Reviews
A quick intake
Inhaling the Mahatma
by Christopher Kremmer
Fourth Estate, 2006
There must be something about the Subcontinent that turns the most well-intentioned reportage into 'intensely personal stories'. An examination of the dustcover of Inhaling the Mahatma, Australian reporter Christopher Kremmer's latest book, reveals another yatra into India: "A country in the grip of enormous and sometimes violent change." While consciously avoiding the temptation to refer to 'heady mixes' and 'multi-layered tapestries', Kremmer nonetheless takes readers on the mandatory gut-wrenching bus ride along India's crowded highways, complete with argumentative conductor, mad-cap driver and blood-red sunset against hazy grey skies.