A Rhapsody on India's History - Notes, Essays, and Reflections - Volume I - Hardcover

by Pranab Pattanaik (Author)

This unique book explores India's history as seen through the author's eyes as an Odia/Indian and a non-historian history lover of an ancient civilisational land, of which many stories remain to be told. This book is meant for generalist readers and captures a wide diversity of topics. The book doesn't follow a time-sequenced history but picks up a diverse set of themes to provide a wonderful panorama that brings out the multiple facets of India's history. With a compelling set of line drawings, maps, and photographs (both new and old from actual sites, Indian and foreign museums), the book hopes to enrapture the reader, engage all the senses of the reader, and allow for imagination beyond just the written words.

The book is meant as something that the readers can return to again and again, to read a story, to look at a map or a photo or just to find an intriguing nugget of information. The author also adds his own reminisces across the various chapters, making it 90% history and 10% memoir.

About the Author: The author has always loved history and geography, particularly of Odisha, his home state since his childhood days. He works in investment management and holds a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's degree in business management. He attributes these two loves to his mother's storytelling about Odisha's history and traditions (and visits to numerous ancient sites of Bhubaneswar and nearby places) when he was a child and his love of geography from an inheritance of a tattered old atlas that his mother had used during her school days. He grew up in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and did his schooling at DM School, Bhubaneswar. He is currently based in Singapore, and this is his first book.