One of the things that makes me cringe here is the number of water bottles each of us consumes each day. We are cautioned to be mightily wary of the water, keeping our mouth clamped shut in the shower and using bottled water […]
Old Delhi is the India I feared, although I know there are far worse slums in the world. It is the India described in “Midnight’s Children” when the affluent and sheltered Amina Sinai is lured at night to a fortune teller at the […]
We have read so much and many of us have watched lots of films and talked to both South Asians and those well-traveled there. I watched A Passage to India the other night and was overcome with embarrassment at the arrogant excesses of the British Raj. In more current books, the picture […]
A quick note before a bunch of us take off for India. Lots of preparation – reading, movies, visa, shots, packing, repacking. But how does one prepare emotionally for India? I don’t know. I am going, I hope, with an open heart and mind and no expectations of making sense of […]
We are rapidly approaching the deadline for booking the Classical Pursuits trip to North India, CONFOUNDED & BEWITCHED: The Strange Rise of Modern India, February 24 – March 11, 2012. I have heard from some of our friends that they feel a bit apprehensive about traveling to someplace so far […]
A true confession: When I am intent on something, I can be more dogged than any canine wth a bone. One of the books we will be discussing in India this coming February/March (Confounded & Bewitched: The Strange Rise of Modern India) is a personal favouite, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. I learned the extraordinary Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta recently […]
“Out of India”: three writers – Amitav Ghosh, Bharati Mukherjee and K. Satchidanandan — reflect on the country of their childhood and its dynamic changes today. Eleanor Wachtel spoke with them, onstage, at this year’s Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal. Listen to Eleanor Wachtel’s panel interview, Out of […]
The last time I was in India was in the fall of 1988. I still have trouble finding words to describe the experiences of those 5 weeks. How can I describe the feeling of stepping back in time to the Victorian era when we were invited to tea at the […]
I hear this often. I wanted to provide a reliable response, so I went to Lewie Gonsalves, President of Worldwide Quest and native of India. Here is what he said. “I have been leading trips to India for the past 35 years and regularly return to this exciting destination. Despite […]