Mukesh Kumar > Recent Status Updates

Its a romp! Perhaps Indian history lends itself naturally to the magical realism of Rushdie.

Quite dreary. And the way it presents a beingn picture of colonial history over natives, is quite something! So

Lovely

Good recreation of 19th C New york

Good recreation of 19th C. New York

Well intentioned, but proving a real chore. Very dry prose.

Some interesting tidbits, though lot of the text has been referenced in many recent books

Fascinating read so far

It has become a bit belaboured by this point. The same 3-4 points being repeated ad nauseum : Carbon tax, Compensate Carbon more on the side of caution, polluter pays principle etc

Caustic and no-holds barred account so far

Caustic and no holds barred account so far

Very informative without getting esoteric. Tough task achieved well so far by the author.

Fascinating read.
Sadly was on a reading hiatus for 3 months or so..but a good book to pick up again

Steeped in colonial verbiage. But difficult to put down. Must have been a seminal work at its time!

Dalrymple's writings are more of an awe and dazzle show, than the boring academic rigour. That isnt necessaryily a complaint, cause they make for fun reads, at times. But you do want some deeper understanding about the economic policies, about the social fabric, about the motivations behind seemingly caricaturish characters that he plucks from history.

The rowdy Englishmen were becoming less and less welcome in Surat: 'Their private whorings, drunkenesse and such like ryott...breaking open whorehouses and arrack bars had hardened the hearts of the inhabitants against our very name' wrote a wary EIC official. Little wonder that the British were soon being reviled in Surat streets 'with names of Ban-chude and Betty-chude which my modest language will not interpret'