{"id":1845,"date":"2010-09-02T18:33:26","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T17:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/wp\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2021-11-15T13:39:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T13:39:30","slug":"india-one-mans-personal-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/india-one-mans-personal-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"India \u2013 One Man\u2019s Personal Journey Round the Subcontinent &#8211; review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"text-element body\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-4-3 image-review alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/img\/sanjeev%20india.jpg\" alt=\"India \u2013 One Man\u2019s Personal Journey Round the Subcontinent\" width=\"183\" height=\"286\" \/> This is a unique perspective from a west London lad who takes a voyage of discovery, a voyage to discover heritage, roots, amazing differences and surprising commonality. Sanjeev Bhaskar has straddled both British and Indian societies with their many complexities and contradictions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sanjeev had a childhood to which so many of us can relate. Home was a maisonette above a laundrette and under the Heathrow flight path. I can still remember the distinctive aroma of the paraffin stove that was the \u201cheater of choice\u201d for his family and so many others in the 1960s. Not everything was cold, grey and gloomy \u2013 the fish and chip shop was just next door!<\/p>\n<p>The long family holidays spent in New Delhi seemed to the young Sanjeev to be a catalogue of discomfort, with intermittent water supply and mosquitoes that had a penchant for English take-away. Telephones were rare and air conditioning wasn\u2019t an option, but how times have changed &#8211; twenty years later India is a world leader in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research, it has the world\u2019s largest radio telescope and is at last taking its place in the international arena in so many other areas. India still manages to hold to its traditions, a task that would seem impossible to maintain under the onslaught of technology and modernity.<\/p>\n<p>Sanjeev is famed for his comedic portrayal of Indians in the UK and for hosting Delhi Belly, a food travelogue with restaurateur Reza Mahammad. You would expect him to write a light and witty book, and India is very much that. It\u2019s also filled with honest and sometimes painful observation. There is a story of tragedy here that also speaks of strength, forgiveness and hope for the future.<\/p>\n<p>On a humorous note our hero is invited to the birthday party of His Royal Highness Rajeshwar Saramad-i-Rajha-i-Hindustan Mahararjadhiraja Maharajah Shri GAJ SINGHJI II Sahib Bahadur Singh. Sanjeev wonders \u201cGosh, what do we sing when we get to \u2018Happy Birthday dear&#8230;.?\u2019 He had no need to worry as it was \u201cHappy Birthday dear Bapji\u201d and the dear man even handed Sanjeev a slice of his cake.<\/p>\n<p>India \u2013 One Man\u2019s Personal Journey Round the Subcontinent is a book that will take you through the whole spectrum of emotion but it\u2019s equally a book that will be thoroughly enjoyed by those of us who love India in all its myriad facets.<\/p>\n<p>India \u2013 One Man\u2019s Personal Journey Round the Subcontinent<br \/>\nAuthor: Sanjeev Bhaskar<br \/>\nPublished by: HarperCollins<br \/>\nPrice: \u00a38.99<br \/>\nISBN 978-0-00-724739-4<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Travelogue review by Chrissie Walker \u00a9 2018<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a unique perspective from a west London lad who takes a voyage of discovery, a voyage to discover heritage, roots, amazing differences and surprising commonality. Sanjeev Bhaskar has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3485,24],"tags":[397,2096,416],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-culture-and-art","category-food-travel-guides","tag-india","tag-india-one-mans-personal-journey","tag-travelogue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10108,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions\/10108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}