4 comments about Travels to Northern India: Jaipur.

1. When I ordered this CD, I was not sure if it would add anything to the travel guide I bought earlier. I was extremely pleased that I did, because not only does it give all the travel related info on shopping, transportation, phrases etc., but also the incredible quality of video and photos actually made me realize how incredible these palaces are and I can't wait to go there. Plus viewing these places on my computer helped me decide on which points of interest to focus my time there. The alluring background music completes the illusion, and I was able to print all the info including color pictures that I will take with me on my trip and later add to my scrapbook. I would recommend this CD to anyone looking to learn more about India or visting the exotic/mystic city of Jaipur.



2. The cover says it all in terms of rich and bright colors. The pictures are incredible and the film-roll photo viwer is really fun to play with. Travel info on the CD will be very useful for my trip to India and I was able to print everything to take with me. Although the CD has a list of hotels, restaurants, etc. but I wish that they had a list of preferred travel service providers who I could call to book sighseeing tours with and get a good deal. Also, I have an older B&W printer, so was unable to print pictures. Interactive map is really cool too.



3. I am planning to visit India later this year and a friend of mine couldn't stop raving about these CDs and recommended that I buy them before my trip. Hats off to the developers of this product. The video, pictures and exotic Indian music in the background just enthralled my girlfriend and I. The best part is that now we know exactly which places to see and what to do during our trip. I am looking forward to the New Delhi CD to be released. Totally worth it!



4. This is the second CD I have purchased from this company and I am amazed with the quality products they produce. As a "self proclaimed" history buff I have learned so much about Jaipur in so little time. The CD was full of interesting facts about the history of Jaipur and its forts, palaces, and surrounded buildings. From the water palace, to the palace of winds, to the mirror palace, to the many forts, to the resevoir with buried treasure, exploring Jaipur is a history buffs dream. The CD also highlights the detailed artwork that went into building such elaborate palaces. That alone is worth seeing this video. Also of interest was the influence of astronomy and the building of huge time instruments and seeing the local craftmen at work.

No comments about Not Just A Good Food Guide: New Delhi (Not Just a Good Food Guide).

No comments about Cultureshock! India.

1 comments about Post Cards from India (Postcards from).

1. I bought this book for my eight year old brother. I will be leaving for India soon and I feel it will help him comprhend where I am and what it means to be in India. The reading was mostly easy for him and the pictures provided him with a good understanding of what it would be like. I do beleive the reading was a little too easy.

2 comments about Sacred Waters: A Pilgrimage up the Ganges River to the Source of Hindu Culture.

1. Stephen Alter's marvelous book is reminiscent of fine nineteenth century travel writing in which the writer, in lucid, and sometimes poetic, style brings the reader with him to see and experience things most people never would otherwise. His credentials are impeccable: the son of missionaries who was raised in northern India, fluent in Hindi and conversant in other Indian languages and possessed of an encyclopedic knowledge of the flora and fauna of the region. A non believer, he traces the steps of an ancient pilgrimage, feeling the spiritual attraction of the place while wryly commenting on the religious hypocrisy he encounters along the way. For all of its gifts it is the writing that commends this fine book. For the author's wise and seasoned view of the world and understatement of the rigors of his journey I would compare it to Bruce Chatwin's, In Patagonia.



2. Surprisingly, there exist very few good books on the rich myths, and natural history of the hill districts of Garhwal and Kumaon. Till date probably the best known figure from the region is Jim Corbett of the "Man Eaters of Kumaon" fame.

   Stephen Alter's latest book titled, "Sacred Waters," is a beautifully written narrative of his journey to the sources of River Ganga (or Ganges) in the Garhwal Himalayas. For the Hindus, the Ganga is a sacred river.

   Alter's book is a welcome addition to the few goods books that exist about this region. The book is a wonderful introduction to understanding the history of the region, and the central place the River Ganga occupies for many Indians.

   The book is an interesting mix of natural history, myths and Alter's own personal experience of River Ganga, whose source is hidden in the beautiful and rugged mountains of Garhwal, often called as "Dev Bhoomi," - the land of the gods. Alter paints a fascinating picture of the changing moods and nature of the river as it bursts from the mountains and courses down to the dusty Gangetic plains, and into the ocean.

   Alter is a second generation Pahari-American, who was born and brought up in the hills of Uttaranchal. Pahari means someone from the mountain in Hindi.

1 comments about Lonely Planet South India (South India, 1st ed).

1. This guide is very comprehensive. I have travelled exstensively throughout Southern India and have found that this book is imperative to a well informed and succesful travel experience. The information is unfailing in its accuracy. The book seems to be written more with the budget traveller in mind, but certainly provides a wealth of information for the traveller looking to be a little more spendthrift. Also important to take notice of, is the honest and unbiased perspective conveyed throughout the guide; if something is to be avoided, you will know it. Well organized and profusely detailed. An interesting read just for pleasure as well.

2 comments about The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600.

1. This book is deserving than more than just 5 stars.

   As a historian myself, the biggest problem in expressing yourself is making "old" topics informative and interesting to modern generations. Antony Wild has succeeded beyond any scale of recognition in his book The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600.

   This book, which details the English East India Company's history will appeal to anyone with an interest in British, Indian, Asian, American, military, nautical, or commerical history-- it is that wide-ranging. This book is also a must-read for anyone interested or concerned over the so-called modern phenomenon of "globalization." After reading Wild's account, one can see that globalization has been around for nearly four hundred years, if not longer.

   The English East India Company, acting under a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I, sought entry into the Spice Trade in Asia. Soon, however, it found itself involved with Indian piece trade and trade from the Middle East and Arabia. Its trade interests in India eventually led to de facto conquest and colonization on that subcontinent-- all with the tacit support of the crown. The company reached into China and even North America-- it was East India Company tea that got dumped into Boston Harbor during the Tea Party.

   The company exported and imported goods, laid the foundations for three important Indian cities, fought land wars and naval battles with other European merchant powers or local natives, and brought a host of new products and new words into the consciousness of the English-speaking world.

   India proved to be the company's lasting legacy, and not always a positive one. However Wild provides a well-balanced account that does not paint the company as either completely ethical traders or imperialistic devils. No matter one's opinion, India proved to the company's (and Britain's) largest asset and also the cause for the company's eventual dissolution.

   The book is well-illustrated and is an easy but very informative read. I would rank this amongst the top 10 books I have read in the last 5 years.




2. This lavishly illustrated volume gives an excellent view of the East India Company - the experiences of the British in India, the spices and goods of interest to the West, and the history of the company over the centuries.

No comments about The Spartan Tradition in European Thought (Clarendon Paperbacks).

5 comments about The Tiger Ladies: A Memoir of Kashmir.

1. In Sudha Koul's beautifully written memoir of her youth and young adulthood in Kashmir, she brings the reader a vivid sense of her wonderful years spent there, and the bittersweet memories she revisits upon her return to a war-torn nation. Not having known much about the regional conflict, this book helped me understand who the people of the Kashmiri valley are today, and who they were before conflict came to rule their daily lives.

   Ms. Koul's many stories of her grandmother, Danna, are a touching tribute to her grandmother's memory. Danna had her own particular ways of running her household. Many of these traditions have been passed down from mother to daughter through several generations. It is this sense of continuity from which the author draws her resolve and ambition to be both a respectful Brahmin daughter, and a successful 20th-century woman with a career outside the marital home.

   There are many great stories to be enjoyed in this gem of a memoir. It is one of the best of its kind, and one of my favorite books this year.

   I look forward to enjoying her other works.




2. A lovely and bittersweet memoir of Koul's life in paradise, the Kashmir region of India. It's a tale of a lost way of life in a region that has been sundered by strife, conflict, and ultimately war between India and Pakistan, Hindus and Muslims.
   Of especial interest is the reverence in which women of the region were held - in a country in which women are often no more than chattel. The Tiger Ladies is a book rich in sensual detail, a book people can enjoy on many levels: as travel literature, as a cultural study, for the descriptions of the food - and most of all as a loving and haunting memoir of a time and place that no longer exist.



3. A beautifully written book of the Kashmir valley before the invasion of the Mujahadin and other Muslim terrorist actions from outside the peaceful valley of peaceful coexistence amongst the Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims. Ms. Koul, a former Indian majistrate with a Masters in Political Science from India writes a book for her children to learn of the beautiful life in Kashmir where young soon to be bethrothed women view Pashmina wool embroidered shawl samples dating back 100 years. The samples are easily viewed and ordered from the Kashmiri Muslim merchant who then continues the Pashmina relationship with the daughter or granddaughter's trousseau.
   Ms. Koul effectly evokes a resplendant memoir without the heavy hand of serious political analysis which tends to be dry and flacid. A life too beautiful, too luscious, too happy, too comfortable to notice the cloak of darkness that would envelope paradise.
   After attending her reading and purchasing Tiger Ladies, I am excited to add it to my collection of important soul books: The Red Tent, Woman Warrier, Autobiography of a Yogi and Facing Two Ways. Kashmir may be a memory of what once existed in a valley of Lotus eaters yet Ms. Koul's book concludes with a simile in the complacency of life in the US where life too is too comfortable, too beautiful, and perhaps too happy for Americans. (Incidentally written before 9.11.2001.) Which perhaps helps us to realize that there is yet another cloak of darkness enveloping us called American corporate imperialism ...product invasion via Hollywood, gasoline consumption, mass consumerism of junk products, junk food, junk tv, junk religion, junk politicians and the reaction against it by the Mujahadins of the Muslim world. Now in paperback form, this book is a respite from the propaganda on evening news in America.



4. A good read for second generation Kashmiri Americans. The details were of interest, since of course its a world that Kashmiri-Americans of second generation will not get a chance to see. It's the kind of book I'd like to read with a Kashmiri close at hand to find out if the details are authentic (and not catered to the audience), and the experience universal. A unique find, though, since it's unclear how many books can tackle life in Himalayan valleys from the inside. Validates that Kashmiri pandits deserve and need to contribute to their own body of literature, write their own histories rather than relinquish that right to historians.



5. Most of this book is thoroughly engrossing. It is a memory, pure and simple. No attempt to analyze or rationalize, just a statement of life as it was, full of detail, painting the picture of an idyllic life with no fear of the future, not questioning any facet of existence, as a child views the world. As an insight into life in Kashmir at a certain period of time, it was a lovely portal, and certainly lends poignancy to all that appears in the news as to the wars that rage in the region.The beauty and richness of her culture and the family warmth that were hers shine through every page.
   
   If the book had ended with her life in Kashmir, it would have been a beautiful book, but it continues on to detail a stereotypical immigrant existence in America. The author appears as a particularly impotent mother and representative of her culture. And in one very ironic paragraph, she refers to cultures that have been wiped out (native Americans) so that she might now occupy their place, but declares this a natural cycle, while at the same time lamenting the loss of her culture as an irretrievable tragedy. The childishness lingering into adulthood is not as appealing a read.
   
   Overall, though, the loss of momentum at the end does not change the fact that it is a wonderfully vivid and captivating memoir and probably is a testimony to a lost way of life.

No comments about Berlitz Delhi Pocket Guide (Berlitz Pocket Guide).