Author: William Dalrymple
Publishers: Penguin Books
Pages: 339
The most important thing that I felt after reading City of Djinns is that Delhi has so many worthwhile places to see, and I should some day be seeing them all. I was speaking to a friend and she expressed the same thing, and said it might takes months to see all those places just within Delhi. And another friend had a head start. He told me over the phone – ‘I have been going to Nizamuddin theses days, visiting those places in City of Djinns’.
That is the charm of the Dalrymple’s excellently written book. Sometimes it takes you right there where he is and in other times you will wish you were there. Dalrymple spends a year in Delhi researching its history and works it backwards from the days just after independence, continuing to the British era and then to Mughals. History doesn’t reveal about the days much before that and he gives up. He has done great research on the topic and the length of bibliography is a good proof of it. And in the process of his research he unearths many monuments still existing but unknown to most of us – like the Nizamuddin Darga, Tughlakh’s fort, Safdarjung’s tomb, Havelis of old Delhi to name a few. He mixes history remarkably well with current day Delhi while he describes his own experiences of living in Delhi as he does his research for the book. It succeeds in making its reader fall in love with the city and at the same time remain cautious about it. An excellent book, needless to say.
Author: Paul Brunton
Publishers: Rider Books
Pages: 188
This book is in continuation with earlier book from Paul Brunton – ‘A Search in Secret India’, where Brunton travels around the country looking for a spiritual master. Having found one and learned from him, he sets off to isolation, now to practice.
‘A Hermit in the Himalayas’ describes Brunton’s days living in a secluded place in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, away from rest of the world trying to meditate and learn to calm the mind. The book is mostly written like journal of his days of living in the mountains besides his reflection and attempts to meditate. He is not completely isolated from the world though, but has a servant to help him in his everyday activities, receives his letters regularly and responds to them and has some uninvited visitors, in all of which he finds things to write about, besides focusing on keeping his mind calm.
It would be difficult for the reader to perceive how one could write much sitting in a place isolated, but as one starts reading, it is evident that Brunton has enough to catch the attention. Read this as a continuation to ‘A Search in Secret India’
Author: Paul Brunton
Publishers: Rider Books
Pages: 312
Brunton’s book is a narration of his journeys across India with an important quest. He started from London to Bombay in spiritual quest, looking for a Guru. And he did this much before the Beetles came to Rishikesh or the flower children travelled to the east in big numbers looking for something they did not know what; the book is set in the pre-independence period.
‘A Search in Secret India’ takes the reader through the time he arrives in Bombay, travels south to plains of Deccan and again up north towards Benaras. On his way he meets many holy men, some genuine and some obviously fake. He also sees people who can perform actions that can’t be explained by physics, like turning a seed into a plant in a minute and people who are not affected by poison. Of the former he discovers to be a mere magical trick while the later remains unexplained, attributed to Yogic power. He goes on to explain much more about the wise men whom he meets who are no mere showmen but are uplifted souls at a higher spiritual plane, and sometimes he ponders on accepting them for his Guru. His long journeys lead him through many fascinating experiences but he finally finds his destination in a place where he began his search – in the abode of Ramana Maharshi in Thiruvannamalai.
Brunton’s descriptions are as fascinating as the people he meets and his narration holds the reader to go on. The book is mixed with his awe for the spiritual gurus but also portrays his English arrogance of the colonial period. It is a completely different travel book showing its reader of an India that is hardly known or written about.