Books and reading

I did not read anything apart from itinerary related items online before our trip. At the airport on our way from Kolkata to Bagdogra I found The Secret Diary of Kasturba in the bookshop, however I did not buy it as I was trying to travel light.
I could not find a bookshop when we flew out of the international terminal in Kolkata and it was not available in the Toowoomba library, however I found it as an ebook on Amazon and bought it.
It is a novel, as Ghandi's wife was illiterate, but it gave another perspective on his life after reading his book and another a couple of years back. Judging by the list of references in the back, it was quire well researched and very readable. Knowing something of Ghandi and his search for 'the truth' a term which does not seem to be a good translation, I feel that this helps in trying to understand and appreciate India.
In the past I also read a book by Naipaul and another by a Kolkata journalist on the divisions in India and what has occurred in the past.
Kolkata itself has had a tumultuous past, despite being a very recent city founded at the end of the 17th century by the East India Company.

I picked up a book to read while staying at The Barfung Retreat at Ravangla in Sikkim.
Nine Lives by William Dalrymple, a Scot living near Delhi is subtitled In search of the sacred in modern India. It is a series of stories he has gathered in his travels which illustrate the diversity and acceptance of people within India and has reference to some ideas we have picked up from our Indian philosophy studies and experiences on this trip. I was able to borrow it from Toowoomba library and will continue to read books by him.

While reading these books I was googling Kalimpong and the Odlings as we had visited Crookety, their home where Dr Graham died. I felt that the Steels had probably been there, although it now seems unlikely as it was built about 1940 and sold in 1947. I did however come across a wonderful website A Journey through Western Tibet 1938 with Journals of two young Americans, Vanderhoef and Cummings who stayed with the Odlings at their previous house Glen Rilli in Kalimpong at the same time as Sheena's sister Elizabeth. Their accounts and photos of their trek were most enjoyable reading and added to the bits we picked up from Alister regarding Tibetan buddhism while visiting monasteries in Sikkim.

I returned Nine Lives and came home from the library with Calcutta by Simon Winchester which I chanced upon while looking for books on Japan. Another collection of short stories which are particularly suited to the hot weather and life indoors with the tennis on TV. Again it is well written and gave interesting impressions of the city of palaces, although perhaps a bit out of date and Bristish oriented.

At the same time as these books, I have endeavoured to read Stories from the Punjab, a collection of folk stories by Flora Annie Steel and published in 1894. I bought many years ago in Innisfail. It is illustrated by the father of Rudyard Kipling.

At Barfung, Liz was reading Sikkim Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom, which she recommended so I ordered it online when we got back. It has sat while I worked my way through India, but again it ties in with my previous reading.
I  have found it interesting to read, but not very pertinent to our trip although I will look forward to finishing it before we return to Sikkim. I hope we can go to Gangtok and North Sikkim with Alister some time and to the Tibetan border.