Customer Reviews

The Timeless Theater

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As I began reading the CDROM articles I was impressed with the vastness of Kannada literature this work has been translated from. The diverse array of pictures, most of which were taken by the author, added greatly to my experience of learning about tribals in central and western India.

The author evidently has an easy and simple writing style in the original Kannada, which has to a large extent been preserved in the translation. How appropriate this style is, when writing about the simple and gentle people of tribal India! It was heartening to see the respect showed by the author for the tribals and for their lifestyle. His non-invasive approach of first befriending his subjects and then describing their lives with academic accuracy is appealing to those who want to hear the tribal story as it is -- without contamination from sugar-coated platitudes or patronizing arrogance.

Readers will be delighted by stories of tribal children, amazed by descriptions of "ghotuls" or teenage boarding schools, surprised to read about prehistoric petroglyphs in central India, astounded to hear about the high & liberated status of women in the medieval south, amused by conversations between bus-drivers and passengers in rural India and excited to find out about descendants of ancient African immigrants living in India.

The Timeless Theater is quite likely the best collection of semi-scholarly essays about tribal India available today, and is a must for any Indo-phile, expatriate Indian or high-school student planning a project on Indian history.

This is an absolutely fantastic collection of pictures and articles about India. The authors have compiled their lifelong collection of stunning pictures depicting almost every aspect of Indian way of life, the culture, arts, people you name it. The articles that go with it are very well researched and wonderful to read. I bought The Timeless Theater after visiting their website which by itself is a work of art. Anybody who is interested in India or are interested in teaching their kids about the country especially if they live abroad will find this compilation an absolute must for their collection.