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The Indo-American Arts Council
presents
Rajika Bhandari's
The Raj on the Move: Story of the Dak Bungalow
A fascinating journey recounting amusing anecdotes and
folk-lore about the mysterious Raj-era dak bungalows.
Tuesday, December 11th 7-9 pm.
Venue: Leila Heller Gallery, 568 West 25th Street, NYC.
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Rajika Bhandari will read and talk about her book. Books will be available for sale and signing followed by a reception.
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| About the Author: |
 Rajika Bhandari, researcher and writer, is the author of four books on international higher education. She is also an avid traveller who enjoys documenting her experiences of travel within India and abroad. Her personal and travel essays have appeared in independent magazines and on National Public Radio in the Unites States. Originally from Delhi, she lives in New York City. |
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| About the book: |
Established in the 1840s by the peripatetic British, dak bungalows forever changed the way officers of the Empire and their families travelled across the subcontinent and got to know the real India. With most of the British Raj perpetually on the move, whether on tour or during the summer migration to the hills, dak bungalow travel inspired a brotherhood of sorts for generations of British and Indian officers, who could recount tales of horrid dak bungalow food, a crazed khansama, and the time their only companion at the bungalow was a tiger on the loose. Today, too, PWD-run circuit houses and dak bungalows continue to occupy an important place in the lives and imagination of India's civil servants.
In The Raj on the Move: Story of the Dak Bungalow, Rajika Bhandari weaves together history, architecture, and travel to take us on a fascinating journey of India's British-era dak bungalows and circuit houses, following, quite literally, in the footsteps of travellers who stayed in these bungalows over the past two centuries. Her search takes her from the early-19th century memoirs and travelogues of British memsahibs, to travelling from the original colonial outpost of Madras in the south to the deep interiors of Madhya Pradesh, the heart of British India. Evoking the stories of Rudyard Kipling and Ruskin Bond, and filled with fascinating tidbits and amusing anecdotes, the book unearths local folklore about these remote and mysterious buildings, from the crotchety khansamas and their delectable chicken dishes to the resident ghosts that still walk the halls at night. |
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| Reviews: |
"The Raj on the Move: Story of the Dak Bungalow...is often an arresting social history of British India, or at least of those who were allowed to take shelter under its red roofs." -- Mint/Wall Street Journal
"Bhandari drinks deeply from old travelogues and literature of the Raj...and justly reclaims the dak bungalow's place in the Raj's cultural imaginary...Particularly delightful are the observations, verses, stories and even recipes (from Edward Lear, Dickens, Kipling, and other chroniclers spread over a century and a half)."--Outlook Magazine
"If you have been thinking of Dak Bungalows as boring and haunting government run buildings of past then you need to explore them more for a stint with furious ghosts and delicious chicken treat, says Rajika Bhandari who has archived the dangers and delights of Dak bungalows in her book.". --Deccan Herald
"Dak Bungalow (or Bangla) cuisine, sadly, is a near-forgotten culinary treasure that survives among a few remaining khansama families and Anglo Indian households. RajikaBhandari's The Raj on the Move retraces some of these flavours from sooty kitchens served for the 'Sahib' and the 'Mem'."--Mid-Day |
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| About the IAAC: |
The Indo-American Arts Council is a 501 ©3 not-for-profit secular arts organization passionately dedicated to promoting, showcasing and building an awareness of artists of Indian origin in the performing arts, visual arts, literary arts and folk arts. For information please visit .
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