Around India in 80 Trains: One of the Independent's Top 10 Books about India

I bought this after reading a review and excerpt in The Guardian, which I'd recommend to anyone considering buying this. Having travelled a couple of times on Indian trains I wanted to relive the experience and learn more about the things I haven't done. I bought it on Kindle so didn't make much use of the map at the front, but Instead tracked the journeys on Google Maps which helped me learn more about the size and breadth of India and the places I haven't yet been.The author is an established journalist and this shows in the writing. It flows well, is an easy but interesting read, and captures the imagination. It describes the humanity one would encounter anywhere in the world, but with insight into India and its people that would help anyone planning to travel there or understand some of the culture - and the food!!. There's also a warmth and sense of forgiveness and self-awareness that makes me want to read more by this author.I keep talking about it to friends so it's made a big impression. Too often I buy a book and leave it on the side for later. I'm glad I started this.

Monisha Rajesh knows she is English. In 1991 her father--a doctor--decided to return to India, but after two years he'd had enough. Monisha found out what it was like to be a foreigner--she could speak little Hindi, and as a schoolgirl she faced more discrimination than she ever experienced in England. Now, she passes Norman Tebbit's cricket test: she only supports India when they aren't playing England.However, as an ambitious young journalist, she dreamed up an idea that would propel her from the relative obscurity of a drama critic into a wider audience. And she has largely succeeded. India is changing rapidly--the middle classes have shopping malls and they buy expensive branded fashion accessories. But the majority of the population is still very poor. Rajesh, who travels mostly in second class, spends most of her time with people who are not quite poor, but far from wealthy--the aspiring classes, people like young engineers and small businessmen.It's a fascinating journey, even if she does move around at such a hectic pace that you only get superficial glimpses of people and places. India is still a free country--it's still far too poor to afford health and safety regulations, and if it weren't so hot I might be tempted to go there myself.At the end, Rajesh almost has a nervous breakdown, and spends a week at a meditation centre which (unusually for India) is actually free of charge. It's a bit weird, but it does slow her down enough to change her life. Not quite enough to free her from all of her attachments, but enough to get her back to England with her sanity intact.And she finally becomes reconciled to her escort, a Norwegian photographer who is a militant atheist. Rajesh, who is not a believer herself, quite sensibly tolerates other people's beliefs. However, her escort keeps badgering her for her refusal to condemn religion. We realise that in the West, only atheists are allowed to proselytise--and they are just as annoying as someone who demands to know whether you have been 'saved'. Needless to say, her escort doesn't try it on with the natives, so Rajesh gets the full force of his resentment about the hold that religion has on most Indians. In the middle of the journey, she decides to go it alone without an escort after he calls her a "f****** bitch", but they meet up again and he apologises.This is a lively and engaging book, and it misses its fifth star largely because the people she meets on the trains come and go so quickly that we don't really get to know them (nor does Rajesh). She decides she wants to return to India again at some unspecified future date. I hope that when she does she discovers the secret of travel--to stay in one place for long enough to form permanent friendships.

This is a brilliant, hilarious, razor sharp, life changing journey... A really fresh take on "travel writing". Massively entertaining and a real education. Every year I say "I must go to India" this year. Every year I chicken out. I bought this book because I love train journeys, and found the idea of touring a country using its rail network really romantic. I read this book at two sittings (on the Eurostar, in fact) and absolutely loved it. There's a bigger story here than just "travel" or the concept of ticking off trains... the author brings her whole family history and personal experience to the table and does it in such a bright and evocative way. I bought a Bill Bryson book once and lasted two chapters - I just felt like he makes it all up and has little to say. Rajesh really lives it - good, bad, terrifying or magical... and has plenty to say. In many ways, the book has made my mind up: I'll now never go to India because I can't hack what Rajesh went through. It sounds ghastly! In other ways, it makes me want to go tomorrow - there are so many wonderful moments. And what Rajesh does so well, is keep the reader glued with her prose and imagery. It's cliché free and often hysterically funny.

I had high hopes, and although I did like the writing style, there's a bit too much of a focus on the trains themselves and the author's relationship with her travel buddy. I had expected a bit more description on the views and the experiences in the different locations, but it was quite hard to visualise things at times.

Being an ardent traveller of the Indian railways, having studied in Kerala and spending 40 hours from delhi to Kannur in a train, I had thought I’ve fulfilled my quota of the Indian railways for this lifetime. But this book installs a sense of tamanche with the biggest railway network in the world.Beautiful storytelling with facts on point ! A great read !

Excelente libro para conocer mucho sobre otra cultura

I love India and I love trains. Great read

The journey seems rather pointless. It’s well written. There’s nothing really memorable in the text or scenarios.

Sizzling with elegant metaphors at every turn, the richness of the prose, the imagery which the words conjure up, make this book a real delight. A magnificent début from a young author, a real tour de force! Gosh, I wish I could write like that! Sunil