This is the book that stared my long term long distance love affair with India. I have read it several times and have owned two copies. I really like the author's writing style, use of humor and ability to see both the good and the bad - and boy are there both in this book. After the first time I skip the parts dealing with his drug dealer acquaintance - it's very seamy and upsetting to me. I love how he uses history to enhance the story, and the array of different people he meets and deals with More...

To me, going to India to find "truth" or "meaning" has always kind of seemed like something shallow people did in the 1970s. A kind of false awakening in a land where it's easy to shop around for a belief system that allows one to justify his/her preexisting views and opinions while claiming to have changed. Perhaps this is unchanged today (Eat, Pray, Love?)... Paul William Roberts confirms that this is indeed the case for many Western visitors to India. Especially in the 1970s, during which abo More...

By far my favorite book on India. (Read this after I'd been there a couple times.) But then I love Roberts' satirical perspective on almost anything.

Love books on travel - this is one of the best I have ever read on travels in India.

Wonderfully written. Very entertaining and inspiring.

He is from Cambridge and traveled to India in his late 20s and then 20 years later (in the 1990s). First trip was hippie times - drug but also searching out religious answers. In the later trip he goes back to the ashrams and has a change to analyze India and how it has changed in 20 years and how both trips affected him. Interesting book IF you are interested in India.

This book is thick with history and visuals of India -- my cheap substitute for traveling there. You can smell the Chicken Masala when you open this book.

Recommended and lent by Russ. The adventure through India that I wish I experienced.

I'm reading this to remind me of India.