William Darlymple - Nine Lives

I just finished reading Nine Lives from William Dalrymple. I was very dissappointed by the book. I have been a big fan of his ever since I read City of Djinns - one of the finest books I have read with an indian theme. I do feel delhi is a lucky city - it has two great books written about it Kushwant Singh's book which I read almost 15 years ago - think it was called Delhi and then City of Djinns. I also loved Dalrymple's The age of kali - especially the the chapter about Sati. I felt like somebody had taken my thoughts and views on the subject and put in words better than I would have ever been able to.

I even hated the topic of Nine Lives because it was another non-Indian author selling Indian spirituality. I expected better from one of my favorite non-Indian authors on India. Also the attempt at focussing on the subjects and speaking in their words did not work - I was actually bored of the book and was skipping paras to see if it becomes more interesting but it did not. Maybe this book would be of interest to non-Indian readers who will read it and love Indian spirituality or feel what a ridiculous set of people and feel superior to us. It was that kind of book - i.e., the very worst kind of book on India.