India Geography

The tiger is yours and you must come to take him. His jaw and chest are covered with fine jewels, rubies and emeralds.... You must bring yourself to India and find this tiger. Tom Trelawney discovers an incredible family secret. While serving as a soldier in India one of his ancestors stole and then hid a precious, jewel-encrusted tiger. The tiger is one of eight - all identical - that once surrounded the throne of a legendary sultan. Now a ruthless Indian billionaire is attempting to collect the full set - and only one is still missing.

Did ancient India witness the Great Flood? Why did the Buddha give his first sermon at Sarnath? How did the Europeans map India? Combining scholarship with sparkling wit, Sanjeev Sanyal sets out to explore how India's history was shaped by its geography - answering questions you may have never thought to ask. Moving from geological and genetic origins to present-day Gurgaon, Land of the Seven Rivers is riveting, wry, and full of surprises.

For more than four decades after gaining independence, India, with its massive size and population, staggering poverty and slow rate of growth, was associated with the plodding, somnolent elephant, comfortably resting on its achievements of centuries gone by. Then, in the early 1990s, the elephant seemed to wake up from its slumber and slowly begin to change - until today, in the first decade of the 21st century, some have begun to see it morphing into a tiger. As India turns 60, Shashi Tharoor, novelist and essayist, reminds us of the paradox that is India.