Holy Cow!

Rockers

I'm not sure if this is the best place to recommend a book, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

It's called 'Holy Cow' by Sarah MacDonald... No I'm not the authors Mum trying to give her daughters first novel a plug, just a satisfied reader!

It's an Australian book and I've lent it out, so I cant tell you who published it at the moment... will post back with those details.

All I can say is its a really good, honest, hilarious book about an Aussie girls extended travels in India. The author is constantly contradicting herself with her love/hate relationship with India and it's stark contrasts.

A really good one to prepare first time travellers for what they are in for! And hey, we all need a good book for those India plane delays.

Happy travels!

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"Freedom is not doing what one pleases for the sake of it, but the ability to make good, moral choices to fulfil our social duties to our fellow human beings".
Gandhi

Annie_T

Have seen a couple of good reviews for this book and was thinking of buying it so thanks for your comments Rockers. Strangely I saw a copy of it in the newsagents in the very small town I live in in far western Victoria. What is it doing here I wonder?

archits

not yet available in India

Watson

I just looked for it on amazon.de and they don't have that there either. To bad- looks like a fun book to read

Annie_T

I've now nearly finished Holy Cow and have a few mixed feelings. While I can realte to a lot the author's feelings, and parts of it have stirred up overwhelming feelings of misery at not being in India, I do wish that she would stop whinging quite so much. If I had a boyfriend/husband who was transferred to Delhi for a year with house (air con), cook, cleaner, driver I would be getting on with a lot more than comparing Delhi unfavourably with Sydney every second chapter.

I can see that by the end of the book we'll be reaching the old India as a land of contradiction I love it I hate it type conclusion. I think that I am going to decide that it's an ok read, but what is said has been better said before.

steven_ber

anyone any news on the publisher

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Transworld Publishers, Australia
ISBN 1863253262

Bryan

I avoided the book whilst trwvelling seeing it in most book shops
For a start the cover and the title and backpage description made me run screaming NOT ANOTHER FIND YOURSELF IN INDIA BOOK FROM A MIDDLE CLASS YA
However after running out of something tor ead I was given this and as the plane was 12 hours read it
Pretty good read and I hate to say I really enjoyed it
I think for someone who has just completed there first trip it would be a great read
But yeah I would say hunt it down and read it but dont expect any philosophical insight just a plain good travelogue of one woman's particular experience

Samsara

I read it (as I'm in Australia and there it was on the shelves of the travel section of the bookshop). I have mixed feelings about the book. But I think if I were a backpacker heading to India for the first time I would want to read this book. If you read the credits at the end of the book, you realise what the author has done is "condense" her experiences (for example, some of the characters are not real, they are "amalgams" of say two real people but I get the impression this has been done to some extent for the whole book, which I don't mind, she was a youth radio DJ for the national tv/radio network and I think that was the style she adopted, either consiously or unconsciously, it is verging on comic book comedienne for most of the book...the events often can not be taken literally, they may or may not have happened (?). It really is a "pop culture" style, comic style, inviting laughs from her audience (I don't know what audience she had in mind).

I see it's her personal impression but I was continually irritated (I mean it's obvious she's condensing and exaggerating, maybe even inventing events for effect and there is nothing wrong with that, but you have to read the fine print right at the end, and between the lines...to find out she's doing this)

She does get things badly badly wrong and this will irritate people who know India very well, but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to her. She went there, spent a year or so, didn't know much about the country and this is how it came across to her.

I agree with Annie T - the author was in an incredibly privileged position in India and all her problems (that she wrote about in the book) were totally unnecessary. In Indian terms she was in the elite class in Delhi - that says it all, this woman was not in the position of a normal backpacker or traveller.

She writes about incredibly beautiful scenic spots as if they were really awful. I don't think she grasped at all the way society (not high society, I mean social dynamics) operates in India (she did at least one thing in the book that left me aghast...but since I was born in the culture I suppose I should be more understanding...but I personally might think twice about having this woman over for tea, even supposing she wanted to come my way (?!) as I was so sick of what seemed like juvenile arrogance and rude manners throughout the book and lack of sensitivity...I think I need to read this book again as I was appalled at many points!)

And the sadhu - the sadhu was an extremely holy man (from my point of view) - that episode was surely made up just to entertain and shock (she might have seen a sadhu through the fog but the rest is rubbish - these sort of sadhus are following extremely esoteric practises, which might be hard to understand, from her point of view, I don't know, but why he would bother putting a curse on her? It did not happen, I'm sure he didn't even see her! So this makes me wonder what else she might have "spin doctored" for effect or through lack of understanding).

However, it would be good for first time backpackers to read probably, as even Lonely Planet, I find, glosses over real dangers. The account of the earthquake was excellent and the terrible roads and killer traffic (killer heat too).

oldhippie

For anyone interested Amazon.Com is accepting preorders on this book. Do a search on "Holy Cow".

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lokie

i live in the US and bought the book from Australia from Dymonicks or something like that

Samsara

Dymocks, one of Australia's biggest bookchains - the online store is at www.dymocks.com.au (they post internationally - I've used the online store to get books by mail in Australia).

beach

Is the ‘Holy Cow’ book worth buying?

I’ve seen mixed reaction by readers about it.

Ok. I learned from here and other places that it is a bit sarcastical about India. I don’t mind if the writer likes India or not, if they have some valuable points to say. Will I be able to learn something new in that book (worth the money)? Also I would like to add that I’m living in India and very well aware of the things going on here. I don’t want to learn from a book that how bad things are here, etc. I don’t want to cry after reading the book (that I’ve lost money)

What I mean is if this book is written for foreign audience who are new to all these kinds of things in India. I know it’s too much to ask, but will it enlighten me with some new ideas??

cyberhippie

I thought the book was a pretty good read and she really tried to get behind the various religions/yoga/meditation thing whether she succeeds well I dunno.
An ok book but not really an eye opener about India or spirituality!!

Bryan

You're not going to learn much from it but its a good light read which is fairly entertaining

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Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that),
That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree an a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world, o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
- Burns