Author: Dom Moraes
Publisher: Penguin/Viking
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 369
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670912336
Description
Beginning with a brilliantly insightful introduction by Dom Moraes, this anthology provides an absorbing, lively and always interesting portrait5 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.
Beginning with a brilliantly insightful introduction by Dom Moraes, this anthology provides an absorbing, lively and always interesting portrait of life in contemporary India.
THE EDITOR
DOM MORAES published his first collection of poems, 'A Beginning', when he was nineteen. He won the Hawthornden Prize for the book in 1958, and remains the youngest person to win the prestigious prize. He has written twenty-three prose books, including a biography, 'Mrs. Gandhi', and a travel book on Madhya Pradesh, 'Answered by Flutes'.
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 M 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
* Cheera: ALEXANDER FRATER