I have been reading this excellent compilation of travel stories called TRAVELLER’s TALES – INDIA, published by .. Traveller’s Tales, a company started in 1980 to publish travel books that read like, in their own words, “fellow travelers swapping tales about the place you’re headed next – you come out changed, and eager for more.”

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Like the story on Benaras “Stairway to Heaven” by Madhur Jaffrey captures the essence of the place so well, I know I have to put Benaras on my travel calendar soon.

Some of the other stories, like the one about the “Ladies compartment” is  simple, yet is interesting because as a woman traveller who has travelled many miles on trains in India, I know what the author is talking about.

The one on sighting ducks in Brahmaputra, a topic that perhaps should only interest die-hard ornithologists, is so well written as to appeal to any interested traveller.

All in all, a wonderful read so far. I still have many left to go over: Hobson-Jobson by Salman Rushdie, for one.

The one story I was not very fond of, perhaps because of the very casual observations is the one by the editor,  Larry Habegger, called the “Horns of Kaziranga”.