The Brahmaputra is an extraordinary holy river that flows from two main sources, one in the Indian Himalayas and the other on the Tibetan Plateau. Dramatic landscapes, vastly divergent lifestyles and three major world religions provide the backdrop for Brahmaputra's thousand mile journey to the sea. The book tells the story in lavish photographs and words, of the journey from the sources of the great river to the Bay of Bengal. It is beautiful, inspiring, meditative and makes you long to be there.

This is one of the best books that I have ever read. It changed my perspective on a lot of things. Written eloquently. Dr. Haider seem on top of his game.

I dropped by Amazon to order Dennison's book, and was startled to find no reviews. He's one of the finest travel/memoir writers of our generation. As a former reviewer for the Globe & Mail (at the time, Canada's only national newspaper), Berwick's "Savages" was one of the books I truly raved about. So much, in fact, that I contacted the publisher to find him (the only other author who prompted such a response was Eddy Harris). I can heartily recommend anything by Dennison Berwick.

This was my first Lonely Planet book and I could not have made the trip without this very informative and helpfull book. I highly recommend any Lonely Planet books to any one traveling abroad.

This is the best lonelyplanet guide book I've ever had. Normally, I find them OK but irritating. Miraculously, this one is different.
Firstly, it's not too big (unlike, say, the Indian one) and is not afraid to leave some good stuff OUT. Secondly, it's very well researched, which is impressive in Bangladesh because information isn't all that readily available. Nor is it patronising in tone!
Best of all, though, is that reference to women travellers isn't restricted to a nauseating passage on what women "shouldn't" do because of the dangers, and then special women's diseases. Instead, it actually suggests that there are advantages to being a woman and special places to visit (such as women's development programs) that might interest women in particular. Yay! Welcome to the 21st century LP! I don't know what this sudden change in tone is due to, but I hope it spreads throughout the LP philosophy.
Otherwise, the information is helpful and up-to-date. The maps are a bit dodgy and could do with some work. For example, Thanchi does NOT lie between Ruma and Keokradung, and nor is Keokradung the highest peak in Bangladesh. The Chittagong map, in particular, is fairly useless.
Still, a very nice job. Very impressive. Very interesting and well written.

I found this guide to be very informative and helpful. The maps are a very good basis for getting a sense of where various sections of the cities are located. Some guidebooks are sorely outdated but this book is still quite current. Many of the places mentioned are still in existence. We plan to take several of the recommended trips from this guidebook as well as cycling trips. Since moving to Dhaka I have used this book continually for a reference book. I would highly recommend reading this book before coming to visit Bangladesh!

Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose put all of their many interviews to good use in War and Secession (Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh). They present all sides of the various complex relationships of this region, as well as presenting the fascinating international views of the situation, predominantly China, USSR, and the US. They are careful to remain unbiased (perhaps sometimes a little too unbiased in the case of Bhutto, in my opinion) and present the misperceptions that all sides were using to base their decisions upon. This book will also be a joy for the general reader as they make all the issues understandable and unravel all the tangles between the various personalities. The authors provide a defintive account of the creation of Bangladesh that will both entertain and inform.

The authors provide a well-balanced, unbiased historical account of the accounts leading to the war of 1971. The book is very well researched with numerous notes on various sources of information.

The book describes the genesis of the problems in East Pakistan, beginning with the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan's two wings. Carefully collected economic data demonstrates the lop-sided distribution of wealth in Pakistan with more government spending and foreign aid going to the West than to the East, despite the latter having a greater population and suffering from severe natural disasters. Also cited are the differences between East and West Pakistan over confronting India over Kashmir. The East did not share a penchant for confronting India over Kashmir - a territory that lay over a 1000 miles away. There were more pressing problems at home then (circumstances that are eerily similar to those today in Pakistan!).

These differences came to a height in a war fought over Kashmir in 1965 (instigated upon Bhutto's advice to Ayub Khan) when East Pakistan was left virtually undefended against any potential Indian military advances. This further contributed to its sense of insecurity.

The politicians of West Pakistan, most notably Z. A. Bhutto and Yahya Khan, are blamed unambiguously for their role in canceling a session of the first democratically elected national assembly in Pakistan that precipitated in a crisis in March 1971. India's role in contributing to the crisis until March 1971 was minimal, if any, but was to assume greater importance in the months to follow. The failure of all political processes to placate the demands of Z. A. Bhutto led to the suspension of the National Assembly, and subsequent events.

However, once the crisis resulted in millions of refugees flowing into India that threatened to upset the delicate demographic balance in the affected states, the problem also became one of India's. The authors fault Indira Gandhi for not trying harder to achieve a political settlement of the problem. It is highly unlikely that India could have mediated a problem between West and East Pakistan. After Indira Gandhi concluded that the problem could not be resolved politically by Pakistan's leaders, India began to play an increasingly larger political-military role, beginning in the summer of 1971 and concluding with a lightning military campaign in December, 1971.

Sisson and Rose present a highly informative account of the events leading to the independence of Bangladesh. As a Pakistani, it proved depressing reading as one sees how events unfolded in what would almost be a comedy of errors had the human cost not been so high. The actions of key protaganists leave one disgusted at their short-sightedness and venality. Much as we may like to think that it was 'all India's fault', the authors make it quite clear that while India acted to take full opportunity of the chances it had, its role in precipitating the Crisis was negligible (if at all). Similarly, while Yahya Khan and the Army must take the blame for the ultimate decision of the Army action, the behaviour of the prominent Pakistani political leaders, especially Bhutto (who, from the events narrated in the book, seems to come away with the most blame), beggars belief. A must read for anyone interested in the events of 1971 free of the baggage that subcontinental writers bring to the subject.

I was searching for a good book on India, with a historical bent, as a gift for a friend here in the US. This book provides a very good introduction with pictures, illustrations and relevant facts. The book provides a general outline of history and more importantly also introduces the reader to the general mindset & prevailing conditions ("cultural atlas") in India. It also provides some basic information on the states and neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan & Burma.

The special features sections focus on the things that people of India are most likely to be known about. Most people will not remember everything about a culture/nation. They will probably remember only the most interesting things and the special features of this book present these in a clear, understandable manner, i.e mostbly agreeable to people like me who have grown up in India.

Non-fiction books are hard to read for some people, these people are looking to escape from the ordinary. This book will interest the reader into reading & learning more about India. As for fantasy the readers might want to try tales, parables and comics like Jataka stories, Amar Chitra Katha...

As an Indian, I'm wary when "outsiders" put together a book on my country, but this book is exceptional. It gives facts and general descriptions of anything and everything when one thinks of India. Lots of pictures makes it an easy read. Worth every penny. This is the book teachers in America should use when trying to give an overview on INDIA.

I read this book in a class on the economies of "developing" nations. The authors actually lived for a while in a Bangladeshi village, and report very well on the social and economic issues present. Contrasts between religous groups, the few rich and the many poor, and gender roles are observed in detail and thoughtfully analysed. One of the last chapters offers very interesting solutions and suggestions for more efficient and fair use of World Bank funds, based on the authors' first-hand experiences.

A young American couple go to Bangladesh, in the 80s, and live in a village for 9 months. Their plan is to not interfere in any way, not to give charity, but just to learn Bengali and observe and learn about life in the village, and then to write a book about it. The result is fascinating and moving. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular person or situation, and the dynamics and different constraints are carefully described and explained. Sometimes, the stories are quite confronting - one story is about a very poor family who sell everything they own and can't get enough work, and slowly starve to death. A strong theme in the book is that some of the very poor people in Bangladesh are in a situation that they can't get out of. Even if they are smart, even though they work to their maximum all day every day, circumstances mean that they often slip further into poverty and starvation. They also do a nice job covering the different roles and experiences of men and women, hindus and moslems, and rich and poor.

Hartman and Boyce always try to be objective and just. The last few chapters are an analysis of the economic situation in Bangladesh. They write very well. I picked up this book reluctantly because I am going to Bangladesh and feel obliged to read about it. I could barely put the book down. I strongly recommend it to anybody who is interested in different cultures and, in particular, in the balance of wealth and why it is that the world ends up so unequal and so full of poverty.

Just a little note: since this book was published, other schemes have taken off in Bangladesh, including the microlending scheme to women. Perhaps the view is a little bleak now? I'm not sure.

As a Bangladeshi-American, I am disturbed at the number of publications potraying her as destitude, poor and disaster prone. Novak tries to disprove this 'theory of Bangla desh' and shows Bangladesh in the reality, like any Bangladeshi would. Reading the book at times felt like a Bangladeshi has written it. Novak's description of water, seasons and women of Bangladesh are true to the bone and I wish more people in the American media would have read this book before writing their presentations on Bangladesh. I recommend this book for anyone who wishes to know more about Bangladesh or for anyone visiting Bangladesh and for all Bangla deshis outside of Bangla desh.

I was shocked to find out that someone from a western country could comprehend how a Bengali feels about Bangla desh. Me as a Bangla deshi always knew Bangladesh like the way Novak describes her. And quite the opposite of how the US media potrays Bangladesh! I thank Novak for writing such a wonderful book. I hope more books like this are written rather than media's obsessive relience on negative stereotyping of Bangladesh. PS: This book was published in 1993 and I think a next edition has become essential since the democtatic transition of the 1990's.

This is absolutely the best book to read about BanglaDesh. I loved the way Novak describes the seasons and connection to the Bangladeshi people. I have visited Bangladesh a few months back and I am glad I read this book before. But I do wish there was a newer edition as this version was written a few years back.

Purdah, or the seclusion of a group of people from the rest of the world, is a practice still alive and well in several parts of the world. While it may not be very common in India at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it was quite common during the first half of the twentieth. This book presents short story "Sultana's Dream" and the recollections of women living under purdah complied by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. There is also an introduction to each work and an analysis of Hossain's life and writing by Roushan Jahan interspersed between each piece. In other words, there are four individual essays and one short story in this collection. It could be difficult for women today who do not live in purdah to understand but it is important to remember our collective past and realise similar things are happening today.

This little book was more than just an extraordinary short story written by a woman in 1905 who examined and questioned purdah by turning the issue into a humorous "dream" sequence (in a place where the men are in purdah!) - it is also a compilation of other materials in the examination of what purdah is and means. Relatively unknown and not understood in the West, "purdah" ("parda" in Hindi, meaning 'curtain') is the seclusion and segregation of women (even from other women, not of the family) and is a tradition that is thrust upon women of many Middle Eastern and Asian societies. In the West we confusedly belief it is only Muslim when in fact other religions undertake it as well.

Rokeya Hossain wrote Sultana's Dream at the urging of her husband who was quite forward-thinking (for an Asian male in the early part of the last century!) and who believed that by writing, she would be able to perfect her English skills. The Dream is brilliantly simple and clearly written. The idea that a woman in purdah should suddenly find herself in a place where it is the men in the society who are hidden away and where life is peaceful and intellectual thought and political balance are the norm (as a result of not having the men out messing things up), is a delight even to a contemporary Western reader.

The second section of this book is a section complied by Roushan Jahan in which Hossain's writing about purdah (from a book called "The Secluded Ones") is reproduced in the form of various 'reports' all of which demonstrate something fundamentally absurb or violent about being in purdah. The third section is a piece by a Western woman named Hanna Papanek who examines how much more complicated purdah is than just a means by which men in a given society control and suppress women. That definition is certainly valid, but Papanek also examines a case where a woman raised in purdah finds "exposure" (after a life of purdah) to be fraught with fear and discomfort.

In all, a fascinating and in a strange sense appalling cultural phenomena that is basically unknown to the West, purdah is handed here to the reader in a way that makes it possible to examine it without generating the viseral anger that the idea raises in most educated women. I am strongly inclined to study the issue further and to find "The Secluded Ones" - once I feel strong enough not to let it infuriate me!

Black Candle succeeds in its prose poems that a vignettes of the difficulties of life as a South Asian. The poems also work if one judges them as vignettes rather than poetry. Yoga Lessons is the strongest piece as poetry. Even as vignettes, however, the ubiquous use of first person, which works well for the poems in isolation, fails to work in the collection as the reader gets many "I's" of which some are the same and others not. The book does as excellent job of making the foreign culture and environment accessible to Americans.

This book reminds me most of Jana Harris' work where pioneer women's stories are made into poetry. If you enjoyed that, you'll surely enjoy this,

I found these poems to reveal a harsh beauty. If I joke that American women should read this before they complain it would be to ease the tension over severity with which women are treated in many of these Asian cultures. Divakaruni has revealed a piece of her soul and raised concerns over the mistreatment of women in Asia (as well as anywhere in the world for that matter) These poems are best read a couple at a time so one can absorb the passion and the reality of the situations described. A few of the poems in this collection moved me close to tears. Hopefully, a better day will dawn. I would like to apend my earlier comment that American women should read this by stating that all the men need to read it, too.

Black Candle is a supremely impressive collection of poetry rich with metaphor and set on the Indian sub-continent. These poems portray moving, palpable portraits of women's lives that will strike a universal chord of recognition and appreciation with the western reader. The Room: I have walked this corridor so many times/I no longer notice/the gouged floorboards, the brown light/washing the peeling walls, the stale/childhood smell of curried cabbage.//I am looking for the door,/the one whose striated knob/matches perfectly the lines of my palm,/which opens without sound/into a room with milk-blue walls.//On the sill, a brass bowl/of gardenias in water. Peacocks/spread silk feathers against cushions./The white cockatoo on its stand/knows my name. Sun filters/through the sari of a woman/who rises toward me. I am caught/by the lines of her bones, the fine/lighted hairs on her held-out arm,/your eyes, mother, in her mouthless face.