Reflections

Book review :  Sonam B Wangyal: Darjeeling Stories: Sahibs, Natives and Oddballs . In the general knowledge books which were very popular in our schooldays, Darjeeling was always referred to as the “Queen of the Hills”. This was a matter of parochial pride for us; later, of course, we discovered that the same soubriquet was applied to Simla and Ooty and god only knows what other places. Be that as it may, Darjeeling was and still is a lovely place to visit. The principal attraction now and always has been the view of the Kanchenjunga massif which, if you are lucky, provides a view that is only rivaled by the view of the Macchapuchare and Annapurna range from Pokhara. The Darjeeling hills were part of Sikkim in the eighteenth century. At the end of the eighteenth century the all-conquering Gurkhas who united the country of Nepal also took over the part of the hills West of the Teesta, more specifically the land between the Mechi river which is today the border between...

This book has been written by a veteran Malaysian journalist Wam Hulaimi who initially wrote it as a blog under the name Awang Goneng. I had seen a review of this book in one of the newsletters here, but it was only when I got my hands to the book that I realized what a gem it is. The blog is here: http://kecek-kecek.blogspot.com/ The writer was born and brought up in Terengganu, a state in the eastern Coast of Malaysia. Even today it is known for its laid back atmosphere, the lovely beaches and the Islamic fervor of the population. Incidentally their football term recently won the Federal Cup just across the road from where I live at the Bukit Jalil stadium. I have visited Kuala Terengganu, the capital sometime back. I wrote about it as well, you can check it out here. http://akdcts.blogspot.com/2010/02/kuala-terengannu.html This book is something else. Written as series of small essays, it covers all aspects of the Terengganu of the author’s childhood, reminding us of the people...

Michel Danino who is by birth a Frenchman, but has lived in India for more than 25 years has written a marvelous book on the River Saraswati. This river was mentioned in the Rig Veda as the most important of rivers, a mighty river with grassy banks on whose shore the Vedic Rishis wrote the hymns that are universally accepted to be some of the most sublime philosophy ever written. The geography of the region that they lived in was well described. The Nadistuti Sukta, a hymn in praise of rivers enumerates 19 rivers which were of importance in the Vedic world. From east to west they were enumerated as the Ganges, Yamuna, Saraswati, Shatudru (Sutlej), Parushni ( Ravi) Asikni ( Chenab) Vitasta ( Jhelum) and so on. All the other rivers have been identified, but the Saraswati remained an enigma. However as Danino shows in his marvelous book published last year by Penguin India, the Saraswati had been identified with the Ghaggar system long ago, when the first British administrators came to th...