"Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight" - a reminder to what we forgot

Just finished reading the book by Rujuta Diwekar (website not working when checked last). While most of it is common sense, it came across an important read because common sense is so uncommon. In any case, the rules stated by her are something inline with what I had gathered over the years. Of course, the most important thing is to know the signals offered by the body (I call this "debugging" the body). It becomes easy when you have a settled and more-or-less fixed routine. Just like it is easy to debug a program that broke due to changes made - you know where to look, it is easy to understand why you feel light or heavy, why you do not feel hungry, have a headache, etc. if there are some changes to the diet or routine.

The book seems to have preference for ayurveda and yoga and other desi things, but that is similar to my opinion too.

Amazon.com amazes

I had this question first about 3 years ago, and its still unanswered. Does Amazon.com deliver to India? They sure have software development facilities here in Hyderabad (and maybe 'Luru), and they sure conduct campus recruitment from Indian universities, but it beats the hell out of me to know they do not have a local Indian warehousing from where the items could be shipped.

The story I had heard then is still the same now: They do ship to India, but they charge international shipping rates, and the credit card is charged in USD.

The interest in buying Yamuna Devi Dasi's classic cooking book "Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking" was rekindled when Kurma Dasaji started running a series of recipes from Yamuna Deviji. And, this book shows on Amazon. But can we order locally? We don't know.

A good idea would be to check some Indian e-stores such as indiatimes.com or the more popular one for books flipkart.com. That's what I'm going to do next.

More ebooks bought

Following my new found interest in e-books coupled with good "deals" on e-books, I have bought a host of "new technology" books. More on this later.

Discovering the joy of eBooks

Until recently, I used to prefer the printed books. That way, one could refer to them anywhere even where there would be no access to an electronic device. Probably this also had to do with the lack of widespread use of personal computers we grew up. The problem with printed books related to computer technology is that most of them become outdated very quickly. These also tend to take up a lot of storage space (a premium in Mumbai).

I had recently ordered a newly released book for which there was no Indian reprint. In it, I found that they (the publishers) had offered the buyer of the printed book, a free download of the electronic version (PDF) of the book. I found it to be quite handy, for I could start reading it anywhere I had access to a computer (work or at home) without needing to lug it around.

I also realized that publishers now actively encourage readers to buy the electronic versions of their books (of course, not all books are available in their e-versions yet). One reason is the "go-green" effect to save paper (forests / trees). I also found that I had another very good reason to buy these...one could get the newly released books immediately (no need to wait for it to be shipped - all one needs to do is to download them).

With these enticing reasons, I have just completed buying 3 e-books today. Not only are the costs lower, but also I have these books for reading immediately.