Travelogues

New Delhi in the mid-1950s forms Raana Haider’s first recollection of India. She accompanied her diplomat father on his posting to New Delhi. Some fifty years later, she was once again living in New Delhi – this time accompanying her diplomat husband. India: Beyond the Taj and the Raj is the account of the author’s travel across the complex tapestry that is India – underlined with historical and literary narratives by generations of writers on India. Vestiges of the Mughal legacy crowned by the Taj Mahal are relived, as are remnants of the Raj.

Here is a fresh look at Italy and Rome from the perspective, not of a tourist but of a long time resident, albeit a foreign one. The charm of everyday Rome, the romance of history, the adventure of the expatriate’s eternal quest for home, the poetry of seasonal transformations, the eternal mysteries of relationships, the kaleidoscope of life in Italy in general and of ome woman in particular, are some of the myriad themes in this collection of articles and poems.

The land of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is positioned in the twenty-first century in the Great Leap Forward. Today's Great March is the fast forward movement of the globe's largest buoyant economy and the largest global population. One of the world's earliest and most brilliant of civilisations casts its long shadow over the land and its people. Home to Chairman Mao's communism, China has embraced capitalism and consumerism with vigour.