A Vivid Portrait of India’s Religious, Cultural Riches

Like Egypt and Mesopotamia, India is a cradle of civilization. But unlike the people of those other regions, the author writes, today’s Indians remain clearly linked to their ancient traditions: They “still believe in the same religion(s), they still worship the same gods and they still chant the same verses and hymns, which they recited 4,000 years ago.”

Travelers to this subcontinent encounter a living museum of a vast slice of humankind, one-seventh of which lives in India. This is an excellent, comprehensive guide to one of the most intricate cultures on the planet, and it should be useful to visitors regardless of their primary motivation for visiting India. After all, those motivations generally overlap.

For example, that so many starry-eyed young Western pilgrims have traipsed through the Himalayas or along the Ganges River attests to what is probably India’s most significant vestige of the old ways: the continuing potency of religious influence. India is the birthplace of Hinduism as well as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, and a greenhouse for Islam, Zoroastrianism and other religions. The countryside is strewn not only with New Age avatars of ancient beliefs but also magnificent architectural evocations of their evolution.

And, as this book documents, the history is also riddled with brutal conflicts that erupted when religions clashed.

After the great nonviolent nationalist Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu, helped lead India to freedom from the British, mutual religious slaughter ensued. Even then, Gandhi said, “Death for me would be a glorious deliverance rather than I should be a helpless witness to the destruction of India, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam.” Soon thereafter, while conducting a fast in a Muslim encampment to protect the refugees from Hindus, Gandhi himself was assassinated by a Hindu extremist.

THE MONTEREY BAY SHORELINE GUIDE by Jerry Emory, with photographs by Frank Balthis (University of California Press, $35 hardcover, $16.95 paper).

You’ve got to dig a dude who, in his author’s acknowledgments, offers thanks to the musicians whose tunes he cranked up loud for inspiration. In Emory’s case, that would be Craig Caquico, Sammy Hagar, Martin Hayes, B.B. King, Los Lobos, Bob Marley, Bonnie Raitt, Roy Rogers (the slide guitar player, not the cowboy), Carlos Santana, Joe Satriani, Ludwig van Beethoven and Neil Young. But then we’re talking about places like Santa Cruz and Big Sur here, so the playlist figures.

Packed with photos of monarch butterfly clusters and giant green anemones, and with illustrations of beach erosion and Pismo clams, this is the guide to pack on a ramble up the Central Coast. As for the writing, it’s pretty darn inspired, an encyclopedic array of information on ecology, zoology, botany, geology and geography cranked out with fast-paced rhythm and style.

Quick trips

VACATION STUDY ABROAD 1999-2000--The Complete Guide to Summer and Short-Term Study (Institute of International Education, $42.95, paper).

Want to study psychology in Freud’s homeland? Shakespeare at Stratford? Here’s the starting point. Let’s flip through it at random: How about Portland State University’s Institute for Social and International Studies program in Barcelona? Temple University’s art, classical studies or history classes in Rome? The Fashion Institute of Technology’s “Restoration: Gilded Objects in Florence”?

Every corner of the world is covered, and so, it seems, is every imaginable field of study.

EUROPE’S WONDERFUL LITTLE HOTELS & INNS 1999 by Caroline Raphael and Hilary Rubinstein (St. Martin’s Griffin, $21.95, paper).

Ah, you can almost hear Rat waxing philosophical as you envision “The Wind in the Willows,” in Glossop, Derbyshire: “A Victorian House, willow tree in front, set amid fields in the Pennine foothills.” The host is “charming and ebullient,” the decor “colorful and welcoming.” And there’s plenty more where that came from.

TRAVEL RIGHTS--Know the Rules of the Road (and the Air) Before You Go! by Charles Leocha (World Leisure Corp., $9.95, paper).

FAA Rule 240 states that in the case of a delay due to mechanical problems, the airline must make every effort to get a passenger to his or her destination, even if that means booking on another airline. Some car rental companies now charge as much as $15 a day extra for additional drivers, and most won’t let anyone under 25 drive at all. Most major credit cards offer emergency travel services ranging from passing on messages to family and friends to medical evacuation.

If any of this is news to you, this book is probably worth the price.

Books to Go appears the second and fourth week of every month.