Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton

by Christopher Ondaatje

Sindh Revisited is the remarkable story of the author's fascination with the early life of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890). It is the story of an incredible journey, too - deep into the heart of British India, and the India and Sindh of today. The very name of Sir Richard Burton conjures up images of adventure. His search for the source of the Nile with John Hanning Speke contributed to his being the best-known traveller of the nineteenth century. Burton was an outstanding orientalist, archaeologist, linguist, anthropologist, and a controversial diplomat. Christopher Ondaatje's Sindh Revisited is the extraordinarily sensitive account of the author's quest to uncover the secrets of the seven years Richard Burton spent in India in the army of the East India Company from 1842 to 1849. "If I wanted to fill the gap in my understanding of Richard Burton, I would have to do something that had never been done before: follow in his footsteps in India." The journey covered thousands of miles-trekking across deserts where ancient tribes meet modern civilization in the valley of the mighty Indus River.

Genres: Travel, History, Pakistan, India, Biography, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje, OC, CBE, FRSL born 22 February 1933) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian–English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Michael Ondaatje and lives in both Chester, Nova Scotia, and the United Kingdom.




Olympic Victory: The story behind the Canadian Bob-Sled Club's incredible victory at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games (1967)
The Prime Ministers of Canada, 1867–1967 (1968)
Leopard in the Afternoon — An Africa Tenting Safari (1989)
The Man-eater of Punanai — a Journey of Discovery to the Jungles of Old Ceylon (1992)
Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1996)
Journey to the Source of the Nile (1999)
Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari (2004)
Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911 (2005)
The Power of Paper: A History, a Financial Adventure and a Warning (2007)
The Glenthorne Cat and other amazing leopard stories (2008)
The Last Colonial: Curious Adventures & Stories from a Vanishing World (2011)
Ondaatje, Christopher, ed. (2013). Love Duet and Other Curious Stories about Music. Minehead, Somerset: Rare Books and Berry.

Reviews

[Pankaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, in the interest of full disclosure I must state that Sir Christopher's traveling companion through a major part of his travels, Haroon Siddiqui is a dear friend.

This travelogue is more a labour of love beyond a record retracing Sir Richard Burton's journeys across the Sindh and significant parts of Pakistan and India. It is an attempt to understand his personality, motivations and achievements and connect with this alien visitor who was more connected with all the locals culturally, linguistically, religiously and as one of them through the lands he visited.

A bonus came up in that the book surprisingly threw up names of a few luminaries whom I have had the good fortune to be associated with!

This work deserves a 5-Star rating but for the fact that it is repetitive and this proves an annoyance, especially since the duplication covers subjects beyond reinforcing the character or personal traits of Richard Burton.

[Gurpreet Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is travelogue by Christopher who followed Richard Burton in each of the places the legendary Britisher had traversed in Sindh in the year 1996.
He has made his observations of what he saw more than a century later and compared the locales with Burton's observations .
Very interesting >Would say better written than even Richard Burton's classic .
It certainly enthused me to travel to' he little Egypt' as Sindh was labeled by early European travellers within the constraints of visa that forbade me to travel beyond specified cities .
Those with the lure of travel of distant lands will be enthused reading this one in big format with photographs adding to the tale brilliantly .

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher is the richer older brother of Michael and rather than novels, Christopher tells deeply constructed histories designed to make us think anew, often about subjects we thought we knew. In this book, he tells us again the story of the great British explorer. It is a well told and interesting introduction into the life and times of the man who brought us the secrets, or so he claimed of the near east.