The Penguin Book of Indian Journeys

The Penguin Book of Indian Journeys

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Author: Eminent Contributors
Editor(s): Dom Moraes
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 369
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0141007648

Description

Beginning with a brilliantly insightful introduction by Dom Moraes, this anthology provides an absorbing, lively and always interesting portrait of life in contemporary India and brings together travel pieces by some of the best contemporary writers in the English language.

A country of the size of a continent, home to a sixth of humanity. An ancient civilization that is also a modern democratic republic only half a century old. A nation that is several countries in one. As in ages past, India continues to fascinate travelers who are, in the words of Dom Moraes, the editor of this anthology, 'startled, annoyed, and attracted by its colossal, inexplicable diversities'. More has been written about it than any other Asian country.

This collection brings together travel pieces by some of the best contemporary writers in the English language. Travel writers - Indian and foreign, as well as compulsive wanderers without a home - engage with the comforts and the chaos, the convictions and the contradictions of modern, independent India. R K Narayan does a leisurely tour of Karnataka, taking the 'emerald route' up and down the Ghats; V S Naipaul rages through hot, crowded and apathetic New Delhi; and Vikram Seth flies back, after months of hitch-hiking in strange lands, to familiars, respite and Delhi customs. Ruskin Bond explores the laid-back Agra of the 1960s in the shadow of the unchanging Taj; and midnight's child Salman Rushdie returns to the land of his birth to try and answer a riddle: Does India exist?

At the Kumbh Mela, the world's biggest religious festival, Mark Tully meets a 300-year-old Sadhu. In the forests of the Western Chats, Abraham Verghese hopes to run into the brigand Veerappan. Jan Morris rides the toy train to ' the most celebrated of Indian hill stations' that is 'all smallness'. And Bruce Chatwin hits the road with the entourage of the post-Emergency, out-of-power Indira Gandhi to see 'Madame in action'.

Also in these pages are Paul Theroux, Khushwant Singh, William Dalrymple, Andrew Harvey, Amit Chaudhuri, Allen Ginsberg, Joe Roberts and P Sainath, among others, taking us to places as familiar or remote as Jaipur, Ladakh, Behmai and the Cut-off Area.

REVIEWS

The Penguin Book of Indian Journey is not exactly a collection of essays on trips to places familiar and unknown. It is so much more, that it would be a crime to describe its contents as travel pieces, It examines the petty and the large-hearted, the honest and the hypocritical, the smug, the defeated and the insecure, In the final analysis, Indian Journeys is like a parcel gift-wrapped in multiple layers, each one presenting the reader with a wonderful surprise that raises his expectations of the next.
-Sunday Statesman

A treat, With more than 35 pieces, the book gives a wide-angle view of contemporary India.
-Indian Express

An exhilarating account of India, complete in its mosaic of contending architecture, climate, people, politics, emotions, ambitions and shibboleths.
-Hindustan Times

India sets the literary imagination on fire. The brilliant and absorbing pieces in this collection are moulded in the heart of that dazzling flame, An essential read for all wanderers and intrepid travellers.
-First City

Memorable pieces dominate: Jan Morris's exuberant essay on Darjeeling, Bruce Chatwin's ironic take on Mrs Gandhi, and Sarayu Ahuja's delightful portrait of a Madras Mami, You can scarcely wait till the bookshop opens so you can read the rest of their books.
-Hindu

The Penguin Book of Indian Journeys, consists of thought-provoking and fascinating accounts about this land, written by those who have been able to bypass exotica and describe what India feels like, day by day, this is a book that definitely does make the must read list.
-Business India

THE EDITOR

DOMMORAES was born in Bombay in 1938. At nineteen he published his first book of poems, A beginning, which won the Hawthornden Prize. He second book of verse, Poems became the Autumn Choice of the Poetry Book Society.

Apart from these, he has published eight other collections of poems, and twenty three prose books, including a biography, Mrs. Gandhi, and the memoirs Never At Home, Gone Away and My Son's Father.

As a correspondent, Dom Moraes have covered wars in Algeria, Israel and Vietnam. In 1971 he became editor of The Asia Magazine, and in 1976 he joined the UN. He returned to India in 1979 and has lived here since.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Hill Station: Darjeeling, 1970: JAN MORRIS

Romances: V S NAIPAUL

The Delhi Mail From Jaipur: PAUL THEROUX

Footloose In Agra: RUSKIN BOND

On the Road With Mrs. G. : BRUCE CHATWIN

Leh: ANDREW HARVEY

The Riddle Of Midnight: India, August 1987: SALMAN RUSHDIE

Death Lives In Varanasi: JERRY PINTO

The Elephants Are Coming: ANITA NAIR

The Forest: DO MORAES

Kumbh Mela: MARK TULLY

Encounters in South India: JOE ROBERTS

The Emerald Route: R K NARAYAN

In The Midst Of Life: CHARLIE PYE-SMITH

Amritsar: City Of Nectar And Gold: STEPHEN ALTER

The Bandit King And The Movie Star: ABRAHAM VERHESE

Memories of Bihar: VIJAY NAMBISAN

Gwalior Today: DAWOOD ALI MCCALUM

Burning Ghats: ALLEN GINSBERG

Reports From Orissa: P SAINATH

The Promised Land: BILL AITKEN

Nainital: NAMITA GOKHALE

Mela Madness: MARK SHAND

Along The Narmada: ROYINA GREWAL

The Land Of Seven Hundred Hills: M J AKBAR

Gods And God: ANEES JUNG

The Koyal And The Guava: SARAYU AHUJA

Ayodhya: JONAH BLANK

Kutch Touch: SEEME QAQSIM

Refugees: JAMES CAMERON

Phoolan Devi, Queen Of Dacoits: KHUSHWANT SINGH

Kathmandu; Delhi: VIKRAM SETH

Small Orange Flags: AMIT CHAUDHRY

The City of Widows: WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

Cherra: ALEXANDER FRATER