Les Genies du chocolat, refered to as "the bible" is the most comprehensive work on the highest quality chocolate in the world today. Crafted with great sensitivity with meticulous editing, this pioneering masterpiece unravels an undiscovered territory of French gastronomy.
View Rights Portal
Choc Lit is an award-winning publisher of women's fiction - romance, historical and crime fiction. We hold world rights for all our titles.
View Rights Portal
Chicana writer’s debut story collection unveils the lives of her Mexican-American community.
The World Heritage Sites listing by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) aims to promote awareness and preservation of heritage sites considered to have outstanding value for all humanity. There are 38 such sites in India, as of the year 2021, which include 30 cultural sites, seven natural sites and one mixed site. This volume presents them all together for the first time, with informative, accessible commentary and stunning photographs. This treasure trail begins deep in the jungles of central India, with the spirited figures that shimmer on the prehistoric cave walls of Bhimbetka. Caves of another kind draw us westwards, to the radiant artistry of the rock-cut sanctuaries of Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta Caves. Further north and east are monuments materially associated with the birth and spread of Buddhism across the subcontinent, all urgent testimonies to India’s tolerant past. Elsewhere in the south, mighty stone temples rise in the air, from the Chola temples to the ruins of Hampi, and, in the east, from the Sun Temple to Khajuraho, presenting sacred and profane visions of faith. Other masterpieces of pluralism borrow from Hindu, Jain and Islamic traditions to fashion a distinct identity, like the Taj Mahal or Rani-ki-Vav, both expressions of grief turned into beauty. Finally, even very old cultures must come into the new, finding novel vocabularies from colonial masters and Christian Europe, as in the railways chugging up snowy Darjeeling, or Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh. India’s natural odyssey takes us through forested glades that dot the country, harbouring flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. From the gelid slopes of the Himalayas and their associated spiritual manifestations to the many wildlife sanctuaries, the natural and mixed properties include biospheres of exceptional beauty and sites of long interaction between people and the landscape. Incredible Treasures is an eloquent homage to India’s long, layered history, bearing witness to its rich biodiversity and the creativity and influence of multiple communities, crafts and religious traditions. Dr. Shikha Jain has worked on several nomination dossiers for India and other Asian countries. She was Member Secretary of the Advisory Committee on World Heritage Matters to the Ministry of Culture, India, from 2011–15, during its elected term in the World Heritage Committee. She has worked as a consultant to UNESCO New Delhi on specific missions. She is currently Asia-Pacific Coordinator for ICOFORT, ICOMOS; UNESCO Visiting Fellow at Category 2 Centre, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun; Haryana State Convener of INTACH and Founder Director, DRONAH. She has a post-graduate degree in Community Design and Preservation from Kansas University, USA and a doctorate in architectural history from De Montfort University, UK. Vinay Sheel Oberoi was an IAS officer of the 1979 batch of the Assam- Meghalaya cadre. He held a post-graduate degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics. During his long career of nearly four decades, he served as a consultant with the World Bank, as the Chief (Industry and Technology) of UNDP in India, and the Director of the National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA), among other assignments. From 2010 to 2014, he was the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of India to UNESCO, in Paris. On his return to India, Oberoi served as Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India and Secretary of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development. After his retirement he continued to work in an advisory capacity with various institutions, including several governmental bodies in the fields of education and culture. He passed away in 2020. Eric Falt has worked in the field of diplomacy and international affairs for three decades, focusing initially on communications and moving to political affairs and the management of large teams. He has been Assistant Director-General of UNESCO in charge of external relations and public information, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the UN. Previous assignments have included: attendance of UN Security Council negotiations in New York; participation in the Cambodia peace process; involvement in human rights and peacekeeping activities in Haiti; responsibilities in a humanitarian program in Iraq; and overall promotion of development activities for the United Nations in Pakistan. He also led the global communications effort of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and then the global outreach activities of the United Nations Secretariat in New York. He is currently Director, UNESCO India Cluster Office. Rohit Chawla is one of India’s leading contemporary photographers. As the erstwhile Group Creative Director for the India Today Group and Open magazine, he has conceptualised and photographed over 300 magazine covers. He has had several solo exhibitions across the world and has also done three coffee table books. Amareswar Galla is currently Professor of inclusive cultural leadership and Director of the International Centre for Inclusive Cultural Leadership at Anant National University in Ahmedabad. He is the founding Executive Director of the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum. He has previously held the posts of Professor of Museum Studies, the University of Queensland and Professor of Sustainable Heritage Development at the Australian National University. He is co-founder of the global movement for the inclusive museum and intangible heritage studies and has an extensive publication record. He was the producer and editor of World Heritage: Benefits Beyond Borders, published by Cambridge University Press and UNESCO in 2012. Janhwij Sharma is Joint Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, overseeing all World Heritage Sites for ASI as the nodal agency for India. He is a conservation architect, graduating from Chandigarh College of Architecture with post-graduation in conservation from York, UK. Amita Baig is a heritage management consultant with nearly three decades of experience in heritage preservation as well as sustainable tourism in India and the Asian region. She worked for many years in Agra with the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative. Baig represents the World Monuments Fund in India and has been a member of Government of India’s Advisory Committee on World Heritage Matters and served as a member of the Council of the National Culture Fund. Dr. Jyoti Pandey Sharma is a Professor in Architecture at Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal (Haryana), India. She engages with issues pertaining to built heritage and cultural landscapes, particularly those concerning the Indian subcontinent’s legacy of Islamic and colonial urbanism. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and in edited volumes. She has been an invited speaker at a number of international symposia and conferences. Her research has received awards and fellowships including a Summer Fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University and a UGC Associate at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India. Dr. V B Mathur is Chairman of the National Biodiversity Authority and former Director of UNESCO Category 2 Centre on World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia and the Pacific Region (UNESCO-C2C) at the Wildlife Institute of India. A former Indian Forest Service officer, he has made over 35 years of outstanding contribution towards a better understanding of Protected Areas and natural heritage management in India. He also serves as an expert member on various inter-governmental forums. Dr Rohit Jigyasu is a distinguished conservation architect and risk management professional, and the project manager on urban heritage, climate change and disaster risk management at ICCROM, Italy. He serves as Vice President of ICOMOS International for the period 2017–2020. From 2010–2018, he was UNESCO Chair at the Institute for Disaster Mitigation of Urban Cultural Heritage at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. He was the President of ICOMOS India from 2014–2018 and of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Risk Preparedness (ICORP) from 2010–2019. He has also been a member of ICOMOS International’s Executive Board since 2011. Kiran Joshi has been researching lesser-known 19th- and 20th-century Indian heritage for over 25 years, and exploring the diverse meanings and manifestations of Indian modernity and shared heritage. Her seminal work on Chandigarh helped to introduce the notion of ‘Modern Heritage’ in India. She has been associated with ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20th-century heritage (ISC20C) since 2004, and she founded ICOMOS India’s National Committee on the subject (NSC20C) in 2013. She is a founder member of DOCMOMO India and served as President of ICOMOS India during 2019–2020. Dr. Sonali Ghosh is an Indian Forest Service Officer. She has served as a site manager in the Kaziranga and Manas World Heritage Sites, and as a founding faculty at the UNESCO-Category 2 Centre at the Wildlife Institute of India. She is a certified IUCN World Heritage Site evaluation expert and has co-edited books on cultural landscapes in Asia as well as an anthology on natural heritage writing. Her current interests lie in exploring nature-culture linkages in heritage and Protected Area management.
Indian architecture is not an object in space; it integrates space within the object, where the built and the unbuilt become counterpoints to vitalize each other. The alchemy of the two sustains the space and the life within. The void within the built—the courtyard—lies at the genesis of the urban dwelling form in India across geography and time. In ancient Indian sciences, the courtyard assumes the central position as Brahmasthana, the nucleus of the living environment. It provided for an open-to-sky outdoor space while being away from the public eye and thus suited an introverted lifestyle. In this book, the author traces the metaphysical, mythical, socio-cultural, environmental and spatial roles of the courtyard in the domestic architecture of India—from early civilization and Vedic times to Islamic and colonial influences. This volume documents traditional and vernacular courtyard dwelling types across India within diverse climatic, cultural as well as geographic zones such as western (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra), southern (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa), eastern (Bihar, West Bengal), central (Madhya Pradesh) and northern (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.). It then discerns the spatial elements constituting the court, and the arts, the crafts as well as the elements integral to the court. Illustrated with splendid photographs and representative drawings, the book attempts to understand the presence and resolution, continued use and adaptation as well as the diverse interpretations and abstractions of the courtyard. Yatin Pandya is an author, activist, academician, researcher as well as a practising architect with his firm FOOTPRINTS E.A.R.T.H. (Environment Architecture Research Technology Housing). He is a graduate of CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and holds a Master of Architecture degree from McGill University, Montreal. Pandya has been involved with city planning, urban design, mass housing, architecture, interior design and product design as well as conservation projects. He has authored numerous papers, which have appeared in national and international journals, and has produced several documentary films on architecture. During his tenure at the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation, Pandya worked on the publications Concepts of Space in Traditional Indian Architecture and Elements of Spacemaking, published by Mapin and now in their fourth reprint, which have won the Indian Institute of Architects’ (IIA) Award for Architectural Excellence in Research in the years 2012 and 2014, respectively. The research leading to this book was also carried out during his time at Vastu-Shilpa Foundation. He is a visiting faculty at the National Institute of Design and CEPT University, and a guest lecturer at various universities in India and abroad. The recipient of numerous national and international awards for research, design and dissemination, Pandya counts environmental sustainability, socio-cultural appropriateness, timeless aesthetics and economic affordability to be key principles of his work.
The book is written in a simple and lucid style that can help students who do not have sufficient knowledge and exposure to the subject before. The book contains a lot of basic knowledge in the field of hydrology. A number of sample calculations in each chapter are presented in the book which will help the students to understand the subject matter very easily. The various chapters of the book are well designed, written in systematic way and are prepared from the class notes prepared for the students besides utilizing long practical field experiences of the authors. Book will also help students in the streams of Meteorology, forestry, environmental engineering, geology and earth sciences. Besides serving as a text book, the book is intended to be very helpful for persons dealing in the areas of Agriculture, Agricultural and Civil Engineering. It will serve as an invaluable resource for all academicians, planners, designers, practicing and field engineers in the area of water resources evaluation, development and management. The book contains 102 sample calculations, 105 tables and 154 figures and more than 145 references and several field experimental results which will be of immense help to the students and practitioners.
This book for Agriculture and Agricultural and Civil Engineers and will be very much helpful for the beginning students in irrigation. It is designed to guide its readers in: Basic knowledge of soil, water and plant, hydrologic and hydraulics to the state-of-the-art of irrigation system design and management. Presented the principles and concepts of farm irrigation in a simple manner to maximize the students learning, understanding and motivation. The method and order of presentation have been carefully developed and classroom tested to make this book a useful and effective teaching tool.The book contains adequate solved problems, short and long type questions, tables, figures which will be immensely helpful to the students and design engineers. Several field experimental results have also been incorporated in the book at appropriate sections to make the book interesting for the readers.
The global changes warranted fastness in food production system and fast foods. In tune with demand, crop production also oriented accordingly. However, the proverb ‘Health is a Wealth is reminded us to keep vigil on system and method of food production and food safety. The ill-effect of conventional chemical based farming well documented and public realized the importance organically produced food and efforts are being made to popularize the organic production. India is a Land of Spices, each state or union territory in India cultivates one or other spice. Since spices form a part of many medicines the demand for organically produced spices is increasing considerably. Assuming a market growth of 10% in Europe, USA and Japan for organic spice products the world demand for organic spices may grow to 57000 tonnes in the next 10 yeaLarge scale use of high analysis fertilizers and pesticides result environmental hazards and imbalances in soil nutrients. Since spices are high valued and export oriented in nature it is imperative to keep the levels of pesticide residues below tolerance limits in view of the standards set by the importing countries. Hence the book on Organic Spices is timely and covers all aspects of organic spice production. The topic includes historical spice trade and importance of spices in food chain. Brief account on organic agriculture movement in the world and its present status and opportunity for organic spices in the world market are given. The chemistry and different methods of composting are included in the organic manures will be informative. Microbes play a greater role in agriculture, a separate devoted on microbes and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria would definitely enrich the reader not only that, the topics on biological control of insect pests, nematodes, fungus and bacteria of spices highlighted in separate chapters would be of interest in organic production system. The importance, composition, uses, botany and varieties, organic way of production of spices like black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, chillies and paprika, nutmeg, vanilla, seed spices like cumin, fennel, fenugreek, coriander and their harvest and post harvest processing are enumerated. The chapters on good agricultural practices (GAP) and organic certification procedures outlined for adoption. This would serve as a reference book for researchers, teachers and students besides farmers, traders and consumers.
