In a Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson (2000)

I have been diving into books about foreign countries lately. My reading journey started with Tibetan history, moved to a Westerner’s life in Bhutan, and has now brought me to this engaging travelogue on Australia. While all of these books are several decades old, In a Sunburned Country is by far the most relevant to a modern context.

Australia is vast and sparsely populated. In urban areas, you find all the modern amenities required for a comfortable life. For the rest of the continent, adventure touring in a camper van is the way to go. This contrast is exactly what the book captures. The author drives around Australia along the coastal national highways, traveling from state to state to document the country. He expertly chronicles its history, flora, fauna, and lack of connectivity to the world from prehistoric times, while also diving into the smaller, local events that matter to the residents. Additionally, the book addresses the lives of the Indigenous Aborigines, highlighting the stark developmental gaps between them and the European settlers. Ultimately, the reader gains a comprehensive perspective on the nation.

The book closes with the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Bryson captures the city's preparedness, detailing how guides and drivers had to be brought in from other cities to manage the massive influx of visitors. He also touches upon the games themselves—the winners, the losers—and the nostalgia the Australians felt once the event ended. While the Olympics were likely an expensive investment that outpaced immediate tourist revenue, the games successfully connected a historically secluded nation to the rest of the world.

In a nutshell, this book still offers a deeply realistic understanding of Australia. Today, visual infotainment from YouTubers and travel vloggers might be chipping away at the charm of traditional travel writing. However, this book remains an excellent reference for understanding Australia because of its extensive coverage, historical depth, and authoritative focus on local events.

Beyond the Sky and the Earth - A Journey into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa (1999)

Fresh from college, a young woman from Canada leaves everything familiar behind to step into the wilderness of Bhutan in 1987. What begins as a stint teaching school in remote villages—and later lecturing at a college—transforms into a life-altering nine-year journey. Along the way, she falls in love with and marries one of her students, converts to Buddhism, becomes a mother, and deeply integrates into the local life.

While the book contains many elements that might surprise a Western audience, a reader from India will find a deeply familiar landscape. The warmth of the simple Bhutanese people, their welcoming nature, and beliefs that closely border superstition feel instantly recognizable. Zeppa beautifully captures their philosophy of "live and let live" extended toward all sentient creatures—even rats and dogs.

Yet, the book doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of the era: the intense daily hardships, the lack of basic infrastructure that a Westerner would take for granted, the strict teaching styles of Bhutanese and Indian educators, and the looming political friction between the people of Nepalese origin and local Bhutanese tribes.

Is this a travelogue? Not exactly. Bhutan today is a much more modern state, meaning this late-80s snapshot may not serve as a practical guide for a contemporary traveler. At its heart, this is Jamie’s personal evolution. Because she penned the memoir after leaving Bhutan, separating from her husband, and returning to Canada, the narrative benefits from a mature, reflective lens rather than the reactive mindset of a girl in her twenties.

What she ultimately portrays is how Bhutan profoundly shaped her identity—so much so that she continues to view it as home as much as Canada is. Beyond the Sky and the Earth is definitely a book worth reading, landing beautifully as a deeply moving autobiographical novel.

The Revolt in Tibet — Frank Moraes (1959)

While going over some books on my bookshelf, I came across this one. A book written in 1959—who needs it now? It was my father’s book when he was a teenager. When I decided to pick it up for some in-flight reading, my mother quipped that if people saw me, they would laugh. Who reads such old books? The Dalai Lama is now 90 years old. China is an accepted superpower. Maybe in a few years, the world will fully normalize Tibetan affairs and accept Chinese sovereignty over the region, relegating this book to purely archival value.

Before that happens, I wanted to do some justice to it—to understand what actually happened.

Moraes depicts the Tibetan story with complete dispassion. He breaks down the Chinese angle, the viewpoints of the Lamas, and the temporary British arrangement of granting suzerainty of the region to China. Historically, Tibet was a militarily weaker state that remained a vassal to Nepal and China at different times; even the Dalai Lama had fled Tibet several times in the past.

The review of Chinese tactics is particularly sharp. The Chinese communists systematically used the Panchen and Dalai Lama positions against each other to seize control of the region. They also exploited class differences among the Lamas to argue that the existing system violated communist principles of a classless society. Throughout the narrative, you see geopolitics being deftly weaponized by China to justify their actions wherever it suited them.

India’s role, by contrast, comes across as deeply contradictory. Nehru accepted Chinese suzerainty over Tibet as established by the British, yet he refused to maintain the tactical arrangements—like intelligence gathering and military balances—that the British had kept in the region. He operating under the belief that a peaceful relationship with China would prevent them from ever becoming hostile. Fascinatingly, Nehru also believed that granting asylum to the Dalai Lama would help the Indian public witness the downsides of communism firsthand, thereby thwarting its progress within India.

Because the book ends right after the Dalai Lama’s exile and before the 1962 Indo-China war, parts of it feel speculative. Whether Tibet was the primary catalyst for China's attack on India remains hard to decipher here, but the book accurately predicted that Tibet existing as an independent territory would become a thing of the past. Today, 65 years later, that prediction holds.

The book concludes with a short interview between Moraes and the Dalai Lama. It captures a striking historical moment: it shows the boyish confusion of a young man who has just lost his homeland, rather than the serious, polished statesman we see defending the rights of his nation today.

Definitely a book recommended for its historical significance and its window into a pivotal moment in Asian geopolitics.

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2016)

If you are interested in genetics and everything associated with them, here is a book that has it all. Siddhartha Mukherjee takes readers on an expansive journey through the history of science, tracking how we came to understand the very blueprint of humanity.

The Scope and Scholarship

The biggest takeaway from this work is the author’s incredible scholarship. Mukherjee masterfully connects the dots across centuries of scientific discovery. The book covers:

• The Foundations: Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mendel’s pea-plant studies on heredity, and the dark history of Galton’s eugenics.
• The Modern Era: The massive undertaking of the Human Genome Project and the complexities of gene sequencing.
• The Future: The influence of genetic data on stem cell research and its application to modern genetic medicine.

There is truly no place in this book where you are not learning something new or deeply interesting.

The Drawbacks: Information Overload?

Despite its brilliance, the book leaves you with a lingering question: Is it just an overload of information with very little practical application?

The book sits in an awkward middle ground for its audience:

• For the Common Reader: It is difficult to see how to apply these dense scientific concepts to everyday life.
• For the Scientist: The explanations can feel too superficial, covering old concepts that do not entirely make sense in a modern context.

The book serves as a great historical explainer, but you may find yourself wondering if you truly care about this extreme level of detail today.

Final Verdict

A great, educational read to digest slowly over a stretched period of time, but ultimately held back by its limited real-world application.

Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan (1979)

Carl Sagan was a household name in the late 60s or early 70s due to the TV series Cosmos in the USA. Cosmos aired on national television in India in the 80s. There is a general tendency for 80s kids to get enchanted by Sagan. Someone gifted the book to me in the late 90s. Yet despite several serious attempts earlier, I was not able to get past a few pages. Finally, I tried one last time, and here is what I discovered.

The book is not a standard popular astronomy book. There are astronomical figures and facts in some chapters, but, in most places, the book is a critique of older philosophical interpretations - a myth buster of sorts. Some of these myths are period-based - a pseudo-science article in a newspaper. After 50 years, we cannot quite correlate it to the original popular myth. Secondly, some of the ideas have been accepted over the years. If you are really not into the field, you wonder why you need to read such a book. Yes, the book, though well-written, has lived its life.

I will not recommend it for today’s audience.    

Delhi is Not Far - Ruskin Bond (1994)

Delhi is not far brings together essays, short stories, unpublished articles, excerpts from previously published novels, travelogues, poems, and finally a novella of the same name. The author provides diverse content spanning different periods of his life. You may encounter shifts in style and approach. If you read in chunks, these disconnects become less noticeable. Some stories may not have morally correct outcomes.

Most stories are autobiographical, connecting to the author’s childhood experiences. The backdrops of many stories are from the hills. The novel is about the youthful aspirations of two young men to make it to Delhi. There is queer love between these boys that makes it a bit complicated.

The other novella in the collection, Life Stops at Shamli, is a strange one. Is it a real place or a fantasy land? Is the author meeting some real people or ghosts living on a timestop - will haunt you. Ruskin Bond makes you hear out their stories in a non-judgmental way. This is something you would do easily in childhood, but the adult interpretation can be hard. Maybe a story to read without overanalysing it.

 

Overall, the book showcases the author's diverse writing and is a good read.  

Room on the Roof - Ruskin Bond (1956)

Rusty, an orphan English boy of seventeen from Dehradun, fights with his guardian, who had managed him with an iron fist, and finds friendship with a few lower-middle-class Indian boys. They offered him food, shelter, and found him a job. Rusty stays in the room on the roof of the house of one of his friends. He teaches him English for food and shelter. Interestingly, he grows closer to the boy’s mother and falls in love with the married lady. Rusty’s love passes away in a car accident, her husband remarries in Haridwar, and abandons their son. Rusty finds the boy, who had turned into a rogue bandit in Haridwar. He cajoles the boy, brings him back to Dehradun, and lives in the same room on the roof.

The book was written by Ruskin Bond when he was only seventeen. It has won several awards and established him as an author. It is hard to believe that the story was conceived by a seventeen-year-old. No doubt Bond is such a masterful storyteller. Boys, when faced with the hard realities, grew into strong men. I will consider that as the biggest takeaway. Rusty and Kishen (the boy whose mother he loved) maintain a symbiotic friendship. The story would leave that lingering doubt on what happened next. Unlike other stories, e.g., the Hidden Pool, this was a book about children written with an adult theme.