A friend recently asked me to recommend a good Bollywood movie. My mind boggled. Did I want to impress her with the serious film making in India or did I want to dazzle her with musical extravaganzas that make the headlines? It was hard but finally my recommendation was Lagaan, the hit movie of a few years ago about big, bad British Raj officers being outwitted by simple but wily villagers in a game of cricket. The movie had everything Bollywood offers: melodrama, swaggering villains, blushing village belles, the hero who saves the village, and of course characters breaking out into song and dance at the drop of a hat. Plus it comes with English sub-titles.
That got me thinking about the number of times I have been asked to recommend a book about India, or a book by an Indian writer. No book is going to tell you how you will recoil from the white hot heat that engulfs you when you poke your head out on the tarmac at Delhi airport in summer. No book is going to give you a feel for the noise and tumult that smothers you when you make your first tentative foray into the streets at rush hour. In fact very few books give you any idea of what your life will be like in contemporary urban India. No more I guess than reading Grisham will prepare you for life in suburban New Jersey.
That said, like any other opinionated reader, I do have a list of books about India that I think are either fun or meaningful reads. And since so many visitors and expats ask first about a book to read about India, I decided to take a break from the tales of our life in India, and tell you some of my favorite India reads. Caveat time: This is a totally subjective list, and not only are you free to agree or disagree, but please do write in and tell me off. Some on the list will be books you hated, and of course I inexplicably left out the masterpiece that changed your life and made you rush out and join a BPO in Bangalore. Tell me, and maybe we can compile the mother of all lists that will be essential reading for all wannabee Indians.
Here they are in no particular order, with opinions thrown in for free:
Arrow of the Blue Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana through India. Jonah Blank’s part travelogue, part mythological commentary is my favorite off-beat India journal. He splices excerpts from the Ramayana with cultural and political analysis of modern day India.
The Smile of Murugan by Michael Wood. Although from Tamil Nadu originally, I knew very little of my home state having grown up in New Delhi. So it was with delight that I read Michael Wood’s southern travelogue while I traveled to some of the great temples myself.
Alexander Frater’s Chasing the Monsoon. I read it in a drought year in California and his account of following the riotous, capricious monsoon across the country made me yearn for a bone rattling thunderstorm. It goes into considerable detail about the science of meterology, but is never dull and it definitely goes on the list.
Search for the Pink Headed duck by Rory Nugent. This may not be handy to navigate Bangalore traffic with, but it makes it onto the list as a fabulous account of a strange journey down the Brahmaputra that I for one am never likely to make.
Kim by Rudyard Kipling. Do I hear gasps of horror? I know Kipling raises the bristles on every post colonial reader, his white man’s burden sentiments blood curdling, and Kim is as jingoistic as anything the imperialist Kipling wrote. Yet as a 19th century travelogue of a Huck Finn like lad’s journey on the Grand Trunk road, Kim is a great read. So with many warnings and a reminder to read an antidote such as Edward Said’s deconstruction of the novel, it stays on the list.
Chasing the Mountain of Light: Across India on the Trail of the Koh-i-noor Diamond. Didn’t realize most writers seem to have been chasing things around India. 4 out of 6 books so far have involved cross country chases. Although this has more history than the other books, and definitely no Leonardo De Caprio ala Blood Diamond, this reveals a side of the Indian diamond industry that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Engaging India: Democracy, Diplomacy and the Bomb by Strobe Talbott This book is almost as much about America as it is about India, and shows Talbott’s time in the State Department under Clinton, but as portrayal of the Indo-Pak relationship this is highly readable and informative.
Inspite of the Gods: The strange rise of modern India; Edward Luce. Does every title need parenthesis? I like this one for it’s ultimate message, that India is proof that democracy works. For all it’s internal conflict and tensions, the country still holds and for all it’s corruption and chaos, it is still the will of the people that elects the government.
Indian Food: A historical companion by K.T. Acharya: Alright, this isn’t about India really, but it is about Indian food which is probably the most exported commodity. Dry reading at times, but packed with information that cooks will devour.
Divining the Deccan by Bill Aitkin: A motor cycle ride through the deccan plateau, fun and more light hearted than the others.
Ten is a nice round number to stop at. Had time and space permitted I would have included more, especially as there is a severe under-representation of Indian writers, or maybe that should be a list in itself. Do write in with your favorites and brickbats. Should we even venture to make a list of Indian fiction? Maybe that would be too hot to handle…
Interested in more books by Indian authors? click here for the list.
Continue the journey with KC, read all her articles about their journey as expats moving to India.
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—About our writer:
"KC refuses to limit herself to one label. Among the many hats she wears are: Full time mom, part time writer, teacher, chef, art collector, gardener, quilter and extremely good vacationer. She has lived in Northern California for close to 20 years and has spent most of those years stopping frequently to smell the roses and plant some lavender. After two decades in Silicon Valley her husband will be working from Bangalore. KC has two children, a 12 year old daughter and an 8 year old son.
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