755789

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“Rocks. Goats. Dry shrubs. Buffaloes. Thorns. A fallen tamarind tree.” Such were the sights that greeted David Shulman on his arrival in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in the spring of 2006. An expert on South Indian languages and cultures, Shulman knew the region well, but from the moment he arrived for this seven-month sojourn he actively soaked up such simple aspects of his surroundings, determined to attend to the rich texture of daily life—choosing to be at the same time scholar and tourist, wanderer and wonderer. Lyrical, sensual, and introspective, Spring, Heat, Rains is Shulman’s diary of that experience. Evocative reflections on daily events—from explorations of crumbling temples to battles with ineradicable bugs to joyous dinners with friends—are organically interwoven with considerations of the ancient poetry and myths that remain such an inextricable part of life in contemporary India. With Shulman as our guide, we meet singers and poets, washermen and betel-nut vendors, modern literati and ancient gods and goddesses. We marvel at the “golden electrocution” that is the taste of a mango fresh from the tree. And we plunge into the searing heat of an Indian summer, so oppressive and inescapable that when the monsoon arrives to banish the heat with sheets of rain, we understand why, year after year, it is celebrated as a miracle. An unabashedly personal account from a scholar whose deep knowledge has never obscured his joy in discovery, Spring, Heat, Rains is a passionate act of sharing, an unforgettable gift for anyone who has ever dreamed of India.

The Milk Lady of Bangalore
The Milk Lady of Bangalore

Author: Shoba Narayan

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2018-01-23

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1616207612

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The elevator door opens. A cow stands inside, angled diagonally to fit. It doesn’t look uncomfortable, merely impatient. “It is for the housewarming ceremony on the third floor,” explains the woman who stands behind the cow, holding it loosely with a rope. She has the sheepish look of a person caught in a strange situation who is trying to act as normal as possible. She introduces herself as Sarala and smiles reassuringly. The door closes. I shake my head and suppress a grin. It is good to be back. When Shoba Narayan—who has just returned to India with her husband and two daughters after years in the United States—asks whether said cow might bless her apartment next, it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between our author and Sarala, who also sells fresh milk right across the street from that thoroughly modern apartment building. The two women connect over not only cows but also family, food, and life. When Shoba agrees to buy Sarala a new cow, they set off looking for just the right heifer, and what was at first a simple economic transaction becomes something much deeper, though never without a hint of slapstick. The Milk Lady of Bangalore immerses us in the culture, customs, myths, religion, sights, and sounds of a city in which the twenty-first century and the ancient past coexist like nowhere else in the world. It’s a true story of bridging divides, of understanding other ways of looking at the world, and of human connections and animal connections, and it’s an irresistible adventure of two strong women and the animals they love.

Lurps
Lurps

Author: Robert C. Ankony

Publisher: Hamilton Books

Published: 2008-10-21

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0761843736

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Lurps is the revised edition of the memoir of a juvenile delinquent who drops out of ninth grade to chase his dream of military service. After volunteering for Vietnam, he joins the elite U.S. Army LRRP/Rangers—small, heavily armed long-range reconnaissance teams that patrol deep in enemy-held territory. It is 1968, and the Lurps find themselves in some of the war's hairiest campaigns and battles, including Tet, Khe Sanh, and A Shau. Readers witness all the horrors, humor, adrenaline, and unexpected beauty through the eyes of a green young warrior. Gone are the heroic clichZs and bravado as compelling narrative and realistic dialogue sweep the reader along with a powerful sense that this is actually happening. This poignant coming-of-age story explores the social background that shaped the protagonist's thinking, his uncertain quest for redemption through increased responsibility, the brotherhood of comrades in arms, women and sexual awakening, and the baffling randomness of who lives and who dies.

The Diary of a Social Butterfly
The Diary of a Social Butterfly

Author: Moni Mohsin

Publisher: Random House India

Published: 2011-10-01

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 8184002211

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Pakistan may be making headlines—but Butterfly is set to conquer the world. ‘Everyone knows me. All of Lahore, all of Karachi, all of Isloo—oho, baba, Islamabad —half of Dubai, half of London and all of Khan Market and all the nice, nice bearers in Imperial Hotel also...No ball, no party, no dinner, no coffee morning, no funeral, no GT —Get-Together, baba—is complete without me.’ Meet Butterfly, Pakistan’s most lovable, silly, socialite. An avid partygoer, inspired misspeller, and unwittingly acute observer of Pakistani high society, Butterfly is a woman like no other. In her world, SMS becomes S & M and people eat ‘three tiara cakes’ while shunning ‘do number ka maal’. ‘What cheeks!’ as she would say. As her country faces tribulations – from 9/11 to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto—Butterfly glides through her world, unfazed, untouched, and stopped short only by the chip in her manicure. Wicked, irreverent, and hugely entertaining, The Diary of a Social Butterfly gives you a delicious glimpse into the parallel universe of the have-musts.

Return to India
Return to India

Author: Shoba Narayan

Publisher: Rupa Publications India Pvt Limited

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 9788129119285

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Memoirs of an East Indian immigrant.

Monsoon Medicine
Monsoon Medicine

Author: Denise Tarasuk

Publisher: Fastpencil Incorporated

Published: 2012-09

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 9781619336001

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My adventure with Monsoon Medicine: A Diary of a Canadian Medicine Woman & Tales of a Bengali Doctor starts with an anxiety-filled arrival at the Kolkata (Calcutta) Dum Dum Airport. The question is, ""Will I ever get through this grueling waiting line and pass the health screening process in the midst of the H1N1 flu pandemic to see the Bengali family I have longed to visit?"" My experience since arrival has inspired me to keep a diary filled with my emotions, whether up or down, cutting edge medical cases, and the daily flow of seeing a vast number of patients in the lush tropical Jungle Village of Thakurnagar, West Bengal located near India's Bangladesh border. This action packed medical adventure will keep any homeopathic doctor on the edge of their seat, detailed with secrets written by a Grand Master of homeopathy who provides clinical tips and long lost keynotes that come to life with each unique medical encounter. Coincidentally, the clinical setting is perfect for spiritual and Ayurvedic lessons that have been passed down by sages and rishis through the centuries. At times I see patients with Dr. Sarkar, a world famous homeopathic medical doctor. Surprisingly, at times, Dr. Sarkar's elderly mother, Bithika, steps in as my translator, as is the case of The Man Who Was Injured After Being Stepped on by a Cow. My diary tells all!

Olivia & Sophia
Olivia & Sophia

Author: Rosie Milne

Publisher: Monsoon Books

Published: 2015-10-01

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 9814625280

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When Raffles sets sail from the cold, damp confines of Georgian London to make his name and fortune in the tropics, he takes with him his new wife, Olivia, a raffish beauty with a scandalous past. She infatuates both his closest friend, a poet, and one of his bitterest rivals, a soldier. Raffles sees what is going on, but he turns a blind eye – or so hopes Olivia. After Olivia’s death, and back on leave in London, Raffles, a man once again in need of a wife, makes a practical marriage. Sophia, no beauty, but curious and intelligent, embraces the opportunity of an exciting life abroad. Marriage brings her great joy but also great sadness. Her life with Raffles becomes a catalogue of loss: of their children, of their possessions, of their savings. And all the while, Raffles, driven and talented, manoeuvres at the centre of global networks of power, trade, politics and diplomacy. His scheming culminates, to his eventual glory, with the founding of a new trading post: Singapore.