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from East to West and North to South, Bob has traversed every bit of India. I should know. I have been his co-driver, travelling all over India with him, an association that goes back 30 years.
What is impressive is how Bob has observed, absorbed, weighed and measured destinations in India. If he describes a fort, palace or monument, hotel or even the road you drive on, his account is replete with the historical background. From the builders, the rulers, the destroyers, their religious beliefs, the Hindus who were the original inhabitants of Hindustan, the Muslim invaders are all carefully and chronologically covered to the French, Portuguese and the British and the monuments they built and left behind. These are truly tourist destinations. Little nuggets of information like the legend of Baba Budan who went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, got a whiff of the fragrance of coffee, was so intoxicated that he smuggled seven seeds back to India from Yemen, and planted them in Chikmanglur. The seeds took root and spawned the coffee industry in South India. Did you know that the rampart wall of Kumbalgarh Fort is 36-km long and 26-feet wide, wide enough for eight horsemen to ride abreast? It is the longest wall in India and second only to the Great Wall of China. The Ranakpur Jain Temple is a marvel of design and architecture. It took 50 years to build, Rs 99 lakh and was completed in 1439. The description of the monuments are short and crisp. Each is accompanied by a photograph, most taken by Bob. The photographs are superb, especially of the wildlife parks. Tigers, panthers, lions, elephants, hundreds of birds, crocodiles, snakes and other creepy-crawlies. In addition to being a Bible for the motorist, it is a compendium of knowledge for a child of any age. It will open their eyes and hearts to the magnificence that is India. City dwellers of any age will be treated to photos of tea gardens, coffee plantations, paddy sowing, desert sand dunes and the fabulous moon-scape of Ladakh. Think of a destination and you will get instructions to get there, where to turn left or right, maps with kilometres to travel, time taken for the drive. These are the ground realities, Google Maps will show you a road but not its potholes. Driving holidays need planning and preparation for safety and comfort. The book helps you to do this. Every page is informative, enjoyable and sometimes startling. Like the Magnetic Hill near Leh in Ladakh. You park you car in a box marked on the road, leave it in neutral, hand brake off and lo and behold. The car will be pulled uphill, defying gravity. Eat your heart out, Newton. And when you go to the bookshop, buy two copies, one to keep in the glove box, the second for the children, irrespective of age. It will be valuable as a history-cum-geography-cum-natural history encyclopedia. To keep the jaded and tired motorist amused and alert, the last few pages of the book is a collection of weird and wonderful road signs. Example "Ram Ganga river is inhabited by crocodiles. Swimming is prohibited. Survivors will be prosecuted."
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Bob's first book Driving
Holidays in India became a handy reference book for motorists. That
was in 2005. Bob has now come out with More Driving Holidays In India.
It has 10 more routes and 89 new destinations.