South India Reading
 

We are reallllly close to making final plans to go to South India in January!

I have good fiction on North India but wondered if you had some good reading to recommend for South India? Or movies?? Many Thanks!

BYW, so far we have planned Chennai,
Madurai. Chettinad,Swamimalai, Tranqueba,Mahabalipuram
Houseboat and Alleppey

Some intial thoughts are below:

<i>The God of Small Things</i>, Arundhati Roy

R.K. Narayan, <i>The English Teacher</i>; <i>Malgudi Days</i>, or any of his books, especially the 12 novels based in a town he created called Malgudi, which he places somewhere south of Chennai.

<i>The House of Blue Mangoes</i> by David Davidar

Salmon Rushdie, <i>Moor’s Last Sigh</i>, set in Cochin

Some non-fiction:

Edward Luce <i>In Spite of the Gods</i>. An engaging analysis of modern India, good background for understanding the current political situation and how India views itself in the larger world. This is applicable to any region.

I would say that most any book by William Dalrymple is interesting, although he has not written any particularly about South India.

It would probably be helpful to have done some background reading on the major Hindu gods, as well as a synopsis of epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as the former will help you understand the purpose of various temples, and the latter will be featured in some of the temple art you will be seeing.

All of the above, plus:

The Raj Quartet - Paul Scott - fiction; an indictment of colonialism;

India: A Million Mutinies Now - V. S. Naipaul - non-fiction; a comparative look at all of India from someone of Indian descent;

The Hindus: An Alternative History - Wendy Doniger - non-fiction; scholarly work (but she has a sense of humor!) examining the history of India through the eyes of women and non-Brahmins;

I have just started Toss of a Lemon. A novel. I am enjoying it so far but only a few dozen pages into it.

Paul Theroux's "The Great Railway Bazaar" is neat.

You can also watch "The Jewel in the Crown," the A & E serialization of "The Raj Quarter." I'm on my third viewing in preparation for my departure on 11/15. Stunning cinematography, mostly in India. I got it from Netflix.

Thank you all so much! As soon as I sign out I'll be on Amazon.com and Netflex!!

Indianpearl,

I checked with Netflex and could not find Raj Quater...is there another name?

It's Raj Quartet, not Quarter. It was a BBC production I believe from sevearal years ago, and as noted above was called the "The Jewel in the Crown" which was the name of the first of the four books. All four books are worth reading.

I should point out that the Raj Quartet deals almost exclusively with events occuring in north India, and also in Burma during WWII. It does touch on the political issues of the 1940s in India, including independence and Partition, but is not really at all relatd to the culture of south India. The film version is not filmed in south India, it's filmed mostly in hill stations and other areas in the north and possibly Mumbai (can't recall if it really is Mumbai or just a studio). So it may not meet your south India criteria.

"The White Tiger." Black comedy, like much of India is (just read Dogster's posts). Won the Man Booker prize. Great, and a fast read.

Don't know what country you're in, but in the U.S. it's NetFLIX.

Here is a NYTimes link from a couple of years ago. There are many books you might enjoy. Also check the comments section. A number of other interesting titles are there as well.

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2...through-india/

Good luck!

Ok, I admit my spelling sucks. But I still can't find Raj Quartet on Netflix. leslie, just ordered The White Tiger- looks good and the article Indianapearl is really helpful.

It's not "The Raj Quartet." Those are the book(s). The film is "The Jewel in the Crown." There are about 17 episodes in four DVDs. Do check them out. They're marvelous, lots of shots in Udaipur as the imaginary Mirat as well as some scenery up in the Himalyas.

OOH, now I got!!! Many Thanks!