About Book
For many months over a period of several years, the American novelist Donald Bloch and Dutch anthropologist/photographer Iman Bijleveld travelled through India, collecting experiences and impressions. They were enthralled by the people in the countryside and on the back streets of the great cities, and they also discovered the concept of "masti", a Sanskrit term that stands for quiet, ecstatic surrender to the beauty around us, an infatuation with reality - the act of being seduced by the beauty of the world. As Bloch says, "This book is an attempt to portray the sensory repletion that overcomes you in India".
About Author
Both authors have worked together in various countries around the world (Kenya, Indonesia, Nigeria), particularly in fields of leprosy, tuberculosis, and AIDS control. Don Bloch has published seven novels and numerous short stories and has written for many leading magazines and newspapers in England and The Netherlands on subjects ranging from travel and food to reviews of books, plays, and opera. Iman Bijleveld is an anthropologist who has managed solid waste removal in Thais, North Yemen, and worked as a social research consultant in Thailand, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka.