This introduction to the sacred practices of India is especially enjoyable because it is all contained in a travel narrative so instead of lots of abstract thoughts you get the basic premises plus one or more of Housden's real life encounters with a practicing guru or sadhu. The anecdotes keep things at an earthly level and Housden knows just how much information is the right amount. I've always had an interest in Indian ways of thinking but never found the right kind of introduction to suit my level of interest until reading this book which was perfect for my mind which just wanted an introduction that could also serve as a reference book when needed. Very satisfying to have read this and its proven very useful to have around especially when reading a travel book or piece of fiction that assumes you know who all the Gods and Goddesses are and all their various incarnations( the Gods/Goddesses all go by many names) or what a Sikh or a Jain or a Sufi is. Housden is reverential in attitude toward Indias many sacred traditions but always plainspoken. I found much here that greatly appealed to my thinking which is philosophic and earthy and unconventional so the popular and older and earthier traditions appealed to my naturally earthy leanings and some of the later reformation movements(non-sectarian, non-caste, equal rights to women) appealed for their practical applications. India makes a lot more sense after reading this book. A good place to begin any Indian journey, sacred or secular.
Plus for those planning a visit to India there is an extensive "Gazetteer" in the back with lists of sacred places, routes, festivals, ashrams.

This is a great book for anyone who is interested in understanding the Indian culture in a profound way because the basis of Indian culture is really a spiritual one. The Indian spirituality may not always be obvious to the casual observer, espcially in the more westernized areas; and one does meet with all sorts of false sadhus, etc, but still it's there and it is what is truly great about India. To enjoy India one really has to go beyond the superficial level. This book is a really enjoyable read. It's beautifully written and highly interesting all the way through. It is certain to delight anyone who is not stuck on the surface of life and I am sure many people who are will be inspired to look a bit deeper. It's really one of my favorite books.

firdaus kanga is a very dear friend who lives in my neighbourhood. his book is a reflection of his jovial self.

he is the wittiest guy i've ever met, and also, by the way, the most intelligent! this book is a must read.

Trying to grow is the story of a young man named Daryus Kotwal, who grew up in more ways than one, and did not allow his disabilitating disease to overcome him. Set in an endearing idiosyncratic Parsi family the story recreates his struggle with life. The vitality of the story comes from startlingly vivid characterizations. There is also this extraordinary fluency in the description of relationships and heartbreaks.

Autobiographical in nature, Trying to Grow brings a whole new and refreshing perspective to the world of human disability, eliminating any kind of "mush". There is a lot of honesty and energy in the way the story has been told. There is a vein of humor through out giving it a surprisingly upbeat tone. It is an exhilirating book which celebrates life more than anything else.

Gentle tales of/from Buddha. Mostly tales of animal kindness and you have no idea it is Buddha. Anyone could read them to children with no problems - OK, as long as their parents allow them to hear stories about talking, caring, feeling animals. The morals are more for you to determine; you are not hit over the head with them.

Princess Noor Inayat Khan was a World War II heroine. A "spy" who could not tell a lie. As a SOE radio operator in occupied France, she gave her life in the fight for the liberation of her adopted homeland. As the daughter of a Sufi teacher, these tales reflect her view of life and from which one can see the foundation for the philosophies that shaped her life and martyred death. The stories are retold so to be easily read and/or understood by children, but the lessons they teach are for adults as well. The lessons taught are universal in application.

A lot has been said and written about Mr Satyajit Ray's books being influenced by the Sherlock Holmes series. But personally I think and feel that the Feluda series is in no way influenced by Sherlock holmes rather the readers of the feluda series will agree that in certain stories like THE ROYAL BENGAL MYSTERY , THE LOCKED CHEST & THE HOUSE OF DEATH have a certain captivating power abot themselves , which is above par from certain Sherlock Holmes stories .Sherlock Holmes has an aura about it self which keeps a reader glued to the book , this quality is also found abundantly in the entire Feluda series. There is an Indianess about the book, due to which each and every Indian will feel all the more involved wiht the book and finally , this book is not only for young and teenaged readers ,it is a book which can grab and captivate anyone and everyone between the age group of 9 to 90.Each and every story in this series was a classic .So much is the magic about the book that one wishes that Satyajit Ray had written not less than a thousand stories on his immortal character Feluda. Grab the series now and get reading.

Barring a few stories,most of the stories are very interesting and humorous and i enjoyed reading them.

I read this first as an excerpt in New Yorker Magazine. The comfortably upper-middle class family of Ved Mehta was faced with a dilemna; how to educate a blind child in India, where there were really no provisions for a handicapped child. Ved's father made the difficult but brave decision to send him to a blind school, where he'd be surrounded by other children from vastly different backgrounds and religions, a difficult situation in India.

The exciting thing about the book is Mehta's ability to describe, with incredible detail, the feeling, sounds, flavors and smells of his daily life, while portraying his growth and increasing self-reliance. A really touching memoir and one worth reading.

A rare book. Powerfull description of a very unusual childood in era of the past from the innocent and fantastic eyes of a child. A window to a different reality, so far and distant from todays society.

The authors/protagonist childood is touchy and painful, but the innocence of the child shines through and was a great lesson for me. A book that will enrich any reader and nourish the mind and soul.

Outstanding and tantalizing cookbook, with really interesting flavors for once that seem both complex and authentic. The best feature is the great quality and reproducibility of the recipes, but I think very close behind it is the marvelous art direction. Photos are both helpful and atmospheric, and very beautiful. Enough to tempt anyone. How can this lovely little book be out of print?

Excellent book on the delicate cooking of India. We used it to plan recipes from our wedding. The chef used the recipes to make extraordinary dishes that had our guests tantalized. We have since used numerous recipes in our everyday cooking. Believe it or not, we are not originally from India.

Violent Civilities is at once a practical and theoretical demonstration of how nationalism and colonialism are inextricably intertwined, not only in their epistemological premises and ideological conceptualisations, but also in their policies and through their founding institutions.
Drawing from an array of the most significant anglophone postcolonial critics such as Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Stuart Hall and Ashis Nandy, Prem Poddar uses the Indian nation-state as a case-study in order to present a convincing account of how language and literature, within the institutions of public education and academia, have come to be represented as symptoms of certain national characters or characteristics, first by the colonial authorities, then later by Indian nationalist independence fighters and finally by literary critics from various backgrounds and nationalities. Poddar's analysis constitutes an urgent plead to take the historical grounding of the discipline of literature into consideration in the debate of its function and objectives as an academic discipline, and in doing so, he gives equal intention to the discursive as well as the institutional and political conditions of possibility, seeing them as a whole in which the subject of enunciation must be excavated and contextualised. Prem Poddar's book is highly recommendable not only because of its very competent engagement with postcolonial theory applied on archival research but also because of its bold and direct address of some of the basic epistemological, institutional presumptions which structure academic conceptualisation and evaluation of literature. Far from staying in the common binary between 'relativism' and 'universalism', Poddar's analysis demasks these concepts as parts of the same political take on culture and territory, a point which makes his work highly relevant beyond anglophone research areas. His refreshing courage to insist on and his ability to demonstrate how theory is practice, how discourse is event comes across as unusually forceful as it is adeptly concretised both in the historical and political context of post/colonialism and as it contributes in an innovative way to the ongoing debates about the formation and objectives of literary criticism.

Violent Civilities is at once a practical and theoretical demonstration of how nationalism and colonialism are inextricably intertwined, not only in their epistemological premises and ideological conceptualisations, but also in their policies and creating of institutions to uphold them.
Drawing from an array of the most significant anglophone postcolonial critics such as Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Stuart Hall and Ashis Nandy, Prem Poddar uses the Indian nation-state as a case-study in order to present a convincing account of how language and literature, within the institutions of public education and academia, have come to be represented as symptoms of certain national characters or characteristics, first by the colonial authorities, then later by Indian nationalist independence fighters and finally by literary critics from various backgrounds and nationalities. Poddar's analysis constitutes an urgent plea to take the historical grounding of the discipline of literature into consideration in the debate of its function and objectives as an academic discipline.In doing so, he gives equal attention to the discursive as well as the institutional and political conditions of possibility, seeing them as a whole in which the subject of enunciation must be excavated and contextualised
His unravelling of how British nationalist discourse has depended on and used literature as a means to promote its status by the creation of specific institutions is relentless in its questioning of the concept of 'universalism' of the Enlightenment. What is revealed in the postcolonial context is its incapacity to deal with incommensurable cultural formations whose translations and interactions cannot be fathomed in the notions of 'value' and 'development', 'progress' without these losing their imagined referents. At the same time, the independence of India has a certain limit in the sense that it has adopted the same power structures and epistemological grounding as the British empire, the same illusion about comprising difference under the label of diversity, glossing over or denying or suppressing any radical deviant behaviour. The book is rich on examples from the Indian archive of official reports and Poddar uses his analysis to criticise Indian nationalist politicians of independence for not having seized the opportunity to redefine and re-think the premises for a cultural and social collectivity.
This analysis also gives proof of how the thoughts of Frantz Fanon are used constructively in anglophone postcolonial theory as Poddar draws on his descriptions of how the colonised population can or will react by mimicry, direct opposition or by searching the desires and urges of the 'common people' in their struggle to evade the colonial jug. Poddar presents several examples of these 'phases' from the Indian-British implementing of nationalism on Indian territory, but does not submit this particular 'development' to the critique of the progressive temporality of development which is questioned through Bhabha's notion of 'time-lag' between the modern colonial centres and the traditional peripheral territories. This does not in any way make Poddar's argumentation less convincing but leaves Fanon appear as more limited by a determinist approach than what may be the case.
Prem Poddar's book is highly recommendable not only because of its very competent engagement with postcolonial theory applied on archival research but also because of its bold and direct address of some of the basic epistemological, institutional presumptions which structure academic conceptualisation and evaluation of literature. Far from staying in the common binary between 'relativism' and 'universalism', Poddar's analysis demasks these concepts as parts of the same political take on culture and territory, a point which makes his work highly relevant beyond anglophone research areas. His refreshing courage to insist on and his ability to demonstrate how theory is practice, how discourse is event comes across as unusually forceful as it is adeptly concretised both in the historical and political context of post/colonialism and as it contributes in an innovative way to the ongoing debates about the formation and objectives of literary criticism.

Jac Weller's Wellington in India is a truly excellent book. It is very readable and flows extremely well. It is one of the few books of its kind that I've read literally cover-to-cover - forward, preface, body, and appendixes - everything. The detail of the book is also exceptional. He tells the reader why and how Wellington achieved his successes not just when.

When Wellington's name is mentioned, people tend to think first of Waterloo, then of the Peninsulars Wars. It is easy to forget that he got his start in India, and that is the period which Jac Weller covers so well in this book. This was a completely different kind of warfare than that fought in Europe, and Wellington (or Wellesley, as he was then) had to contend not only with far superior forces, but also with the climate, which caused Europeans to die like flies. Two things above all should be remembered: first, that when Wellington was asked what his greatest victory was, he said not Waterloo, but Assaye; and second, Weller's three books about Wellington's campaigns were named by Bernard Cornwell as the best source material for his Sharpe series.

This book covers history of Indian subcontinent through the ages that Europeans but specifically the British took interest in East India and increased their influence gradually from protecting mercantile interests, to finally usurping power from the regional monarchs through a combination of treaties, alliances, diplomacies and battles. This book is a compelling and easy reading that engages the reader with its stunning pictures of contemporary paintings of relevance to the subject. Semingly disconnected events are woven together logically and connected to each other which finally reads like a well written novel. The treatment is mostly unbiased though the sentiments and feeings of subjects such as sati, religious conversions, castes, merits and demerits of hinduism, islam and christianity could have been elaborated upon a bit more to provide rationale behind these hotly debated subjects. The attititudes of noted Indo-philes was described in adequate detail and infectious interest, which correctly evokes an awe for an amazing civilization that comes to end and the birth of a newer one reflecting contemporary attitudes and outlooks.

The level of detail is appropriate for those readers above 15 years and above.

This book is part of a great series on history, encapsulating certain time periods in specific volumes with great text and wonderful illustrations. This particular volume lives up to its billing of Jewel in the Crown.

Ms. Lamb has produced a sensitive look into aging in a particular society, but in the process has touched on people of all ages. In observing the people of India I am able to compare to our value system and to touch values of real significance in living. Ms Lamb writes as an anthropologist and pictures real people dealing with adversity and demonstrating positive outlooks. I found the book uplifting and I look forward to more from Ms. Lamb.

This book not only provides a fascinating, rich account of the ways people in West Bengal, India experience aging, but it really makes one think in new ways about the kinds of assumptions permeating aging and dying, family and gender, in our own society (North America). The author, an anthropologist, has spent several years in India. The stories she tells of her own experiences there are some of the most engaging in the book. Particular individuals come alive as well, such as Khudi Thakrun, the oldest woman in the village (at 97 years), who doesn't yet want to relinquish life and the wonderful attachments and pleasures derived from eating sweet mangoes, wandering the village to spread news, and loaning out money to increase her wealth. The book centers on village life but includes as well interesting accounts of old age homes in Calcutta and Indian popular cultural representations of old age. It complements well Lawrence Cohen's NO AGING IN INDIA. This book focuses more on experience, everyday life, and gender.