India seems committed to being over-the-top in the best way possible. It’s colorful, noisy, crowded, vast, deeply historic, spiritual, vibrantly modern, multi-lingual, and stunningly beautiful.
Want to get loud? India is the place for you! Sure, its population of 1.4 billion people might overwhelm you with the sheer crush of humanity, but its cities have an undeniable energy once you’re acclimated. Delhi, the capital, has everything that makes travel great: ancient forts, mosques and temples, leafy parks and botanical gardens, sprawling bazaars, and bustling lanes of street food. And Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the home of Bollywood movie magic.
Feeling like a quiet retreat? India is the birthplace of yoga and meditation. You could visit Rishikesh, on the bank of the Ganges, to practice asanas in the birthplace of yoga. Or visit the ruins of the Maharishi’s ashram to feel the past vibrations of The Beatles.
India is also a fantastic place to shop for jewelry in a market, eat the best curries in the world, browse epic English-language bookstores, wander through centuries-old forts, and, of course, marvel at the Taj Mahal.
In this episode, we celebrate the poet Kabir Das, talk about dolphin rights, dig into Salvador Dali’s quirks, and explore India’s Golden Triangle. Then we recommend five great books that took us to India on the page, including immersive historical fiction, a travelogue and memoir of life in Delhi, a most unusual cookbook, a coming-of-age story (with dragons!), and a snappy crime novel with an unforgettable heroine.
Read the full transcript of India: The Continent Masquerading as a Country.
Perhaps you’d like to listen to some Bollywood music while you dig into these links.
And some photos to set the scene…
Poems by Sant Guru Kabir Jayanti, 15th-century poet, mystic, and saint.
BBC on India’s caste system
Food
Bollywood
Our episode of The Library of Lost Time about the movie RRR
Yoga
A Guide To Yoga In India – Best Ashrams, Retreats & Teacher Training
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram, a.k.a., The Beatles ashram
Tigers
Bookshops
Statement 1: Salvador Dali — the great artist, the man of the melting clocks — once designed an ashtray for Air India. He was paid, in part, in peacocks. Take a peek at the ashtrays Dali designed here and here. This post has tons of photos and more of the story.
Statement 2: According to the government of India, dolphins are non-human persons, and, as such, have the right to life and liberty. The full story on now India has taken particular care of dolphins over the last decade.
Statement 3: The longest regular bus trip in history was from London to Calcutta (now Kolkata). It was approximately 10,000 miles — or 16,000 kilometers — one way. If you’re rough with distances, that’s about four times the mileage from New York to LA. The true story of the London-to-Calcutta bus service and its Wiki page.
Loot by Tania James
City of Djinns by William Dalyrmple
Dishoom by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, Naved Nasir
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
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