Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald

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.

I liked this book, I liked that I was reading it on a plane to London about to start a new adventure with my friend Lindsey but I didn't like how many times she switched her religious practices, and felt that she was more confused than anything else! From someone who has lived abroad believe me, she is hilarious!!

Publisher Comments:

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.

1 comment:

Neha Sharma said...

I picked his book up quite reluctantly thinking it was yet another babble by a nirvana-seeking Westerner. The first few pages confirmed what I feared. But I still enjoyed the writing style, which is usually unseen in India. And then began the real story. I must have finished in just a few sittings. It shows why an outsider's perspective is sometimes very important to the actual picture. You and I sure do see a guy pissing on a wall, a missing slab on the drain, an open manhole, or millions of such discrepancies in our country. But we seldom give it a second look because it's been just the way India is, and India is going to be. Yet, there's something else that Sarah Macdonald found amidst the filth, smog, grime, lies, inefficiency, backwardness that India often is. A superb book !!!