Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India

Gita Mehta is a keen critic of her homeland. In her brilliantly satirical Karma Cola she skewered the guru business and the marketing of Eastern spiritualism. In Snakes and Ladders Gita widens her net to include politics, economics, religion, and so much more. The 35 essays contained in this collection are wholly personal accounts of national events; recalling Gandhi's funeral, Gita finds her humble memories of the actual event quite different from the scenes depicted in Richard Attenborough's film, Gandhi: when she asks one of Gandhi's grandsons whether the Mahatma did indeed receive a huge military funeral as the film showed, he replies that such a ceremony did briefly take place, invented by Nehru and Mountbatten "for the record." "What record?" Gita wonders. "Soldiers? Gun carriages? For the disciple of nonviolence? ... He did not even reach his funeral pyre before his luck ran out."

Gita Mehta's lively, informative, and witty essays are an excellent introduction to the subcontinent for readers who may not be familiar with India's culture or history. Gita explains her title choice by comparing the country's fortunes with the ancient game of Snakes and Ladders: " ... it seems we Indians have vaulted over the painful stages experienced by other countries, lifted by ladders we had no right to expect. At other times we have been swallowed by the snakes of past nightmares ... " Readers of Snakes and Ladders will find themselves eagerly scaling the ladders, then sliding down the snakes' gullets in happy pursuit of Gita Mehta's perceptive portrait of India as she knows it.