This time I bought a hard copy of “Insight Guides: India. Pocket Guide” It was published 2017. I also bought the “Insight Guides, “South India” because we were going to be in Keralla. The latter was extremely well written and provided an excellent read. I quickly read a History of India by Captivating History 2019. A quick brief overview. On Kindle I read the excellent History of Modern India by Bipan Chandra. I’m continuing through that as I often have 3 books on the go and detail involved with one leader overthrowing another as history often is, makes it a slow read.
On Kindle I uploaded and read the excellent Hindu History by Ashley Majudah. I read G.A. Henry’s Through the Sikh War about the time of the Raj
I confess I love reading historical war fiction, whether it’s Royal Canadian Mountain Police in Canada, or the Calvary in the Western US. I like that time of horses and rifles and lots of challenges. I think it’s because grandad was a rancher and I was riding horses as a child. I loved Churchill’s River War about British in Sudan. I love Bernard Cornwell’s writing. I especially love the Johnstone’s cowboy writing and the Sharp in the Napoleonic war.
I’m also a sailor and love the great sea battles of the great sailing ships. If there’s gun powder, horses, sailboats, swords and gorgeous daring women I’m devouring those books for fun. So I’ve read a lot of the historical fiction novels. Woodman’s William Kite Adventures in the East Indiamen is one example. I read Andrew Wareham’s Men of Conflict series. Paul Frazer Collards The Maharajah’s General was a terrific romp.
John Master’s The Ravi Lancers was truly great read of the WWI India warriors who served the Empire. Ronaldo Bassett’s Fortune Favours the Brave was an truly exciting read of the Indian Mutiny. Phillip McCutchums Charge of Cowardice was another great moving read. Since India’s independence these tales of the Empire, Queen Victoria and the Raj are all probably politically incorrect. They are truly biased. I’ve been reading them for a while as light reading. I also read Sci fi for light reading and think much of it is just cowboys in space, with ships instead of horses. I’ve always liked bolt and lever action rifles but could probably get to ray guns.
I’ve lots of Indo Canadian friends and patients and have talked to them over the years and recently. I love my spiritual Hindu friend who takes pilgrimages to India visitting temples regularly. I also know Punjabis and they all love their Sikh heritage. The conference is in Delhi. This time I’m not going to be able to go to Varanasi on the Ganges, the spiritual centre for Hindus or the Golden Temple, the Sikh’s holiest temple. We will get to the Taj Mahal. The Red Fort is the product of the reign of Mogels. There will be other Hindu temples we do make as Kochi is famous for these too.
The truly fun novel I read this last month was India Affairs: a Steampunk tale of India and the British Raj. by Thos Judge. It’s was almost as good as the naughty rogue Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser.
I downloaded 50 things to do in Keralla and the Last Jews of Keralla. I read the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Mary and John and the Gospel of St. Thomas as well as a brief history of Thomas and the Syrian Christian Church. St. Thomas, the doubting Thomas of Gospel, travelled as far as Keralla. I’ll be taking a tour of the St. Thomas Church there. Laura may be joining me if she doesn’t get waylaid by the sun, beaches and pool of our fine hotel.
I downloaded and listened to a number of excellent podcasts making use of them to survive the horrible traffic driving to work and back. The History of India podcast was really good for ancient past. BBC’s Incarnations: India in 50 lives was superb. I listened to several of ancient and recent important people and thoroughly enjoyed the biographical snapshots. . Vivekenanda and the Ramakrishna mission really stood out. There was also another about a great fashion businessman discussing the rise of Delhi as a fashion capital.. My favourite though overall were the Delhi Shopping Tours. Two delightful young East Indians interview famous Indians of today and talk about what they like about their city.
On Netflix I began watching mostly Indian movies and tv a month or two ago. Laura and I just loved Delhi Crime. Selafa Shah is an incredible star. All in English.Article 15 about residual village castes. modernization of India, and corruption and starred an idealistic young police man in a moving great tale. John Abraham was a terrific star in Parmenu, the intriguing tale of India’s first nuclear blast and how they got around all the spies and satellites spies to do this.
Laura and I are becoming really excited. It’s been months of preparation getting reservations and Visa and Travel Clinic shots. Soon we’ll be on the plane. Vancouver weather has been so beautiful this week so I figure it’s been waiting to turn awful once we depart. Some friends are in Hawaii and Mexico and I know they haven’t had the joy of looking at Vancouver weather. The forecast though is that we all will be able to gloat in the days to come. India is warm and sunny this time of the year. Hooray. Hallelujah.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment