Rainy Day Reads

When the movie came out a few years ago I was really interested but I somehow managed to never actually see the movie. So when I found the book on offer I thought “Now’s my chance.” This book is about a number of older people, living in Britain, but for various reasons unhappy about their lives as senior citizens. They don’t know each other beforehand, but only meet when they all decide to sign up for a retirement home in India, created in part by an Indian doctor living in Britain.  We follow these people in more or less detail throughout the book as they come to terms with how their lives have turned out.  I gave this book 3 stars. It was okay, but nothing major. There were a number of story lines, each starring a different person, but in the end I felt like none of the stories really materialized. There was just so much unfinished business and I feel like we left practically all the stories right in the middle. And I hate feeling unresolved. So it w...

I went to India in 2004 (I have another post about my visit to the Taj Mahal ) and this was my first brig trip away from home and on my own. I say on my own, but we were actually a group of 14 girls going, but I didn’t know any of them beforehand. We were going to the small village of Bijanbari in the West Bengal highlands to teach English in the village schools.   The view from Darjeeling We spent a few days sightseeing around Delhi, Jaipur and Agra before we headed up the mountains to the city of Darjeeling. We took the train from Delhi to Siliguri, which is a 24 hour overnight experience, but it is possible to fly to Bagdogra, located 90 km from Darjeeling, and drive for a few hours to Darjeeling from there.  Darjeeling was founded by the British in the mid-19th century, when they set up an sanatorium and a military depot here. Soon it became a popular spot for summering among the British, as it provided an escape from the heat of the plains. It i...

I expected this to be fiction based on true events, but actually it is a non-fiction book detailing the life and love of James Kirkpatrick in India. It is marketed as a great love story between an English man and an Indian woman, destined to be kept apart by race, religion and social standards but overcoming the odds to be together anyway.   The book is very detailed and built mainly on letters, many of which survive in estates and the East India Company’s files. This makes for an accurate, but sometimes slightly dry retelling of actual events. There is so much detail about people and politics that the love story drowns in it. I would say this book is mainly about James Kirkpatrick and his life. His lover Khair features very little in it.  It takes a while for the book to get to James, as it first sets up the entire backdrop of the British in India and the principle figures, both political and familial. This just doesn’t really interest me and for this part of t...

On my first “big” trip abroad in 2004 I went to India for three months on a group tour. We partly travelled the country and partly stayed in a small town to teach English in the schools. During the traveling part of the trip we went to Taj Mahal. This place had always been on my “To see” lists and it was quite an experience finally getting to see it. I took a whole bunch of pictures, but being old school, this was with a film camera and I have had to scan them on my not-so-great scanner, so please excuse the quality. Hopefully, they convey the greatness of the experience anyway.  The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is located on the south bank of the Yamuna river in Agra. Across the river you can see the supposed foundations of a black twin mausoleum which according to legend the emperor meant for himself. It was never finished however, as he was deposed, and instead he was buried ...

I’ve wanted to start this series, or what you would call it, for a while now, but getting books has been a bit slow going. But then this book about India sort of fell into my hands, and I thought it was a sign to get this show on the road. India was also the first “big trip” I did, so it seems fitting that it should kick off the series.   The book I’ve read about India is “Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure” by Sarah MacDonald.  I thought this book was fiction based on a personal experience in India, but it turns out it was actually a non-fiction book about the author’s two year residence in India. In the book she shares her journey towards inner peace, and all the stumbling blocks along the way.  I went to India in 2004, and the book was published in 2002, so our experiences were not that far apart in time. India has probably changed in the 10 years that have passed since I was there, but I suspect the essentials have stayed pretty much the same. And I feel like ...