1500 top-drawer questions from Asia’s best-known quizmaster
Derek O’Brien is identified with top-class quizzing in India, for schoolchildren, professionals and quiz aficionados alike. From his vast range of questions that range from the informative and educational to curious facts and trivia, he has culled 1500 of his favorites, divided into seventy-five sets, for this very special book.
The questions range from subjects as diverse as the Boston Tea Party, the Chinese New Year, Cleopatra and C.V. Raman to the Grammy Awards, Gujarat, Vasco da Gama and the Wright brothers. There are whole sets of questions also on famous personalities like Arundhati Roy, Asha Bhonsle, Charles Lindbergh, George Harrison, Isaac Newton, Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Picasso and Winnie the Pooh. Each set contains twenty questions that will test both the depth and breadth of the readers’ knowledge on the subject.
Among the questions readers will find answers to in this book are:
• By what name is Agra mentioned in the Mahabharata?
• Who is the author of a famous article titled ‘The Great Indian Rape Trick’?
•Which famous classical musician ran away from home after being denied a second serving of ghee?
• Who coined the term ‘information superhighway’?
•Which Indian prime minister accepted a spinning wheel as dowry?
• What did Phoolan Devi say she wanted to be reborn as?
• Which city did Jawaharlal Nehru describe as the ‘Oxford and Cambridge of India’?
•What was Queen Victoria’s first name?
Whether you are a school student, a college-goer, a teacher, a young professional, an ardent quizzer, a casual reader, or just someone who enjoys watching quiz programmes on television, this is a book that is sure to keep you engaged and entertained for days.
The perfect blend of entertainment and education . . . Commemorating sixty years of India’s independence and reflecting India’s many facets, this definitive volume packs in 3000 questions in sixty chapters, testing the answering skills of any quiz-lover. Each chapter contains fifty questions on a range of subjects from ancient, medieval and modern India to alternative medicine, and fairs and festivals, Indian cricket, Indian diaspora, Hindi and regional films to science, traditional sport and youth affairs, travel, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Put your knowledge of India to the ultimate test with this valuable volume for facts, figures, events, history, literature, politics, and much more.
When they drink a cup of ‘magic’ coffee, Rahul and Neha are entrusted with a quest that promises to lead to great treasure. As they race from the plantations of Coorg to Japanese graveyards, they are trailed by the Yamamoto brothers-bearing grudges and carrying swords.
Accompanied by a friendly ghost and armed with an extreme love of coffee, Rahul and Neha discover their passion for warm frothy concoctions and each other.
But will they manage to evade their Japanese assailants and find the treasure they first set out for?
The ultimate home baker’s cookbook, from Mumbai’s very own ‘macaron lady’
Meet Pooja Dhingra. Cupcake addict. Macaron lover. Baker. And founder and owner of Mumbai’s most famous French-style pâtisserie, Le15.
Her passion for baking led Pooja to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and on her return she opened Le15 Pâtisserie, which was soon a runaway success. Today, as a professional baker, Pooja heads one of India’s finest pâtisseries. As a home
baker, she makes hearty, uncomplicated desserts with kitchen staples that can be found at any corner shop.
The Big Book of Treats is Pooja’s gift to Indian home bakers. Written with a professional’s exacting eye and a home chef ’s ability to improvise, it teaches you how to make everything from cookies and cupcakes to brownies and birthday cakes. Accessible, engaging and undeniably scrumptious, these recipes will bring all sorts of baked goodies—even macarons—into your own kitchen.
Over two hundred recipes from one of the best coastal cuisines of India The spicy, succulent seafood of Goa is as famous as the golden beaches and lush landscape of this premier tourist destination of India. Traditionally, the Goan staple was fish curry and rice but under Portuguese influence there developed a distinctive cuisine that combined the flavours of Indian and European cooking, with local ingredients being used to approximate the authentic Portuguese taste. So fish and meat pies were baked with slit green chillies, assado or roast was cooked with cinnamon and peppercorns, pao or bread was fermented with toddy, and the famous baked bol was made with coconut and semolina. This innovated, largely non-vegetarian cuisine was offset by the traditional and no less sumptuous vegetarian creations from the Konkan coastland, rich with coconut and spice. The Penguin Essential Cookbooks are a pioneering attempt to keep alive the art of traditional Indian cooking. Each of the books is written by an expert chef who brings together the special recipes of a region or community along with a detailed introduction that describes the rituals and customs related to the eating and serving of food. A delicious mix of Portuguese and Konkani flavours, rich with coconut and spice. This cookbook showcases an entire range of Goan food, with special attention to fish, prawn, pork and chicken. The recipes include: Bebinca Goa Fish Curry Mutton Xacuti Oyster Patties Prawn Balchao Sorpotel Stuffed Crab Tiger Prawns in Fen Vindaloo.
Savour the tantalizing flavours of Andhra cuisine While Hyderabadi cuisine with its distinctive Mughlai flavour is famous around the world, food from the other parts of Andhra, one of India’s largest and culturally most diverse states, remains relatively unknown. In this addition to the Penguin series on Indian food and customs, the author brings together for the first time the different tastes of Andhra cooking from the humble idli-sambar to spicy seafood delicacies. Along with the recipes she recounts the traditions and rituals associated with food, such as the right order in which to serve the dishes, a typical menu for an occasion such as Ugadi, and the sweets indigent on certain auspicious days. From the dishes traditionally prescribed for pregnant women, to the festivities surrounding birth and marriage, Bilkees I. Latif describes with knowledge and flair the cuisine and customs of her state. The more than 200 recipes, lucidly written and easy to follow, include: Amrit Phal Badam ki Jaali Gil-e-Behisht Luqmi MeeD Godavari Avakkai Bagharey Baingan Gosht ka Achar Kachi Biryani Zarda-e-Aamba
The south-western coast of India, famous for its spices, has been a cultural melting pot for two thousand years. Jews, Muslims and Christians, merchants and missionaries came and stayed here, adding their influences to the region’s culture and cuisine. Over the years, the traditional produce of the coast-vegetables like yam and tapioca; fruits like coconut, mango and banana; and of course, fish and prawn-has been combined in new and interesting ways in a diverse range of dishes. The recipes in this book draw upon this rich heritage to give us traditional vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare such as Avial, Kaalan, Fish Molee, Chicken Biriyani and Egg Roast. The book also contains recipes for popular breakfast dishes like Puttu and Appam, anytime snacks like Murukku and Banana Fritters and delicious desserts such as Paal Ada Pradhaman and tender coconut pudding.
From street corner food like Trivandrum Chicken to the more adventurous Fish with Mango and Fish in a Plantain Leaf, here is an exciting array of the very best of cooking from the spice coast of India.
X Half-eaten lunch boxes
X Canteen food
X Dejected faces at seeing dal-rice for tiffin
Now no more nightmares!
Written by Uma Raghuraman-a masterchef of a mom, a super popular food blogger and Instagrammer-My Genius Lunch Box is every parent’s go-to book for fifty fun, nutritious and simple vegetarian recipes that can be made on a school day.
Featuring stunning photographs styled and shot by the author herself, this book is divided into six sections: one for each weekday and a bonus section that includes recipes for bite-sized snacks! Learn to make original, innovative dishes like Paneer Makhani Kulzza, Gnocchi di Idli, Iyengar Bakery-Style Frankie, Vermicelli Pancakes, Greek Strawberry Samosas and more, which have been tested on her own family and are loved by her followers.
