Beginners India

Beginners India is a guide to both first-time visitors planning to spend time in India and those returning to the sub-continent who wish to understand more about this fascinating country.  Written and photographed by UK Photojournalist Neil McAllister, the contents are the result of more than 25 years travelling in India and surrounding countries.  Often written in tongue-in-cheek style, the A-Z format contains useful, easily accessed information, to be dipped in both before you travel and whilst on the road.  



It is impossible to condense such a huge, fascinating, diverse, contradictory country into 140,000 words, but the book tries to make sense of India through anecdotes, news reports, bad jokes and homespun philosophy.  For readers more comfortable with images rather than words, India's visual impact is pictured in more than 300 photographs.



If you are interested in knowing a little about the places you visit and people you encounter, it could be handy, even if you only plan exploring the area around your hotel and want to show a little respect for where you are and whom you meet.  If you are spending more than a couple of weeks in India, perhaps as an extended holiday, or part of a longer trip, or consider yourself more of traveller than tourist (now there is an argument to start after a few beers) everything in this book will appear obvious after a few months, but it is handy to know in advance and can make the first few weeks of your trip more pleasurable.



This book was written between 2010 and 2014, both in the UK, and on a number of working trips across India, which took us to: West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kashmir and Punjab.  It also draws on 25 years of visits, experiencing from 40 below zero in Ladakh to photograph Buddhist Festivals, to melting in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari, the country’s southern tip, during the monsoon’s debilitating heat and rain.



Neil McAllister the author and photographer, writes for magazines in the UK and USA and his photographs appear in over 100 books, including Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Asia Books This is India, Bradt, Doring Kindersley Eyewitness, DK Where To Go When, Fodors, Frommers, Globetrotter Guides, amongst many such publications.



If you are looking for a book which tells you where to stay and eat, or where to catch a specific bus this is the wrong publication, but if you want to understand a little more about India’s culture and people, whilst enjoying a few laughs along the way, this could be for you.  Even if you are setting off for a different destination and are looking for travel hints and tips, or are an armchair traveller looking for an interesting and amusing read, this book could be useful.