Book Review: Nine Lives in Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple

Man’s life without religion can be positioned as an inevitable privation - an unending path in the darkness. We all need light in our lives to walk ahead and embrace our duties and responsibilities towards humanity and the God. Some are simple for Godly affection while others go crazy in devotion. So, here the book – Nine Lives in Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple, explores the lives of nine people on account of their journey taken towards their devotion and their respective Gods or the source of powers.

The book is an interesting read mainly it is unbiased in its nature. It almost covers all the directions of the vast India, ranging from South India to Bengal to Rajasthan to Eastern monasteries. For every religion, it provides a wonderful story as well as touches the hearts of their people. The most interesting and touching one was about a Monk’s story, who meets another monk and they weep together in remembrance of their homeland Tibet and about autocracies of China. It is taken that the writer must have travelled a lot to compile this work. Indeed a good compilation on travel writing. Yes, the book is based on humanitarian compassion. Through every story the writer tried to conjure up a story of humanity or the value of faith and religion in their lives (the characters). It is quite rare to find such an influencing book in the form of short stories. But, William has done it remarkably.

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