Contributor Lorna Harris continues her series of adventure book reviews with Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure.
I love to travel, there are lots of countries that are on my list that I’d like to visit, but for some reason India has never been one of them. I’m not sure why, it’s just never appealed to me a great deal. When Michaelle sent me a list of possible books for review, Holy Cow and a few other Indian themed books caught my eye.
In the spirit of being adventurous, I decided to pick something I didn’t know about and wasn’t sure I was particularly interested in. Holy Cow is a really well written book with terrifyingly graphic descriptions of Indian life. Within just a few chapters, I’d added India to my wish list of future travel destinations.
Sarah Macdonald, who traveled around India as a student, hated it and vowed never to return, wrote the book. Of course, life takes us on different paths than we’ve planned and Sarah ends up returning to India having fallen in love with a journalist based in New Delhi.
The descriptions of life in New Delhi, the chaos of driving, the smog and fumes and just the vast amount of people are so very different from my way of life. "The pollution is starting to get to me-it’s slowly but surely leaching moisture from my face, blackening my skin, leaving an acidic taste in my mouth and starving my brain of oxygen." I’m so English. I like to queue, want my space around me, and drive only by overtaking on the right hand side. I think I’d struggle with the cultural differences but would relish the challenge of being thrown into the chaos of India and wondering if I’d survive. How long it would take me to crack and be ready to return home.
The sheer quantity of people living there seems overwhelming. Even on a trip to the country, Sarah and her boyfriend can’t escape: "Deep within the faded foliage we’re still not alone….We escape by climbing a mountain. Right on the lip, an ancient lady with a weathered leathery face decorated with tiny tattoos emerges from nowhere and blocks our way."
Sarah lives in New Delhi not as a tourist but as part of the community and truly gets to know the country and the people around her. It’s fascinating reading about the lives of the Indian people Sarah comes in contact with.
Originally from Australia, Sarah grew up in a country with vast areas of emptiness. India wins her over and she leaves feeling she belongs to two countries, "the quiet empty lands of my birth and the cataclysmic crowded land of my re-birth."
It’s a wonderful read and I hope I’ll be re-reading it when I start planning my trip to India.
Lorna is editor of Boudica.com and has her own blog, Calif Lorna
No comments:
Post a Comment