A Traveler's Library » India

7 Best Blog Posts

pen4hire — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:22:54 +0000

Three sons

Oh, please, don’t ask me to choose. It’s like picking your favorite child. It just isn’t done. Besides, think of the psychiatrist bills to battle the neurosis of those that are not chosen.

But Choose I must. It seems there is this “thing” going around–not lethal but very infectious–and I have been intentionally exposed by my friend Mark over at Travel Wonders of the World. Well, since Mark is a good friend (I’ve guest blogged for him about Bayeux and Canyon de Chelly, and he wrote about Mark Twain for me and leaves comments frequently here), I am honored.

The “thing” is a My 7 Links meme started by Tripbase Blog. Bloggers are asked to list posts that fit into 7 categories, as you will see below.

So happy reading.

1. My Most Beautiful Post

I have borrowed a lot of other people’s pictures for posts (using Flickr, usually), I proudly present a post where I took all the pix–10 + Reasons to Travel to New Zealand. In such a beautiful place, how can you NOT take beautiful pictures? The technical standards are not tops, because these are all scanned from print, but nevertheless…I think the post looks pretty good.

2. My Most Popular Post

Five American Road Trip Books and The List. I wrote this one not long after I started the blog and it continues to draw readers every month. Why? People like road trips, and people like “best of” lists.

(Incidently if you measure popularity by number of comments, that would be The Perfect French Movie, which inspired beaucoup people to opine about their favorite french movie.)

Mumbai

3. My Most Controversial Post

Easy. Sometimes when I write a negative review, somebody (namely the author) jumps to the defense, but generally I’m positive and not controversial. However, when it came to the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, while I enjoyed the movie, I could not resist pointing out that I have no desire to visit Mumbai, India. That created a mini firestorm, which was partially quenched when Monica Bhide wrote two guest posts defending her Mumbai (Bombay).

4. My Most Helpful Post

Since I hope that EVERY blog post I write is helpful in some way, it is difficult for me to choose, but relying on the number of viewers and commenters, I would say that readers have found Ten Places to Eat Cheap (er) in Paris has been majorly helpful to them. (So much so that I have adapted the post, added pictures, and published it as an e-book which is available on Kindle or at the Barnes and Noble Store.)

5. A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

I suspect school assignments may be resonsible for searches that land on the post on Hiawatha , and I know that giving away a prize is going to make a temporarily popular post. As I mentioned, list posts are popular, which made 3 Best Travel Secrets of Greece a winner. But none of those are surprising. From time to time a post draws enormous traffic for no discernable reason.

Ohio Grave of Civil War Veteran, Henry Allen Butts

The one that surprised me was a personal Veteran’s Day tribute to men in my family who have served in United States armed conflicts. I would like to think it was my masterful writing, but I suspect the popularity might be caused by the fact that my great-grandfathers surname was Butts. What do you think?

6. A Post I Don’t Feel Got the Attention It Deserved

Oh, dear. NONE of my posts ever reach as many people as I would like. I’m sharing some of the greatest writers of travel literature and travel-inspirational fiction, or movies that you must see, and I want EVERYONE to know. Enough whining–since I have to choose just one, I’ll say Sweet Read About Paris. David Leibovitz writes an hysterically funny guide to living in Paris. Plus there’s lots of chocolate.

7. The Post I am Proudest Of

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake.

Robert Louis Stevenson said that in his classic travel book, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. But you have to read my post to get the entire context of his quote which has a sharper edge than the excerpt. I like this post because it focuses on the job at hand–instead of wandering off point as I am wont to do. And it introduces a book that I really adored.

Note to other blog posts at A Traveler’s Library. I’m just kidding–I really like YOU the best!

——–

And there you have it. My little family of Seven Links from past posts. I hope you enjoy them, and will share your thoughts below. Agree with my choices? Have your own favorites?

I hereby pass the 7 Links Baton to the following 5 wonderful bloggers, and hope you will check them out, also.

Edie Jarolim at Will My Dog Hate Me (Edie is a travel writer as well as a dog slave.)

Kerry Dexter at Music Road (If you have not met Kerry here before, you were not paying attention.)

Sheri Wallace at Road Trips for Families (Sheri has an empire of road trip blogs, but this is the flagship.)

Kristen Gough and her fun family food blog, My Kids Eat Squid. (Kristen has also guest-posted at A Traveler’s Library on a variety of places)

Melanie McMin, The Frugal Kiwi. (How appropriate. I started this post with a photo-post from New Zealand, and I end with a recommendation of a blogger who lives in New Zealand. This useful and entertaining blog comes with chickens, honey bees, felted crafts, food, and home decor!)

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Holly Tucker Recommends Books for Travelers

pen4hire — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:06:33 +0000

Destination: India

Holly Tucker

Books: Recommendations by Holly Tucker

Whenever I interview an author, I ask for his or her favorite books to influence travel. Here are suggestions from Holly Tucker, author of Blood Work for books about India to add to the travel library.

She said, “I’m fascinated anything to do with India.”

“My interest in India probably has more to do with the fact that my best friend grew up in Mumbai. Her birthday is November 1 and mine is November 3, the same year. I still marvel at how two little girls could have been born nearly half a planet away and still became such close friends. I’ve had a chance to travel twice to India with her family. The second time was for a wedding in Bangalore. Books, both fiction and nonfiction, help me understand more about what I experienced there and, always, make me hopeful that there will be a third trip…if not more!”

The most recent books for travelers to India that she has read are

Dreaming in Hindi by Catherine Russell Rich

The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa (which is an amazing, but devastating read)

and Jumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake.

Read an interview with Holly Tucker about her book , Blood Work: A Tale of Medince and Murder in the Scientific Revolution.

Here at A Traveler’s Library, we have discussed many other books set in India.

The Writerly Life by R.K.Narayan, ed. by S. Krishnan

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

6 Favorites of Shelley Seale, plus her own The Weight of Silence

City of Djinns by William Dalrymple

Do you have other books about India that you would add to the list for travel libraries?

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Sure Sign of a Funny Road Trip

pen4hire — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:29:40 +0000

A Bit of Romance on the Road?

Destination: India

Book: Peep Peep Don’t Sleep
by Ajay Jain

A GUEST POST by Dr. Jessie Voigts

Having a sense of humor while traveling is one of the surest ways to enjoy life and all
the riches it has to offer. One of my new favorite books is a hilarious photo journal
from India, called Peep Peep Don’t Sleep. And as we all know, reading while traveling isn’t limited to books – it can be signs, t-shirts, pamphlets, and more.

Written and photographed by Ajay Jain, this book is an inside look at culture, humor, travel, and the intricacies of language. We often read this with our 8-year old daughter, and laugh together. It is a book rich in culture and language, and so very funny. We were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Ajay about his book, traveling on the road, smiling, and more. Here’s what he had to say…

Wandering Educators: Please tell us about your book, Peep Peep Don’t Sleep

Ajay Jain: Put simply, Peep Peep Don’t Sleep is a collection of funny road signs and advertisements that travellers can spot in India. In fact, the title of the book comes from one of these signs. Most of these are from the Indian Himalayas.

What prompted me to come up with such a book? We all notice and get entertained by road signs when we travel, but rarely have these been the subject of any books or even magazine features. Especially since most of us don’t travel enough to see all the different signs literally scattered all over.

Being a travel writer and photographer, I took this challenge upon myself. I had no idea how many interesting road signs existed, or what it would entail capturing all of them. If I didn’t get enough, the book would not happen. I had only one choice: hit the road like an explorer into unchartered territory. And be on the job till I achieved my objective. It took a year and over 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) of driving but it all came together in the end.
The inspiration was both providing an entertaining read, as well as creating an archive of these signs. They have a value today because they exist; the collection would be invaluable tomorrow when these are long gone.

Getting philosophical on the road

What was I looking for? Messages for drivers, advertisements and public notices – anything that would entertain and say something about the place and its people. It would be travelogue of a different kind. And were they a discovery! The ones on Indian highways are in a zone of their own. They shower you with words of wisdom, keep your mind sharp as you unravel their cryptic messages, tickle your imagination, amuse you and entertain you. In public interest, they lend a hand to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Since journeys are meant to be a pleasure, they remind you to ‘Smile Please.’ This is the expression this book wants to see on its readers.

No Photographing, Tourist!

WE: What is it about road signs, language, and cultural assumptions?!

AJ: Different signs reflect different aspects. For example, many of these signs are put up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a division of the Indian Army responsible for construction and maintenance of roads along India’s international borders. Thought up by the engineers on the site, one only wonders why they put such signs up. Was it their attempt at cheeky humour? Was it a lesser grasp of the English language that makes them sound like this? Likewise, many of the shop signs and advertisements show an earnest effort to attract customers even if one flounders with the language.

To read more of the interview, please visit the book review section of Wandering Educators.

Jessie Voigts

Dr. Jessie Voigts is the Publisher of WanderingEducators.com and contributes each month to A Traveler’s Library. She has a doctorate in International Education, and is passionate about intercultural learning. She and her husband are Worldschooling their daughter, and enjoying every minute of it. She is also a nature photographer and lives on a lake.

Jessie says she still laughs when she reads the book. Thanks for sharing, Jessie.

Every traveler has read signs–and menus–in awkwardly translated English. Sometimes the humor is intentional. Sometimes it becomes philosophical. Share the funniest or oddest one you’ve seen.

Click on image to bid on travel prizes.

And speaking of India—We’ve raised $41,000 so far. Are you IN?? Here’s a sign you should click on. No kidding!

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Building a Village $10 at a Time

pen4hire — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:00:52 +0000

Passports with Purpose

is ba-a-ack with a basketful of temptations for you, and A Traveler’s Library is sponsoring TWO great vacation prizes.

Here’s WHAT it is
HOW you can win prizes like fabulous vacations and travel gear
WHERE the money goes

PWP Ingredients

We are so fortunate to be able to read and to be able to travel. And I feel fortunate to help to repay the universe by joining with other travel bloggers to raise money to build a village in India. The organizers are Debbie Dubrow (Delicious Baby), Beth Whitman (Wanderlust and Lipstick), Michelle Duffy (Wandermom) and Pam Mandel (NerdsEyeView), but dozens of bloggers will be participating. (The founders say they do their planning over cupcakes, so I think of them as the 4 Cupcakes. All those other bloggers are just frosting on the cake.)

Let me tell you that quartet is pretty amazing. The first year, they raised $7,000 for Heifer International, one of my very favorite charities. I had just started blogging and wasn’t able to sponsor a prize, but I spent lots of $10 bills and won a couple of nice things.

Last year, I couldn’t wait to participate as a blogger sponsor, because the recipient country was Cambodia, a favorite destination of ours. The 4 Cupcakes set a seemingly impossible goal of $14,000 to build a school in Cambodia. Except that we all raised $30,000 instead. So the school got a nurse, clean water and extra bookshelves. I couldn’t be happier to show you pictures of the result.

So…$7,000; then $30,000; (you can see where this is going, right? )…

The Cake is Rising

This year the 4 Cupcakes decided that one building is mere crumbs. This year, they said, we’re gonna build a VILLAGE in India. The goal is $50,000, which will build 25 homes for people who never dared dream they would have a house to call their own. Passports Village in Karunganni, located in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

The money raised goes directly to the humanitarian organization LAFTI (Land for Tiller’s Freedom). That organization has won many humanitarian awards for its work with the people called untouchables in India.

A Traveler’s Library prizes

WIN A STAY IN NEW ORLEANS

Hotel Monteleone

Would you like to win a two-night stay in New Orleans? This year the return donor Hotel Monteleone, includes welcome cocktails in the famous Carousel Lounge and breakfast for two. Get ready to party in New Orleans. When Ken and I go to New Orleans, this is our first choice hotel. (The fine print: Three day, Two night stay in deluxe accommodations at the historic Hotel Monteleone located in the heart of the French Quarter, New Orleans (room charges only, excluding Friday and Saturday nights). The package also includes a welcome cocktail for (2) at the famous Carousel Bar, and American breakfast for (2) daily in Le Café.)

G-normous thanks to the classy Hotel Monteleone for their generous donation, second year in a row. What pals!

WIN A DUDE RANCH VACATION

The horse corral at Rancho de los Caballeros

And if New Orleans isn’t your style, how about a three-night vacation for two at a luxurious guest ranch in Arizona? Rancho de los Caballeros provides a prize package worth about $1500, including all meals for two and riding activities. Ken and I stayed there recently and trust me, whether you ride or not, this is an awesome place. (The fine print: The ranch choses from the end of May through the first week of October, and this stay excludes the months of March and April. Activities other than riding may incur extra charges. See web site for details). This gorgeous ranch will welcome you because of the generosity of the owners and the manager who hosted me and then made this offer. Thank you for your amazing generosity.

Recipe for Success

I know you’re already getting packed for your trip, so quickly, let me tell you how to win. Go to the Passports With Purpose web site and donate $10 to LAFTI for each time you want to be entered into a drawing. Put all your money on one prize, or spread it out–your choice. And it will not be easy choosing. Chocolate, vanilla, banana, caramel, carrot cake—oh, sorry, that’s cupcakes. I meant to say more than 100 prizes to choose from. Contest starts today and closes end of the day on DECEMBER 13th, 2010.

See all the prizes and make your choices at Passports With Purpose web site.

Read more about Hotel Monteleone.

Thank you sponsors:

Those companies have donated from $1000 to $10000 to LAFTI already. Because of them, we were more than half way to the goal on day one. Check them out and say thank you.

So after you click over to Passports With Purpose, and check out LAFTI and choose your favorite prizes, then come on back and tell us what you chose. Okay?

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A Book for Travelers to Southern India

pen4hire — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:34:19 +0000

Temple Bazaar in Tiruvannamalai

Destination: Southern India

Book: The Writerly Life by R.K.Narayan, ed. by S. Krishnan

A GUEST POST BY MS. KIRAN KESWANI

If you would like a glimpse into India and its people, reading the writings of R.K.Narayan is a wonderful way to do it. He is a writer who wrote as if he were enveloped in quietitude, situated in an Indian setting which could have been everything but quiet! He seemed to have read deep into the minds of people in his family, in his street, in his town and in his country. He did this in a way that made every moment and the happening that belonged to it seem like it had a meaning and a purpose.

The Writerly Life is a collection of several essays and R.K.Narayan’s travelogue, My Dateless Diary, which uncovers an Indian mind as it discovers uncharted territories in America.The collection represents his non-fiction writing from the 1930s to the 1990s.

R.K.Narayan is one of my favourite Indian writers writing about India. With his acute sense of observation, he must have seen also the darker sides of India, but he did not write about that. He chose instead to dwell on simple people and their simple ways. In ‘The Crowd’, he writes, “Any crowd interests me: I always feel that it is a thing that deserves precedence over any other engagement. I always tell myself that an engagement can wait, but not the crowd.”

Kapaleeswarar Temple in Chennai

It is true that Narayan’s writings are based mainly in South India but it is a large part of the Indian sub-continent. For me, this was a great way to learn and love a part of India that I had known little about till I moved there with my husband, who belonged there and found it best to initiate his North-Indian wife into his culture through Narayan’s beautiful depiction of it.

Eventually, I became addicted to the South Indian coffee, because in a South Indian household, the day starts with the aroma of coffee wafting through the whole house.

I read R. K. Narayan’s essay on ‘Coffee’ many times over the years and found it delightful every single time! He says he never tired of writing about coffee. He was planning a noble work on coffee running to two hundred thousand words, that would be called a Study of Coffee. The first part would describe the philosophy of Bababuden, a Muslim saint who brought coffee to India and prove that the origin of coffee was saintly.

He writes, “A few observations will be necessary on the question of coffee temperature. This section will be called Thermodynamics of Coffee. In this section we shall strive to decide the right temperature at which coffee may be sipped. It must be understood that the temperature has to vary according to the occasion; the hot cup you may demand at home may not be suitable when you have to gulp down a mouthful and run back to your seat in a train whose engine has just whistled and just started moving.”

The Writerly Life also includes essays such as “Noise,” “Of Trains and Travellers,” “Toasted English,” “Bridegroom Bargains,” and “Reluctant Guru”. Narayan always said that he wrote all these essays only because he had to meet a deadline every Thursday in order to fill half a column for the Sunday issue of The Hindu and he somehow managed to do that for nearly twenty years without a break.

R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) was born in Madras and studied at Maharajah`s College in Mysore. His work includes numerous novels, five collections of short stories, two travel books,and other writing. He is well-known for his novels, Malgudi Days and The Guide, which was also made into a film. In 1980, he was awarded the A. C. Benson medal by the Royal Society of Literature. Narayan was also made Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

My deepest gratitude to Ms.Kiran Keswani ,who is an architect based in Bangalore, India, for writing this guest post AND providing the pictures. Kiran is currently researching the traditional bazaars of India. I met her through the Lonely Planet Blog Sherpa program. Her photo-filled, colorful blog has been featured on Lonely Planet.com.

Please do not use the photos without the consent of Ms. Keswani. Thanks.

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New Dalrymple Book Explores Religions of India

pen4hire — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:16:30 +0000

A Hindu holy man

Book: Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple (NEW June 2010)

William Dalrymple is still trying to explain India. He is well equipped to do that because in addition to accolades as a travel writer, he is praised for his scholarship and has lived part of each year in India for a couple of decades now. His highly acclaimed White Mughals and the best selling City of Djinns made him one of the must-read names mentioned when outstanding contemporary travel literature is discussed.

In Nine Lives, he follows up his amazement at the many forms of devotion that he encounters in India with meticulous research and interviews that sometimes rolled on for days, so that his experiences become the experiences of the readers.

As he explains in the Introduction, he does not attempt to discuss all of the religions practiced in India. He portrays nine people whose beliefs differ significantly from the beliefs generally practiced in the Western world. From practices that seem understandable, if rigorous, to those that seem downright bizarre, we learn about religious minorities that even regular travelers to India may not have heard of before.

In order to get the stories, he travels from the Himalayans in the north to the oceans in the South and sits through hours-long rituals, walks alongside believers, and respectfully questions the practitioners.It is travel with a purpose, but the kind of mindful travel that we all would do well to consider.

He avoids judging the people he interacts with, even when he is faced with issues like assisted suicide and coerced child prostitution.The Jain nun, brushes the earth before her with a feather so as to avoid killing even a small being, but believes that the greatest act is to commit suicide by slowly starving. A Buddhist monk struggles with the issue of monks going to war. A mother who resented being turned into a religious prostitute as a child, nevertheless does the same with her daughters. But there are more heart-warming stories as well.

For the most part the stories read like stories and are clear and dramatic. A glossary in the back helps with unfamiliar terms. At times, however, the writing becomes as complex as the system of Hindu gods and goddesses.

Shiva

Many scholars believe that just as the Sufi fakirs of Sehwan Sharif model their dreadlocks, red robes and dust-smeared bodies on those of Shaivite sadhus, so the dhammal derives from the damaru drum of Shiva, by which, in his form of Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance, the Destroyer drums the world back into existence after dancing it into extinction.

I still am not sure what that passage is all about.

More understandable to a person reading today’s headlines is the struggle between the Sufis, who traditionally shared a place of worship with Muslims and the strict Wahhabis who are banning access of Hindus to Muslim mosques. An illiterate woman accuses them of hypocrisy, and quotes an ancient poet:

Why call yourself a scholar, o mullah? You are lost in words.

You keep on speaking nonsense, Then you worship yourself.

Despite seeing God with your own eyes, you dive into the dirt.

We Sufis have taken the flesh from the holy Quran, While you dogs are fighting with each other.

Always tearing each other apart, For the privilege of gnawing at the bones.

It is difficult to see a single thread that ties these nine lives together, and indeed, Dalrymple does not try. If they have anything in common, it is poverty in material possessions but richness in spirit. Seldom does one encounter cynicism or doubt.

Although I have never had any interest in traveling to India, I definitely enjoyed this book, and consider it worthwhile both as sociology and as a travel book for those interested in learning more about the complex and varied country. A definite plus for the travel library.

I wrote earlier about an essay Dalrymple wrote about travel writing; and guest Sue Dickman wrote about City of Djinns. The photos above come from Flickr and are used under a Creative Commons license. Please click on the photos to learn more and to meet the photographers. A pre-publication review copy of the book, Nine Lives, was provided to me by the publisher, Alfred A Knopf.

Do you like to delve into the religious customs of a country that you are visiting? Does such a book count as travel literature?

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Travel Literature Fuels Travel Desire

pen4hire — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:00:34 +0000

Destination: Various Exotic Locales

Author: Tahir Shah

A GUEST POST by Travel Writer JUDITH FEIN

Travel Literature that Inspires Me

When I sit down to read a good travel yarn, I want to be swept away by an author who is a mystic, humorist, analyst, adventurer, stylist, fabulist and information nerd. I want to get caught up in someone’s crazy quest to find the ancient gold mines of King Solomon in Ethiopia, the secrets of Indian magicians, the way jinns can take over a person’s life in north Africa. I like to finish a book and burn with desire to hit the road again so I can experience the deep brilliance, fascination and craziness of cultures that are not my own.

That’s where Tahir Shah comes in. He’s that once-in-a-generation writer who makes it impossible not to travel, not to dive in where others fear to swim. He actually did go to Ethiopia, running through an obstacle course of hyenas, deceit and physical misery, to find the source of the gold that the Queen of Sheba supposedly brought King Solomon. That book is called In Search of King Solomon’s Mines.

And he really did become the apprentice of a sadistic magician in India, who initiated him into a hyper-intense world of sleights of hand and sleights of heart. That book is Sorcerer’s Apprentice (out of print, but available used).

Casablanca Great Mosque

More recently, he bought a dilapidated house in Morocco, The Caliph’s House, peopled with jinns, wacko workmen and more mysticism than a book can contain, so the rich content spilled over into a second book, In Arabian Nights, where Shah set off the find the story in his heart. It’s a kind of Sufi Wizard of Oz, with adventures that are puzzling, intriguing, funny, wild, and eventually bring him home to himself.

When I read Shah’s books, I want him to actually find King Solomon’s mines and the story in his heart. But, most of all, I get caught up in the adventure, in the process, and I’m not attached to the outcome. For me, that’s what great travel reading and great travel is about.

Judith Fein

Judith Fein is an award-winning travel journalist who has contributed to more than 85 magazines, newspapers and internet sites. She is the co-founder and editor of Your Life Is a Trip and her website is Global Adventure. Her book, LIFE IS A TRIP, will be coming out soon. It takes the reader along on l5 trips into other worlds and other cultures where a different way of dealing with life can enrich any reader’s existence.

I first met Judie Fein on a press trip in non-exotic, but very interesting Richmond Virginia. Ever since then, I have been in awe of her fine writing and her accomplishments, and am pleased to be a contributor to My Life is a Trip. I can’t thank Judie enough for sharing this author with us. Believe me, his books are being added to my wish list post haste. (Photo is used courtesy of Creative Commons license. To learn more about the photographer, click on the photo.)

Judie focused on her go-to author for travel inspiration. Do you have an author that you trust–that you find yourself returning to again and again? I will read anything written by Patrick Leigh Fermor or Norman Lewis

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Book Travels to the Indian Himalyas

pen4hire — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:27:39 +0000

Viceregal Lodge, Shimla, India

Destination: Shimla, India

Book: Shimla – A British Himalayan Town, by Sumit Vashisht

A Guest post by Dr. Jessie Voigts

So often the cultural aspects of a place can get lost in the shuffle of modernization. I’ve got a treasure to share with you today – a new book, written by the astounding Himalayas Editor for Wandering Educators, Sumit Vashisht. Sumit has shared so much of the Himalayas with us – from architecture to trekking to ice skating. It’s a window into another world, for me – a world I can’t wait to explore. Sumit’s book, Shimla – A British Himalayan Town, is an extraordinary glimpse into the town of Shimla, India - in the Himalayas. It’s a place that is an amalgamation of styles, cultures, architecture…and Sumit explores all of these in this book.

We were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Sumit about his book, Shimla, architecture, history, culture, and more. Here’s what he had to say…

Wandering Educators: Please tell us about your book, Shimla – A British Himalayan Town…

Sumit Vashisht: This is the story of origin and settlement– of the growth of a small village called Shyamala to Shimla. It changed many names such as Shumla, Semlah, Simla and now Shimla. There used to be a small village with 10 – 15 houses at this place. [The village] and the Northern Hills suffered a lot of disturbance from Gurkha[alt. spelling: Ghurka] attacks from Nepal.

[Sumit says that the Gurkhas were as cruel as today's terrorists.Note: After the defeat of the Gurkhas, the British Army used them as brave mercenaries. Gurkhas figure in the movie The Man Who Would be King, based on the Rudyard Kipling book.]

The book tells you the story of defeat of Gurkhas by the British Army in 1815 as the local dynasties asked [the British] for help. The British liked the place so much that they decided to[build] some army posts here, then it became a famous holiday resort. In 1860 it was strongly recommended by Sir John Lawrence, the then Viceroy, to be used as Summer Capital of the British Government in India. The book gives you the details of the settlement of the town.

WE: What inspired you to write this book?

SV: My love for this lovely town. Its own beauty, its architecture, its fascinating buildings, lanes, streets, roads, flora & fauna, people and after my birth and initial 14 years of my life in this town my separation from it, my childhood memories.

WE: How did the British occupation of Shimla change the town?

SV: Shimla remained a summer retreat, a holiday resort and a summer capital for the British Government from 1822 to 1947. They brought everything here. They built everything here. They prepared everything that was necessarily required to lead a smooth life. Although here in the hills, life is very simple, the British made it stylish, and the present generation still follows the British lifestyle.

The British constructed roads to Shimla and also got it connected to the plains through railways. They introduced the best schools of India for both genders; brought medical facilities for locals and European population of the town; gave us the club culture – and those clubs are still in use. To control the entire subcontinent from here, they built the Viceregal Lodge. Now, this building, still the most beautiful in the North India, is being used as an Institute of Advanced Study.

To read more of the interview, please see Wandering Educators Book Review.

Dr. Jessie Vogts

Dr. Jessie Voigts is the Publisher of WanderingEducators.com and contributes each month to A Traveler’s Library. She has a doctorate in International Education, and is passionate about intercultural learning. She and her husband are Worldschooling their daughter, and enjoying every minute of it. She is also a nature photographer and lives on a lake.

Our thanks to Jesse for drawing our attention to this hill town developed as a British outpost in northern India. Note: If you are looking to buy the book, you will need to contact the author, who also guides tours in Shimla. I could not find the book available for sale from any American companies, including Amazon.

If you want to read more at A Traveler’s Library about India, see this guide book, a historic novel set in the time of the Raj; Shelley Seale’s favorites ; a book about Delhi; Mumbai (Parts One and Two) by Monica Bhide; and Slumdog Millionaire.

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The Ultimate Travel Book for India

pen4hire — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:52:44 +0000

Destination: India

Book: Wanderlust and Lipstick: For Women Traveling to India by Beth Whitman

Let me start right off by saying that I think Beth Whitman is a gift to women who want adventurous travel in all those places that good little girls are not supposed to go–particularly by themselves, or with only the protection of (gasp!) other women.

Her books (for women traveling Solo, for women traveling with kids, for women traveling to India) and her web site give inspiration and travel tips to women who travel.

So I was delighted when she joined the cabal of people (they are not really organized, and they don’t know they are a cabal, that’s just the way I think of them) trying to persuade me to go to India. Her persuasion came in the form of a copy of her book,[amazonify]B002HK4AA2::text:::: Wanderlust and Lipstick for Women Traveling to India.[/amazonify]. This link leads to the Kindle edition, for the print edition, see Beth’s web site. You can read some glowing reviews and one totally ridiculous one that obviously didn’t get the book at all.

If I were to decide to go to India, this is the book I would pack. Beth does not pull any punches in describing the problems that women may encounter, but she shares solutions for every problem you had questions about and some that you had not yet thought of. The help comes in the form of inspiring anecdotes from her own extensive travels in India and from other women who have made that journey.

Many of the helpful hints here would help inexperienced travelers in any country. Other discussions aim straight at unique characteristics of India. And by the way, most of the tips in this book would apply to men as well as women. (except maybe page 153 in the first edition.)

Am I persuaded to travel to India? Well perhaps it has made it on to the list, but it still occupies the bottom rung of that list. Well, dear reader, whose side are you on here? Do you think I’m ridiculous, or are you another one of those who has forever delayed going to India?

Other articles about India: Use the search box on the right. My discussion of the movie Slumdog Millionaire elicited more comment than any other post, and Monica Bhide’s responses–Mumbai I and Mumbai II are very popular.

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East of the Sun:New Book Set in India

pen4hire — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:00:26 +0000

East of the Sun book cover

Destination: India

Book: East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

Looking for a good beach read? The kind of book that takes you to another world? East of the Sun by Julia Gregson makes for a great read for travel to the beach or mountains. I could not put it down. Read it in the car on the way to the mountains. Read it in a cabin by a blazing fireplace. And each time I opened the book, I traveled to India in the 1930′s–the beginning of the end of the British Empire.

Before I started this book, which was released a month ago, I was doubtful because it sounded too much like a romance novel–not my favorite. But as it turns out, the book, which I read as a review copy, really is a well-researched, riveting historical novel. While we get plenty of the war between the sexes, the author does not pretty up the story. She is merciless in presenting the lives of three women as they would really have been, as passengers to India on the “Fishing Fleet.”

That was a new term to me, but makes perfect sense. During the time that Britain ruled India thousands of soldiers and civil service men were stationed there–many more than women. So women in Britain, hoping for a good match, shipped out to India. If they did not succeed, their English friends called them “returned empties.”

How did Gregson know so much about India when she never lived there? (She did visit several times and returned to explore places described in the novel). Her description of the genesis of the book from a publisher’s Q & A:

“When I was a child, our family rented the top floor apartment of a large and freezing country house in Hampshire that belonged to a woman called Mrs. Smith-Pearse. She’d gone to India, aged eighteen, as a member of the Fishing Fleet, married there, stayed for close to thirty years, and had only recently returned to England” and “Four years ago, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a box of tape recordings she’d made when she was very old. It was then I realized how hard her life had been in India, too.”

Gregson, a journalist, approached the novel like an article, and interviewed other women, including her mother-in-law, who had experienced the Fishing Fleet.

The book held my attention because I cared about the characters from the get go: Rose, the beautiful, tactful one; Tor, the impulsive one who worries about her weight; and Viva, trying to live independently and keep her feelings locked up. Gregson presents these three women so skillfully that we think of them as our own long-time girlfriends.

Here’s what the author has to say about the women upon whom they were based:

“…I try to imagine the terror and the thrill young girls would feel being sent half way across the world, often unchaperoned, to find a husband; to imagine the madcap speed with which some of them married; to think about the humiliation of failing and being shipped back home a ‘Returned Empty.’..East of the Sun is my raised glass to these women: to their friendships, their naiveté, to the men they loved, to the work they did, and for the price they paid in loving India.”

Because it focuses so strongly on women characters, I imagine that the audience for this book will be 98% female. My only complaint is that, while avoiding the gauzy curtain of romantic dreams throughout, the book seemed to me to come to a rather pat conclusion. But after finding so much enjoyment and learning so much about India, that does not deter me from recommending this riveting read to traveler’s to India, armchair or actual.

Photographs courtesy of the publisher.

Another new book and a new movie coming up this week. Don’t miss anything. Sign up for e-mail and I’ll deliver each article to your mailbox. Just click on the e-mail link under the Welcome message at the top of the left-hand sidebar.

Meanwhile–had you ever heard of the Fishing Fleet? To my male readers–would you read this book? Why or why not?