By BS Weekend Team - Business Standard - New Delhi, India
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Rimi B. Chatterjee
THE CITY OF LOVE
Penguin Books India
Rs 295
320 pages
Set in the half-century after Vasco da Gama’s landfall in India, against the background of the spice trade, piracy, and the quest for enlightenment and bags of gold, this story traces the intertwined lives of Fernando Almenara, a Castilian merchant; Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate; Chandu, a Shaiva Tantric initiate; and Bajja, a tribal girl who struggles for freedom and enlightenment until she masters the world and herself.
In it, Sufism encounters Tantra, Vaishnavism rises, Mughal armies clash with the Sultan of Bengal, Arakan pirates rule the eastern oceans, and the face of the world is forever changed.
As the story moves from Chittagong, foremost port of the east, to Gaur, the capital of Bengal at the time of Humayun’s contest with Sher Shah, the characters are caught up in the crosscurrents set free by the coming of Europeans to India, and by the advent of the mighty Mughal Empire.
They are all of them in search of the hidden world where nothing is what it seems, for only by understanding that world will they acquire mastery of the heights they desire. This story follows them into that unknown country, until at last it stands at the gates of the city itself.
Friday, November 30, 2007
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Friday, November 30, 2007
The City of Love
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Rimi B. Chatterjee
THE CITY OF LOVE
Penguin Books India
Rs 295
320 pages
Set in the half-century after Vasco da Gama’s landfall in India, against the background of the spice trade, piracy, and the quest for enlightenment and bags of gold, this story traces the intertwined lives of Fernando Almenara, a Castilian merchant; Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate; Chandu, a Shaiva Tantric initiate; and Bajja, a tribal girl who struggles for freedom and enlightenment until she masters the world and herself.
In it, Sufism encounters Tantra, Vaishnavism rises, Mughal armies clash with the Sultan of Bengal, Arakan pirates rule the eastern oceans, and the face of the world is forever changed.
As the story moves from Chittagong, foremost port of the east, to Gaur, the capital of Bengal at the time of Humayun’s contest with Sher Shah, the characters are caught up in the crosscurrents set free by the coming of Europeans to India, and by the advent of the mighty Mughal Empire.
They are all of them in search of the hidden world where nothing is what it seems, for only by understanding that world will they acquire mastery of the heights they desire. This story follows them into that unknown country, until at last it stands at the gates of the city itself.
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By BS Weekend Team - Business Standard - New Delhi, IndiaSaturday, November 24, 2007
Rimi B. Chatterjee
THE CITY OF LOVE
Penguin Books India
Rs 295
320 pages
Set in the half-century after Vasco da Gama’s landfall in India, against the background of the spice trade, piracy, and the quest for enlightenment and bags of gold, this story traces the intertwined lives of Fernando Almenara, a Castilian merchant; Daud Suleiman al-Basri, a Moorish pirate; Chandu, a Shaiva Tantric initiate; and Bajja, a tribal girl who struggles for freedom and enlightenment until she masters the world and herself.
In it, Sufism encounters Tantra, Vaishnavism rises, Mughal armies clash with the Sultan of Bengal, Arakan pirates rule the eastern oceans, and the face of the world is forever changed.
As the story moves from Chittagong, foremost port of the east, to Gaur, the capital of Bengal at the time of Humayun’s contest with Sher Shah, the characters are caught up in the crosscurrents set free by the coming of Europeans to India, and by the advent of the mighty Mughal Empire.
They are all of them in search of the hidden world where nothing is what it seems, for only by understanding that world will they acquire mastery of the heights they desire. This story follows them into that unknown country, until at last it stands at the gates of the city itself.
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