India Books

If you plan on preparing a dish or an entire 3 course meal, write down all the ingredients and make sure you have all of them before preceding. You will most likely need to go to a specialty store to get some of the spices or other ingredients for your spice rack. One of the reasons Indian food is so incredibly unique in flavor is due to the use of non-Western spices and combinations of ingredients that are truly foreign (pardon the pun) to most westerners.

My less than perfect rating is due to the fact there are several crucial recipies that are absent. No instruction on how to make mint or tamarind chutney - the mainstays of any and every table at an Indian restaurant. Also no information on papads (lentil wafers) or my favorite dish, Aloo Bengan (a potato and eggplant dish).

Despite these missing items, there will be no boring meals when you follow the recipies in this book. I have prepared Indian dishes in lieu of traditional turkey and ham during Thanksgiving and Christmas for my family and have received nothing but praise and awe. I am not domestic and don't care for cooking, but when I am preparing a lot of dishes, I want to reap a lot of benefit for my efforts and this book doesn't let you down.

Robert Mantovani does a superb job on the magnificent photographs, all in color, beautifully sharp and clear. The vistas and detail take your breath away. A special commendation goes to Patricia Lovicetti, the Graphic Designer. At [item price], it is a bargain at twice the price. It is a BIG book (10" x 14"), so it will need a place of honor on the coffee table.

Most of the text is from Kurt Diemberger's previously published "Endless Knot" (though this fact is not mentioned in the book). However, the pictures are well captioned and informative. Mr. Diemberger is a legend, the only man living with two first ascents of 8,000-meter mountains to his credit. He is also is among the elite few who have successfully ascended and descended K2, though at terrible personal cost. (See "Endless Knot")

This book would be a terrific gift to a climbing enthusiast or just as a wonderful indulgence to yourself!

This is absolutely the finest version of the Kama Sutra available. With 224 pages and a huge page size--14-1/2" by 10-1/2", over an inch thick, printed on high quality glossy paper, and absolutely full of full color photos of erotic Indian art, including statuary and several twice-size foldouts, it would be a bargain at twice the offered price here on Amazon.

For years the Kama Sutra has been the object of admiration because of its explicit sexual content, as well as its Tantric religious application for those interested in the practices of Eastern religions. Of course many in the West have sought it out as a source of ancient pornography, but the artwork represented in this book is not as anatomically correct as that which can be found in Playboy or Hustler, and therefore is less useful for voyeuristic titillation. However, for the student of Eastern religions, especially the Tantric tradition, it will be found to be unsurpassed.

The Hindi text, both in their calligraphy and the alphabet, and fully translated into English, is beautifully done. The absolutely gorgeous large sized full-color reproductions of ancient Indian art is exquisite.

Highly recommended!

Joseph Pierre

author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
and other books

As a traveler and lover of all things "India", I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time to give as a gift to my husband. This is the real heart of the matter...no need to actually read the Kama Sutra when what you really want is all right here. Even without the erotic theme, this book presents some of the most wonderful art of India I have ever seen in one breathtaking book. This book is an absolute "must" for any follower of Indian art, or just anyone who appreciates the delicious and delicate sex-play and sensualities of Indian art and history. Very inspiring :), very beautiful, exotic, erotic and just plain fabulous! What more could you want? I am thrilled with this purchase..... on all levels! A+++++

Before traveling to Bangladesh, do take the time to read the Dos & Don'ts article in the Facts about the Country chapter. People in Bangladesh are generally friendly and polite, but they tend to be more friendly if you follow their rules for politeness. Men should give local women some distance, and even women should let other women approach them first. People who wear shorts in Bangladesh are risking at least their reputations, if not more. Going about in shorts in public would be akin to wearing a bikini bathing suit on Wall Street- -sure to gain a lot of unwanted attention. Western women will find themselves much more comfortable in local clothing, salwar kamis or saris as absolutely no woman wears Western clothing in Bangladesh. Women packing for a trip in Bangladesh might be better off packing no clothing at all, and just shopping for local clothing upon arrival because what they find in the local markets will be appropriate for both the climate and the culture. (That will also leave more room in your suitcase for gifts on the way in and souvenirs on the way out.)

Many educated people in Bangladesh speak English quite well. But the average person on the street doesn't, so take the time to study the useful expressions from Facts about the Country chapter when you get a chance. While you're at the airport waiting for departure, look around- -surely there's someone there who can help you with your pronunciation.

As for any travel in the developing world, make sure your immunizations are up to date before you go to Bangladesh. Hepatitis A vaccinations are highly recommended and get your travel doctor to write you a prescription for a full run of Cipro (strong antibiotic) to carry with you, and take plenty of rehydration packets. If you get seriously ill while in Bangladesh, it's better to try to get to Dr. Wahab's office (listed in the Dhaka section of this book), rather than the Cholera Hospital, as recommended elsewhere in the book.

As the book mentions, there's a lot to see in Dhaka. There's even more to see outside of Dhaka, where the air is better and the people are friendlier. A great way to get out of town is to book a tour with Prajatan or The Guide (info in the Dhaka chapter). We had a spectacular all-inclusive boat cruise through the Sunderbans with The Guide (Prajatan's boat had recently sunk). Don't miss shopping in the NGO handicraft stores, particularly Aarong (info in the Dhaka chapter).

As with any guidebook, the info for specific hotels and eateries tends to change between the time the authors visited and publication, but the historic sites and regional highlights will always be there. Read this book over several times before you go, and you will be ready as ever to start your adventure.

Arun Shourie is India's leading writer on politics and history. He has been an economist with the World Bank, a consultant in the planning commision and the editor of Indian Express. Among the many honors and awards for his writings, noted for rigorous analysis and meticulous research, he has received the International Editor of the Year Award, the Dadabhai Naoroji Award, the Magsaysay Award, and the Astor Award.

In Missionaries in India: Continuities, Changes, Dilemmas, Arun Shourie focuses on the intentional misinterpretations of Hinduism by Christian missionaries. The book is based on an invited lecture, he gave at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India in January 1994. The bishops got quite an earful! Nonetheless, to their great credit, Shourie notes, "the bishops, the senior clergy, and scholars gathered at Pune heard him politely with unwavering attention." He adds, "Had I urged the themes of this lecture to our 'secularists', they would have denounced them as 'communal', 'chauvinist-fascist' and, having labeled them, they would have exempted themselves from considering what was being said."

Shourie quotes from a recent issue of the Texas-based magazine Gospel for Asia: "The Indian sub-continent with one billion people, is a living example of what happens when Satan rules the entire culture... India is one vast purgatory in which millions of people .... are literally living a cosmic lie! Could Satan have devised a more perfect system for causing misery?"

Swami Vivekananda during his historic visit to the U.S., a hundred years earlier, wrote: "Part of the Sunday School education for children here consists in teaching them to hate everybody who is not a Christian, and the Hindus especially, so that, from their very childhood they may subscribe their pennies to the missions .... What is meant by those pictures in the school-books for children where the Hindu mother is painted as throwing her children to the crocodiles in the Ganga? The mother is black, but the baby is painted white, to arouse more sympathy and get more money. What is meant by those pictures which paint a man burning hisown wife at a stake with his own hands, so that she may become a ghost and torment the husband's enemy? .... If all India stands up, and takes all the mud that is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and throws it up against the Western countries, it will not be doing an infinitesmal part of that which you are doing to us."

Is this fair to the missionaries? one asks. What about the numerous schools, colleges, and hospitals the missionaries established in India? Did they have a hidden agenda? Yes, says Shourie quoting from Gandhiji's Collected Works. In Gandhiji's discussions with missionaries, they acknowledged that "the institutions and services are indeed incidental, that the aim is to gather a fuller harvest of converts for the Church."

Many of the missionaries who came to see Gandhiji had in his words "designs to convert" him to Christianity. "But what is your attitude to Jesus? the missionaries would always come around to asking Gandhiji. He was a great world teacher among others, Gandhiji would say But that he was the greatest, I cannot accept. He had not the compassion for instance of the Buddha, Gandhiji would recount.... The reverend gentlemen would retire with the imprecation, 'Mr. Gandhi... soon there will come a day when you will be judged, not in your righteousness, but in the righteousness of Jesus."'

In the central section of the book, "The Division of Labour"-- among the British administrators, missionaries, and European Indologists-- Shouire cites extensively from historical documents to establish that these three groups colluded in essential agreement that "India is a den of ignorance, inequity and falsehood; the principal cause of this state of affairs is Hinduism; Hinduism is kept going by the Brahmins; as the people are in such suffering, and also because Jesus in his parting words has bound us to do so, it is a duty to deliver them to Christianity; for this, it is Hinduism which has to be vanquished."

Macaulay's notorious minute instituting English as the medium of instruction in India, says Shourie, "was laced with utter contempt for India, in particular for Hinduism, for our languages and literature: of course, Macaulay did n6t know any of those languages... his ideas about Hinduism had been formed from the calumny of missionaries .... But the breezy, sweeping damnation-- even a century and a half later, the imperialist swagger takes one's breath away."

Shourie quotes, at considerable length, from the writings of two high-ranking nineteenth century British administrators, Richard Temple and Charles Treveylan. Richard Temple: "...the missions in India are doing a work which strengthens the imperial foundations of British power.. the results are fully commensurate with the expenditure." Trevelyan: "A generation is growing up which repudiates idols. A young Hindu, who had received a liberal English education, was forced by his family to attend the shrine of Kali, upon which he took off his cap to'Madam Kali,'made her a low bow, and hoped her ladyship was well."

Most of the European Indologists were far from being the objective scholars they pretended to be. The two most prominent Indologists were Max Muller and Monier-Williams, both committed to uprooting and destroying Hinduism.

Here's what Max Muller, the best-known European Indologist, wrote in a letter to his wife. "...I still have a lot of work to do... my translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of that religion and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3,000 years."

Monier-Williams, the second holder of the Boden chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University and whose Sanskrit-English dictionary is still used, wrote in its preface that "the Boden chair of Sanskrit was set up by Colonel Boden to promote the translation of Christian Scriptures into Sanskrit, so as to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian religion." He told the Missionary Congress held at Oxford on 2 May 1877, "The chief obstacle to the spread of Christianity in India is that these people are proud of their tradition and religion." His dictionary, he hoped, would enable the translation of the Bible into Sanskrit and "when the walls, of the mighty fortress of Brahminism are encircled, undermined, and finally stormed by the soldiers of the Cross, the victory of Christianity must be signal and complete."

Looking at the cauldron of calumnies cooked up Christian missionaries, the imperialists, and the so-called objective scholars, makes the outrage expressed by Swami Vivekananda and Gandhiji entirely understandable. Gandhiji wrote: "If I had the power and could legislate, I should stop all proselytising.... it is the deadliest poison that ever sapped the fountain of truth."

To present the point of view of the Church, Shourie has included a 50-page report distributed by the Catholic Bishops at the Conference. This report describes the four churches which make up the Church in India--the Syrian Christian communities in Kerala; the Padroado Church originating in Goa, the Tribal Churches in Central India and in the North East; and the Dalit Churches.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the intellectual history and cultural make-up of contemporary India.

Authors too close to the subject give unnecessary details that distract from the main points. Such is the case in "Mother Teresa, Her Life, Her Work Her Message". But that book, written by a Missionary of Charity Co-Worker, redeems itself with valuable anecdotes and useful explanations.

Authors too distant from the subject see Mother Teresa mainly in her administrative actions and miss the powerful personal charisma, the driving force. Kathryn Spink's complete authorized biography, "Mother Teresa", falls on that end of the scale. It includes a complete appendix listing the place and date of opening of every Missionary of Charity Foundation outside of India, plus Mother's unabridged acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. The exhaustive research makes Spink's work an essential resource for the serious investigator of Mother Teresa's work, but not necessarily the book to introduce you to Mother Teresa, the person.

The source that is just right is the author who has a native understanding of India, coupled with a professional knowledge of the many factors required to work with lepers. Add the objectivity of someone not Catholic, but with an inquiring mind and a university education and you have Navin Chawla. Chawla spent five years preparing this work, making sure he understood the inner person, and then delivering his insights. For example, from the Prologue "As a Hindu, it took me longer than most to understand that Mother Teresa is with Christ each concious hour, whether at Mass or with each of those to whom she tends. It is not a different Christ on her crucifix and a different one which lies dying at Kalighat....For Mother Teresa, to love one's ! neighbor is to love God....This is what is essential to her..."

Chawla's book is powerful because his understanding is powerful. He takes nothing for granted. He focuses on the heart of the matter before him: how to explain this unique individual. The complexity of roles that Mother Teresa mastered are all in Chawla's book. He presents the Teresa that stands up to angry mobs, cajoles resources out of ministers of state, bandages lepers, rules an order numbering thousands of young women, croons a song to an orphan, and much more. How does she do this and maintain integrity with her mission, fidelity to her doctrine and obedience to her religious advisors? What is different about this particular nun? These are some of the questions anyone hoping to write about Mother Teresa must answer. Chawla, the "just right" biographer, gives answers that are neither analytical and dry, nor sentimental and trivial. He carefully balances interviews, research, and his personal experiences with Mother Teresa. The result is a picture of Mother Teresa that is both informative and compelling.

A biography must make me smile, and feel along with the writer. It must make me involved enough in the subject to be there, or it's only a reference book.

Mother Teresa never took time to read anything written about her. I have a feeling that, if she had, Mother Teresa may have preferred this book, written by one from her adopted country. Written by one who, like herself, had an interest in helping lepers.

But that is just my personal guess. Read it and see if you think so too.

He narrates the story of this Catholic nun and Nobel Prize winner with great sensitivity and intuitiveness, never idealizing his subject nor belittling her magnificence. He manifests a clear grasp of the details of the government of the Church and the faith of Mother Teresa though as a Hindu these were foreign to him. He focuses very much on the work of the Mother in order to describe her personality and convictions thereby heeding to her repeated calls "write about the work". The distressing recollections of the children in the Shishu Bhawan, like those of Bapi and Dadda, the tales of woe heard from Balu, Jehangir and many others at the Leprosy Centre and the poignant glimpses of the dying men and women at Kalighat are indeed moving. Mr. Chawla writes with ease and elegance, required for the biography of a person of her stature, intending it for an international audience. This is the best biography of hers written by an Indian who knew her well personally.

Like any accurate biography of Mother Teresa, the book discusses her tremendous respect for non-Christian religions. One of her lifelong goals was to make people better at their religion-better Buddhists, better Muslims, better Jews, or better Christians. The author subtly portrays that as just one of the many ironies to Mother Teresa. With the possible exception of the Pope, nobody stood as a more widely know avatar of the Catholic Church; yet, millions of the people she aided were not Christians. An unflinching defender of Catholic dogma, she unquestionably reached out to those whose problems were the direct result of what she considered sinful behavior. From the many hospices she established to care for AIDS victims to the Missionaries of Charity's loving worldwide support for unwed mothers, Mother Teresa's devotion knew no bounds.

With its publication about five years before her death, Navin has produced a felicitous tribute to a woman whose eleemosynary life will serve as an inspiring example for the remainder of humanity's existence.