Rate this book

Tamarind City: Where Modern India Began (2012)

by Bishwanath Ghosh(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

9381626337 (ISBN13: 9789381626337)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Tranquebar

review 1: Last week we celebrated Madras Day, the day on which Fort St George was born, and I picked up this book for some topical reading. I'm not from Madras. I hail from the French colonial town of Pondicherry, 3 hours south of Madras, but as work brought me here and I grew up to love history, I wanted to know something about the city I now live in.I loved this book, every bit of it. Its amazingly well written and researched, and brings the author's love of the city and its people out in a dazzling narrative. I don't think he could have written it badly even if he tried to, though - the people and the places whose stories he narrates are beautiful subjects. And the newspaperman's eye for facts and small details add credibility to a sometimes emotionally charged book.I found out s... moreo much about the city I live in, how it used to be and how its people used to live. This is important in a time when young people of my generation are losing out on the history, culture and tradition that weaves all of us Indians together.There are so many places in the book that I haven't seen yet and will soon be off exploring. I will most probably carry it with me too.For all of us Madrasis, native & adopted, this is a must-read. This great city deserves books like these.PS - For the bibliophile in me, the author recommends legendary historian S. Muthiah's 'Madras Rediscovered'. I have read parts of it a long time ago, I'll be buying it again as soon as the 7th edition comes out in December this year.
review 2: Virtually travelled through Madras reading this book. With a fluid style of narration, Ghosh manages to cover most of the issues, topics and personalities one would usually associate with Madras - Clive, Wellesley, Yale, Annadurai, Karunanidhi and his bete noir, the Iyer-Iyengar rivalry, Carnatic music, Medical tourism, SEZ boom - name it and you more or less have it. What made the book more endearing to me was the fact that a supposedly conservative and traditional 'South' Indian city managed to win the heart of a Bengali bred in North India. Ghosh's understanding of the nuances of the city's culture and prejudices were more or less on target less

Download links for: Tamarind City: Where Modern India Began

Advertising