About book A South Indian Journey: The Smile Of Murugan (2007)
This book is probably the most comprehensive guide to present-day Tamil Nadu written by an outsider and one of the best by anyone. Michael Wood touches on nearly every aspect of Tamil civilization be it religion, spirituality, history, day-to-day life or politics. From the frank and heartfelt narrative, it is evident how deeply he is attached to the Tamil country and its people. Wood has an eye for detail - he does not miss out on even the minutest details such as the weighing machine that used to be commonplace in our railway stations. He also understands the Indian mentality pretty well and does not complain when people ask personal questions about his religious beliefs nor does he ever rave and rant about the long queues or political corruption. On the whole it is an extremely optimistic book written by an understanding mind. This book is by no means the best that I've read but certainly among the better ones.
Yet another Michael Wood this year and once again I can't help but feel that he had more fun writing it than I had reading it. Picked this up in Southwark a few weeks ago while on a work trip. It made splendid reading on the plane, but once I got home a slight disappointment set in. I'm sure the temples were lovely and I really can't fault Wood's description, but still it was all a bit "wish you were here.All that aside, you can't fault his enthusiasm and passion. It's infectious. Not sure when it will happen, but I can't wait to get to India. Not many books make me want to praise God, but this comes close. And who can fault anything with the line, "an equation has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God".
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