Author: Kavita Watsa
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 290
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143031465
Description
I opened my eyes with a start-the repeated metallic sound of a stonecutter's axe was drifting up from the village, just as it must have done thirteen centuries before. The air around me grew heavy with my imaginings, for in my head I heard the ringing of a hundred axes, and knew it was time to leave.
Kavita Watsa has been seeking new horizons ever since a mischievous great-uncle put her in a horse cart and took he to a Mysore arrack shop at an impressionable age. In this sparkling mosaic of south Indian travels, She treads roads ancient and modern, opens antique travelogues to see what others saw, and reminds us of the myriad peoples and forces that have shaped life south of the Vindhyas. With an almost Victorian sensibility for bends in the road and turns of phrase, Watsa presents a rich blend of landscapes and architecture-from monsoon-lashed Goa to a coast that inspired Tagore, from desolate Hampi to burgeoning Bangalore, from charming Pondicherry t sun-baked Tranquebar and beyond. Crowned by exquisitely rendered memories of the cool woods of Kodaikanal, Brahmins and Bungalows is a witty, elegant, loving portrait of a deeply cosmopolitan land.
Contents
PROLOGUE: OVER THE BUNGALOW WALL
THE HEART OF ANGLO-INDIA
Srirangapattana: The Isle of Lost Dreams
Mysore: A Large and Handsome Town
Bangalore: The Vanishing Cantonment
ALONG THE ARABIAN
Padmanabhapuram: A Palace Made of Wood
Devbagh: Beyond the Realm of Prose
Goa: Five Hundred Monsoons Now
COROMANDEL COLONIES
Madras: The Forgotten Fort
Pondicherry: The Empire That Never Was
Tranquebar: Day of the Danes
THE TEMPLE TRAIL
Hampi: City of Victory
Mamallapuram: Masons and Moonrakers
Thanjavur: In the Womb of the South
KODAIKANAL
Epilogue: Woodsmoke and Roses