Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure

The author describes India as profound and profane. That pretty much sums up her book as well. Maybe Disney Land with the whiff and splat of raw sewerage would be another summation of her india. She thoroughly investigates every single "ism" and geographic location on the sub continent. Calcutta is about the only place she doesn't visit. The book is thoroughly educational from a cultural, religious, and geographic stand point. In reading up on India for a coming visit she is one of the best and most thorough detectives I have found. I am glad to have read the book; I have no regrets. It did drive my crazy with superficial left wing girly slams of war and the West. Those who derive their comfort and wealth from the western economies are usually the greatest critics of western culture and the most beholden to the mysterious charms of the east. Sarah has a lively writing style. She lulls you into comfort and then pulls the literary rug out from under your feet. She is very skilled at that. As a reader it was an enjoyable device.

Having visited India this year, and travelling non-stop for ten days, I was excited about reading Holy Cow. I read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts before going, during and after coming back from India. The book goes on forever, and although it’s an excellent book I was looking for something a little lighter in Sarah MacDonald’s Holy Cow.

And true to form that’s how it started. My own son is currently backpacking around Central America and I was looking forward to reading Sarah’s adventures backpacking through India. Unfortunately I’d misread the book description, as the backpacking part briefly describes a conversation at the airport before jumping on a plane home and takes about a minute to read. That’s it.

Slightly disappointed I read on and to be fair enjoyed what I was reading. I like the Indian people and I’ve written a lot about them myself. I enjoyed Sarah’s new friends and found myself amused at the variety of myths and superstitions that make up their everyday lives. I bought a copy for my wife, imagining it was just the type of thing she’d enjoy, and I realise now that I’d jumped the gun. She’ll hate it. It will bore her silly.

I’m currently 60% through the book, which I think is equivalent to about 183 pages of a print copy, and the story is doing my head in. I don’t honestly know if I’ll be able to finish it. This is one of those books that you find yourself reading and after a page or two realise your mind has wandered and you’ve no idea what you’ve been reading.

I can’t believe that a book that started off so well can get so repetitive. MacDonald likes to write, and to be fair she’s good at it, but she’s hopeless at stringing it all together. At one stage we find her on the banks of the Ganges (which is actually a beautiful Goddess who crashed to earth from heaven with only Shiva’s dreadlocks to break her fall) for the mass bathing known as Maha Kumbh Mela and then next thing we know she’s at a Buddhist retreat and we’re not quite sure how she got there.

This is the general theme of the book. It would possibly take a lifetime to explore all of India’s religions, Gods and Goddesses, but there’s no denying MacDonald gives it a darn good try. She aims herself at a variety of meditation retreats, yoga studies, Hindu festivals. Buddhist teachings and in fairness to her she gets involved as opposed to just reading about them all. But for the reader it comes across as a bit of a mish-mash, a patchwork goulash of India’s religions, and as one dovetails into another the reader is left a bit flummoxed.

And for that reason, with regret, I can only allocate this a 3 Star rating. It deserves higher, simply because of the effort in living it and writing about it, but for readership content it doesn’t deserve a 4 Star.

I’m feeling a stab of conscience now for the low rating. Perhaps if it was a shorter book, or it flowed better, but it’s not and it doesn’t, and in all honesty I really can’t grant this a 4 Star. 3½ Stars would possibly be a better rating, but there isn’t that option.

I completed this remarkably readable book last evening and as you can deduce I enjoyed my time spent working my way through it.
It is a thematic book for the most part; the themes as will become apparent for any person more clicked-in than me. I took a while to realise what the author was accomplishing.

McDonald is a remarkable observer of her surrounds. She takes the reader through a melange of extraordinary visual and mental parts of Indian culture that Westerners may not know even exist. One gets the impression that the author found the door opened to her and it revealed a religious world that until then she only knew small facets concerning these remarkably different religions.

In her last chapter McDonald pieces the entire Indian picture together seamlessly. The complexity of Indian religion can never be underestimated in its beauty, intricacy or usefulness to the entirety of Indian culture and society.
This is not a book to read if you are looking to familiarise yourself with a quick look at how India works before a quick trip into this mammoth and
complex country.

Holy Cow is Sarah Macdonald’s funny and all too accurate account of life in India. Initially published in 2002, the situations she describes are as accurate today as then. As someone who is currently living there, I can attest to the veracity of her perspectives. Some quotes: “I cross a huge bridge, but India is on the other side as well; everywhere there is a mass of begging, pleading, needing, naked wretchedness.” (Page 28) “I begin to regurgitate my repressed memories of why I never wanted to come here again. It’s a vomit of hatred and a rambling rage against the bulls***, the pushing, the shoving, the rip-offs, the cruelty, the crowds, the pollution, the weather, the begging, the performance of pity, the pissing, the s***ing, the snotting, the spitting and the farting.” (Page 32) “I have only one gripe with the workers of India. They just won’t say the word “no.” Perhaps it’s an honour thing, perhaps it’s a hangover from the Raj, or perhaps ‘yes’ can mean ‘no’, like the head nod can mean ‘no way’ and a side-to-side shake can mean ‘of course.’ The puppet-like wobble mixture of a shake and a nod can mean anything or nothing.” (Page 52) Ms. Macdonald describes a particularly disquieting incident when a beggar is lying injured in the street. A bus driver stops his bus and angrily drags the man out of the road into a ditch, leaving him there, upset because the injured man was blocking the road and having no thought about his injuries.

Well you get the point. Living in India is frustrating in the extreme. Now (November, 2016), for example, the government has decided that the existing money is no good and everyone has to change it to new money, which of course is not available. People stand in long lines at banks waiting for Godot. And quiet a few are dying in the process.

Ms. Macdonald goes there to be with her fiancé and gradually adapts, so that by the end of the book she discovers that India is “the land of the profound and the profane; a place where spirituality and sanctimoniousness sit miles apart. I’ve learned much from the land of many gods and many ways to worship.” (Page 318)

Along the way she visits a Vipassana meditation center where people are not allowed to talk or have any access to the outside world for ten days; observes a traditional Indian wedding with all its excesses, goes to Kashmir, the area that has long been in dispute between India and Pakistan; attends the Kumbh Mela religious ceremony where millions of people come to the Ganges River; visits the Sikh community in the Punjab and has a variety of other experiences that one can only have in India.

If you are planning a trip there skip the travel guides and read this book. You may well change your plans…or not.

Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure is the first book by Australian journalist, author and radio presenter, Sarah MacDonald. In 1999 Macdonald left Triple J to live in India with her husband (ABC foreign correspondent Jonathan Harley), and stayed for two years, exploring the country, its people and religions. After a brush with mortality, MacDonald felt the need to seek answers and so began examining the various religions to be found in India. She looks at Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism, Jainism and Christianity, and gives a little explanation of each as she does so. Along the way she encountered swamis, gurus, prophets, living gods, priests, pundits, sufis, lamas, devis and devotees, servants, saints, tourists, actors, diplomats, bureaucrats, and a laugh club. She endured hair loss, a dip in the Ganges, double pneumonia, twenty-one different types of mutton, a silent retreat, groping and leering, smog, power cuts and intense summer heat. MacDonald made girlfriends, learned Hindi and Bollywood dancing, visited temples and shrines, attended festivals, feasts and weddings and visited Pakistan. She concluded that "India is the land of the profound and the profane; a place where spirituality and sanctimoniousness sit miles apart. I've learned much from the land of many gods and many ways of worship." In this look at modern-day India from the perspective of an Aussie female journalist, MacDonald is often amusing, sometimes shallow, occasionally naïve, at times insightful and always injecting a good dose of cynicism into her observations of this fascinating culture.

From the very introduction of the book, I thought this would be a hilarious journey the author had in living in India, a kind of light and entertaining book. Although it is a hilarious one, the book, to my surprise, is a very deep and moving journey. It's a journey filled with disgust and anger at first, revealing the country's in-your-face poverty, dirtiness and "organized chaos" in an excruciatingly detailed and bluntly honest flavour; with a change of tune of the author later on, as she begins to understand more about the meaning of life India has taught her.

In an easy-going style of writing, the author takes us to the beautiful journey of her spiritual quest, from being an atheist to become a person who are very exposed to many different faiths, attending Hindu's Kumbh Mela, visiting the Dalai Lama, performing Judaism rituals, learning about Islam in Kashmir, learning about Sikhism in Amritsar, learning about Jainism and Sufi, exploring Christianity in the west, even visiting a living "Divine Mother" and other gurus. Along the way, subconsciously the author also teaches us the many different ethnics in India, where they live and mainly concentrated in the big subcontinent, and the socio-cultural struggle. The country's strong social and culture dominance in everyday life is also vividly described, through the stories of the many people she met and befriended.

All the tragedies, the deaths and despairs; all the festivals, colours and the cows in the middle of the road; and all the spiritual quests and gurus are all so very real, as if I was the one who's doing the journey. India is a very big and complex country, but the author can describe it almost effortlessly, with great details, in a fun and gripping style of writing. A really great book, well done.

I picked up this book before a long flight thinking it'll be a funny take on India. First few pages started with poverty and squalor of India which I can understand for a Western traveller to go through. Unfortunately it continues till page 100 then 200 and then till the end of the book.

Author is not interested in religion but the whole book is about her visiting religious places in India which are overcrowded and even urban Indians don't venture out to. She seems to repeat and exaggerate the lack of hygiene and chaos of India page after page.

As a radio jockey she is not expected to understand Economics, History, Politics, or Geography but one can expect her to be funny which unfortunately she is not. She has tried hard but criticism and mimicry can keep a comic on stage for only few minutes. Ultimately they have to be funny! She has not been completely honest as well...few examples - In Delhi, 9 out of 12 months are extreme weather but at least 3 months (March, Oct, Nov) are really good weather and she fails to mention them while she writes long passages on extreme months. She travels from hot plains to the mountains to go to Dharamkot and it's hard not to marvel at the Shivaliks/Himalayas and she again doesn't mention that. She mentions many a times how Indians keep staring at her and it's discomforting to be the odd one out. Very true. But it's also true that Indians go out of their way to make a white skinned person feel like a celebrity and bow down and give them preferential treatment. She has not mentioned it once probably because she enjoyed the servile nature and she got to feel like a celebrity without any accomplishment.

If you are interested in some serious (but awesome) writing by solo women travelers, try out 'Empires of the Indus' by Alice Albinia and 'India- A Sacred Geography' by Diana Eck. Alice went to Cambridge and traveled through Pakistan at a very young age and Diana is a Harvard professor who has traveled in India over 2 decades.

Sarah MacDonald made a career for herself on Australian radio, namely a government funded 'youth' radion station. So the early part of the book did lapse into an adolescent style - things put bluntly not for artistic purpose but instead to get a reaction. And she certainly pulls no punches in her overall disdain for India upon her first visit as a young woman and her overall negative impressions when she returned to follow her boyfriend. So initially I was settling in for a rather turgid read when, gradually, the book left behind some of the youth radio affectations and after a very serious illness the author determines that since she is in the place, she might as well throw herself into it and check the place out.

The book essentially follows the authors gradually changing views on aspects of India and the colour and vibrancy of the place certainly ekes out between the lines. After her illness the author admit she has a resurgent interest in spirituality and this exploration of the different religions prevalent in India makes up a huge part of the book. The authors fascination with the Indian ethos of acceptance is particularly poignant given that September 11th happened while she was a resident of the place. This book certainly captures the essence of chaos that typifies many peoples views of India and its discussion of both the esoteric along with the mundane aspects of domestic life in India is a nice juxtaposition.

While this is not necessarily a highly literary book and while it's no punches pulled approach will perhaps annoy those who have their rose coloured glasses firmly welded to their faces, I found this book to be an amusing enough read while away on a work trip. Certainly, I'll be buying a more text book stlye work to give me a handle on Indian history, but this did give me an appetite to perhaps one day travel to India to see the sights and taste the delights for myself. And that, surely, is good enough reason for me to award this four stars.

Eccentric travel literature is one of my summer reading mainstays. This account by a Australian woman of her life in India over a period of a few years is funny and poignant. She's a journalist, writing in a direct fashion about the fascinating people and scenarios she encounters with a worldly insight unexpected from such a young author. I found it neither condescending or racist; it seemed instead to realistically reflect her feelings as a non-Indian living in India. As far as her spiritual journey, well... paraphrasing P.T. Barnum: "There'a a seeker born every minute." Her status as a credentialed journalist allows her access to extraordinary places and people who, together with her everyday friends, acquaintances and wacky staff, create a believable picture of contemporary India. It's somewhat akin to "Eat, Pray, Love" but by comparison Sarah McDonald talks about something other than herself in clear, cogent prose. I did look to see if she had other books; unfortunately not.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was far more in-depth and insightful than a lot of travel writing which tends to be fairly superficial. I liked the author's style a lot and wish there were more books of hers to read!

Having said that, I did have a couple of minor quibbles. One thing that bothered me was how she described an Israeli traveler as only donating five dollars after a weeklong meditation retreat. Was it really necessary to identify the traveler as Israeli? In my experience, travelers in general are pretty tight-fisted. Calling out the traveler as Israeli only reinforces the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jewish people being stingy.

Also, I did find the cover mildly offensive, although I'm not a Hindu. Putting pink women's sunglasses on Shiva is pretty silly. Did the cover artist even realize Shiva is a man? I realize the author probably didn't have anything to do with the cover, so not dinging the book for this.

This book was mostly enjoyable. In the beginning there are rough spots where some editing could have been done better, but it's possible it was a period of getting used to the writers style. I can't say it made me want to visit India and I can't say her viewpoint resonated with me on things, but her experiences were interesting over all. At one point I thought about recommending this to my book club, but it went the way of most of these kind of books - too lengthy. After a while enough is enough and it begins to feel like it's being drawn out to make a page requirement. I'm not sorry I read it but I was glad it finally ended.

Perfect book for those who have been to India, but realized they didn’t know India. I particularly liked the author’s account of her explorations of religions and what she learned from them. The Australian reporters life in India was very interesting. I didn’t think I was going to like this book, but after finishing it I’ve recommended it to several people who have gone on tours of India.

This book presents an interesting perspective on India (with an emphasis on its religions) and gives a good impression of what being there is like -- although not from a typical tourist's point of view, since the author lived there for quite some time. My problem with it is that it's not particularly well written or edited. The author doesn't write beautifully and (starting from the third line of it) she has a habit of using expletives gratuitously; as a Baby Boomer, I'm thinking it was written with a much younger audience in mind. And such an audience probably also wouldn't notice the many grammatical errors, either; I found them annoying. I think a good edit would have made this a much better book (although still no masterpiece).

If you are looking for an adventure from the comfort of home, look no further. This book provides an incredible and hilarious look into all the sights, smells and sounds of India, her culture, and her variety of religions and belief practices.

Holy Cow is Sarah MacDonald's India travelogue/spiritual memoir, in which she transmigrates from doubt to dharma via dirt, disaster and eventually perhaps a smidge of destiny. MacDonald's a good writer, with an eye for detail and the honesty to admit when she's being selfishly petutlant in her Western ways. MacDonald observations on Indian dating rituals, servants, and religious observances are informative and entertaining - especially the "blessing of the estrogen" - I'll spoil it if I tell you any more, but suffice to say be careful of what you wish for!

A shout out to the illustrator who drew the cover - a painting of Siva in Christian Roth sunglasses. Absolutely brilliant!

"Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure" by Sarah MacDonald deals with her stay in India for approximately two years. She was visiting her boyfriend who was stationed in Indian temporary to cover the news in that region. MacDonald wrote about the people, culture and mostly religions. She covered quite a few of the religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and others; basically predominant religions in India.

This was just an okay read for me. I enjoy her writings on the sights and sounds of India especially when she wrote about the culture and the people. The second half of her book was a bit of a bore for me as she seemed to focus completely on religions. It was interesting at the beginning but later it seems to be a bit too much and I felt that I was reading the summary of a religion textbook. If you are into religions in India, this is definitely the book for you. If you aren't, this is only a so-so read.

I have a very mixed feeling about this book. The writerfs quest for the spirituality may have succeeded in rediscovering her own inner-self, but the bookfs attempt to portray India, the people and the religions remains disappointingly superficial. The writing is sometimes hilarious, yet in many cases, it leverages on the stereotypical Western views of India. This is regretful because the writer is not just an amateur traveler, but an ex-journalist who lived in India for two years. Yet I could not completely dislike or dismiss the book, because of the sincerity of the writerfs feeling about everything she experiences. You will probably enjoy the book if you do not mind the stereotype and are prepared to join the writerfs emotional roller-coater ride. I have lived in New Delhi myself, for five years. It amazes me how much it has changed and how much it has not chaged.

Australian journalist Sarah McDonald spends two years in India with her boyfriend Jonathan, hijinx and hilarity ensue.

Well, not exactly. There is some hilarity and hijinx, but not as much as the colorful cover would have you believe. This book is interesting and certainly has some adventuresome moments. It seems though that I agree with many of the other reviewers in thinking that Ms. McDonald's dabbling and dodging from religion to religion was a bit tiresome, superficial and at times, even condescending. I remember thinking at one point while I was reading, "How can she generalize all Jews as elitist based on meeting 2 groups of Jews??"

When she got to her exploration of Catholicism which was probably the most superficial of all the toe-dips again I found myself wondering how, with a billion Catholics in the world, she could judge Catholicism as right or wrong for her based on a one-day interaction with a Catholic group in India. Since those were the two religions in the book I was fairly familiar with, I can imagine other people's reactions to the generalizations she made on their religions. I must say though that people who try to make a faith fit them rather than them trying to aspire to be faithful is a serious pet peeve I have. Faith requires faith.

However, if I overlook some of the content, I did enjoy her writing style. I liked her honesty. I liked the book best when she was talking about day to day life in India. I wish Ms. McDonald had spent less time travelling and more time experiencing real, everyday life in India and had written about that instead and I do think it would have been more enlightening for her and her readers than a whirlwind tour of world religions

I gave this book 4 stars because it was a pleasant read and I like her style. Her observations of religion, whether I agree with her or not, did make me think about what I believe and anytime I am provoked to think, instead of reading along mindlessly, that is a good thing. Its not a 5, but its worth a read.

Sarah MacDonald is an Australian journalist who finds herself living in India after following her true love (another journalist). She has had only one earlier visit there, and is not sure that she is terribly keen on the whole idea.
The entire book could be called "The Trials and Tribulations of Sarah in a Foreign Land" because this is essentially what it is. Bored with her life and the absence of her man, who is frequently away covering assignments, Sarah investigates and embraces all sorts of different elements of Indian life and culture, sometimes seriously, and sometimes quite flippantly, but always with respect.
The outcome of this is usually very funny, and sometimes quite unbelievable. I was given this book as a friend who knew of my desire to visit India (I have yet to do so) and at the beginning I was not sure I would ever go, by the middle I was quite entranced, and by the end I still would love to visit.
Sure this isn't a politically correct observation of another culture and the millions of people who live their lives in a country so completely different to our sanitised Western World, but it is entertaining, and it is certainly an eye-opener.

Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure, starts out her book describing how she hated living in India and would much prefer to return to her native Australia. But then, after discovering India below the surface, the authorfalls in love with the country.

The value of Holy Cow, then, is that it takes the reader beyond the first impressions most tourists see and smell to the richness and greatness India offers to those who make an effort to discover this hard-to-get-acquainted-with country.

Macdonald has produced a refreshing and fascinating travelogue on India. But her book also is a memoir offering up a Westerner's perspective on an Eastern culture that is hard to come to grips with without effort. Her discovery of religion in India took her beyond Buddhism and Hinduism to the spiritual lives of the Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jews and Parsees.

While some Indians may find the book and its cover offensive, Holy Cow's humor is affectionate and not uppity. In my trips to India, I see the title selling freely and displayed prominently at bookstores.

MacDonald makes an observation that I also embrace -- "India is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true." The author also stands as a good example of the fact that you cannot travel to India and spend much time there without being personally changed in significant ways.

By Gunjan Bagla
Author of Doing Business in 21st Century India

The complete review, with links, is located here:

[...]

In 1988, on her first visit to India, the author was a brash twenty-something and 'an extreme atheist, contemptuous of all religion' (p. 15). More than a decade later, transformed by a long spiritual journey through India's cocktail of gods and goddesses, she is less dismissive of faith. However, atheism is at her core, having been 'raised in a family of atheists' (p. 34).

Sarah Macdonald's search for God is sincere, as sincere as can be expected from a non-believer. She leaves no stone unturned, no myth unchallenged. Through it all, she comes close to losing most of the hair on her head but never her acute sense of humor.

Surely, few countries can hope to compete with the mind-boggling variety of divinity on display in India. Sarah's whirlwind tour of the gallery of gods exposes her to every major faith and more, including Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Sufism. More recent targets of devotion, such as Sai Baba, Osho Rajneesh, Yogi Bhajan, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Bollywood stars, are also discussed.

'The only thing that can stop a bus,' observes Sarah, 'is the king of the road, the lord of the [traffic] jungle and the top dog. The holy cow.' For all their holiness, however, cows are treated dreadfully and left to feed themselves by rummaging through garbage disposed in plastic bags. Pieces of these plastic bags 'collect in their stomachs and strangulate their innards, killing the cows slowly and painfully' (p. 11).

As we follow Sarah through her voyage, we realize that although many of the predictions, astrological readings, and palm readings fail to come true, the few that do materialize still manage to create some awe, at least in the author's mind.

In India, 'saving face is so important that living a lie is accepted practice,' (p. 43) one that the author eventually also succumbs to (p. 46).

She notes that the mantras recited at Hindu weddings are 'mostly all to protect the husband' (p. 63). Despite the purported rise in female literacy, Sarah finds that gold, not education, is still 'a girl's best friend - an Indian woman's social security, insurance and alimony if abandoned or divorced' (p. 54). And when things go wrong, 'death can deliver status and honor. The pull for respect and the shame of living in disapproval are stronger than the lust for life' (p. 66).

Sarah's first foray into spirituality is a ten-day Buddhist Vipassana session with S.N. Goenka, which she describes as a 'brain enema' (p. 68). After some initial skepticism she discovers, 'silence is sensual, for my other senses are becoming heightened' (p. 73). The two Indian women in the group give up and leave on day three. It is no wonder that Buddhism never took hold in India. However, Sarah's understanding that 'the Mogul invasions wiped out Buddhism in its country of origin' (p. 150) seems to disregard the other half of the story whereby Buddhism was 'absorbed' by Hinduism and 'died a natural death in India' (The Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, p. 179).

Next on the itinerary is Sikhism, which her friend informs her 'is part of Hinduism' (p. 65). Sikhs, who the author views as 'the Irish of India' (p. 89) for being the butts of jokes and emblematic of India's 'hair fetish' (p. 82), must, she feels, find it 'hard to look tough in a topknot' (p. 85).

At the Golden Temple in Amritsar, 'the hairiest holy town on earth' (p. 86), she finds 'Sikhs washing the marble walkways with milk' (p. 87). She credits Sikhs for being 'the only Indians who understand that music sounds better if it's not making ears bleed' (p. 88) and describes the Sikh 'langar' (community kitchen), being cooked on fires 'large enough to bake an elephant' (p. 88), as Sikhism's 'up yours' to the Hindu caste system (p. 88).

Located nearby is the Miri Piri Academy for Western Sikhs, converted by Yogi Bhajan and given new names according to their 'numerology' (p. 90). At the Academy, Guru Singh, famous for being 'the first white Sikh,' predicts 'it'll all end in 2012' (p. 92).

Back at the Golden Temple, Sarah discovers that Indian Sikhs are 'confused by the turbaned white people' and view Sikhism as a 'birthright of blood . . . not for foreigners' (p. 95). S.G.P.C. official Gurbachan Singh Bachan enlightens Sarah about the special protection Sikhs enjoy from skin cancer because their hair 'absorbs the sun's rays' (p. 96). The author feels 'energized' (p. 100) by the encounter but rejects Sikhism because she isn't yet ready for God and, as she puts it, 'I hate a uniform' (p. 97). Also, she tells us, '[my husband] made me promise I won't become a white Sikh or a Hare Krishna' (p. 100).

In Muslim Kashmir, Sarah savors 'twenty-one types of mutton' (p. 113) and finds that 'Sufism is struggling' (p. 123), 'death seems to be the only growth industry' (p. 124), and most people 'want Kashmir to be an Asian Switzerland; an independent peaceful state' (p. 119).

Sarah finds Hinduism to be the 'least authoritarian religion' with an 'ingenious way of dealing with critics . . . Buddha rejected ancient Hindu teachings and the very existence of God, but Hindus insist that he was another avatar of Vishnu' (p. 142).

'The river is not dirty, your mind is dirty' (p. 145), insist sadhus (saints) at the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, where 'the three holy rivers of Hinduism meet - the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati' (p. 134). Sarah takes a 'vow not to eat meat' (p. 159) since 'the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism have spoiled the pleasure of the taste of meat' (p. 187).

Next, Sarah turns to 'Upper Dharamsala, or McLeod Gunj, [the] spiritual center of exiled Tibetan Buddhism' (p. 151). The Dalai Lama, she tells us, 'demands doubt, questioning and reasoning' (p. 154). She admits, 'right now the Buddhist way of living attracts me the most,' in part because 'Buddhism is proving it can move with the times' (p. 161). She takes comfort in the understanding that '[Buddha] insisted he never be worshipped or deified' (p. 163).

The author then heads to Dharamkot to meet up with 'India's most ubiquitous travelers - Israelis' (p. 164). 'It was the Dalai Lama who encouraged the first Passover festival in this town full of exiled [Tibetan] Buddhists. In 1990, His Holiness invited a group of Jews here to ask them how they preserved their religion in exile' (p. 169).

Rodger Kamenetz, who wrote about the event in his book The Jew in the Lotus, explains, 'After the Romans destroyed the Jewish temples, our people had to put the elements of worship into everyday life; the home is the temple, the family table is the altar and eating is divine communion' (p. 169).

She writes, 'Most of the travelers here have just finished their compulsory service (boys do three years, girls do twenty months) and they all seem resentful and angry about a spiritual homeland that trains them to kill' (p. 166). Judaism, she says, 'is full of guilt' (p. 167).

The reader is introduced to the varieties of Judaism. 'The Kabbalah is to Judaism what Sufism in to Islam' (p. 169). At the other end of the spectrum is the orthodox Chabad Lubavitch group, which 'only recognizes as Jews those individuals born of a Jewish mother' and believes in reincarnation (p. 173).

The Bene Israeli of Bombay, 'believed to be the poorest Jews in the world,' insist, India 'is the only place where Jews have not been persecuted' (p. 177).

The next stop is Zoroastrianism, 'one of the most ancient monotheistic faiths,' imported from present-day Iran, that 'probably influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam' (p. 182), wherein 'priesthood is an inherited right' (p. 190).

The Parsis, or Zoroastrians, are the 'most Western of India's ethnic groups' (p. 179) who 'became rich because they were firm friends with the British [who] gave them huge chunks of Bombay' (p. 181).

The vulture they depend on 'to take them to heaven' is on the 'critically endangered' list (p. 179). Their faith 'has been polluted by the Hindu customs of their foster motherland; Parsis wear a sacred thread like Hindu Brahmans, most don't eat beef and they throw flowers into sacred waters' (p. 192). Some even believe in reincarnation. Their capacity for 'self-deprecating' humor is a rare sighting in India.

Sarah keenly observes, 'Like Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed, [Zarathustra's] thirtieth birthday was a turning point [i.e. when he attained enlightenment]' (p. 182). She could have added Nanak and perhaps a few others to the list. She also notes with some frustration that the stigmatizing of women during their menstrual periods 'taints nearly every religion' (p. 188).

When confronted with 'NO NON-PARSIS' signs at Parsi temples, the author pines for 'the inclusive, casual nature of Hinduism' (p. 186).

Next on India's spiritual smorgasbord is the Mata Amritanandamayi Math in Kerala. Sarah isn't impressed by much other than Amma's stamina. 'Apparently she never has a day off and hasn't cancelled a darshan [viewing] in thirty years' (p. 207).

In Bollywood, she seeks out Amitabh Bachchan, 'a man with three temples dedicated to him' (p. 234).

From there it's onto Bangalore to meet Sathya Sai Baba, who 'says he is a purna avatar - a manifestation of God in human form and a coming predicted in the Bhagavad Gita, a Muslim Hadith and the Bible' (p. 238).

Sarah is a witness to two miracles. 'Hundreds of Indians are waiting in ordered queues in total silence' (p. 240) and Sai actually manages to 'arrive early' (p. 241). Sai segregates devotees by gender, nationality and spiritual association and 'spends most of the time on the male side, chooses mostly blokes for interviews' (p. 241).

'He has twenty-five million followers, including chief justices, an army chief of staff, ex-prime ministers, senior politicians and cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. A court has already ruled his gold comes from God and it seems there aren't any Indian investigations into the sexual allegations' (pp. 241-2). Sai has said 'he will die in 2020' and be reborn as 'Prema (love) in Gunaparthy, Karnataka' eight years later (p. 242).

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Sarah notes, 'As I feared, there won't be any forgiveness or compassion, there will be more death and another cycle of hate' (p. 257). In a moment of despondency she turns spiritual when her husband departs to Kabul on an assignment for the Australian Broadcasting Company. 'I pray,' she writes, 'to preserve my husband's life' (p. 258).

Jains, the book informs us, 'follow a religion that's often described as an extreme form of Buddhism' (p. 281) and 'don't really believe in a controlling creator that judges and directs retribution' (p. 283). Sarah is unable to accept the 'self-violence' of the seemingly progressive 'Jain ritual of santhara - starving oneself to death when all purposes in life have been served, or the body is useless' (p. 285).

To the author, India, the land of her 'rebirth' (p. 289), is both 'the best of humanity' and 'the worst of humanity' (p. 67). 'India is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true' (p. 107).

In the end, India is unable to inspire Sarah to 'worship' (p. 106) much more than the air-conditioner. Varanasi, or Benares, she says, is the experience that 'has branded itself on me most boldly' (p. 290).

India's secret for happiness, in the words of one of the author's interlocutors, 'We Indian people, we look at the people more poor, more low, more hard than us and we be thanking God we are not them. So we are happy' (p. 111).

Sarah is still an atheist but feels that 'being an extreme atheist is as arrogant as being an extreme fundamentalist' (p. 121). She tells people, 'I'm a Christian by culture but have no God' (p. 129). She is incapable of surrendering to a guru because, she says, 'the Westerner in me is automatically suspicious of people who claim to be perfect' (p. 141).

She writes, 'all religions, even the most inclusive of all, are ultimately perverted by humankind' (p. 286). But she neglects to acknowledge that all religions are the creation of humankind in the first place. 'I don't want to reject religion as the cause of human hatred,' she says (p. 287). Sarah's 'feelings on arranged marriages have changed' because 'lust doesn't last and couples with things in common do' (p. 219). In India, she's begun to see religion differently because 'it gives people with so little so much' (p. 244).

She leaves us with the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti, 'When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature then temples, mosques and churches become important' (p. 288).

Sarah McDonald's `Holy Cow' is a superb compilation of her multifarious traveling experiences in a country as intrinsically diverse as the different breeds of fishes inhabiting the same sea. The book is also a good introduction to the different cultures, religions, peoples, lifestyles, and places of a country that is impossible to comprehend without ever visiting it. From the immensely polluted and populated city of Delhi, to the Hindu pilgrimage towns in the serene Himalayas; from the Buddhist monasteries in Dharamsala and Dharamkot to the Sikh Holy places in Punjab; from the terror-stricken land of Kashmir to the cosmopolitan tropical third world New York - Mumbai; from the biggest spiritual festival on the planet - the Kumbh Mela in Northern India to a highly ritualistic spiritual quest in the evergreen state of Kerala in Southern India; from the interactions with Bollywood demigods being madly worshipped by the masses to the First World like establishments of Hi-tech cities - the silicon valley of India; from the chaotic sea of Indian Christian pilgrims in Tamil Nadu to the placid revitalizing philosophical retreat in Pondicherry; this fantastic travelogue takes you on an adventurous journey through an exuberantly chaotic country and introduces you to the incredible diversity existing within a unified spirit - India.

Excellent writing and totally riveting! I'm sorry that some feel that this book is insulting to the country, but honestly, the overall impression I have of India from this book is positive. I do think her forays into "religion" were a little bit ridiculous and superficial, but still interesting. I'm sorry that she hasn't written anything else, but understand that she's a little busy in her country of Austalia with at least two young children. I think the cover choice is unfortunate, but doubt the author had anything to do with that. I think it's sad that some chose to leave insulting reviews when they hadn't read the book. You certainly can't understand this book by reading a paragraph, a few pages, or by looking at the cover. I truly don't believe the author intended malice.

We spent most of last winter in Asia, including nearly two months in India and Sri Lanka. We bought this book at the Chennai airport on our way to Thailand, so India was very fresh in mind. It is a hysterically funny and very good-natured read, and certainly rings true to our experience of India.

There is really no such thing as preparing for a trip to India; as experienced travelers to much of the developing world we still found it a complete shock. Macdonald does a great job of sharing the highs and lows. Far from being disrespectful of India, as a few reviewers have claimed, she clearly learns to love the country and the way travel there obliterates ones preconceptions. Wish we'd read it before we went!

I didn't think anyone could whine more than Elizabeth Gilbert. Then I met Sarah McDonald. I wanted to kill myself after a few chapters with her and the book. I could not bring myself to kill myself as I was afraid- secondary to poor Karma related to my suicides- I'd be reincarnated and forgot I read the book and then I'd pick it up again! I'd kill myself again and Samsara till Kingdom Come. Moksha would never be mine. McDonald can write and write well, but as reviewer Rachel Manija Brown states: "and her persona is unbearable" She's right. I could not engage on the journey with her. I lived in Gujarat many years ago and traveled the expanse of this beautiful and perplexing nation. Mother India is epic. She is a maddening, gorgeous, crowded, contradictory,and glittering maelstrom. She deserves far, far better than the constant negative assault(s)and smug condescention of the author.

Macdonald, an Aussie journalist, lived in India for two years and in HOLY COW tells a few pretty entertaining stories.

She gets drunk and dirty during Holi, does a Vipassana retreat, meets a few sadhus (holy men) and goes to the Kumbh Meta every-12-years Hindu festival. Along the way she meets freaks, social climbers, uptight (as well as way-too relaxed) Indians, generals and street people.

The book is pretty funny, and Macdonald learned enough Hindi to meet some interesting people. However, the book is really little more than artfully re-arranged journalism. The narrator has a weird experience, makes you laugh, and then moves on to the next activity. "Did Vipassana-- can't maintain the discipline necessary to keep it up-- so now will try yoga."

As a touristic intro to India, this is fine stuff-- funny and occasianally moving-- but it stays pretty much on the surface.

What an adventure. I feel like I really know India and its culture through the eyes of Sarah MacDonald. Fascinating insight into its people, its religions and Gods, it culinary tastes and its friendliness. I laughed at her friends who came to stay and rushed home again.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.

The people that rate this book (and tell Sarah to go to hell) seem to be taking someone else's experiences rather personally. I didn't find this book to be an indictment of India, but rather an honest, often hilarious foray into a foreign culture. I applaud her for seeking as many experiences as she did! She didn't stay in an air-conditioned hotel and whine - she dove, headfirst, into the cultural, religious, and political stew that is modern India. Her honest reactions of a stranger in a strange land rang true. This book has no disrepect nor intolerance. What it offers is a healthy dose of humorous reactions to new experiences. I highly recommend this memoir to all world travelers and esp. to women who dare to be as curious and intrepid as Ms. Macdonald.

I loved this book! The writer's style was refreshingly honest and had a real conversational tone. I felt like I was at coffee listening to one of my girlfriends relate the story of her trip to India. The book was laugh-out-loud funny at times. Seriously, I love when a book forces me to respond with uncontrolled and spontaneous laughter as this one did several times. The book really was like a roller coaster ride and I appreciate that the auther did not go off on tangents or lengthy descriptions of things that we really don't care about. But, instead moved the story along at a pace that makes it compelling. I understood her spiritual search and appreciated her openness to receiving enlightenment through various receptors. I found myself nodding in agreement as she learned that she could take the good from each religous aspect that she was exposed to and leave the rest for the zealots. Excellent book. I definitely recommend it and it's a pretty easy read that can be done in a weekend or two.

This book gripped me from start to finish.

Having been to India numerous times and experienced the mystical aspects of gurus and sages, I had a certain connection to an Australian recollection of her time in India.

The writing is lighthearted, witty and conversational. It has the tone of a laid back Australian who is just telling a story and telling it well. The contrast of a Western woman with negative pretenses to a foreign country to a woman who is filled with acceptance of difference is massive and inspiring.

The book recounts one lady's forced discovery of India. Her husband, an ABC correspondent is posted there for a length of time and she decides to follow him and in turn, discovers herself there. Judgments are made early on in the book about a third world country that is packed with people and where cows are revered. This judgment slowly is replaced by sincere modesty and a love for the country.

I highly recommend this book. It is an easy read with interesting, quirky characters and will have you both laughing and crying from start to finish.

I liked the first few chapters, she stayed true to the topic of the book. However, she then delves into (and never gets out of) religion, religion, and more religion. There are also a cast of a thousand characters where I found myself flipping back just to try to remember and place who the person was in the previous chapter/s. Hence the need for a pen and paper. She mentions people once in a chapter then brings them up again several chapters later, so frustrating because I have long forgotten who they were. But really, my gripe is with the writings about religion which I started skipping and finally decided to stop reading the book altogether.

and personal spiritual journeys that I have read, such as Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Enlightenment for Idiots by Anne Cushman, Poser by Claire Dederer, and several by Roger Housden. In some ways, Holy Cow is more raw and cuts to the bone, especially about mundane, everyday customs and impressions. I loved it!

India is our future - as the youngest, biggest, and increasingly smartest society on earth the way India goes will lead us all. So much I read on India is about macro forces....this book gives an on the ground view from a slightly wacky but always hilarious explorer from Australia. At this point in my life I can't pick up and travel around India...so this book is the next best thing.

I enjoyed Sarah MacDonald's "Holy Cow" so much that I was taken aback to see it rated here on the store at an average of three stars. Sifting through the comments, I see that those who reviewed the content of the book gave it five stars, while those who were offended by the U.S. cover gave it one star. Ergo, a three.
I don't want to slam anyone who was offended by the cover. I am not Hindi. Who am I to say what is and is not offensive to someone who is? Howver, I do hope that what I see as an artificially low the store rating doesn't deter anyone from picking up this lovely piece of work. I learned a lot about India, and I think any casual, interested reader will as well.

I agree with other reviewers who have stated that the book reads as a fairly decent travelogue until Macdonald starts on this spin-the-wheel and find a new religion quest. Her visits to the various holy sites, ashrams and other spiritual experiences would have been better written if they were indeed from a journalistic perpesctive but her seeimngly shallow attempt, to within 2-6 days "test" a new religion gets pretty silly and monotonous given that she does it over and over again. If the book was a soul searching memoir, then it wuold need to be injected with ore feeling because it comes across as to cynical and even the times when she does seem to get serious just seem superficial.

I also find it interesting, as did another reviewer, that she didn't meet a single Indian that couldn't speak English properly - everyone she met seemed to be a caricature, not entirely real. To be fair, I've never been to India (was given this book in preparation for an upcoming trip to Dehli) so maybe it really is like that, but I think it cheapens her message when she goes to such extremes to mimic accents and make fun of people's styles of talking.

Sarrrrraaaahhhhh MacDonald's portrayal of contemporary India is a third rate work of literature by a third rate writer (as we would say in India). Her search for spirituality and her inclination to run for the hills when she doesn't agree with a minor aspect of a faith or religion are nauseating. The unsuspecting reader is dragged through tiresome description after description of the miserable conditions in India and how the unwary and faint hearted westerner is forced to endure them. A friend of mine once said that a serious reader should be very careful about what she or he reads since there are a lot of really bad books out there and you could spend a whole lifetime reading them without ever getting around to reading the good ones. If you are on s desert island and have the misfortune to have only this book with you, then I suppose you should read it. If you are interested in learning something about India, read books like William Dalrymple's City of Djinns. There are a few laughs in this book, but the humor is not as intelligent as some other reviewers would have you believe.

After reading this book,I realized that Sarah didnot intend to do this journey for her own improvement or for finding peace or intentionally searching for "Truth". Its not actually a travellers log in true sense, Its just a diary of a person who went to India to meet the love of her life. And because, she had to stay back at home while he worked, she started to explore the country where she is made to stay.

She started with criticism and disgust and hate for everything . And thats why initailly , you feel let down by her extreme criticism of heat, dirt, slums, poverty and people around .But eventually , you can see a change in her tone, still sharp, but less critical.

A traveller doesnot start with critcism and contempt, but infact starts with inquisitivness, surprise and optimism and I think that what Sarah lacked. But her observations were indeed true, no doubt about that.

Well and that book cover would definitely be offensive to many!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sarah has a quirky sense of humor that explores India in all its contrasts and contradictions. Like Sarah, I also have a background in psychology and I appreciated her interest in trying to understand why people are the way they are. For instance, through personal exploration she tries to discover why people are attracted to various religions and the role these practices and beliefs play in their lives.

I am kind of surprised no Hindu protested the cover of this book. I don't consider myself religious, but I was brought up to respect other people's religions and opinions whether or not I agree with them (as long as it doesn't physically harm me or others). By this cover: the author and publishers did not respect the religious beliefs of an ancient religion. Could you not find another picture to depict your disdain for something you do not understand?

Eleven years after backpacking through India with complaints of the poverty, heat and pollution Australian Sarah Macdonald relented to never return; she even went to the extreme of flipping the middle finger to the ground below as her plane ascended into the sky. Sarah wasn't necessarily happy to quit her successful job in Sydney to relocate to New Delhi to live with her journalist boyfriend; she often wondered if she was making the right decision. Upon arrival she started having flashbacks of pugnant body odor and beggars with leprosy. The pollution and thick smog affected her health and wellbeing. It is clear that she isn't quite cut out to live in New Delhi.
After reading the first couple chapters I expected HOLY COW to be filled with constant whining of India's derelict living conditions and complaints based on a Westernized perspective resulting in a mediocre travel narrative. But low and behold, I was soon pleasantly surprised how Sarah slowly evolved and reevaluated the country that she has scorned for so many years. After she started becoming reacquainted in her new home she started looking beyond the mayhem and dirt and began to see the beauty of India. Being a devout atheist when she first moved to New Delhi she slowly awoke and embraced the dynamic religions of Hinduism and Buddhism; she began to appreciate the sounds and surroundings of her new home.
While her husband is busy working Sarah was able to travel throughout India with her new perspectives and begins to enjoy the dichotomies that India offers. My favorite side trip was the Buddhist retreat in the Himalayan footsteps that taught her to meditate by concentrating on her breathing. I cannot imagine undergoing anything close to that endeavor.
Throughout HOLY COW Sarah Macdonald succeeded in digging past a traveler's first impressions of India to highlight the beauty of this varied land. By reading HOLY COW I now understand just a little bit more of India, and that was my initial goal when I first picked up this book.

Sometimes, bitter-sweet things from the past turn into sweet memories. I saw this book when I was daydreaming of my days in India. Even her overly sarcastic voice didn't annoy me. Her whining was understandable, as I have gone through similar experiences. I enjoyed reading about her journey throughout India, but the last chapter seemed rushed, as if a TV commercial was cued up, so the program had to be wrapped up as beautifully and as quickly as possible. That almost ruined the flow of the story I was reading. Otherwise, it was a fun read.

Sarah Macdonald owns her story and tells it as purely and passionately as she can. It is exhilarating to read an author who doesn't sugar-coat the tragedy of poverty, pollution, disease, misogyny that do exist in ample measure in India. However, she also vividly portrays the rich history, wealth, compassion and yes - spirituality - that also exist alongside ... and the foreign influences (past and present) that shape the sub-continent today.

The reader senses that this is MacDonald's true interpretation of her experience, unbridled by false patriotism and political correctness.

A stimulating read.

Real Real fun book. She has described very nicely about most of the religion and culture in India. You can nod to everything that she says. As you go on reading the book you feel a strong urge to hear her views about each religion that she has had experience with. Its not a criticism of India but the almost real picture of it. I being Indian could now realte how a foreigner truly feels about India. I disagree that it is kind of criticism of India. I dont think she has written anything negative about it. Its just a observation and though she may have added somethings of her own, I think most of her experiences must be preety genuine.

Reviewers who have stated this book is disrespectful of India and her culture missed out on the message I took away - this book is a wonderful description of a journey of discovery. The author shares her preconceptions and prejudices, both of the country and of herself, and shows how her experiences changed and improved her outlook both of India and the culture's contradictions and contrasts of extremes, as well as her own character.

Thanks Sarah for this book, You are making me laugh so much. I have been to India on 3 occasions in my bakpaking days, I am laughing and relating to every page. I needed to laugh as I have been sick after full on dental surgery last Friday, I have about 12 sticthes in my mouth right now and look butt ugly, The book is making me laugh so much I have to put it down occasionly for fear of the sticthes coming out. I'm only a qtr way through the book. Every page is transporting me back to India I just cant stop laughing. India has to be the best place on Earth where else in the world can make you laugh and cry in one day. Ya never know I may get the urge to go back and visit one more time, India gets under your skin for life I reckon. I will keep reading and keep laughing my head off.

Bella Perth WA xx

One of the funniest books I have read about travel. I laughed so much and so often while reading this book I had tears. The only people who give this book bad reviews are Indians who are embarrassed by the truth in the book.

I personally ended up not liking the author after reading this book. It was her soul-search...and she sold it. Very disappointing. I wanted to read more about India and got a lot of religion. Poor author can't decide which religion is right for her. Maybe if she didn't try and answer the big "R" question, she would have discovered spirituality on her own. I agree with the other reviewers who complain that all of a sudden, the author LOVES India. After complaining so much, it came as a surprise. In any case, I am not giving less than 3 stars because this book did not make me NOT want to go to India.

first off, the book cover looks silly!!! if you ignore that, then rest of the stuff is pretty good. Just dont take anything she says as hard facts, she made a good atempt to understand it. India is far from Black&White, like author herself admits its very diverse and confusing , its a place of extremes. i thought the author was bitching a lot abt envronemnt, pollution etc etc., she sure cant judge india solely by living in the most highly polluted city in india, its same as living in middle of Times Square and looking for inner peace :).

I Recommend it as a 'fun' read, nothign serious, Its like watching a bollywood movie. No gain - no loss just fun.

Happy reading !!.

to all the indians who are offended: Arey light lelo Yaar!!!

I enjoyed Macdonald's travelogue of India. Some of her asides and observations about religion seemed a little forced. This is one of those travel books where the author tries to create a thesis and make her adventures fit into that preconceived structure for the book. However, I got a very good sense of how Macdonald adjusted to this very different culture and came to love it. I recently read Justine Hardy's Bollywood Boy which covered much the same ground but was a little bit better.