Introduction ashish:

This book by former under-secretary general of the United Nations and

prolific author Shashi Tharoor is a compilation of several of his essays and
columns that he wrote in the last decade or so (Tharoor writes for a
number of national and international newspapers.)

Bewildering diversity is the very essence of India, observes novelist and

columnist Tharoor (The Great Indian Novel) in this engaging collection of essays,
which tries to reconcile the country's clashing traditions with progress and
liberalism. Hinduism's promiscuous openness to other beliefs and cultures makes
it a model of secular tolerance, he argues, though Hindu fundamentalist bigotry
is his favorite target. Tharoor also insists that ancient Indian science anticipated
quantum mechanics, and praises his home state of Kerala for raising female
literacy rates. (In a rare nostalgic note, he mourns the demise of the sari, then
fences with a backlash of critical e-mail responses from pants-wearing women.)
Most of all, he celebrates India's compatibility with the global economy, a stance
that occasionally shades into business boosterism. Many pieces are drawn from
Tharoor's columns and feature quick, sketchy takes on Indian cultural
touchstones, from political corruption to Bollywood to cricket; his themes tend to
be repeated rather than developed. But Tharoor's ready wit-an Indian without a
horoscope is like an American without a credit card-and sympathetic insight
combine in a fascinating portrait of Indian society.

Ankit:
This book is a must read for Non Resident Indians. Mr. Tharoor has perfectly
portrayed India in a way NRIs would manifest their experiences of their home
country. Though the book is not targeted only for Indians, it has few historical &
personal references that only a true Indian can understand. 

The book starts with little bit of Indian history talking about "People who made
my India" that includes noted Indians from all sects including politics, cricket &
bollywood. The author also provides a glimpse of India's culture (spirituality,
traditional family values) & tourism (experiences at Ajanta & Ellora caves,
Ayurvedic resort in Kerala) followed by India's progress in this 21st century (call
centers,; cellphone surge). Since Mr. Tharoor has been associated with the
United Nations, the facts about India's growth, outlined in the book, truly
suggest that India is the 21st century's emerging power. 

Ashish:
Interest in India has never been greater. Here Shashi Tharoor, one of the
subcontinent ‘s most respected writers and diplomats, offers precious insights
into this complex, multifaceted land, which despite its dazzling diversity of
languages, customs, and cultures remains more than 60 years after its founding
the world ‘s largest democracy. He describes the vast changes that have
transformed this once sleeping giant into a world leader in science and
technology, a nation once poverty-stricken that now boasts a middle class of
over 300 million people as large as the entire population of the United States!
Artfully combining hard facts and statistics with opinion and observation, Tharoor
discusses the strengths and weaknesses of his rapidly evolving homeland in five
areas politics, economics, culture, society, and sports and takes a fresh look at
the world ‘s second most populous country.

The interesting part of Tharoor's writing is that there is not only much
insight to be found here, there's also a clear stand that he presents at the
end of every essay.

The only places where he stumbles is in his assessment of the Hindi film
industry. It’s clear that Tharoor's understanding of the Mumbai film
industry is limited and his perception narrow. It's especially difficult to
digest what he says about the Big B of Bollywood, " To appreciate
Amitabh Bachchan, you have to confuse action with acting and prefer
height to depth"
That apart, there's much to reflect and take home from this book. An
exceptional guide in the understanding of India and its myriad moods.

Deepika:
I adore Tharoor's erudite and amusing writing. This book feels like home with its
loving description of all that matters - cricket, family, community, cinema,
history, religion and politics - in that order. The author's pet theme is the
ostensibly unwieldy yet absurdly functional pluralism fed by a range of coalition
memberships - geographies, cricket solidarities and common political
antipathies. 

I love that Tharoor describes his India as an individual experience rather than an
objective concept. Tharoor subtly endorses the thumping progressive new
Indians with his metaphor of an elephant who became a tiger - suggesting
provocatively that the vulgarly ostentatious 'five star culture' is more authentic
than the discreet opulence of the club culture. However, his intense nostalgia
quite clear in the subtext of every syllable - the longing for the old names
Madras and Bombay, the self-conscious diginity of Nehruvian democracy and the
portrayal of St. Stephens as a modern Nalanda of sorts! 
Yet, there is nothing fatalistic or too precious about Tharoor - he denounces
superstition and horsocopes and doesn't mind writing that as a man he'd like to
see women in elegant saris. It's the sort of nice nationalism that warms one
without being too jarring or jingoistic.

Ankit vyas:
For more than four decades after gaining independence, India, with its massive size
and population, staggering poverty and slow rate of growth, was associated with the
plodding, somnolent elephant, comfortably resting on its achievements of centuries
gone by. Then in the early 1990s the elephant seemed to wake up from its slumber
and slowly begin to change until today, in the first decade of the twenty-first century,
some have begun to see it morphing into a tiger. As India turns sixty Tharoor
reminds us of the paradox that is India, the elephant that is becoming a tiger: with
the highest number of billionaires in Asia, it still has the largest number of people
living amid poverty and neglect, and more children who have not seen the inside of a
schoolroom than any other country.

Katha:
Tharoor seems to leave no stone unturned, and whether it’s covering off
urbanisation, globalisation, technology, innovation, right through to politics, cultural
norms, dressing norms down to India’s 3 religions (Religion, Cricket and Cinema),
this is an diverting and instructive book artfully combining hard facts and statistics
with personal opinions and observations, Tharoor offers a fresh, insightful look at this
timeless and fast-changing society.
What I walked away with, and the chapters that still loud and clear in my head, are
Tharoor’s chapters on “indianness” and what it means to be an “indian”. As the
worlds largest democracy, despite having an population which compromises of 80%
Hindu’s, it’s a country where Jews, Muslims, Parsi’s, Catholics and Christians have
been living together for Millions of years. And each and every one of these people
consider themselves an “indian”. The idea that the India should be dictated by it’s
majority religion (in this case the Hindu’s) very much defeats the purpose of India. In
a country where the Prime Minister is a Sikh and the President a Muslim one would
be hard pushed to say that what makes India what it is….is it’s diversity. As Tharoor
aptly puts it “the real argument in our country is between those who believe in
an India where differences of caste, creed, conviction, class, culture, cuisine,
costume, and custom shouldn’t determine your Indianess…..