Around India in 80 Trains

Language: English
Pages: 260

About The Book

In 1991, Monisha's family uprooted from Sheffield to tv1adras in the hope of making India their home. Two years later, fed up with soap-eating rats, stolen human hearts and the creepy colonel across the road, they returned to England with a bitter taste in their mouths.

Twenty years on, Monisha came back. Taking a page out of Jules Verne's classic tale, Around the World in 80 Days, she embarked on a 40,000km adventure around India in 80 trains. Travelling a distance equivalent to the circumference of the Earth, she lifted the veil on a country that had become a stranger to her.

As one of the largest civilian employers in the world-featuring luxury trains, toy trains, tv1umbai's infamous commuter trains and even a hospital on wheels-Indian Railways had more than a few stories to tell. On the way, tv10nisha met a colourful cast of characters with epic stories of their own. But with a self-confessed militant atheist as her photographer, tv1onisha's personal journey around a country built on religion was not quite what she bargained for … Around India in 80 Trains is a story of adventure

and drama infused with sparkling wit and humour.

About The Author

Monisha Rajesh was born in King’s Lynn in Norfolk and grew up all over England. She read French at the University of Leeds and taught English at a high school in Cannes before studying postgraduate journalism at City University London. She has written for the London Evening Standard, The Guardian, TIME magazine and The New York Times. Monisha now works at The Week magazine and lives in London. This is her first book.

Prologue

25 November 2009

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