India guidebooks

I read three of these I think, but only remember two specifically, Wanderlust and Lipstick: For Women Travelling in India and India - Culture Smart!: the essential guide to customs and culture.  These are both generally about visiting India, not about Pune or moving permanently.

Maybe because Brij is Indian or I'd read enough about India online already, but I didn't find either of these helpful.  There are some very short anecdotes from travellers in Wonderlust that were enjoyable to read, but otherwise I found these books very superficial.  I also haven't spent any time in rural India, which I'm sure is a totally different experience.

Some specific peeves.  Both books suggest that women not make eye contact or small talk with strange Indian men.  Yes, sex is quite under wraps here and that can create some weird tension.  Baywatch and other American media has pretty well gone and sullied our reputation almost everywhere.  We'll just overlook the fact that Bollywood's got a lot of skin and booty shakin' and unarranged romance.  Be aware of that, dress modestly, but don't be rude.  I smile and nod at people I pass in my neighborhood, make small talk with rickshaw drivers, ask strangers for directions and nobody has ever mistaken that for a sexual advance.  Hopefully you travel for more of an experience than just looking at things from a distance.  Indians are on a whole friendly, inquisitive people and there's very, very little violent crime.  You know, except for all that communal violence...  But I'm not part of those communities (Hindu, Muslim, Dalit, upper caste, etc.).

And about how to dress.  A common piece of advice is to look around and dress like the most conservative woman you see.  That's not bad advice, but it cramps my style.  In my experience the more affluent and westernized women are not walking around on the street.  They are in cars, malls, restaurants, etc.  You may blend in more at the open market in a Punjabi dress, if a white chick in ethnic clothing counts as blending more than contradiction.  But as soon as you're inside the swank mall or at a party with modern Indian women, you'll stick out like a very sore thumb.  Jeans and a kurta is a nice compromise.

Interpret the ambiguous head wobble as the answer you want.  That almost always works.  Be polite, use common sense, and go with the flow.  Don't drink the water or eat at an empty restaurant.  Pack assuming you won't be able to buy whatever you need easily.  This isn't always true, but it does make things easier.  Most Indians are not my size/shape and miming diarrhea is embarrassing.  If you want a better understanding of where folks are coming from, read In Spite of the Gods.  Get a travel book on the specific place you are  going.  Find out what holidays are going on when you travel, but be particularly cautious in crowds.  There, you don't need to read these all purpose India travel books now.

In Spite of the Gods - Edward Luce

I have been wanting to write about this book for a while.  In fact I just want to quote about half of it right here, right now.  That's not practical and probably not legal.  This is the best book or article I've read on India so far.  Frankly that makes it hard for me to sum up.

It is written by a man that was or maybe still is the India correspondent for a British newspaper.  He also married an Indian.  This is all assuming I am remembering this correctly of course.  I have the luxury of just telling you my impressions and not getting any facts right.  Edward Luce on the other hand, has a lot of personal experience delightfully woven into what is a pretty academic analysis of modern India.  There are some anecdotes and the language seemed comfortable, but there is a lot of history and studies and religion and economic evaluation packed into this book.  I love it.

If you're planning to visit or move to India and have a similar mentality to me, this book provided a lot of wonderful insight into the cultural and political realities of India.  And it did so in a very positive way - or an objective way, I guess.  It is so easy to  get bogged down in the poverty and polution and corruption and communal violence and strangeness of it all.  I see this trend in my posts and the articles I list even though I like India.  That says more about me and a failure to emphasize the positive (without getting into all that spiritual mumbo jumbo, gag).  Luce talks about India's history and topical reality in a frank, open, interesting way.  Check it out.

White Tiger - Aravind Agida

Okay, I think this book was critically acclaimed and it was personally recommended, but it's a novel and takes the form of a letter to the Chinese Premier from a murderous servant turned entrepreneur - let's just say I wasn't very excited about it.  The power kept going out though, so I started to read it anyway.

It turned out to be a really fun read.  The format proved an accessible yet sophisticated way to tell the story.  Kind of like 24, except I appreciated the effort and the result.  It touches on so many aspects of life in India without feeling strained.  Overall it was just very entertaining.  I highly recommend it.

Book - Indian Summer

This was a quick, mostly light, mostly enjoyable read.  Overall kind of a shoulder shrug.  The writing is decent and I enjoyed much of the story, especially now that I'm living in India and working with slum kids.  It's basically a memoir about how Will, an Englishman and teacher by profession, finds himself in India.  Finds himself in India mostly to escape his horrid students in London though.  And he's pretty disparaging about said profession, maybe in a self deprecating way, but here's where I start to not like him all that much.

He stumbles on this opportunity to go to India.  He finds he doesn't like it at all and plans to return to the UK immediately.  (Liking him even less.)  I forget why he doesn't and instead happenstance brings him to working with a small orphanage/school in a slum right here in Pune.  But again, almost grudgingly.  He comes around and the story of working with all these little children to put on a performance of the Ramayana to save the slum from developers is full of comedy and heartbreak and triumph.

The major events are driven exclusively by chance encounters and Will's total lack of, well, will.  I do not get the subtitle to the book:  "A good man in Asia."  The way it's presented, it's more like a not-so-bad guy that is open to anything and everything.  Which really isn't a bad thing and neither is the book.  *shrug*

Booklist

I thought I'd share the books I've picked up to read now and on the plane and in India. Updates about what I thought of them to come.

In Spite of the Gods - Edward Luce

Maximum City - Suketu Mehta

Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (Short stories by the author of The Namesake, 'cause I ain't that into novels.)

Humbler Than Dust - Mona Lee (This one was a gamble: Retired couple from Seattle makes a tandem bike pilgrimage from Delhi to Mumbai to promote the idea of a world parliament.)

A Passage to India - E. M. Forster (Gift from Mom. Thanks!)

Indian Summer - Will Randall

Dreaming in Hindi - Katherine Russell Rich

India: A Million Mutinies Now - V. S. Naipaul

Being Indian - Pavan K. Varma

It Must Have Been Something I Ate - Jeffrey Steingarten (I read The Man Who Ate Everything years ago and love, love, loved it. This is more of the same easy, informative, and amusing essays from the Vogue food critic.)