Holy Cow!

Today I met someone I've been hoping to meet (and thank) for the past four years. Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure.

My life would never be the same after reading this book, as a sophomore in college back in 2009. I had never thought seriously about traveling abroad before, I just wanted to hang out with friends and enjoy living in America. Four months after finishing Holy Cow, I was on a plane to India.

There are still some lines in that book I can still recall, such as how she describes a bus like "kamikaze cans squeezing out a chunky sauce of arms and legs" and when she visited back in Sydney she took "big gulps of fresh air." As a wide-eyed 19-year-old, this land and culture was absolutely and perfectly fascinating. My love affair with the Indian subcontinent started when I nannied one summer for an Indian family in Holliston and was intrigued by exotic scents in their household, the small ceremony the dad would do every morning before leaving, the colorful fabrics and saris around the house. I also read Jhumpa Lahiri's two books, The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies, one a novel and the latter a collection of stories, each richly layered with Indian culture. But Holy Cow sealed the deal and affirmed that I would just ahve to see this place for myself. I did, and it changed the course of my life. I spent three weeks volunteering outside of Delhi, I was constantly bombarded with the smells, sights and sounds of India. It was pretty full-on, and could not be farther from life in the quiet suburbs of Boston. (Here's my blog I kept during my travels in India).

I had the pleasure of telling all this to Sarah when she came to BU this week to give a guest lecture  on travel writing to our journalism students. I was made aware that she would lecture back in August and I've been waiting literally all year for this introduction. During her lecture, she spoke about her recent trip to Viet Nam and writing a travel piece about her experience there. A few tips she gave the class was to read short stories/fiction from the country which you are visiting, it deepens the experience. She talked a lot about the writing of Holy Cow (which I loved, the inside story!) She began writing the book from two different perspectives: the first after her 10-day silent meditation session in Dharamsala, and the second from the world's largest spiritual festival, the Kumbh Mela. She wanted to explore how rapidly India was changing. She also went into detail about being in Pakistan when September 11th happened, the clash of civilizations.

It was great to hear her talk about moments I remembered in the book, like when she gave India the finger the first time she went, vowing she would never be back. She signed my book and took this:

Me and Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow!