In the cradle of India’s eastern coastline lies a land where civilization learned to pray through food. Odisha, or ancient Kalinga, has witnessed dynasties rise and tides retreat, yet its essence endures in the quiet dignity of its kitchens.
The Orissan traces this unbroken lineage of taste and tradition. Each recipe is a fragment of history, born in temple offerings, royal feasts, and humble hearths, carried forward by generations who understood that nourishment is both art and devotion. Interwoven with personal recollections, myths, and forgotten lore, these pages become a chronicle of identity—a journey through time where flavours are the language of memory and every meal a hymn to the land.
To open this book is to rediscover an unsung state—glorious, graceful, and eternal.
What happens when you leave behind the familiar and follow your curiosity to far corners of the world?
In Rootless and Restless, Shivya Nath trades comfort for adventure and sets off on a deeply personal journey to some of our planet’s most remote places. From a tiny island deep in the Arctic to off-grid Indigenous communities in Myanmar and the stark mountain deserts of Uzbekistan, she travels in search of stories, traditions and ways of life that are rarely written about.
Along the way, Shivya finds herself tangled in a morality police raid in Iran, discovering centuries-old traditions in Japan and coming face-to-face with the last living member of an entire species in the Pacific Ocean.
In a world shaped by social media, cultural divides and climate change, Rootless and Restless is a reminder that travel can be more than ticking destinations off a list. It can open doors to remarkable people, unexpected lessons and perhaps even transform the traveller herself.
In 1903, legendary naturalist John Muir, the foremost architect of Yosemite National Park, journeyed across India. His travels took him through the living traditions of Calcutta (Kolkata) and its historic botanic gardens, the mist-laden landscapes of Darjeeling, the spiritual depths of Benares (Varanasi), and the Mughal grandeur and British legacy of Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, and Delhi. He further explored the majestic Himalayan peaks and deodar forests of Shimla, concluding his India tour in Bombay (Mumbai) before he sailed onwards to Suez.
John Muir Trail India retraces this 123-year-old route that captures the essence of India as Muir experienced it. Drawing on rare archival research and immersive fieldwork, this book reimagines India as a living trail—one rooted in conservation, wonder, and Muir’s enduring philosophy of ‘leave no trace.’
India’s food is as diverse as its people, changing dramatically in taste, technique and ingredients every few kilometres. One of our first introductions to this wide range of cuisines is through the tiffin boxes of our classmates. Carrying flavours from different families and cultures, these boxes hold many stories—of history, tradition and the country itself.
The Great Indian Tiffin Box is a delightful exploration of this culinary diversity, featuring a curated list of popular and unique dishes from each Indian state and union territory. Peppered with lesser-known facts and interesting recipes, this beautifully illustrated book is a celebration of India’s rich food heritage and is a perfect read for food enthusiasts and cultural explorers alike.
A vivid collection of voices from Goa, Appetite: New Writing from Goa explores the tangled web of human desire in its various manifestations and the deeply rooted traditions that define (a form of) Goan identity today.
From stories of late-night feasts gone awry in bustling family living rooms, to poems that trace lustful longing and essays that reflect on diaspora and in-migration, each piece captures what it feels like to truly yearn. The anthology moves effortlessly between the intimate and the expansive, from the salty tang of the sea and the delicate twang of a rebec to the inner landscapes of complex characters wrestling with love, loss, sexuality and identity.
Rooted in the state’s history yet alive to its present, Appetite is a heartfelt tribute to Goa itself—its salt-washed shores, spice-laden air, delectable cuisine and the unquenchable appetite that pulses at the heart of the land and its people. The Goa Writers invite readers to savour not only the stories told, but the world that makes them possible.
In the heyday of steamships and ocean travel in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at a time when the sun did not set on the British Empire, Colombo was a major link between East and West. On the voyage from Europe to Australia, the city was the last port of call before ships made the long and humdrum voyage down under. It was also the primary port for reloading coal and supplies for ships heading to Japan and China.
Colombo: Port of Call is an attempt to look at Colombo and Sri Lanka through the stories of well-known international figures who visited the port. People like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Don Bradman, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain and Mahatma Gandhi were among the many who visited Sri Lanka and left behind their impressions of the land.
Deftly narrated, this book is a social document recording the racial hierarchies and imperialist impressions of some of the visitors and a throwback to a nostalgic era of luxury hotels, high tea and much else.
The untold story of Kargil—told not through war, but through food
Tucked between some of the most forbidding folds of the Himalayas, Kargil is a land too often seen only through the lens of war—yet its valleys hold a tenderness, resilience and faith that endure through food.
Born from years of travel, cooking and friendships, foodways researcher Yash Saxena gathers voices from mountain kitchens and firesides—of shepherds, monks, farmers and mothers who feed a world shaped by both faith and frost. From slow-simmering broths to shifting borderlines, from ancient Bon rituals to the echoes of Bofor gunfire, each story reveals how a community sustains itself through ritual, memory and the quiet grace of everyday cooking.
Blending memoir, travelogue and cultural history, this is part food book, part love letter and part act of remembrance—a tender, sensory journey through Kargili kitchens, whose flames fight to keep centuries of wisdom alive against the winds of change.
The Line of Lanka is a brilliant genre-bending book, portraying a country and its people, that will change your perception of Sri Lanka.
Through her intrepid journeys across Lanka’s lush countryside, Sunela Jayewardene helps readers rediscover the island’s myth and legend, history and heritage. She adroitly describes nature’s enduring beauty while bringing to life oft-forgotten traditions that pulse to the beat of an unseen drum. The Line of Lanka offers readers a less-explored perspective of Sri Lanka, and through her reflections, Sunela provides readers with a unique understanding of the country, its history and its people.
Take an unforgettable journey across the heart of India and Sri Lanka, tracing the path of the epic Ramayana across sacred geographies.
Travel from the sprawling temple city of Ayodhya in northern India where Rama was born and the dense forests of Dandakaranya where he was exiled, to the misty Horton Plains in Kandy, believed to be the site of Ravana’s airport and the reefs of Hambantota, once the Lankan king’s citadel.
Walk in Rama’s footsteps as he searches for Sita, experience Sita’s yearning as she awaits rescue, follow Hanuman on his reconnaissance across the ocean, and relive the grandeur of Lanka, ruled by Ravana, a mighty king. And explore the cultural practices that have emerged from the Ramayana – from RamLila performances in Varanasi and the Tanjore paintings to the shadow puppets of Kerala.
In Along The Ramayana Trail, the reader will experience the epic’s living heritage – at once a cultural odyssey and an essential guide to exploring two nations bound by one timeless story.
By the YouTube sensation with more than two million followers, the inspiring account of a woman in her thirties who, in a moment of personal crisis, embarked on an epic, transcontinental motorcycle ride – and along the way found a new sense of purpose.
Noraly Schoenmaker was a thirty-something geologist living in the Netherlands when she learned that her live-in partner had been having a long-term affair. Suddenly without a place to stay, she decided to quit her job and jet off to India in search of a new beginning. Her plans were dashed when she fell quickly and helplessly in love: with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars, she felt alive and free – nimble enough to trace the narrowest paths, powerful enough to travel the longest of roads.
She first rode toward the Pacific, through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, then into Malaysia. Rather than satisfy her appetite for the open road, this ride only piqued it. She shipped her bike to Oman, at the base of the Arabian Peninsula, and embarked on a journey through Iran, across Turkmenistan along its border with Afghanistan, over the snowy peaks of Central Asia and into Europe, all the way back home to the Netherlands. She covered remote and utterly unfamiliar territory; broke down on impossibly steep mountains; and pushed too many miles along empty roads, farther and farther from civilization. But through her travels, she discovered the true beauty of the world – the kindness of its people, the simplicity of its open spaces, as well as her own inner strength.
In spirit of The Motorcycle Diaries and Wild, this is an inspiring story of self-discovery and renewal. Filled with unforgettable figures, hilarious disasters and powerful human connections, it shows you what happens when you open your heart and let the world in.
