Cobra Road: An Indian Journey - Hardcover

Fishlock, Trevor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719555167 ISBN 13: 9780719555169

Publisher: John Murray Pubs Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

Trevor Fishlock set off from the harsh and haunted gables of the Khyber, zigzagged to the dazzle of India's southern tip at Cape Comorin and came at last to the little town whose intriguing name was the seed of his odyssey. Out of it all emerges the smell and feel of the subcontinent, a grand tapestry, history laced into the urgent present.
Cobra Road ranges from the land of the 'Khyberees', nursery of the ruthless modern conquerors of Afghanistan, to brilliant and bloodied Punjab; to Kashmir, a paradise seemingly cursed by malignant gods and the unfinished business of history; to the deserts of Kutch; to the place where Gandhi drove in a coach and four to be hailed as the Great Soul; to the halls of haughty Rajput kings; to Bombay, teeming, loved and hated; to Delhi; to the pepper provinces around Cochin and the coconut grove in Kerala where the first spice-hungry Europeans landed; to the highlands of Coorg; to bandit country; to the Centre of the World ... and beyond.

About this title

About the Author

Trevor Fishlock has been a resident foreign correspondent for The Times in India and the United States, and for the Daily Telegraph in Russia.

From Kirkus Reviews

A British journalist traverses India from the Khyber in the north to Cape Comorin in the South before reaching the destination determined by childhood memories, offering along the way lively anecdotes, cogent insights, and enough history to inform but not overwhelm. Long puzzled by the Indian-sounding namePanagarhof the English house he grew up in, Fishlock, a former Indian correspondent for the London Times, decides to visit the small town of that name. The journey he undertakes, more an agreeable excuse to revisit a country that continues to intrigues him than a quest to understand himself or his past, is also a low-key but perceptive critique of contemporary sub-continental politics. Whether he is staying in the former palaces of princes or navigating the crowded streets of Bombay, he makes connections between past and present that explain the current threats to the state: increased sectarianism, rampant corruption, inadequate education, pervasive pollution. The chapters on his visit to the Khyber Pass and Kashmir are especially thoughtful primers on why these two regions continue to be such potent flashpoints. Fishlock is also a natural raconteur whose accounts are enlivened by stories of fierce Pathans who poured boiling oil into their wounds; the British Colonial officer who used to hold picnics for overworked dancing bears; and the people he meets, like the novelist Khushwant Sing, whose Train to Pakistan ``is one of the very few by an Indian to describe the savagery of Partition.'' He visits Gandhis home town of Gujarat, where workers still mine salt under punishing conditions; Amritsar, the sacred city of the Sikhs; Cochin, in the south, where spices are produced; and finally his destination, Panagar, a town known for its fine betel vines. The visit never does explain the name, nor the difference in spelling, but, as with all the best journeys, it is the travel, not the destination, that counts. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray Pubs Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0719555167
• ISBN 13: 9780719555169
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264