A book about Bangalore's remarkable transformation in recent times is what one would have expected. So Deccan Traverses comes as an outright surprise. But it is a welcome one, for the book is an odyssey into the city's colonial past that shaped and continues to mould its future. For someone who has grown up in Bangalore, the book provides an unusual insight into the early makings of the city. Painstakingly researched and backed by some rare maps and drawings, the book traces how the British spectacularly transformed a "naked country" into an enchanting city with fabulous gardens and lakes that made Bangalore the most sought after posting in the Empire.

As the authors discovered, there was little that is 'natural' in Bangalore and that almost everything had been done with design. Most of the lakes that made the city famous were originally agricultural tanks constructed with bunds. Lalbagh was chosen by the British to be developed as a "European playground" and exotic plants, trees and even food crops were shipped from all over the world to make it the Empire's botanical garden. One of the British officers responsible for developing early Bangalore said when he left: "I consider myself a little Romulus." The British, as the book points out, brought not only a new view of things to Bangalore but also new things to view. A city that developed as a result of the imagination of those that traversed it. Bangalore is then a result of the extraordinary enterprises and interventions that shaped its landscape. While the book has much to offer, the very nature of its extravagant exploration makes it daunting for a lay reader to enjoy and is meant essentially for the specialist.

Perfumed History

A pleasantly predictable love story set in the age of Kanishka
By Tara Sahgal

Set in north India, Circa 78a.d., this is the story of Aranyani-"a girl as beautiful as a sunrise" and her lover, Vanu-a "brave hunter who stalks the deer at daybreak". If that's just too formulaic for you, hold on, there's more. Aranyani is trained in the art of love-a courtesan to Chromius, a hedonistic, gluttonous Greek trader; Vanu is a wild man of the mountains, more feral than fierce and gentle enough to let his encounters with Buddhist philosophy temper his bloodthirstiness with compassion.

Chosen by Chromius in Patliputra, stronghold of Chandragupta and Asoka, Aranyani is taken, along with the trader's retinue of goods and guards on a journey towards Taxila, where a new King-Kanishka-was building his empire. The ultimate destination for Chromius was Kashmir -the 'paradise', where he assures Aranyani that she will "idle away (her) time in perfumed gardens". There are epigrams from the Kamasutra and the Rig Veda, and a million references to the food and drink, places and practices of the time. Yet, surprisingly, it doesn't feel like a history lesson.

The story is, however, at every stage, predictable. But pleasantly so. There are princes partaking in licentious pagan ceremonies, sacrificial white stallions being devoured by tigers, owlets and civet cats and detailed descriptions of

Indian wilderness. And-most subversively of all-in Kashmir, there is an aged 'Yavana', a man from the Mediterranean, who had studied the Buddha's dharma. A beloved herbalist with a reputation of performing miracles, he cures Aranyani of a strange, consuming fever. His name was Isa.