A great read, an enlightening perspective into the temple of southern India.

For a complete review please click on the link below:

https://onerightword.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/the-smile-of-murugan-michael-wood.ht... ( )

Yet another Michael Wood this year and once again I can't help but feel that he had more fun writing it than I had reading it. Picked this up in Southwark a few weeks ago while on a work trip. It made splendid reading on the plane, but once I got home a slight disappointment set in. I'm sure the temples were lovely and I really can't fault Wood's description, but still it was all a bit "wish you were here.



All that aside, you can't fault his enthusiasm and passion. It's infectious. Not sure when it will happen, but I can't wait to get to India. Not many books make me want to praise God, but this comes close. And who can fault anything with the line, "an equation has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God".

This is a perfect book, although it took a while for me to get into its groove. The author immerses himself, with the assistance of just about everyone he meets, into the culture of South India. But not in the sense of taking up Hinduism, or searching for answers in its mysteries. Just as a man might ´go with the flow´ he follows the specifically Tamil pilgrimage route through South India with friends, strangers and acquaintances abord Mr Ramasamy´s Video Bus. Wood seems to have an unaffected style, an easiness that allows him to move through India without finding reason to criticise anything around him. He shrugs off delays and prevarications, seemingly conscious that he is living inside another culture with its own rules and norms. But he never pretends he is anything but an outsider, although one with a great affection for India.

Wood´s exposition of history, architecture and most of all the Tamil expression of Hinduism is impeccible. He even manages to inject some political and social commentary. The narrative is never heavy, a gentle mixing in of all that I have just mentioned, along with the sights and the people he meets with along the way. His cultural sensitivity is so natural that it is almost undetectable, but apparent in the little asides about asking permission before entering temples, leaving his shoes behind and even sitting on the correct side of the bus (with the men). I can see why so many of the Indians he met seemed to take a shine to him.

I´ve read very few writers who could get inside another culture and tell the story in such an engaging way, perhaps the one that comes to mind is A Journey in Ladakh by Andrew Harvey, but Wood is a much more centred, much more relaxed and open to things than Harvey. Even open to the possibility of being surprised and moved by the intensity of some of the religious experiences he describes. Highly recommended for anyone who loves books about India. I recommend following his journey with internet mapping software for an extra dimension, the ability to zoom into the courtyard of the temples he describes is priceless. ( )