India is both a horror show and a heavenly experience at the same time.

We should know. After all, we’ve watched this confoundingly complex country for over four decades - at close quarters first and then from a distance.

And Paul Theroux knows India well too. He has obviously spent some time there, in the 1970s and presumably recently as well.

And many of Theroux’ observations on the country such as its pettifogging culture, the legal delays, the hypocrisy, the red tape, repressed sexuality et al are very acute in his new book The Elephanta Suite.

India attracted you, fooled you, subverted you, then, if it did not succeed in destroying you with the unxpected, it left you so changed as to be unrecognizable….Or it ignited a fury in you….Or it roused your pity and left you with a sadness that clung like a fever.

While Theroux’ characters see through the veneer of hypocrisy in India and are occasionally cheated and sometimes disappointed, they also feel a strong connection Continue Reading…