RIFLE RANGE BOY

The Golden Road - How Ancient India Transformed the World (2024) Author: William Dalrymple The author is quite unapologetic that his book would sound like an episode from the famous British desi sitcom, 'Goodness Gracious Me'. In fact, Sanjay Bhaskar, the main character in the above sitcom, was the invited guest to launch Dalrymple's latest book on Indian history. This book is a joy to read. Packed with information from cover to cover, extensive research must have been conducted into the world of the Indosphere before waves of invaders destroyed it and rewrote its history. Its cultural influence spread beyond its borders. Indian advanced navigational skills, using the seasonal monsoon winds to bring goods, knowledge, and culture to adjacent regions, were assets for mankind. India was a big brother figure to the Southeast Asian region, as far as the present Indochina region and even to China. As early as the first century CE, the trade imbalance was so great, favouring India...

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (2009) Author: William Dalrymple This is a true travelogue—one in which the writer has all the time in the world to identify what he wants to write about and knows the best places to source his writing materials. Of course, being a historian, a prolific award-winning author, and a podcaster on the side helps. This book is a nice, readable one that looks at some of the sacred practices in India. The writer's job is just to tell things as he sees fit. He respects the local culture and does not insert his elitist twang to belittle the traditions that have gone on for generations. That is the trouble with most anglophile travelogues. They give their condescendingly haughty views on the happenings on the ground. Foreigners and sometimes the English-speaking Western-educated local punks are guilty of this. For the record, Darylmpol was born in Scotland and now resides in Delhi. I guess he is one of the many Caucasians, like François Gau...