Santha Rama Rau

Memoirs of the maharani of Jaipur, an Indian princely state, encompassing her privileged childhood, her marriage as the maharajah's third wife, the events of Indian Independence and her political career in India after Independence

However one defines this book, it is a work of unique interest and charm. Here are a dozen memorable pieces, dramatized episodes from the writer's experience, caught into a narrative account of her life in many far places of the earth: India, Africa, China, Indonesia, Ceylon, Spain, Afghanistan, Russia, Japan, England, the United States. Santha Rama Rau is one of the most perceptive observers of our curious and very complex world. As an Indian educated in the West, she brings a wonderful balance as well as sympathy to her vision. Surely no one in her generation has had a more varied life, has traveled more widely or lived closer to the people and events which are giving dramatic shape to this century. Her recollections, covering a period of thirty years, are informed, witty, highly diverting. In a prefatory note Miss Rama Rau says: "The stories which form the body of this volume have appeared in various magazines over a number of years. In rereading them with a view to book publication, I was interested to discover that, taken in sequence, they provide a sort of rough outline of my life story. To me, my life has seemed ordinary enough, not usual perhaps as lives go but satisfactory to my needs. Yet I know that there are many people, including some of my best friends, who consider it odd, peculiar, even a little mad. Or exotic. So it occurred to me that it would be amusing to weld together these very personal stories - each of which has a basis in a true happening - with autobiographical comment. This I have done, prefacing each story or group of stories with such details of my wandering life as seemed relevant. The result is a curious kind of book, I suspect h- a highly irregular self-exploratory essay which attempts to explain how the woman I am emerged from the child born thirty-odd years ago in Madras, India. In trying to recapture people and events, I have hoped to come upon the illuminating moments which have fixed the pattern."

The Adventure of the Speckled Band, by Arthur Conan Doyle Death Arrives on Schedule, by Hansjörg Martin The Feeling of Power, by Isaac Asimov The Expedition, by Rudolf Lorenzen The Cegua, by Robert D. San Souci Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy Just Lather, That's All by Hernando Téllez Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga Marriage Is a Private Affair, by Chinua Achebe Cranes, by Hwang Sun-won Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Gir, by Anne Frank Letter to Indira Tagore, by Rabindranath Tagore Letter to the Rev. J. H. Twichell, by Mark Twain When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, by Le Ly Hayslip By Any Other Name, by Santha Rama Rau Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane China Men, by Maxine Hong Kingston The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, by Willy Lindwer Account Evened With India, Says P.M., From Dawn Tests Are Nowhere Near India's: Fernandes, From The Times of India Pakistan Nuclear Moratorium Welcomed, From the BBC Online Network The Frightening Joy, From De Volkskrant Building Atomic Security, From Zycie Warszawy Macbeth, by William Shakespeare "Master Harold"... and the Boys, by Athol Fugard The Stronger, by August Strindberg The Diameter of the Bomb, by Yehuda Amichai Taking Leave of a Friend, by Li Po Thoughts of Hanoi, by Nguyen Thi Vinh Mindoro, by Ramón Sunico Ode to a Pair of Socks, by Pablo Neruda Haiku by Matsuo Bashō Haiku by Takarai Kikaku Haiku by Anonymous Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, by Dylan Thomas Letter to the English, by Joan of Arc Nobel Lecture, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln Inaugural Address, by John F. Kennedy Of Repentance, by Michel de Montaigne A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift Cup Inanity and Patriotic Profanity, From the Buenos Aires Herald Staying at a Japanese Inn: Peace, Tranquillity, Insects, by Dave Barry Why Can't We Have Our Own Apartment?, by Erma Bombeck Lohengrin, by Leo Slezak A Wedding Without Musicians, by Sholom Aleichem

"This book, then, is mostly an account of the best food that I know from the sorts of homes I have lived in or visited, and with a few exceptions, not the daily fare of India's villagers, about 80 per cent of the country's inhabitants. There are no "great" restaurants or famous chefs in India as there are in, say, France, to guide one in formulating a nationally accepted "great cuisine." Relatives, friends, friends of friends, acquaintances and some professional cooks have, in their generosity, provided much of my material." -Santha Rama Rau

Adela Quested travels to India with Mrs. Moore, her fiance's mother, to visit her fiance, who is the city magistrate of Chandrapore. They befriend a young Indian man, Dr. Aziz, who invites them on a picnic to Marabar caves, and is later accused of attempting to rape Miss Quested.

The leader of the people / John Steinbeck Mr. Know-all / W. Somerset Maugham Vanka / Anton Chekhov The happy prince / Oscar Wilde The old demon / Pearl S. Buck The sailor-boy's tale / Isak Dinesen Young Archimedes / Aldous Huxley Butch minds the baby / Damon Runyon Suspicion / Dorothy L. Sayers Hautot and his son / Guy de Maupassat The open boat / Stephen Crane My Oedipus complex / Frank O'Connor The snows of Kilimanjaro / Ernest Hemingway A letter to God / Gregorio López y Fuentes The little Bouilloux girl / Colette The ruby / Corrado Alvaro Six feet of the country / Nadine Gordimer [The boarding house]( / James Joyce The brute / Joseph Conrad A double game / Alberto Moravia Maternity / Lilika Nakos Lead her like a pigeon / Jessamyn West God sees the truth, but waits / Leo Tolstoy The walker-through-walls / Marcel Ayme [The lottery]( / Shirley Jackson The McWilliamses and the burglar alarm / Mark Twain The Augsburg chalk circle / Bertolt Brecht The overcoat / Sally Benson Blind MacNair / Thomas H. Raddall The procurator of Judaea / Anatole France The open window / Saki (H.H. Munro) María Concepción / Katherine A. Porter My Lord, the baby / Rabindranath Tagore The end of the party / Graham Greene Modern children / Sholom Aleichem Babylon revisited / F. Scott Fitzgerald Carrion spring / Wallace Stegner Just lather, that's all / Hernando Téllez The secret life of Walter Mitty / James Thurber The rocking-horse winner / D.H. Lawrence The Sunday menace / Robert Benchley The Mezzotint /Montague R. James The alligators / John Updike Pelageya / Mikhail Zoshchenko Haircut / Ring Lardner The burning city / Hjalmar Söderberg Fireworks for Elspeth / Rumer Godden The old chief Mshlanga / Doris Lessing Who cares? / Santha Rama Rau Over the river and though the wood / John O'Hara Dental or mental, I say it's spinach / S.J. Perelman The drover's wife / Henry Lawson The huntsmen / Paul Horgan The guest / Albert Camus Patience / Nigel Balchin Among the paths to Eden / Truman Capote Admiral's night / Machado de Assis The bet / Anton Chekhov The man who could work miracles / H.G. Wells A country love story / Jean Stafford A worn path / Eudora Welty The outstation / W. Somerset Maugham A priest in the family / Leo Kennedy The cop and the anthem / O. Henry Marriage á la mode / Katherine Mansfield The nightingale / Maxim Gorky The launch / Max Aub The wreath / Luigi Pirandello The eighty-yard run / Irwin Shaw You were perfectly fine / Dorothy Parker Luzina takes a holiday / Gabrielle Roy

Informative personalized view of the countries of Southeast Asia.

"Emily and husband Colin have come to the French Riviera for what should be a joyous occasion - the engagement party of her lifelong friend Jeremy, Duke of Bainbridge, and Amity Wells, an American heiress. But the merrymaking is cut short with the shocking death of one of the party in an apparent suicide. Not convinced by the coroner's verdict, Emily must employ all of her investigative skills to discover the truth and avert another tragedy"--

Glimpse into the everyday life of the Soviet Russians, with enlightening comment on the theater, art and personalities in Russia.