a hepful book for first time Indian pilgrims ( )

"A memoir" ( )

Especially after living sometime in India firangi exoticizing of India becomes really really annoying. ( )

I related to the author in many ways during my tour of India. Shame the B story about her relationship with her boyfriend didn't engage me, though. ( )

[Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure] by Sarah MacDonald
-1★'s

From The Book:
In her twenties, journalist Sarah MacDonald backpacked around India and came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution and poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India—and for love—she screamed, “Never!” and gave the country, and him, the finger.

But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life and death.

[Holy Cow] is MacDonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—and her sanity—can survive.

My Thoughts:
I read this to complete a challenge and the cover looked interesting. Both bad reasons to read a book. Shame on me! I found her entire approach to "investigating" the people and beliefs of this country to be obnoxious and condescending. No one forced her to return to India and I'm sure the people of India were more than happy to see her backside getting on the plane. The author's attitude toward India and Indians combines the worst of both the old and the new west by patronizingly sneering at a culture she doesn't understand and obviously has no desire to, much less offer any sign of respect. I've guess I've read worse books but I can't remember when.