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Book Review: Yeh! Hai India by Anuj Tikku

Recently, I was browsing a very famous Bollywood song online: Yeh Mera India song download. However, I did not get the song but instead saw this book cover page Yeh! Hai India. Upon further exploring, I found that the book is written by a popular Bollywood face – Anuj Tikku. Since I know the author and his travel blog. I picked up the book from Kindle. Like many of his other books, this too was simple in writing and takes the readers to various places. It is a book with a lot of travel stories. The author stitched this book after his India tour. He explored around 22 states and more. So, for someone who is less into travelling, this book means treasure of experiences and information.


There is a lot to see and read in the book. The author has inserted pictures and given detailing about his tour plan and pricing and agents and of course hurdles. The book kicks off with Benaras, indeed this charming religious city is the gem in the Indian tourism. While reading I got scared by the Manikarna Ghat where hundreds of bodies are burnt every day. Anuj takes time to provide details about the charm of Varanasi via old culture and old buildings – at times he felt lost in the milling crowd.

Next, in the Mansarovar Yatra – I got to know that this lasts for 26 days and people believe in taking Parikarma of the Mansarovar, and from here originates four major rivers of India.

Being a seasoned traveler, Anuj begins talking about the GST impact on tourism, India is nowhere as compared to Malaysia and Thailand. While going upright about traveling fun, the author all of sudden begins talking about cow – its importance to Hinduism in India. It was a political talk with cultural values.

Next out of thing was Trump as a worry to India. Apart from these two points, rest all was about travel experiences, be it at Triputi Balaji or Taj Falaknuma royalty and legacy and pricing or exploring the nearby villages or art at Bandhavgarh. The coverage related to Bandhavgarh is long as compared to other places. To enhance the experience, at times, there are posts in the book that talks about the top ten places to visit in Shimla and so on.

Through a single traveler, the book contains various anecdotes and landscapes and their folktales. In more than one way, the book is way beyond short trips. Above anything, one thing is sure that India is too beautiful and it must be explored by the tourists all around the year. There are a thousand more places and descriptions that can go on, for the same reason, I will appeal you to grab the book and see yourself where would you like to be next.

Anuj Tikku, being a travel blogger, I think has also evolved as a travel writer. So far, he has penned down more than five books, all based on his travel experiences. I think more than a traveler, he is a nomad who believing in promoting travel for everyone.

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