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Average rating4
The fascinating and revealing story of Frater's journey through India in pursuit of the astonishing Indian summer monsoon. On 20th May the Indian summer monsoon will begin to envelop the country in two great wet arms, one coming from the east, the other from the west. They are united over central India around 10th July, a date that can be calculated within seven or eight days. Frater aims to follow the monsoon, staying sometimes behind it, sometimes in front of it, and everywhere watching the impact of this extraordinary phenomenon. During the anxious period of waiting, the weather forecaster is king, consulted by pie-crested cockatoos, and a joyful period ensues: there is a period of promiscuity, and scandals proliferate. Frater's journey takes him to Bangkok and the cowboy town on the Thai-Malaysian border to Rangoon and Akyab in Burma (where the front funnels up between the mountains and the sea). Alexander Frater's fascinating narrative reveals the exotic, often startling discoveries of an ambitious and irresistibly romantic adventure
Reviews with the most likes.
I enjoyed book, without pushing on to a 5* (a lot of reviewers loved it, which had given me high expectations), but it was easy to read, and passed on information in a comfortable way.
Not only writing about his travel in India, travelling with the monsoon, starting in Kerala, moving north and ending Cherrapunji (Meghalaya) the author also writes a lot about his early life in Vanuatu (the New Hebrides, as it was called at the time), with his father and grandfather, who were prominent figures there.
He meets interesting people, he visits some more out of the way sights, he talks about the monsoon. It is interesting for the fact he doesn't resort to repeating himself too much - I mean, it is a book about the monsoon, so yes he talks about that a lot...
For me his bureaucratic battle to visit Cherrapunji and Shillong in Meghalaya was alone worth the read. There is something so ‘India' about that.
P199 ” You could see the fellows at Foreigners Regional Registration Office, They might chaneg this ruling. - I've already been there. Twice. - Well, so be it. - Mr Rao, what's my file number? - I cannot give you that. It's confidential. - You could give it to them. - Impossible.”
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