Want to be a Foreigner in my own country

I envy William Darlymple.

Ever since I started reading books regularly , William Darlymple has been one of my favorite writer rather person. He is a person who is living the life I dream.

It has always been my dream to travel significant places , interact with people of different diversities, study their culture, traditions and capture them not only with my camera but also in words, to share with people around the world. And this guy William Darlymple does exactly the same san the photography part (to an extent or at least he does not make it the primary objective.)

But that is not why I envy him. I envy him because he does the same thing in my own country. This guy has more access and knowledge about my own country than what I can ever garner and I personally feel its because of the fact that he is a Foreigner. I am not comparing our intellect or charm, he is way ahead on that , I just feel its the ease with which people open to strangers from abroad and that's what makes me envious.

Ever since I have started clicking people in public places , I have always experienced that Indians will readily pose if a foreigner is clicking them but will take all the objections if their fellow countrymen tries to capture them.

Its just not about photos , lets see the books that have been published about Indian culture, history and traditions in last few decades , I am yet to come across an Indian writer who has written an impartial and globally well received book about our country. Yes Arvind Adiga won a Man Booker's prize for his book the White Tiger but that book is more about a life of a particular person then India as a whole.

The movie made on the Father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi was made by a foreigner , was enacted by a foreigner and was based on the book "Freedom at Midnight" which was again written by two foreigners. The fact that they could easily retrace and reconstruct the sequence of events leading to his assassination by the Hindu extremists somehow substantiate the fact how comfortable it was for them.

Yes I agree , we Indians tend to trust fellow Indians less and always feel the other person is always going to exploit us or take total benefit out of us without crediting us. And these things make them more comfortable and trustworthy of a foreigner.

Yes we all want our 15 seconds of fame and interacting with a foreigner is the easiest way to get that.

I may be underestimating the problems that these Foreigner face as I myself don't have the first person account of their interactions or behind the scene account of their work and at the same time I still need to horn my skills of public / street photography where I sometimes need to politely first ask people about clicking their photos, so kindly forgive my ignorance about the same.

I do have due respect to these peoples people skills but being an Indian myself I know how we people react differently to our own countrymen.

My apprehensions might be getting the better of me at this moment but some day when I do embark on fulfilling my dream of being a William Darlymple I just hope I am more determined to put more effort to make people comfortable to share themselves with me :)

Humayun's tomb

Humayun's tomb

Continuing on my lucky trend of visiting historical monuments , this weekend I went to Humayun's tomb with my folks.

As I mentioned earlier that nowadays I am reading "The City of Djinns" by William Darymple, which is the travelogue about his stay in Delhi for a year. So anyways I was fascinated to visit what all historical places he was mentioning in his travelogue. Although he din't mention Humayun's tomb yet but still it was one place which was on my list as as far as I remember I never been to that place (My dad doesn't agree with that and strongly stats that we have been there when we came to delhi around 15 yrs back).

Interestingly I was not planning to visit Humayun's tomb at the first place and instead last weekend itself I told my folks that we will go to India gate. But in the morning my colleague called me up enquiring about that place and on finding that it was on the way to India Gate , I made up a plan to visit it too. (Its another story that we couldn't see India Gate because of the huge crowd that descended there due to the lovely weather)

So coming to Humayun's tomb. Humayun was Babar's son and Akbar's father. He was the second of the Great Mughal rulers to have ruled India. He ruled India in 1532-40 and then from 1555-1560. While coming down from stairs, on hearing the Azan (Muslim call of prayer) as it was his habit that wherever he is ,on hearing the Azan he will kneel down in reverence ,is robe got stuck in his feet and fell down from stairs. He was succeeded by his 13 year old son Akbar, who later on became the greatest Mughal emperor to have ruled India.

View from center- Humayun's tomb

Hamida Banu Begum(Akbar's mother), his grieving widow, built his Mausoleum after his death. This building is touted as precursor to Taj Mahal. It stands on a platform of 12000 sq m and reaches a height of 47m.   

Peeking at the Emperor....

The earliest example of Persian influence in Indian architecture, the tomb has within it over 100 graves, earning it the name of "Dormitory of the Mughals".

First monument built with red sandstone and white marble.

Built of rubble masonry, the structure is the first to use red sandstone and white marble in such great quantities.

Lawn in front- built in Persian style

Like all Persian buildings , this one too had the 4 block garden structure with water channels separating each block from other.

Entrance to Humayun's tomb

Quite symmetrical

One striking thing about this monument is the symmetry. No matter from where you look at the main building, the lawn, the path to the monument etc everything has a symmetry and each half is a mirror image of the other.

Humayun's tomb - The Red Taj

I was glad that unlike last time when I clicked Taj Mahal, I learned to keep the base line horizontal to the ground and also clicked most of the pics keeping in mind the proportions.




Nevertheless a lovely and serene place to visit with your family and loved ones. :)

The Day of the Jackal

I had completed the Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. Arguably the fastest I have completed any book of substantial length.

Well I won't call it a scintillating thriller although it has an intriguing webs of twists and turns that makes you continue reading.

The book is about an attempt to assassinate the President of France , General Charles De Gaulle by the OAS which is the rebellious organisation comprising of the army rebellions who felt let down by Charles De Gaulle as he relinquished the control of Algeria and gave it its independece after he became the President of France. This act was taken as an act of betrayal by some loyal France army as they have given their blood and sweat to fight in Algeria against the rebels to whom he had now given the control.

So after 6 failed attempts themselves they plan to hire a foreigner who is a professional assasin.

The reason I was disappointed with the book was  because in the starting pages itself the author reveals that the attempt was a failure (Sorry to have revealed it but I knew anyway if you plan to read it you will get to know about it very quickly).

So the reading became more of an ordeal to find out to how such a meticulously planned attempt fails.

Well hats off to the writer for the way he depicted the planning and also the way the sleuths went about to uncover the plot. The book is like a cat and mouse struggle between the assassin and police . At one point you feel, wow how brilliantly the killer has planned his particular move and at the next the police are at his tail. Then just as you feel, oh he is going to be caught, he changes his plan and again escapes.

One thing about these writers like Frederick Forsyth , John Grisham etc is that they have a vast knowledge about the topics on which they are creating the fictitious story. They are so thorough and detailed about everything that one point you forget that its fiction and you just start beliving in whatever they are saying.

Nevertheless a nice book to read ....

Next I have picked City of Djinns from one of my favorite non-fiction/travel writer William Darymple. I know I am going to love this book as not only the writer is of my liking but even the story is also about my national capital Delhi. Its a story of his first years stay in New Delhi and what all stories he found in this city full of Djinns (Magical creatures who are invisible)

Will update how it was once I am done , which I hope is real quick :)

Update on Books I have read...

Its been real long since I updated about the books that I have read or reading. Infact so long that it was hard for me to locate which was last book about which I updated :(
And I found that I stopped updating long time back last year so I have not written about most of the books last year (I have read close to 25 books last year :)).


So I have decided I will restart from the books that I have read this year and in case anything strikes me about what I read last year I will definitely write a post about it :)
Infact just while searching my blog , I noticed that these posts do help me a lot in recapping what was the book all about, the story, interesting facts etc. So definitely something I must do whenever I complete any book.


While looking for what all books I need to update about, I was really disappointed to note that out of the 12 books that I have to read in this first half of the year (as per the library plan I am subscribed to) I have only managed to read just 4 books :( :(


Nevertheless here is the update...


"From the Holy Mountain " by William Darymple.


A nice travelogue from one of the most contempary travel writer of this generation. This book covers his travel across the conflict trodden Middle East, tracking the ancient Christian sites. He follows the same path as followed by 7th Century traveller and monk John Moschos and bring forth how Christanity is almost on the bringe of eradictation from the holy land, from where it once originated.




William Darymple recreates the landscape, terrains, cultures, people so beautifully that it seems you are yourself travelling alongwith him.


The only drawback I personally find with his writing is that he fails to link a story and instead makes it too obvious that you are reading a non-fiction.


Nevertheless a nice read...


Next up was the man booker prize winner "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.


Life of Pi is the story of Piscine Mortel Patel, an Indian boy who lived in Pondicherry (modern day Pudducherry) alongwith his family. His father owned a zoo. Due to India's political emergency of 70's his father decides to sell it off and migrate to Canada with some of the animals and his family. Its during this trip that they meet with a sea disaster and Pi is left stranded on a life boat with a Zebra, a female Orangutan, a Hyena and a young Royal Bengal Tiger for more than 200 days.


In the initial year of his growing, Pi religiously follows three religions, Hinduism, Christanity and Islam. And his undiluted devotion for the three and the depiction of how religion is not only confided to only those who are born with it but is free for all to pratcise is truly worth reading.




A truly riveting tale of a boys struggle to survive. Keeps you binded and interested. The way the writer describes various animals , their behavior and their surrounding is really commendable. Very rightly in the league of Man Booker Winners.


Next came the spy thriller which is touted as the best spy book ever
"The Spy who came from the Cold" by John Le Carre.


Its indeed a nice book and it seems you are reading a Hollywood movie. The book is quite old so actually its other way around i.e. you can sense that what you see in most of Hollywood spy movies are somewhat inspired from it. Not in story but the character sketches, the aura thats created, locations etc have the essence of this book.
Well the story is not that griping or suspense filled , infact its seems quite a straight forward read but yes it does have a special touch which makes you feel intrigued and plugged to read it continously.


Recently I completed " The Old Man & His God" by Sudha Murty


Sudha Murty is wife of Infosys founder Narayan Murty. She is a very notable writer and social worker. She has written may non-fiction books sharing her experiences and incidents that have occured in her life.

In Sudha Murty's own words, "People often ask me how it is that so many interesting things happen only to me. To them I reply that if you have a sensitive mind and record your observations regularly, you will see your life too is a vast storehouse of stories."

This summarises very well this book , which is collection of short stories rather experiences that Sudha Murty has experienced during the course of her life and work. All of them are quite touching and inspiring. It also contains a story on how Narayan Murty had a change of ideology which eventually led to the formation of the hugely successful Infosys.

Its a nice short read to learn about various human traits and characters that exists in this society.


Now I have started with The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. Its another best selling thriller. Having already read Afghan by the same author I am really looking forward to it.

Just an update...

Like I mentioned in one of my previous post that I plan to master some stuff so here is an update of the same....

History - Well I started reading some high school history books and making notes of the same.

Theology - I am currently reading "From the Holy Mountain" by William Darymple. Its a travelogue which covers his journey across the Middle East, tracing all the ancient places of worship for Christians . As you all must be knowing that Christanity , Islam and Jewism , all three were born at Jerusalem (Holy Mountain) and then spread from there to rest of the world. Till the 19th century most of middle east was dominated by different sects of Christanity but now there are only a handful of Christians left around that place. Although I have been reading it since last month but I could only manage around 150 pages of it . Everytime I think of leaving it and picking up something else I end up reading few pages which motivate me further.

Also like I mentioned earlier about writing few books about religion , so let me share that I have long time back decided on the title for one of them. Although it was initially only planned as a non-fiction book but  now I have decided to write a mixture of fiction and non-fiction on the same. And I have already thought of one of the plot that I will like to include and the main protagonists for the same. In fact I have even finalized the name of two other main characters too :)

Physics - Yet to start something on that subject.

Psychology - Same with it. yet to start.