A Globe and Mail Best BookThe inimitable M.G. Vassanji turns his eye to India, the homeland of his ancestors, in this powerfully moving tale of family and country. Part travelogue, part history, A Place Within is M.G. Vassanji's intelligent and beautifully written journey to explore where he belongs. It would take many lifetimes, it was said to me during my first visit, to see all of India. The desperation must have shown on my face to absorb and digest all I possibly could. This was not something I had articulated or resolved; and yet I recall an anxiety as I travelled the length and breadth of the country, senses raw to every new experience, that even in the distraction of a blink I might miss something profoundly significant. I was not born in India, nor were my parents; that might explain much in my expectation of that visit. Yet how many people go to the homeland of their grandparents with such a heartload of expectation and momentousness; such a desire to find themselves in everything they see? Is it only India that clings thus, to those who've forsaken it; is this why Indians in a foreign land seem always so desperate to seek each other out? What was India to me?

Vassanji, M.G.

M. G. Vassanji

Vassanji, M. G

Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers

Random House, Incorporated

Delacorte Press

[Toronto, Canada], Ontario, November 4, 2008

United States, United States of America

Canadian First, FR, 2008

[curator]lenscriv@archive.org[/curator][date]20181002183248[/date]

Includes bibliographical references (p. 427-433).
Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada, a division of Random House Canada.

<p><P><b>A<i> Globe and Mail </i>Best Book</b><br><br>It would take many lifetimes, it was said to me during my first visit, to see all of India. The desperation must have shown on my face to absorb and digest all I possibly could. This was not something I had articulated or resolved; and yet I recall an anxiety as I travelled the length and breadth of the country, senses raw to every new experience, that even in the distraction of a blink I might miss something profoundly significant.<br><br>I was not born in India, nor were my parents; that might explain much in my expectation of that visit. Yet how many people go to the homeland of their grandparents with such a heartload of expectation and momentousness; such a desire to find themselves in everything they see? Is it only India that clings thus, to those who&#8217;ve forsaken it; is this why Indians in a foreign land seem always so desperate to seek each other out? What was India to me?<br><br>The inimitable M.G. Vassanji turns his eye to India, the homeland of his ancestors, in this powerfully moving tale of family and country. Part travelogue, part history, <b>A Place Within</b> is M.G. Vassanji&#8217;s intelligent and beautifully written journey to explore where he belongs.<br><br><br></p>

440 p. : 22 cm
It would take many lifetimes, it was said to me during my first visit, to see all of India. The desperation must have shown on my face to absorb and digest all I possibly could. This was not something I had articulated or resolved; and yet I recall an anxiety as I travelled the length and breadth of the country, senses raw to every new experience, that even in the distraction of a blink I might miss something profoundly significant. I was not born in India, nor were my parents; that might explain much in my expectation of that visit. Yet how many people go to the homeland of their grandparents with such a heartload of expectation and momentousness; such a desire to find themselves in everything they see? Is it only India that clings thus, to those who've forsaken it; is this why Indians in a foreign land seem always so desperate to seek each other out? What was India to me? The inimitable M.G. Vassanji turns his eye to India, the homeland of his ancestors, in this powerfully moving tale of family and country. Part travelogue, part history, A Place Withinis M.G. Vassanji's intelligent and beautifully written journey to explore where he belongs
Includes bibliographical references

A Globe and Mail Best Book
It would take many lifetimes, it was said to me during my first visit, to see all of India. The desperation must have shown on my face to absorb and digest all I possibly could. This was not something I had articulated or resolved; and yet I recall an anxiety as I travelled the length and breadth of the country, senses raw to every new experience, that even in the distraction of a blink I might miss something profoundly significant.
I was not born in India, nor were my parents; that might explain much in my expectation of that visit. Yet how many people go to the homeland of their grandparents with such a heartload of expectation and momentousness; such a desire to find themselves in everything they see? Is it only India that clings thus, to those whove forsaken it; is this why Indians in a foreign land seem always so desperate to seek each other out? What was India to me?
The inimitable M.G. Vassanji turns his eye to India, the homeland of his ancestors, in this powerfully moving tale of family and country. Part travelogue, part history, A Place Within is M.G. Vassanjis intelligent and beautifully written journey to explore where he belongs.

From inside front cover: Part travelogue and description, part history and meditation, and above all a quest for a lost homeland, *A Place Within* begins with diary entries from Vassanji's very first wide-eyed trip to India in 1993, then moves on to accounts from his subsequent and obsessive revisits. An intimate chronicle filled with fantastic stories and unforgettable characters, [it] is rich with images of bustling city streets and contrasting Indian landscapes, from the southern tip of India to the Himalayan foothills, from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Here, too, are the amazing histories of Delhi, Shimla, Gujarat, and Kerala, and of Vassanji's own family, members of an ancient sect that draws on both Hunduism and Islam.

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2023-06-28