“White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India” is a marvellous non-fictional work by Dalrymple. The sheer detailness and vastness of the subject shows meticulous research done by William Dalrymple for this book.

The book is set in late 18th century and early 19th century India and tells the romantic affair and marriage between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, East India Company resident in Nizam’s Hyderabad, and Khair-un-Nisa, a Hyderabadi nobleman’s grand-daughter. I think I have put it very much in simple terms but this book is more than this love affair. It is a research into complex East India working during those early days as well as a research into their complex administrators and office bearers. It is a research into cultural, religious and political state-of-affairs from Indian perspective. It is a research into Nizam’s & Maratha’s political clout at that time as well as English and French impact on it. The book is solely based on historical archives from those times - never once Dalrymple tries to put unnecessary words into the main character’s mouth. It is really a remarkable feat considering the sensational nature of the topic itself.

A great book and must read for anyone who likes to read about Indian history as well as Anglo-Indian legacy with East India Company.

It Happened One Night is a comedy released in 1934, from the stable of Director Frak Capra. The movie was based on a story by Samuel Hopkins Adams, called Night Bus. The movie was very popular, and was the first movie to win all 5 major Oscars
- Best Picture,
- Best Director: Frank Capra,
- Best Actor: Clark Gable
- Best Actress: Claudette Colbert
- Best Screenplay: Robert Riskin
An interesting tidbit is that Clark Gable’s award statuette was auctioned in 1996, Steven Spielberg had the winning bid of $607,500. He got it, and then donated the award to the Academy. No such luck for Claudette’s award; when it was offered for auction in the next year, nobody bid for it.

The movie had a different sort of love story - a mismatched couple; an indifferent out of work reporter out for a story, and a superior acting heiress running away from a protective father. The story of how they came together over a period of time (the title is a bit misleading, no climatic event happens on any one night), and realize that they are in love with each other was skilfully presented, making this an all time great movie. And this was after neither Gable nor Colbert were satisfied by the script, but after starting the movie, they accepted it. The end result was a movie that was reckoned to be smart, sexy, funny, and a great see. Imagine a movie in the 30’s having a scene where the hero claims to be an expert at hitch-hiking, but is unable to stop a single passing vehicle. Then the heroine uses her unfair advantage by lifting her skirt and flashing a bit of thigh, presto, a vehicle stops.
The movie is about this rich heiress Ellie Andrews; spoilt rotten by her father. She falls for a rich money-seeking and handsome weasel, King Westley. Her dad stops her in the nick of time, but the call of love is over-powering and she jumps off from her prison aboard the family yacht and wants to make her way to New York to join her love. Boarding the bus, she meets Peter Warne (Clark Gable). Gable has just been fired from his newspaper. They have a brief skirmish over a seat; when that is settled, she misses her bus the next day (hilariously assuming that the bus will wait for her when she is having a great breakfast). Her purse has been stolen, she has no money, and the reporter has recognized her. He threatens to tell her dad about her location unless she gives him the story, and what a juicy story that will be.
They have to spend nights at motels on the way, and he uses a clothesline with a blanket to separate the single room in which they are staying (staying as a married couple in order to save money). All the time he taunts her for being a rich spoilt girl (when she suspects him of being funny by booking a room as a husband and wife, he turns it around by telling her that he is only interested in the story and not in her). Near the end, he leaves the motel for some work, and the couple owning the motel kick her out suspecting some funny business. Ellie is so disoriented that she calls her dad, who is so relived at getting her back that he agrees for her marriage. In a misunderstanding, she thinks that Peter has betrayed her, while Peter believes that she has double-crossed him.
Peter does contact her dad, but not to claim the large reward, but only the sum that he spent on her. Her father is so intrigued that he gets after the reporter until Peter tells the truth, he is in love with Ellie, although if he were rational, there was no reason that he should be in love with her. The climax, the marriage scene. Andrews tells his daughter that Peter did not betray her, he only came for the expenses, and if she really loves Peter and wants to make her dad happy, she should run away. There is a car waiting at the back, and she does. The happy dad negotiated with Westley to get the earlier marriage annulled, and everybody is happy.

I’ll admit it right away, there are many of Bill Bryson’s books that I really liked. I had read some of Bryson’s later books before I read this one, so there was always the thought that maybe his earlier books would not have the same level of humour, and the great style of writing that I always liked. Well, I felt great while reading the book and did not regret it one bit. He writes a lot about travel and adventure, while presenting a great deal of information. And to tell the truth, I had not heard of the Appalachian Trail before reading this book; by the time I had finished, I knew a great deal more. And it was not only me; after this book was published in 1998, there was an upsurge in interest about the trail, with a lot more people wanting to hike the trail.

The book is about the attempt by the author and his old college buddy, Stephen Katz, to walk the 2100 miles of the Appalachian Trail from start to finish. Neither of the 2 is in top physical condition, with Katz in a much worse physical condition. By the end, neither of them has done anything like what they attempted to do, having covered a very small section overall of the trail (and for which the book was criticised to some extent, as a travel book that did not even cover the whole trail).
In addition, the book was also criticized to a large degree because of the depiction of fellow hikers, with the author having been accused of turning them into absurdities.
However, the fact remains that this is not just a travel book. The book is not supposed to be a guide for traveling the trail, instead it is a humorous depiction of a journey, with the focus on the effort and the adventures while on the trail. The book is chock full of humour that makes you laugh, and makes you want to read more. About the travel of the author with his old friend, the entire adventure from the start (preparing what to take, and what to discard), and how whether their physical condition is adequate for the trip that they are considering.
The fear of bears, and maybe of mountain lions, is apparent in the writing, and the time where the author described how a bear came into the camp makes for some riveting reading. The book also tries to explain a lot of geological information (how the mountains and its various aspects came into existence), how the trail was formed due to the efforts of 2 dedicated people, and a lot about the fauna and flora along the trail. You also get to read a lot about the various stops, towns, and fellow hikers that they meet when on the trail.
The only time when the book deviates from the light reading and humour is when you can perceive the author’s anger against the mismanagement of the trail by various administrative bodies such as the Parks and Forest Services of the federal Government, as well as the ineptitude of the US Army Corps of Engineers. He is downright hostile to their mismanagement, and when you read the way in which the information is presented, you can tend to agree with him.
Overall, this is a book that is worth reading, and you might find yourself chuckling along with the author.

Asimov wrote almost all his science fiction with stories geared to the future. In some of them, his ideas fail spectacularly after a period of time (his concept of one giant computer and MultiVac), but it is his stories of the evolution of a society of a future that is much more realistic, and it would be very much possible to look a thousand years down and find a resemblance to the society that he has created. Asimov wrote some of his greatest works when detailing the interaction of humans in the future, and about the society that got developed. The Caves of Steel is a combination of 2 distinct ideas - one is about the development of human society, and the other is about the development of robotics as an ever present strain. It is incredible to read his future novels and see how he almost single-handedly develops the concept of robots as an integral part of society (whether liked or hated), as well as develops the ethical and moral dilemmas concerning robots.

It is in the depiction of the positronic brain being the base for the development of the truly thinking robot that was a great spark and made these novels special. A positronic humanoid robot is the evolution of robotics - strong like all robots, but capable of independent thought and action, and yet bound by another of Asimov’s great contribution to the field of making robotics a much more human friendly science (The three Laws of Robotics that form the basis for all robotic thought and action).
The Caves of Steel also develops 2 characters who play a role in many of Asimov’s future novels - the plainclothes detective Elijah Baley, and the humanoid robot R. Daneel Olivaw (who went to star in many of the other robots and foundation novels). This is the first novel in which they start working together, with Eijah being hesitant because of the taboos against robots in the society on earth at that point of time. It is not the best in the series, far from it, but it is worth reading because it is legitimately the first one in an incredible series (this does not mean that the novel is badly written, but that The Naked Sun is a better written work).
These 2 books (The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun) are also different from the others because these are stories set in the future with a very strong focus on detective work and investigation, the society forms more of a backdrop. The Caves of Steel actually refers to the vast cities on which a seething humanity, 8 billion strong lives. These are vast underground cities in which people hardly ever get a chance to see the sun, and in fact almost all of them would get disoriented and shaken on seeing the sun. As a contrast, human settlers on other worlds (50 of them) are a well settled financially dominant society, enjoying a much longer life and having a robot dominated life, with these robots making their life comfortable. Earth is dominated by these settlers (called Spacers) in terms of their power (although most Spacers would be uncomfortable being near the humans on earth).
With such a skewed power play, one of the prominent Spacers on earth is killed, and earth could face a major problem from the spacers unless the culprit is found. Finding the culprit is a thankless task, since failure could spell severe trouble for the detective incharge, and to Elijah falls the task of doing the investigation. In addition, he gets a Spacer to be his partner in the investigation, but this is not a normal spacer. This is an expensive state of the art humanoid robot, and Elijah has to overcome his own biases against robots, and at the same time, prevent Daneel from getting harmed by other humans during the investigation. Can he pull this off ?

The Indiana Jones series were pure action and adventure flicks, packing a heavy dose of adventure, travel and action, in the shape of an persona who could be described as the James Bond of adventure. This comparison is even more interesting because the first (and possibly the best Bond), Sean Connery was brought in to play the role of Indiana Jone’s father in this movie. The addition of Sean Connery and the scenes between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford (playing the role of Indiana Jones again) led to some interesting scenes including a fair dose of comedy in their interaction. By the time of this movie, the Indiana Jones series had already had 2 releases (Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark & Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and there was a lot of expectation from the third movie in the series.

Opinion is divided as to whether this movie matched upto the previous 2 movies; my personal opinion is that this movie had the required dose of action, adventure, villains, and historical legend in order to make it a thoroughly enjoyable movie. One comes out of the movie having thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and the addition of Sean Connery to the cast made it even better. Similarly, Harrison Ford seems a good fit for the role of Indiana Jones; one can watch his facial expressions and gesture during the various situations that he finds himself in, and find yourself rooting for him.
It is normally expected that a movie like Indiana Jones cannot be Oscar material (those are now seen as being for far more serious movies), but this movie was indeed nominated for 3 Oscars (none of the top ones though or for the acting ones):
* Best Sound Effects Editing - Won Oscar
* Original Score - Nominated
* Sound - Nominated
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade mostly won praise from critics, and most importantly, won on the popular front. On a budget of $48 million, it garnered a sum of over $470 million worldwide. The success of this movie was another milestone in the immense reputation of Steven Spielberg as a great film-maker and director.
The movie’s main cast was Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Sean Connery as professor Henry Jones (Indiana’s father), portrayed as one of the professor kind of person, always busy in his research and not much given to caring for his son.
In addition, the movie also had the following people playing important roles - Denholm Elliott as Dr. Marcus Brody: Indiana’s bumbling colleague, John Rhys-Davies as Sallah: A friend of Indiana and a professional excavator, Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider: An Austrian professor who is in league with the Nazis, Julian Glover as Walter Donovan: An American businessman who is in league with the nazis and wants immortality, and River Phoenix plays the young Indiana Jones in the film’s opening.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade went through a wide geographic diversity in terms of movie locations, with shooting happening at the following locations - Venice, Almeria, Jordan, Austria, Germany, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Texas.
The movie was released in 1989, and is set in the time of the Nazis, in 1938. The movie is based on the search for The Holy Grail, the mythical cup from which Christ drank during the last supper and which is supposed to give the drinker miraculous powers. The Holy Grail is a holy artifact that has been much sought after over the centuries, and spinning a movie around it would in fact inform a lot of viewers about what the Holy Grail was supposed to be.
Indiana Jones gets to know from a wealthy businessman Walter Donovan that his father, Dr. Henry Jones vanished while searching for clues to the Holy Grail. Indiana starts at the spot (along with Dr. Elsa Schneider) where his father vanished, in a library in Venice, and soon finds an underground set of chambers full of oil and rats. And then starts trouble. A cult dedicated to the protection of the Holy Grail ‘The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword’, sets fire to the oil in order to kill them. Indiana and companions manage to escape almost the entire cult except for their leader Kazim, whom they manage to convince that the they are looking for Indiana’s father and not for the Holy Grail. Convinced, Kazim tells them about the location of his father.
Indiana manages to rescue his father, while learning of the reality of Donovan and Dr. Else (they were Nazi sympathizers and betray Indiana to the Nazi); and they go through a series of adventures (including meeting Hitler), on a Zeppelin airship, on a fighter place, on a car, on a tank, all the time being pursued by the Nazis. These scenes are the core of the action of an Indiana Jones movie, with the action being varied, fast, and furious. And then they reach the ancient Canyon where the Holy Grail is situated. There are a range of booby traps that Indiana manages to evade, but he has now a person reason to get to the grail. His father has been shot so that Indiana has to get to the grail to save him. They (Indiana, his companions, Else and Donovan) reach the Holy Grail and encounter the historic knight (a knight from the First Crusade who is alive because of the grail).
Indiana manages to save his father, while Donovan, making a wrong choice, rapidly ages and crumbles to dust. In the end, it is the greed of Else which causes the whole place to collapse; they lose the grail but Indiana and his companions manage to escape.

In this book, Bill Bryson attempts to recreate the travel itinerary of his youth some seventeen years earlier when he backpacked across Europe with one of his high school friend; He is alone this time with rucksack and notebook. This book a mixture of his lively anecdotes, sharp observations, and flashbacks to his earlier tour.

The book covers Norway (Hammerfest, Oslo), France (Paris), Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Spa, Durbuy), Germany (Aachen, Cologne, Hamburg), Holland (Amsterdam), Denmark (Copenhagen), Sweden (Gothenburg, Stockholm), Italy (Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Florence, Milan, Como), Switzerland (Brig, Geneva, Bern), Liechtenstein, Austria (Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna), Yugoslavia (Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade), Bulgaria (Sofia), and Turkey (Istanbul).

The book is pure entertainment (provided you must not fail to catch the humor there). He is quite honest about what he liked or what he did not liked. And he was prompt is downgrading his rating for a “well-known” place once he reached there and did not found it up to the mark. He also diligently lavishes praises on lesser known places. He surely avoids the usual travel writer obligation to adore every place (read famous places) they visit.

I know that some of you may find this book rather strangely funny - or, even absurd at times. But only if you’re obsessed with political correctness, he may offend you, but he is democratic in his targets. He has some quite interesting observations to make. Although most of the observations are now out of the date (he wrote the book in 1990) but they are funny and a refreshing change from the breathless romanticism of so many guidebooks and travel brochures. He also shows that Europe and Britain aren’t as perfect as they look from the windows of a tour bus.

Most of us must have heard following opening lines of a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

The poem references Mongol and Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty and his summer capital Xanadu or Shangdu (as popularly known). Xanadu has a significant place in western history as well because it was the destination of the most famous Marco Polo’s trip from Jerusalem to China (which he called Cathay) carrying oil from Holy Sepulcher & presents from Pope Gregory X for Kublai Khan between 1271 & 1274.

In his book by name of ‘In Xanadu - A Quest’, William Dalrymple retraces the epic journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Xanadu, the ruins of the palace of Kubla Khan, north of Peking carrying oil from Holy Sepulcher, in the summer of 1986. He calls this book as a quest - not a vacation - just because it involves hardship and suffering not accompanied by a vacation. An intrepid traveler, and entertaining writer, Dalrymple offers an anecdotal history of the people and places he encounters en route through Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and the breadth of China. An overland passage through these closed countries is an incredible travel feat in itself.

Although I did not found this book to be as engrossing or interesting as some of the other ones by William Dalrymple. But still, this is not a great book; it is an interesting book. Much of the book is the usual stuff of travel: difficulties in getting official clearance; locals speaking funny (read faulty) English; stomach upsets due to eating strange food at various roadside eateries; staying at inns which are sometimes as dirty as roads outside; and so on. However, in some sections he writes about more interesting things like how dull Polo’s own account really is, developments in Islamic architecture, the history of some of the places, recognizing Marco’s Polo description of a place and mapping it into current state of affairs. In totality, an interesting enough book by a 22 year old (remember this was his first book).

Read this book if:
1. You love reading travel books which are not like essays.
2. You are on a vacation which has turned wrong - in this book you will find that it could have been worse