Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald

Title: Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure

Author: Sarah Macdonald

First Published: 2002

No. of Pages: 304

Synopsis (from B&N): "In her twenties, journalist Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India and came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution and poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India—and for love—she screamed, “Never!” and gave the country, and him, the finger.

But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life and death.

Holy Cow is Macdonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—and her sanity—can survive."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Nonfiction

Comments and Critique: I’ll admit it – I picked up this book for the cover. The colors just drew me in. I expected a light-hearted and irreverent Indian travelogue. It was that, but so much more. Along with highly descriptive pictures of the people and places throughout India, this book also brings the reader along the author’s spiritual journey. She opens her heart and mind to the myriad of religions practiced throughout India, including Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. While not converting to any, she shows us how all have aspects that have the potential to make followers into better, more loving and tolerant people. Throughout, both the author and the people she meets come across as generally likable, well-intentioned, capable of foolishness and fun, and occasionally ridiculous – in other words, human.

I can’t really describe it, but this book just made me feel good. I read my library’s copy, but I enjoyed this one so much that I’m thinking of buying my own, just so that I can reread it anytime I want. A refreshing and unexpected delight of a book.

Challenges: 999 (Travel); A to Z (author "M")