I'm going to be backpacking India for 2 months starting

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>>9562229

i assume youre going to be staying in hostels. dont bring more than two books, and expect to lose them. hostels usually have libraries where other travelers have left books, so theres always something to read.

I don't know much about India and books on the subject, but two authors from my country (Italy) wrote about it:

https://www.amazon.com/Scent-India-Pier-Paolo-Pasolini/dp/1477643427

https://www.amazon.com/Merry-Go-Round-Tiziano-Terzani-Felix-Bolling/dp/9350297159/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495934721&sr=1-3&keywords=tiziano+terzani

Pasolini is a literary master, but I'd suggest you to check out Tiziano Terzani in particular. I traveled as a backpacker around SEA last year, and a lot of guys I met were reading his books, which surprised me quite a bit.

>>9562229
Grow up, you little idiot. the fact that you just HAD to tell this to all your cute little "internet buddies" shows me clearly that you're doing this as a romantic egotistical way of jerking yourself off to how "deep and spiritual" you are. Of course you have to advertise your little journey to India, telling everyone "oh I'm white but I'm one of the open-minded white guys who can appreciate other cultures so that's why I'm learning Hindu, doesn't that make me soooo cultured and interesting and spiritual??" No, you aren't going to find enlightenment, you aren't going to turn into a "great wise being," when your "spiritual journey" is a secretly resentiment-filled way of trying to compensate and stroke your vanity. If you were good at math and had a hot girlfriend I highly doubt you would feel this fraudulent need to "prove yourself" through spirituality. People like you make me sick, ruining the name of religion for the sake of your petty vanity.

>>9562356
The important thing is you don't leave your room

>>9562356
you have been on 4chan for far too long if you're really this cynical my guy.

>>9562338
thanks will order those promptly.

>>9562356
p r o j e c t i o n
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op is a fag though. "fully emersed". Dude is going to be staying in hostels for 2 months surrounded by westerners

>>9562399
>>9562411
>>9562523
>>>/b/

The ramayana

>>9563153
If you want to read ancient texts that have deep connections to the social norms and philosophies of the oldest religion/culture in the world, the ramayana and mahabharat are sure bets.

If you want a modern view, read the news dummy

>>9562356
Or he is just a bit excited and nervous about going so he asked the question.

5/10 made me respond, but was rough around the edges and too obvious at times

India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy - Ramachandra Guha

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture

Both can be found on lib.gen.io

>>9562229
Make sure you don't wear harem pants. It immediately marks you out as a tasteless fool who can be fleeced for dollars in exchange for a red mark on your forehead

You should read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

>>9562229
>What books do you recommend I read in order for me to understand why things are the way they are and become fully emmersed.

Are you really going there for aesthetic and cultural reasons? Lol, you're in for a big surprise.

Contemporary India is (no pun intended) literally shit. A giant piece of litter, oozing smog, human fluids, desperation and unregulated, deeply unethical and widespread capitalism. The beauty that you've captured from the great literary tradition of this country, does not represent in the slightest the experience you'll get in India. If you come from a meditative background, well, contemporary India is the opposite of that.

I'm sorry mate, but someone should tell you that.

T. Guy who really got into Indian culture, ended up visiting India and came back uglier, more tired and way, waaay more jaded.

>>9562229
Krista Purana

>>9565199
God dammit. Where should I go then?

>>9562356
9/10, spicy

>>9565223
Go to India. Just because it doesn't fulfill some dumb fantasy about Le mystic land of spiritual truth don't mean it's not worth a trip.
There is no mystic land of wonder
[Spoiler] The mystic truth was inside you all along man [/spoiler]

>>9562356
As needlessly edgy as this post is, I agree.

Pooinloo by T. Pajeet

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White guy who's spent some time in India here. The other guy was harsh but largely on point.

First off, you will never be "fully immersed" unless you want to immerse yourself in one of the hippie communes with a bunch of other cosmopolitan westerners.

Don't go to India expecting some sort of enlightenment. You will see shit. You will see poverty and inequality like you've never seen. You will see sick and abused animals. You will see and smell corpses. Corpses in the rivers. Corpses stacked and burning. Corpses facedown in the middle of the street.

India has a lot of problems, so don't be naive. You will also be such an outsider. Maybe you'll enjoy the extra attention at first but it will quickly fade.

Many of the people will try to swindle you and take advantage of your romantic vision of India. Here, hold this cobra! Here, this shop has the best discounts! Want some fruit? ALWAYS check for a magnet underneath the scale they use to weigh. A lot of Pajeets are out to get your money. Learn to haggle and learn to catch them off-guard.

You're learning Hindi? Ha! Don't bother. Despite all the brown people, India is the most diverse country in the world and language plays a huge role in that. Look at the map. Those are the languages prominently spoken in India. English will take you much farther, especially if you want to be out of the (largely shitty) northern part.

Agra is shit but you'll go there anyways so there's not much I can do. Don't stay too long. Go to Amritsar. Check out the countryside if you get the chance. I especially like Punjab. Go to Goa. Maybe Chennai. Hit up the Himalayas.

As for books, Siddhartha. Read up on Operation Blue Star, and the Gandhis that have been in power.

Want to go somewhere a lot better and less likely to smash your romanticized notions? Go to Bhutan.

>>9566115
Just want to add on, there are some great people in India, but they are very often born into terrible circumstances and that's saddening, once you get to know these people.

And if you're a woman, just don't go to India.

>>9562356
Unironically agreeing with neetshe here

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>>9562229
Naipaul's India Trilogy

Read The Dhammapada, The Upanishads, and especially The Bhagavad Gita.

That way you don't have to read a billion pages from the Mahabharata

>>9562356
This

>>9566322
>The Dhammapada

That really isn't going to help him much to understand India as it is right now.

>>9562229
>>9566115
>>9565199

Also lived the backpacker life for a while and spent three months in India. Definitely did not experience any spiritual awakening, and honestly probably went the opposite way and became more callous and hard. At the same time though, I learned so much from being in India simply because it's a vastly different culture from the one you know that you're going to have to navigate and try to understand and in that process you'll learn something about India but you'll also probably learn something about yourself. Yeah there's shit everywhere and poverty like you've never seen before and cows on the streets and beggars without arms and hordes of scammers waiting to rip you off but there's also a certain beauty to the sheer chaos of color and sound and movement that's everywhere.

There's two types of travelers you meet, those that hate India for all the above, and those who love for just the sheer vibrancy and vitality of the country. As frustrating as the experience could be, after visiting India the rest of the world just feels a little blank, a little boring, a little lacking. I don't know why, but I personally have the hunch that I'll personally be returning to India several more times in my life.

In terms of practical travel stuff, I ended up meeting quite a few really amazing Indian people through couchsurfing who invited me into their homes and showed me their city and their life. If you don't couchsurf already, I would highly recommend it.

Forget what the other poster said, Hindi is understood (and pretty much the lingua franca) everywhere outside the southernmost two provinces, and learning it will definitely help you communicate with people. I remember the friend of a lassi-seller in a very touristy area being really impressed by my ordering food and then doing basic small talk in Hindi and then inviting me to see a temple he really liked and buy me some top-notch street food. Everyone is really impressed it if you know the language and they will appreciate it for sure.

In terms of books, India after Gandhi by Ramachadra Guha is the best primer on recent Indian history, White Tiger is a short, biting look at modern Indian society, and Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a really great book about the slums. I still don't know that much about Hinduism, but the later Upanishads are really great and it wouldn't hurt to read the summary of the Ramayana and Mahabharata

I definitely wouldn't be as negative as these other posters and honestly would love to be in your place if I could. You should really look forward to your trip!

>>9567213
this is a really well-written post. As a western Pajeet, it painted pictures in my head and made me smile.

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>>9566115
what do you think of auroville
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroville

>>9562356
You can tell the fraction of redditors using lit from the responses to this post alone

>>9568777
what is that supposed to mean

Just go to a comfy mountain village in Nepal and drink hot lemon with Bimal and Gopal

Siddhartha could be nice, although it's not strictly what you're looking for

>>9567213
>>9566115
What if I want to look into spending time with the Christians in Malayalam? Are they cool about outsiders?

>>9562356
/thread

>>9568777
Trips of truth have spoken

>>9569390
you have to go back

>>9565199
>>9566115
>>9567213
>t. cossetted Westerners who can't handle the real world.
Toughen up you fags. Your momma ain't here to wipe your little nose. Stop being afraid of getting a little dirt on your precious fingers

read hindoo holiday and the bhagavad gita

>>9570116
calm down pajeet

The jadefags are right. If you didn't understand the power of money before you went, you will understand it after. Not exactly liberating, but mind-expanding in a cynical kind of way.