A Traveller's History of India

With my trip to India coming up in only one week, I have filled a shelf with books about and from India, and spend hours every day reading. Today I finished A Traveller's History of India by Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda. A book written with deep insight in the subcontinent's history, still easy enough for an outsider to understand and to learn. I can travel better prepared now.

India in Mind

Finished India in Mind, edited and with an introduction by Pankaj Mishra

Eat, Pray, Love

Several friends have mentioned this book for a long time, telling me that this is a book I would love. Somehow their words didn't reach me, and I never came around looking for, or buying the book.....untill I saw it at an airport bookstore a few weeks ago and knew at once: Yes, this must be a book for me. Now the book is read and I can agree, both with my friends and with my own knowledge - Yes, this was a book for me.

Eat, Pray, Love, is, just like the title tells, a book in three parts, every part about a new country and the author's experiences there. Italy, India and Indonesia. With several travels already planned this year to Italy, and a three week's travel to India coming up in October/November, my interest was of course fully awaken already when I read the back cover of the book.

The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, has been through a hard divorce and a rather sad love story, and set out for a year in the world to find her inner self again. In Italy she eats, in India she prays and meditates and in Indonesia she finds love. Her months in Italy and Indonesia was qujite interesting reading, the middle part about her long months in India was just a long, boring interlude. Gilbert's writing is easy to follow though, with alot of funny thouches, so all in all I find this a vert good book, easy to recommend.......................and the first part when she lived in Roma for a few months..........In four weeks I'll be back in Roma! I can't wait!

Planning India!

A few years ago I got a postcard from an Indian penpal. She was in Rome visiting her daughter and wrote:

.......I am afraid this is the closest I will ever get to Norway - why don't you come and visit us here......

What my friend didn't know was that exactly the same day I had a phonecall from a friend and colleague. He was organising a bus trip from Norway to Rome, he had an extra seat in the bus and waondered if I wanted to come along. I had never been to Rome before, but it didn't take me long to tell both my Indian friend and my colleague - I'M COMING!

Now, several years later I have been to Rome every year since that first time, and I am climbing the next step of the ladder. I plan a trip to India this coming autumn. Making travel plans means reading books about and from the places I will visit, and my list of books about India is getting longer every day. During Christmas I finished a Norwegian book, India, by Torbjørn Færøvik, and today I started an old classic, Mother India by Katherine Mayo. I came upon this book quite by accident.....or may be the book was calling my name......... But that's another story which you can read here. (you have to follow the links to get the full story)