Publisher's Synopsis
Written from the heart, Indian Kaleidoscope is Maria's personal account of her journey with her husband Pete through Southern India. Amidst electoral fever the Muslim and Hindu festivals are in full swing. They discover a hotel in Kovalem whose owner's unorthodox approach to non-package holiday makers is an eye-opener. They get to know the waiters Prasad and Mani and renew their friendship with Sandeep, a taxi-driver. He takes them on trips where they are entranced by processional elephants, soaring eagles and floating houseboats. During the following few weeks they encounter persistent rats, roadside ironing, beer and refuse wallahs, mobile mortuaries, and entrepreneurial paan-chewing street hawkers; throughout all of this, sampling mouth-watering Keralan cuisine. Travelling with suicidal tuk-tuk drivers they are shocked by the inevitable lepers and the low value placed on human life. They visit the hill station of Ooty by train where the grim reality of the loos is an experience they will never forget. With the searing heat, overdoses of vegetable curry, illness and repeated visits from 'Basil' the rat, they wonder whether they'll ever find Maria's relatives before the monsoon arrives. They embark on the epic 1800 kilometres train journey to Goa via Cochin, Madikeri, Mysore and Jog Falls. After four months India has taken its toll on them. A kaleidoscope for all five senses leaves them reeling.
