| Subject: India |
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As some other list members have poinetd out, you will have a love/hate
relationship with India; but at the end, the love part will
overweight the hate part!, at least that's what heppened to
me. There is no amount of reading about India that will prevent
the cultural shock; you have to experience India with the
five senses. However, there are a lot of really good Indian
writers in English that can help you understand better the
country (I should say the continent) and its people:
- R.K.Narayan: a prolific writer. His stories and novesl about
Nalguri, an imaginary town, portrait the life in South India and
its people. Some of his books: The man eater of Malgudi,
Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, Waiting for the
Mahtama, Malgudi Days, The Guide,....
- Arundathi Roy: she had a great succes with her first book
The god of small things
- Rohinton Mistry: stories about the life of the Parsi
community in Bombay. A fine Balance, Such a long journey,
Simming Lessons
- Gita Metha: A river sutra, a wonderful and very poetic
novel.
- Vikram Chandra: Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Love and
longing in Bombay
- Amit Chadhuri: Freedom Song, A strange and sublime address
- Of course, all the books by Salman Rushdie. I specially liked
The moor's last sigh and Midnight's children
Salman Rushdie published a few years ago (I think it was in 1997
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the independence of India and
Pakistan) an anthology of indian literature in English.
If you are interested in South Asia literature yo can check this site: http://is.rice.edu/~riddle/play/sasialit/ On more directly travel related books, one that I liked a lot was City of Djinns by William Dalrymple. It discovers all the secrets of Delhi, a city that is sometimes dumped by travelers, but I found very interesting, specially after having read the book. Albert |