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Author: Parimal Bhattacharya
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9356290148
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 179
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Book Description
For a few years in the early 1990s - when the embers of a violent agitation for Gorkhaland were slowly dying down - Parimal Bhattacharya taught at the Government College in Darjeeling. No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight is a memoir of his time in the iconic town, and one of the finest works of Indian non-fiction in recent years. As Parimal tramped its roads and winding footpaths, Darjeeling slowly grew on him. He sought out its history: a land of incomparable beauty originally inhabited by the Lepchas and other tribes; the British who took it for themselves in the mid-1800s so they could remember home; the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway - once a vital artery, now a quaint toy train; and the vast tea gardens with which the British replaced verdant forests to produce the fabled Orange Pekoe. And in the enmeshed lives of the small town's inhabitants, Parimal discovered a richly cosmopolitan society which endured even under threat from cynical politics and haphazard urbanization. Written with empathy, and in shimmering prose, No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight effortlessly merges travel, history, literature, memory, politics, and the pleasures of ennui into an unforgettable portrait of a place and its people.
Author: Parimal Bhattacharya
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9356290148
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Get Book Here
Book Description
For a few years in the early 1990s - when the embers of a violent agitation for Gorkhaland were slowly dying down - Parimal Bhattacharya taught at the Government College in Darjeeling. No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight is a memoir of his time in the iconic town, and one of the finest works of Indian non-fiction in recent years. As Parimal tramped its roads and winding footpaths, Darjeeling slowly grew on him. He sought out its history: a land of incomparable beauty originally inhabited by the Lepchas and other tribes; the British who took it for themselves in the mid-1800s so they could remember home; the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway - once a vital artery, now a quaint toy train; and the vast tea gardens with which the British replaced verdant forests to produce the fabled Orange Pekoe. And in the enmeshed lives of the small town's inhabitants, Parimal discovered a richly cosmopolitan society which endured even under threat from cynical politics and haphazard urbanization. Written with empathy, and in shimmering prose, No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight effortlessly merges travel, history, literature, memory, politics, and the pleasures of ennui into an unforgettable portrait of a place and its people.
Author: Parimal Bhattacharya
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9356290288
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
Almost all of the Himalayas had been mapped by the time the Great Game - in which the British and Russian empires fought for control of Central and Southern Asia - reached its zenith in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Only Tibet remained unknown and unexplored, zealously guarded and closed off to everyone. Britain sent a number of spies into this forbidden land, disguised as pilgrims and wanderers, outfitted with secret survey equipment and tasked with collecting topographical knowledge, and information about the culture and customs of Tibet. Among them was Kinthup, a tailor who went as a monk's companion to confirm that the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra were the same river. Sarat Chandra Das, a schoolmaster, was also sent on a clandestine mission, and came back with extensive data and a trove of ancient manuscripts and documents. Bells of Shangri-La brings to vivid life the journeys and adventures of Kinthup, Sarat Chandra Das and others, including Eric Bailey, an officer who was part of the British invasion of Tibet in 1903. Weaving biography with history, and the memories of his own treks through the region, Parimal Bhattacharya writes in the great tradition of Peter Hopkirk and Peter Matthiessen to create a sparkling, unprecedented work of non-fiction.
Author: Katrell Christie
Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
ISBN: 0757318584
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
Katrell Christie was a thirty-something former hippie-turned-roller-derby-rebel with an eclectic little tea shop, Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party, in suburban Atlanta.Katrell had no idea on earth that justtwo years after opening her doors, herordinary American life would make a drastic change and so would the lives of women half a world away. I chose the name of my tea shop--Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party --because it sounded whimsical.India wasn't a part of the equation. Not even remotely. I didn't do yoga. I had no deep yearning to see the Taj Mahal or tour Hindu temples. I was not harboring some spiritual desire to follow the path of the Buddha. Indian food? I could take it or leave it. But a regular customer, Cate Powell, raved about a trip she'd taken there as a Rotary Club scholar. Cate was planning to go again to work with a women's handicraft exchange. Her enthusiasm was infectious.'You should come, ' she said after breezing into the shop one day. I didn't give it much thought. It seemed about as likely of happening as me suddenly deciding to mount abid forMiss Georgia Peach.I was a new business owner with work stretching for as far as I could see . . . But Katrell did go. She toured the tea fields of Darjeeling, witnessed the Hindu throngs at the Ganges, and learned to string pearls in the Muslim town of Hyderabad where Cate was working to help market the jewelry. As we work I watch. Some shed their Muslim coverings when they enter the workroom but others remain fully covered, only a glimpse of eyes visible. It's disconcerting. I'm a Southern girl. My mother taught me to throw out a big friendly smile to the world. But with these womentheir faces cloakedI get nothing back. I can't connect. Even worse, I couldn't get my mind off the idea that no matter what these women did they would nev
Author: Geoffrey Moorhouse
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571281133
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
In the foreword to the first edition Geoffrey Moorhouse wrote:'In a sense, the story of Calcutta is the story of India . . . It is the story of how and why Empire was created and what happened when Empire finished . . . The imperial residue of Calcutta, a generation after Empire ended, is both a monstrous and a marvellous city. Journalism and television have given us a rough idea of the monstrosities but none at all of the marvels. I can only hope to define the first more clearly and to persuade anyone interested that the second is to be found there too'. Geoffrey Moorhouse succeeds triumphantly in his aims. First published in 1971 this title has stood the test of time. Remarkably it was the first full-length study of Calcutta, seat of the British Raj, since 1918.'The book is organized out of a profound understanding of the true issues and is brilliantly executed.' Paul Scott, Guardian
Author: Samanth Subramanian
Publisher: Penguin Books India
ISBN: 0143064479
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180
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Book Description
In a coastline as long and diverse as India's, fish inhabit the heart of many worlds - food of course, but also culture, commerce, sport, history and society. Journeying along the edge of the peninsula, Samanth Subramanian reports upon a kaleidoscope of extraordinary stories.
Author: Andrew Duff
Publisher: Birlinn
ISBN: 0857902458
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386
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Book Description
This is the true story of Sikkim, a tiny Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas that survived the end of the British Empire only to be annexed by India in 1975.It tells the remarkable tale of Thondup Namgyal, the last King of Sikkim, and his American wife, Hope Cooke, thrust unwittingly into the spotlight as they sought support for Sikkim's independence after their 'fairytale' wedding in 1963. As tensions between India and China spilled over into war in the Himalayas, Sikkim became a pawn in the Cold War in Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. Rumours circulated that Hope was a CIA spy. Meanwhile, a shadowy Scottish adventuress, the Kazini of Chakung, married to Sikkim's leading political figure, coordinated opposition to the Palace. As the world's major powers jostled for regional supremacy during the early 1970s Sikkim and its ruling family never stood a chance. On the eve of declaring an Emergency across India, Indira Gandhi outwitted everyone to bring down the curtain on the 300 year-old Namgyal dynasty. Based on interviews and archive research, as well as a retracing of a journey the author's grandfather made in 1922, this is a thrilling, romantic and informative glimpse of a real-life Shangri-La.
Author: K. C. Bhanja
Publisher: Gyan Books
ISBN: 9788121204415
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya, with their sublime snowy ranges and the tabulous Kanchenjungha, have no parallel in their physical charm and the mountaineering challenges it offer. Explorer and writer K.C. Bhanja has depicted the land and the people, the legends and expeditions, the religions and rituals of the region in authentic colours. He has delved deep into the mystique if the Himalayas, bringing out yet unknown historical facts and figures, including the expeditions by brave men who came here for the love of adventure and opened the virgin territory for others to see and enjoy. The mountains and lakes, streams and rivers, glaciers and avalanches, fauna and flora, monasteries and lamas, yaks and yatis come alive in his description. The book includes a lengthy account of Tibet, the forbidden land, and the numerous mysteries it contains. This includes the holy peak and lake, Kailas and Mansarovar. The first-hand account gathered by the author makes the narrative authentic as well as fascinating. For any tourist in the region it is an information-packed handbook.
Author: Tan Twan Eng
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1602860599
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 351
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Book Description
In the tradition of celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell. The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits. In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families-feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei-to whom he owes absolute loyalty-is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.
Author: Prajwal Parajuly
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 1623651468
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
A number one bestseller in India and a shortlisted nomination for the Dylan Thomas Prize, The Gurkha's Daughter is a distinctive debut from a rising star in South Asian literature. This collection of stories captures the textures and sounds of the Nepalese diaspora through eight intimate, nuanced portraits, taking us from the hillside city of Darjeeling, India to a tucked away Nepalese restaurant in New York City. The daily struggles of Parajuly's characters reveal histories of war, colonial occupation, religious division, systemized oppression, and dispossession in the diverse geographical intersection of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and China. In a cruel remark by a wealthy doctor to her tenant shopkeeper, we hear the persistent injustice of the caste system; in the contentious relationship between a wealthy widow and her sister-in-law, we glimpse the restricted lives and submissive social roles of Nepalese women; and in a daughter's relationship with her father, we find a dissonance between modernity and tradition that has echoed through the generations in unexpected ways. Across different ethnicities, religions, and other social distinctions, the characters in these share a universal yearning, not just for survival but for a better life; one with love, dignity, and community. In The Gurkha's Daughter, Parajuly reveals the small acts of bravery--the sustaining, driving hope--that bind together the human experience.
Author:
Publisher: KW Publishers Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 938571421X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 102
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Book Description
This book is about cultural politics and the quest for identity of two marginal communities of Sikkim and Darjeeling – the Lepcha and the Mangar. Sharing insights into the knowledge, aesthetics, aspirations and dreams of two marginal communities who have been innovatively and differentially appropriating ‘culture’ to exploit the politics of difference, it is a narrative about their ethno-cultural consciousness, notions of identity and anxieties over being minority communities in a pluralistic democracy. The narrative is essentially presented in the form of a field-trip diary, with observations and comments which try to situate the issues within a larger perspective. Based on two years of intensive field study, the book chronicles the endeavour of these two communities to reclaim their cultural past, and forge an identity that would ensure material security, self-esteem, dignity and also the fruits of ‘modernity’. The book will be useful to scholars and students of anthropology, sociology, politics and history, especially those engaged in the study of culture and ethnicity in the Eastern Himalayan region.
