The Diary Of A Snake Charmer

“‘Utthisht Bharat,’ he said, and in that magical moment I felt that the river, the trees, and the sky…were saying, ‘Utthisht Bharat.’ I got up, never to look back or have doubts again.” Just as the Bharata of yore responded to the Lord’s call to rise up from dejection, to fulfill his glorious destiny, this modern day Bharat too rises up from the pits of despair and defeat, to set out steadily on his appointed path of duty. Bharat, an IITian, with a management degree from IIM, had a ‘successful’ innings in the corporate world, with overseas postings too. Having acquired a substantial bank balance, he has the urge to set up a business in rural India, which will bring greater profits to the farmers. Predictably, he is ruthlessly pushed out, and systematically ruined by the vested interests that feel threatened. Deep in despair, he gets help from a most unexpected quarter, a poor tribal snake charmer, known as Nagbaba… A gripping tale of how he comes out from the mires of debt and ruin, to rise up again, wiser but undeterred from his chosen path… A story of modern India, the two Indias of the cities and the villages… the urban, educated, elite youth with modern knowledge from science and technology, and the illiterate people of the forests, who have the wealth of wisdom passed down from centuries… the development of cities, which takes place at the cost of the proliferation of slums… the two different cultures that coexist in mutual wariness and mistrust…

The seventh and final volume of the author’s “remarkable” diary is filled with the reflections of an older woman as she journeys through the world (Los Angeles Times). “One of the most remarkable diaries in the history of letters” ends as the author wished: not with her last two years of pain but at a joyous moment on a trip to Bali (Los Angeles Times). As she ages, Anaïs Nin reflects on how the deeply personal and introspective nature of her writings intertwines with her public life and her connections with other people, including her devoted readers. “One of the most extraordinary and unconventional writers of [the twentieth] century.” —The New York Times Book Review Edited and with a preface by Gunther Stuhlmann

This book presents the travels of an individual who was determined at a very early age to see the world. This diary follows the domestic and world travels of Bill Ashley over a period of about 50 years. Throughout these years he has been able to visit every one of the 50 states in the United States, several provinces in Canada, every country in Central and South America, every country in Europe, almost every country in the Middle East and Asia, Australia, the Antarctic, and 23 countries in Africa. The author shares these experiences in this book along with several funny stories regarding interactions with fellow travelers.

Stroll down memory lane with Estelle Craig at the age of one hundred, as she recalls her childhood, life as a new bride, a columnist, an impresario, a radio host, a publisher, and a playwright. Travel around the world and meet celebrities. Find out how it can be fun to be a senior.

Three years have passed since erotic, willful Dara Prince disappeared from Winston, West Virginia, leaving a note saying she's run away. Now a body has been found in the creek. A body, Christine Ireland suspects, that could very well belong to her adopted sister Dara. Deputy Sheriff Michael Winter certainly seems to think so. But if Dara's dead, who's been sending Ames prince the letters he cherishes: always with a different postmark and always signed with his missing daughter's initial? When Dara's diary turns up unexpectedly, Christine is plunged into her lost sister's dark and mysterious world. Clearly, in the days before her disappearance, Dara was certain somebody was stalking her. As past melds hauntingly with present, people who knew Dara are meeting tragic fates. Now, someone is watching Christine's every move--perhaps just the way they once watched Dara, right before she died. If, indeed, she really did die...

Note that there is a companion website for this book and it can be seen at: http://secretsofthesnakecharmer.blogspot.com/ Humans and snakes have an intimate and ancient relationship that often revolves around either love or hate. Snakes can be seen as gods, spiritual messengers, symbols of fertility, and guardians of resources in virtually all cultures. But to those that fear them, snakes are seen as venomous creatures that cannot be trusted. In Secrets of the Snake Charmer, John Murphy, a research associate of the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, provides an in-depth, twenty-first century look at snakes utilizing the published research of other herpetologists as well as his own personal experiences and speculations. Murphy covers a wide range of topics such as the adaptability of snakes, the ways in which evolution has tinkered with snakes during the last 160 million years, and the impact snakes have on the ecological communities they live in. While sharing ideas about the origin of snakes, rattlesnake rattles, and spitting in cobras, Murphy presents an innovative portrayal of snakes that proves they co-evolve with their prey, predators, and parasites in order to fulfill a significant and novel role in the web of life.

English Fluency is a tai lor-made compi lation of the entire syl labus prescribed for the first and second semester students of English Core who have scored in the range of 60 to 80 percent marks in English in Class XII. It presents complete clarity on concepts and formats from examination point of view. With minimal textual emphasis and optimal use of practical exercises, an effort has been made to make learning a pleasure for students. The aim is to equip the readers with skills required to hone English as a language of communication. The book also caters to learners looking for interesting and innovative material in English reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary building

Following in the footsteps of Napoleon's army, Europeans invaded Egypt in the early nineteenth century to gaze in wonder at the massive, inscrutable remains of its ancient civilizations. One of these travelers was a twenty-four-year-old Englishman, John Gardner Wilkinson. His copious observations of ancient and modern Egyptian places, artifacts, and lifeways, recorded in such widely read publications as Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians and Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, made him the leading early Victorian authority on ancient Egypt and paved the way for thc scientific study of Egyptology. In this first full-scale biography of Wilkinson (1797-1875), Jason Thompson skillfully portrays both the man and his era. He follows Wilkinson during his initial sojourn in Egypt (1821-1833) as Wilkinson immersed himself in a contemporary Egyptian lifestyle and in study of its ancient past. He shows Wilkinson in his circle of friends—among them Edward William Lane, Robert Hay and Frederick Catherwood. And he traces how Wilkinson continued to use his Egyptian material in the decades following his return to England. With the rise of professional Egyptology in the middle and later nineteenth century, Sir Gardner Wilkinson came to be viewed as an amateur and his popularity diminished. Drawing upon recently opened sources, Thompson returns Wilkinson to his rightful place within centuries of Egyptian scholarship and assesses both the vision and the limitations of his work. The result is a compelling portrait of a Victorian "gentleman-scholar" and his cultural milieu.