Cobra Road: An Indian Journey

Trevor Fishlock set off from the harsh and haunted gables of the Khyber, zigzagged to the dazzle of India's southern tip at Cape Comorin and came at last to the little town whose intriguing name was the seed of his odyssey. Out of it all emerges the smell and feel of the subcontinent, a grand tapestry, history laced into the urgent present.
Cobra Road ranges from the land of the 'Khyberees', nursery of the ruthless modern conquerors of Afghanistan, to brilliant and bloodied Punjab; to Kashmir, a paradise seemingly cursed by malignant gods and the unfinished business of history; to the deserts of Kutch; to the place where Gandhi drove in a coach and four to be hailed as the Great Soul; to the halls of haughty Rajput kings; to Bombay, teeming, loved and hated; to Delhi; to the pepper provinces around Cochin and the coconut grove in Kerala where the first spice-hungry Europeans landed; to the highlands of Coorg; to bandit country; to the Centre of the World ... and beyond.