del-Pilgrimage: One Woman's Return to a Changing India

It was a life changing book for me! It encompassed four corners of India in those few pages. Its not a book for people who only want accolades and praises for India and want to hear all good things about India. Its a book which tells the story behind the scene, it tells the tale of those faceless people who are struggling , suffering , either optimistically or with complains. Being born and brought up in India myself, I could never see that India had so many faces, so many angels , so many dimesnions .And I have realized that India is not just a land where saints ,spiritualy ,buddhism and Gods , Computers, IT , Sofware developers, engineers prosper, its a land where slums ,child-labor, anger, frustration and pains prosper too. But I very gald to read that Pramila Jayapal didnot show India in hue of just Black and White, Right and Wrong and with the rigid ideas and preconceived notions that people carry with themseleves along with their luggage when they first land to this place. She reveals her struggle to understand if what is Right in the books ,is really right in real life. Its a beautiful book which balance Right and Wrong, balance Morals with self-conscious.

Pilgrimage is a fair and honest assessment of some of the social issues faced by the people in India, especially women. Ms. Jayapal experience is conveyed to the reader in simple but not simplistic manner. I felt like her companion through her journey. She openly acknowledges her own strengths and weaknesses and those of Indian society. She does not judge issues as right or wrong, she knows the readers are intelligent enough to decide for themselves. The strength of a person and a society is the ability to look inward and realize that there is good and bad everywhere. Pramila Jayapal is a person of such remarkable strength. As someone who has lived half of my life in India and half abroad, I was able to identify with Pramila. Reading this book was both an emotional and a spiritual experience that I enjoyed.

Pramila Jayapal vividly presents all the beauty and splendor of India, contrasting with the poverty, sexism, corruption, and classism that is also India. This book especially touched my heart for two reasons: (1) my son was born prematurely, too, at only 24 weeks, and when I read the chapter about Pramila's son's birth I had tears rolling down my cheeks, and (2) I have a special fondness for India, because my husband and I became engaged while we were traveling there. This was one of the best travel memoirs of India I have read.

One of the few books that capture the complexity and beauty of India in these changing times. Pramila Jayapal describes today's India honestly and objectively but with an understanding heart. A thought provoking book and a great read.