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Monday, May 05, 2014

Book Review : ‘Who Stole My India' by Amit Reddy



Who Stole My India? Revelations, Humiliations and Hallucinations on Two Wheels’ is quite brilliant. I have known the author, Amit Reddy for some time and have heard a little of his adventures off and on in the past. Honestly, I must say that this is a book I had not expected from him. And I was really surprised when he sent me an email  telling me of it and sending me a copy.

This book is a story which, Amit took on Kaya, (his motorbike), with his friends (off and on), the monuments he saw, the various places in the map, and finally, of the 40,075 kilometres of Indian roads. It talks of a guy who went on a road trip from Hyderabad across India before riding back home in this voyage of self-discovery. 

It serves as a travelogue for all those people who keep waiting to venture out. A funny, sad tale of adventures and misadventures. Yet, it would touch your heart in a strange way. The young man who set out trying to find himself, but ends up discovering not just that, but also various facets of India. Various things that I had only heard of in passing, but never paid any attention to. 



The tribal, the middle class, the poor, the farmer, the homosexual, the adventurer, almost everyone has a place in this book. There are so many regions of the world settled in our nation that is India... how he travels across this multicultural country, going up to the Eastern ends, discovering the northerly borders, while giving us a glimpse of central India. Learning about Gandhi’s West, before travelling down south to the tip, before he heads back home.

What is amazing is how blind most of us are to certain things, which are alive and kicking in this truly Incredible India. There is no place for fiction, as we go down hash country while discovering our godlike figures, our political metamorphosis, and our social troubles and the wonder that is India.
I think everyone has to read it and discover his or her own understanding of this ‘fiction’. I found it to be among, one of the better books, that I have read in a long time but my only complaint is the lack of pictures, which I had read about in the book but failed to see. The book drives you to wonder what they were like. And also, the map which I found troublingly short, I had the tendency to follow Kaya’s route, but it just did not seem enough, especially for a non-rider.

But full marks for the content. Very well written and edited. Absolutely spotless, in terms of grammatical errors. Perfection.


Author: Amit Reddy
Genre: Fiction, but easily Non-Fiction
Publisher: Karma Yatri Publishing
ISBN: 9789351568230
Price: Rs 350/-

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