A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America. 
At the age of forty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike through the vast tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. 
Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favorite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack. 
Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition - not to die outdoors.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.05 out of 5 ( 269,057 Ratings; 14,591 Reviews  - As on October 20 2017)
My Rating:   4 out of 5
My Comments:
An adventure travelogue written with a great sense of humor. Vivid characterization of people and picturesque description of the places on the renowned Appalachian Trail. A must read for every travel and  adventure buff.

Buying Options 
  
Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in Buy the Kindle Version

A Guide to Fort St. George by Sriram V.

The oldest Anglican church east of the Suez, the first British inscription in India, the tallest flagstaff in the country and the only surviving national flag among those hoisted all over India on August 15, 1947,

These are but some of the treasures that Fort St. George, Chennai, holds within its precincts.

This is a guide that tells the visitor what to look for in this citadel, and where.
 

[Description Source: Back cover of the book]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3 out of 5 ( 1 Ratings , 0 Reviews  - As on July 7 2017)
My Rating:  3 out of 5
My Comments: Quite interesting. A handy book to take along when you visit Fort St. George ,Chennai.



 
  Buy from Amazon.in 

A Strange Kind of Paradise - Sam Miller

India through Foreign Eyes

A Strange Kind of Paradise is an exploration of India's past and present, from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in India for many years. 
Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans and Americans - everyone really, except for Indians themselves - came to imagine India. 
His account of the engagement between foreigners and India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great to Slumdog Millionaire. 
It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco da Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, EM Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles and Steve Jobs. 
Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India. 
The result is a spellbinding, 2500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture and society, in the company of an author who informs, educates and entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies and overturns long held stereotypes about race, identity and migration. 
A tour de force that is at once scholarly and thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric and laugh-out-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.96 out of 5 (69 Ratings, 13 Reviews)

My Rating:  4 out of 5.  

Buying Options 
Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in  Buy Kindle Version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

A Mountain In Tibet - Charles Allen

The Search For Mount Kailas And The Sources Of The Great Rivers Of Asia

Throughout the East there runs a legend of a great mountain at the centre of the world, where four rivers have their source. 
Charles Allen traces this legend to Western Tibet where there stands Kailas, worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists alike as the home of their gods and the navel of the world. 
Close by are the sources of four mighty rivers: the sacred Ganges, the Indus, the Sutlej and Tsangpo-Brahmaputra. 
For centuries Kailas remained an enigma to the outside world. 
Then a succession of remarkable men took up the challenge of penetrating the hostile, frozen wastelands beyond the Western Himalayas, culminating in the great age of discovery, the final years of the Victorian era. 
A Mountain in Tibet is an extraordinary story of exploration and high adventure, full of the excitement and colour expected from the author of Plain Tales from the Raj.

 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.in]

Goodreads Rating - 3.82 out of 5 (49 Ratings, 5 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
  Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in

Buy the Kindle  version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh

Around India In 80 Trains begins in England. 
Monisha stays with her family in Sheffield, when in 1991 they decide to head over to Madras. 
In an effort to make India their home, they leave at once. 
The next two years don’t exactly go according to plan. 
Troubled by rats and the creepy colonel across the road, Monisha’s family decide to move out and return to England for the better.
Twenty years later, Monisha reads an article while at work, which describes India’s booming domestic airline industry and how it could connect 80 cities. She begins reminiscing on her childhood and the time she spent in India. 
As time passes, she decides to leave to India. 
With a thirst for exploring India once again, and to clear the bitterness that has existed since the last two decades, Monisha sets out on a train journey across India, inspired by Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in 80 Days. 
The journey clocks 40,000 km across India in 80 trains.Indian trains carry over twenty million passengers daily, plowing through cities, crawling past villages, climbing up mountains, and skimming along coasts.
Travelling in Indian trains gives Monisha the opportunity to meet a whole range of characters, each carrying a different story which adds color to her journey.
 Indian railways, being one of the largest civilian employers and containing various kinds of trains, including the crowded local trains of Mumbai and a hospital on wheels, provides a diverse and refreshing setting. 
How does she go around a country soaked in diverse religious colors, with a photographer who is a self-confessed militant atheist?
 Infused with wit and humor, Around India In 80 Trains is a tale of adventure and discovery.

 [Book Description Source: www.flipkart.com]

Goodreads Rating - 3.37 out of 5 (637 Ratings, 129 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
 

Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in
Buy the Kindle  version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

Tamarind City - Where Modern India Began by Bishwanath Ghosh

Madras (now Chennai)-  the city where I used to spend my school holidays when I was a kid; the city where I spent almost 8 years (M.Tech, Ph.D) pursuing my higher education in the esteemed institution IIT-Madras; the city where my grandpa worked and had a house (sadly sold off 20 years ago); the city where my parents got married; the city where many of my uncles, aunts and cousins had lived or still live !
I have  pleasant memories of this first city of modern India.
It is always a pleasure to read anything about Madras/Chennai, especially if it has to do with its history and its culture.
The author Bishwanath Ghosh has come up with a delightful narrative about his life in this city.
A must read for  Chennaiites!

Book Description [Source: Back Cover of the Book]
‘While in other big cities tradition stays mothballed in trunks, taken out only during festivals and weddings, tradition here is worn round the year.’

This is just one of the author’s many keen observations of Chennai. With mordant wit, this biography of a city spares neither half of its split-personality: from moody, magical Madras to bursting-at-the-seams, tech-savvy Chennai. 
And, a minute into the book, the reader knows they are inseparable-and Bishwanath Ghosh refuses to take sides.

And yet, he tells us, while Chennai is usually known as conservative and orthodox, almost every modern institution in India-from the army to the judiciary, from medicine to engineering-traces its roots to Madras’s Fort St George, which was built when Delhi had only just become the capital of the Mughal Empire, and Calcutta and Bombay weren’t even born. 
Today, the city once again figures prominently on the global map as ‘India’s Detroit’, a manufacturing giant, and a hub of medical tourism. 
There have been sweeping changes since pre-Independent India, but even as Chennai embraces change, its people hold its age-old customs and traditions close to their heart.
‘This is what makes Chennai unique,’ says Ghosh, ‘the marriage of tradition and technology’.

Bishwanath Ghosh wears a reporter’s cap and explores the city he has made his home, delving into its past, roaming its historic sites and neighbourhoods, and meeting a wide variety of people-from a top vocalist to a top sexologist, from a yoga teacher to a hip transsexual, from a yesteryear film star to his own eighty-five-year-old neighbour, from the ghosts of Clive, Wellesley, Hastings and Yale to those of Periyar and MGR, two people who redefined the political skyline of Tamil Nadu.

What emerges is an evocative portrait of this unique city, drawn without reservation-sometimes with humour, sometimes with irony-but always with love.

Goodreads Rating - 3.71 out of 5 ( 120 Ratings; 35 Reviews)

Buying Options 

Readers in India

 
Buy from Amazon.in  
Buy the Kindle book version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 

Readers in Other Countries 
Buy from Amazon.com

Buy the Kindlle book 
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 

Geek Nation - How Indian Science is Taking Over the World

[Author: Angela Saini; Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; Hardcover: 288 pages ]

Who is a Geek ? 
From the author's perspective geek is someone who is very passionate about a scientific, technological or any other intellectual pursuit. She uses this term in a very complimentary manner.
In the western world Indians are perceived as geeks or nerds.
Angela Saini an UK born award winning science journalist of  Indian origin travels widely across India (during 2008-10) to check on the veracity of this perception.

She meets and interviews several scientists, technologists, researchers in premier academic institutions, research institutes, IT companies.
The outcome of this scientific pilgrimage is this book which presents the 
picture of the status of the scientific education and research in India. 

A book of this sort could have easily turned out to be a dry and scholarly compilation of recorded interviews and its readership been confined to academicians and researchers. 
But Saini  very effectively manages to write it in a a fairly enjoyable travelogue style with right blend of information and humor. After all she is a reporter.
"Angela in the Geekland" would have been a more apt title for this book ! 

This book educated me on several facets of scientific and technology research and development  in India which I was unaware of for e.g. OSDD (Open Source Drug Discovery) initiative, Spoken Web project, Lavasa Corporation, e-Courts  etc.

I am not sure whether this book presents a complete scenario of scientific research in India but whatever is presented in this book certainly makes an interesting read.
Therefore I would recommend this book to anyone who is keen on knowing some of the interesting facets of scientific research scenario in India around 2008-2010.

 

 Links 

• Author's Blog
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.44 / 5;  82 ratings; 17 reviews

Contents
Underlying themes of various chapters and the people and organizations featured in  them are given below.

Introduction : 

Underlying Theme: Origins of Space Research in India

• Professor U.R. Rao, Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Center, Trivandrum 

Chapter 1 Brain Games

 

Underlying Theme: Engineering & Science  Education

• Professor Vijay Singh, International Science Olympiad Training Center
• Nitin Jain, IIT-JEE 2009 Topper & Winner of several medals in Science Olympiads
• Professor Santanu Chaudhury, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, IIT Delhi
• Professor Ambuj Sagar, IIT Delhi
• Prerit Jain  - Undergraduate student, IIT Delhi
• Rajdeep Sahrawat, VP NASSCOM
• Ravindra Shah, Chief Compliance Officer, Tata Consultancy Services
• Ananth Krishnan, Technologist, Tata Consultancy Services

Chapter 2 Electronics City

Underlying Theme: IT Industry

• Thomas Simon, VP-HR, Tata Consultancy Services
• Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys Technologies
• Dr. Manish Gupta, Director, IBM Labs, India
• Yusuf Motiwala & Apul Nahata , Founders, TringMe
• Nishant Ranka - Undergraduate student, IIT Delhi

Chapter 3 The Long-Life Banana

Underlying Theme: Genetically Modified Crops

• Dr  Pravendra Nath, Molecular Biologist, National Botanical Research Institute
• Vijay Jawandhia, a farmers' right activist, Vidharba
• Vandana Shiva, a rural rights activist, New Delhi
• Dr. Ajay Parida, Executive Director, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation

Chapter 4 Chariots of the Gods 


Underlying Theme: Vedic Sciences

• Subbarao Narayana, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote
• Dr. Satyanarayana, Oriental Research Institute, Mysore
• Sanal Edamaruku, President, Indian Rationalist Association, New Delhi
• Meera Nanda, Historian and Researcher, Institute of Advanced Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
• Sunderaj Chandrashekar, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote
• Professor MRS Narasimha Murthy, Head, Molecular Biophysics, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 

 Chapter 5 The Mindreading Machine

Underlying Theme: Forensic Sciences

• Dr Sunny Joseph, Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratory, Mumbai
• CR Mukundan, Inventor of Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature (BEOS) software

Chapter 6 Geek's Rule 

Underlying Theme: e-Governance

• Scot Wrighton, City Manager, Lavasa Corporation
• Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant -e-Governance Plan, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, New Delhi
• RK Sharma, Computer Analyst & Programmer, Department of IT, Rajasthan
• Girish Kumar Sharma, Registrar, Delhi High Court

Chapter 7 The Impossible Drug

Underlying Theme: Bio-medical Research

• Professor Virandar Chauhan, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi
• Dr. Sujatha Narayanan, Deputy Director, Department of Immunology, Tuberculosis Research Center, Chennai
• Dr. Sridhar Sivasubbu, Researcher, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi
• Dr. Sulagna Banerjee, Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai
• Zakir Thomas, Scientist, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi 

Chapter 8 Brainpower

Underlying Theme: Nuclear Energy

• Dr Ratan Kumar Sinha, Director - Reactor Design and Development Group, Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai

 Chapter 9 Rocket Science

Underlying Theme: Space Program 

• Narayana Moorthy, Researcher, Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Center, Trivandrum
• Madhavan Nair, Ex-Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization

 [Please feel free to leave your comments below or bookmark/share this post]

Chasing the Mountain of Light

[Author: Kevin Rushby; Publisher: Constable and Company Ltd.; 
Hardcover: 276 pages ]

The world famous diamond Koh-i-Noor (which means "Mountain of Light" in Persian language) has been adorning the British monarch's crown since 1850s. How it landed up there is a fascinating story.
In late 1990s the author Kevin Rushby  traveled through India following the trial of Koh-i-Noor diamond from Kollur mines in Andhra Pradesh to Amritsar in Punjab.
This book is an account of this journey during which he met people from all walks of life - miners, smugglers, merchants , politicians, royalty, bureaucrats, scholars , academicians - in the places where the renowned diamond has passed through hundreds of years ago. These encounters helped him to know more about the Koh-i-Noor and also provided him a good exposure to the Indian society where he found "both the depths of human greed and heights of spiritual aspiration".
An interesting travelogue. A good light-read to pass your time.

Links 

• Wikipedia article on Koh-i-Noor
• Author's website
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.63 / 5;  27 ratings; 3 reviews

 [Please feel free to leave your comments below or bookmark/share this post]

Exploring Indian Railways

Author:      Bill Aitken

Published:  1994

Publisher:   Oxford University Press

Hardcover: 292 pages

As a kid I used to look forward to train journeys a lot. And I still do. This interest in trains led to my picking up this book from the library. Though this book was somewhat outdated (last published in 1994) I was expecting  interesting accounts of some fascinating train journeys undertaken by the author , interspersed with interesting anecdotes and facts about Indian Railways. But I was rather disappointed. This book devotes much space to the bureaucracy and politics prevailing in Indian Railways around the time the book was written. Though in bits and pieces some interesting information is available, by and large I found this book rather boring and outdated.

I rather keep this review short and not waste too much time writing about the book which I wish I had not read at all.

[Please feel free to leave your comments below or bookmark/share this summary]

Butter Chicken in Ludhiana

Author: Pankaj Mishra
Published: 2006
Publisher: Picador

This book is neither about butter chicken nor about Ludhiana. It is a travelogue narrating the author's experience in several small towns in India. The title of the book derives its name from a snatch of conversation extolling the taste of butter chicken available in Ludhiana,which the author overheard in a restaurant in one such small town.
In 1993 as a young 24 year old, author got a commission from a publisher to write a travel book on small towns in India. He then visited Ambala, Bundi, Shimoga, Murshidabad, Jehanabad and many more such places and captured his experiences in this book.
He traveled like an "aam aadmi (common man)" in buses, trains and stayed in cheap hotels.
At that time the Indian economy had just been liberalized by the government and the whole country was in transition to a new lifestyle. This book is mainly about how the people from small towns whom the author met were handling this- a convent-educated young woman from Jhansi was aspiring to be a beauty queen; a rich young man in Gujarat was speaking casually of murdering Muslims; Naxalites in Bihar were trying to instigate revolution; small shopkeepers were planning a vacation in London. All such interactions are described by the author in a very insightful and witty manner with a sense of humor.
However the author has focused only on the negative aspects of these small towns. This while may be a true account does not give a complete picture of the situation. I also found the author having a tinge of intellectual snobbery while he narrates his story.
I would suggest the author to write a sequel to this book, undertaking the same journey again and describe the the towns and the people whom he visited 17 years ago. Surely that would be an interesting read since a lot of changes would have taken place during these years.
On the whole a very good book to read for travel enthusiast. I look forward to read other books by the author.