Indian guidebooks on India

davyd

I have several Indian guidebooks on India, particularly India The Journey from Mumbai based MRM Publications and bengali guidebook from Vraman Sangi. Also some smaller books on particular states (I don't remember publisher because I sent them by sea post and they yet to arrive) and few excellent Outlook guides.
When I talked to Indian travellers I wondered what kind of books they take on road and got replies - on local languages (Hindi, Marathi and others).
So I have question to our Indian IMers - do you use them? Are they enough comprehensive? And what do you think of them?

raos

Never seen an Indian family use a guidebook but can't do anything better than Lonely planet, if you have $29 to spare. They are about Rs. 900 in India.

TimMakins

The problem with Indian guidebooks is that they rarely understand the travellers mentality/point of view/call it what you will. There are some great guides if you are a student of ancient buildings etc, or a pilgrim but for information that the average western backpacker needs, forget it. As the last person said, go with Lonely Planet, or Rough Guide (better then LP), or my preferred choice, far superior: Footprint Guide's 'India Handbook'.

Tim in Ireland

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davyd

Indian guidebooks are all different. Besides they are made on meagre budget all of them have one flaw - they don't say what traveller can expect to see in particular place, litter or rundown hotels and museums as in the case of many Tamil Nadu tourism hotels and Mysore palace.
India The Journey in many cases is similar to LP (even the same phrases) so it's not worthy to buy. Outlook books are much better but there is understated suspicion of unobjectivity in choice of recommended places because of proliferation of advertisements. But Outlook guides have no shortage of funds and it gives sense of guarantee that authors had visited particular places.
Most characterful Indian guidebooks in English are by Aruna Deshpande and Vraman Sangi. Of course style of these books is Indian English and they are not easy to read but some information is very interesting, particularly about habits of Indian travellers.
Two examples:
Tourists need not to stay at Warkala, but there are diffirent kind of hotels. (about beach resort Varkala in Kerala near Trivandrum).
or
There are plenty of hotels scattered throughout the city of Mumbai. Like the sky-scrapper buildings, the prices are also sky-high and beyound the reach of average middle classes. Sheikhs of oil-rich nations have added glamour and grandeur of the hotels. The city sky line has changed as business and industry brought prosperety to a certain sectors of people here. The fast buck has increased the cost of living also. Therefore almost everything is beyond reach of middle class. (Orphography and style saved).
Over all Indian guide books give more importance to auspicious places like Kanyakumari not so interesting for foreign travellers. This is their advantage to western guides. However both sorts of books do not give practical information on non-touristic places like Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu which some of us would like to visit.

SHIMLA

I've never used Indian guidebooks on my travels, but Indian maps are very good; particularly those released by the Survey of India; TTK publications, Eicher and Nest&Wings.

Once someone gave me an Indian guidebook on Maharashtra. The grammar, spelling, etc. was so funny that it became a jokebook for me. This is the only Indian guidebook which I have still preserved back home - good for the laughs when I'm feeling down !

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davyd

Eicher - agreed, good A-Z map books of only four cities - I am eagerly waiting for map of Kolkata and Howra. Nest & Wings (not in all its books) produced good state maps - practical for travellers on vehicles, but not practical for trekking.
What do you think about critisism in western guidebooks of Indian policy of keeping detailed maps state secret that even holding of western topographical maps of Indian Himalaya is punishable in theory. That's why they criticised also Survey of India maps as less accurate and inadequate for trekking purposes and TTK's basic maps of Indian states and some cities.