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What a Book!

It is little wonder that this, the book which tells of Tahir Shah’s time in India, learning conjuring and illusion from Hakim Feroze � a callous, sadistic, obsessed magician with unnerving occult powers � is his most popular work of travel.

Before initiating him into the secrets of Indian magic, Feroze instils in his apprentice the capacity to endure and insists he becomes a polymath. As if foreseeing the young man’s future life and work, he provides exactly the preparation needed. This includes striving for perfection and an extraordinary attention to detail. Then, after his pupil has practised illusions and can perform them to his satisfaction, he prescribes a search for Insider Information and a Journey of Observation.

As we accompany him, and the mysterious twelve-year-old trickster who has decided to be his travelling companion, we visit out-of-the -way places, from a shelter for mistreated cattle, to a factory where skeleton dealers ply their trade, to Bombay’s Native General Library, the haunt of elderly Parsi gentlemen. We meet highly unusual people, from the Keralan mahout (elephant trainer) to the scientist on the Hatia express, who confides he is building a temple ship, complete with dairy farm, on a Pykrete base. Pykrete is a composite material made from wood pulp and ice. There are hilarious episodes and images that will make you laugh out loud; but there are also dark passages where Tahir comes across drought and bonded labour in Orissa, or pregnant women having ultrasound scans as a prelude to gendercide.

You begin to realise there is more than one India. There is the vibrant country which can be sensed through our famliar sense organs but, in a parallel world, there is an invisible India, one which attracts Westerners on a quest. For those searching for truth, enlightenment, themselves, or simply the bizarre, India is a country dedicated to assisting any one on a journey.

If you haven’t read this book before, I heartily recommend you download it. If you have read the hardback, please consider reading the eBook. Every chapter is a gem.