Customer Reviews

Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have read many books describing the life, culture and natives of India. Being an Indian, I must say that this book was not only a good narration of India but also came close to real India on many aspects. The collection of essays is great and covers many aspects with interesting and ammusing language. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested to know about life in India.

I knew next to nothing about modern India, so I learned a lot from these breezy essays. Sure they wonder all over the place -- chapters jump from political topics to the draught to Indian yuppies, but for the casual reader, the essays are very entertaining and informatative. The effect is that of reading several short travelogues about India all in a row. Mehta writes well and makes some sharp observations about India's political development. I wanted to see more description of the various parts of India (the desert like areas versus the huge cities and vast fertile plains) because it is a land of such great contrasts. Most of the essays left me wanting to know more. I enjoyed the personal anecdotes from the author's childhood. Not a history book, but a good and easy to read overview for the Indian novice.

In the past six months I've read at least twice that many books about India, and of them all "Snakes and Ladders" and Wm. Dalyrmple's "City of Djins" have been the best. Gita Mehta is an exceptional writer who manages to combine fact and emotion in a series of elequent essays. The last 50 years in Indian history - her first 50 years of independence - are a swirl of social change in a country that is aswril in its every moment. When you think "India" you must think of a dance of a billion richly colored veils. Ms. Mehta plucks veil after veil from the dance and by describing the veil she describes India. It's a remarkable achievement, and a real insiders view into the politics, arts, and life of an extremely complex nation. Ms. Mehta captures India in a short 220 pages and in doing so presents a view that other authors might take volumes to display. Highly, highly recommended!

A very beautifully written book. The author has been very unbiased and yet so affectionate in her narration. Its a book all Indians can relate to and all foreigners must read before coming to India. She has captured all the vistas India has to offer, good, bad and ugly! Terrific!

I have trashed this writer in the past so trust me when I say this is one of her finest works. It's emotive, beautiful, descriptive (without being overt), and a wonderfully written feature about India. This book both instructs and entertains. I was engrossed from the start to the finish. As someone who recently moved to India I would not hesitate to reccomend it to anyone who wants to visit or has an interest in India.

Some time ago I read a really outstanding piece of fiction about India - "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry. I am very pleased to have subsequently read this.

It's a collection of very easy to read short essays on Indian politics and society since Indendence (including the author watching Gandhi's funeral pass as a 5 year old).

It covers many of the events forming the basis of A Fine Balance, especially The Emergency period. It also brings things more up to date.

I really like reading it after A Fine Balance - I might not have been so interested, or it might not have meant so much before. In particular, things like references to crowds being herded together for Indira Gandhi's rallies etc - those sorts of events were just so vividly conveyed in Fine Balance.

Mehta delivers information about the vast and fascinating mosaic that is India in bite-sized and very digestible pieces, but she certainly doesn't gloss over the uglier seams in Indian political life.

At its worst, /Snakes and Ladders/ is, indeed, portentous, ancedotal, and loosely tethered to the finer details of fact.

But remember, /Snakes and Ladders/ is not a 10-volume, library-edition encyclopedia of Indian history 1900-2000. It's just a light little book of pleasant essays, many of them having appeared in magazines. I consider it the Indian equivalent of a Molly Ivins book -- interesting and entertaining, and a delightful read to the foreign reader (Ivins, non-Texan; for Mehta, non-Indian).

The general emotional tone of the book is very interesting -- it's the tone of someone not exactly willing to write a rousing patriotic hymn to their country, but yet still wanting to express quite a bit of hope about the prospects of continued democracy there. Frankly, that makes it refreshing to read -- especially considering that the country is question is one that most foreigners think of as a source for new strains of hepatitis, not insights into the democratic process.

As someone who has never loved reading serious, academic historical studies, I found this book delightful. My "knowledge" of foreign cultures and history comes from traveling, from reading fiction, and from studying art. And when I wanted to learn more about India, a country of huge size and population, of countless religions and traditions, and of a mystifying political history, I couldn't even imagine attacking the tomes it would take to gain even a small understanding of this country. Though it may be anecdotal and personal, this book is just what I was looking for, and these anecdotes and personal recollections will stay with me longer than pure scholarship would have!

I'm getting ready to go to India in a few months. Before reading Snakes and Ladders, I didn't know much about India's history or current and was intimidated at the thought of trying to digest it all. Snakes and Ladders was a fabulous 1st read on India - it's very short essays provided lots of information and color in a conversational, easy to read manner.

With this book the author declared her affections for India. It is done in a very unobtrusive, pleasant way. All a bit too general, but still moving. Maybe the better choice for foreigners.