the lines are drawn on the page so vividly, each word tells a story. i wish to god that he would have had more time. another book will follow this in 2003 (poets & writers magazine), and then...silence. grab the chance to get to know this amazing writer.

I think Shahid Ali is the only person in the world whose book jacket features quotes by Anthony Hecht and Michael Palmer. It's a tribute to the kind of poet he became.

And we miss him already.

His language is so eerie and unbelievable because he really did bring the cadences, literariness (and penchant for grief and drama) of Urdu into English. In this sense, every one of his poems is an expert translation--across continents, physical and otherwise.

The book is dominated by two intense long sequences, one in which the poet accompanies his mother's body to back to Kashmir, and the closing sequence--dynamic!--in which, paralyzed by grief over his mother's death (and his own illness) Shahid communes with the departed spirit of James Merrill.

Shahid was a magnificent poet, and a magnificent man. Often reviews focus on his romance with bringing the Ghazal into English, or assign him a role as a "new formalist,"--which (I understand) he hated to be called--however, his true (and secret) gift is only the "multiply exiled" (to borrow Shahid's phrase) could have: a deep understanding of the "words behind the words."

We miss you, Shahid.

From his last book: "Dear Shahid...we are waiting for the almond blossoms. And, if God wills, O! those days of peace when we all were in love and the rain was in our hands whenever we met."

This book of poems is destined to become a modern masterpiece. The book has two parts: the first deals with the author's memories of Kashmir; the second describes landscapes of the mind. Kak has been called India's finest poet and while this book does not reach the level of his Hindi collection Ek Taal, Ek Darpan, it is an excellent introduction of his poetry to the English reader. Highly recommended!

This is an important book of poems by India's foremost poet. The book remembers Kashmir and it describes other imagined worlds that make it possible for us to relate to reality. Should be read with Kak's Hindi book Ek Taal, Ek Darpan.

This book has rightly been praised by the reviewers in India and the West. It is a modern classic that captures the pulse of Kashmir in the tumultuous years before and after independence together with all the heartaches and successes of a family man in the background of the political drama and tragedy of the valley. Strongly recommended, it is one of the remarkable autobiographies to come out of India in the past fifty years!

I had met the author on one of his visits to New York and he had mentioned about writing this book. I kept in touch with him, and actually got to go through an advanced copy of it too. The book starts out tight and only gets tighter page by page. Reads like your typical Tom Clancy thriller, with good action, descriptive but not boring .. enough of a pace to keep you hooked and glued ... but the real twist comes in the end. The end just leaves you gasping for air at the audacity of the whole plot.

The story is contextual to India and Kashmir, so i would suggest getting a brief overview of the nationalistic rivalry in that part of the world (much like the happenings between the Serbs and Croats) to really and truly appreciate the wonderful insanity of this book.

Also makes you question your perspectives on nationalism and what it means to be patriotic .. but then thats too deep a topic for this book. This is a true blue nail-biter of an action thriller.

Overall, an awesome read that i just cant seem to get out of my mind ...

A lovely and bittersweet memoir of Koul's life in paradise, the Kashmir region of India. It's a tale of a lost way of life in a region that has been sundered by strife, conflict, and ultimately war between India and Pakistan, Hindus and Muslims.
Of especial interest is the reverence in which women of the region were held - in a country in which women are often no more than chattel. The Tiger Ladies is a book rich in sensual detail, a book people can enjoy on many levels: as travel literature, as a cultural study, for the descriptions of the food - and most of all as a loving and haunting memoir of a time and place that no longer exist.

In Sudha Koul's beautifully written memoir of her youth and young adulthood in Kashmir, she brings the reader a vivid sense of her wonderful years spent there, and the bittersweet memories she revisits upon her return to a war-torn nation. Not having known much about the regional conflict, this book helped me understand who the people of the Kashmiri valley are today, and who they were before conflict came to rule their daily lives.

Ms. Koul's many stories of her grandmother, Danna, are a touching tribute to her grandmother's memory. Danna had her own particular ways of running her household. Many of these traditions have been passed down from mother to daughter through several generations. It is this sense of continuity from which the author draws her resolve and ambition to be both a respectful Brahmin daughter, and a successful 20th-century woman with a career outside the marital home.

There are many great stories to be enjoyed in this gem of a memoir. It is one of the best of its kind, and one of my favorite books this year.

I look forward to enjoying her other works.

A beautifully written book of the Kashmir valley before the invasion of the Mujahadin and other Muslim terrorist actions from outside the peaceful valley of peaceful coexistence amongst the Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims. Ms. Koul, a former Indian majistrate with a Masters in Political Science from India writes a book for her children to learn of the beautiful life in Kashmir where young soon to be bethrothed women view Pashmina wool embroidered shawl samples dating back 100 years. The samples are easily viewed and ordered from the Kashmiri Muslim merchant who then continues the Pashmina relationship with the daughter or granddaughter's trousseau.
Ms. Koul effectly evokes a resplendant memoir without the heavy hand of serious political analysis which tends to be dry and flacid. A life too beautiful, too luscious, too happy, too comfortable to notice the cloak of darkness that would envelope paradise.
After attending her reading and purchasing Tiger Ladies, I am excited to add it to my collection of important soul books: The Red Tent, Woman Warrier, Autobiography of a Yogi and Facing Two Ways. Kashmir may be a memory of what once existed in a valley of Lotus eaters yet Ms. Koul's book concludes with a simile in the complacency of life in the US where life too is too comfortable, too beautiful, and perhaps too happy for Americans. (Incidentally written before 9.11.2001.) Which perhaps helps us to realize that there is yet another cloak of darkness enveloping us called American corporate imperialism ...product invasion via Hollywood, gasoline consumption, mass consumerism of junk products, junk food, junk tv, junk religion, junk politicians and the reaction against it by the Mujahadins of the Muslim world. Now in paperback form, this book is a respite from the propaganda on evening news in America.

Easily the most detailed and well organized treatise on this unfortunate conflict. While on one hand it establishes the nefarious designs of the Pakistani establishment, it also exposes Indoor Gandhi's chicanery in subverting the will of the Kashmir electorate via crass political subterfuge (e.g. transfer of Governorship to her puppet, a certain Jagmohan Malhotra). One of Dr. Ganguly's proposals, granting autonomy, is a dangerous one; this could lead to similar demands from the other disturbed states. It is critical that we listen carefully to the demands of the disenfranchised and work to mitigate decades worth of pain. The 1965 conflict deserves a more thorough coverage though.

It made me think of the future of those two countries and what we can do. It may not have the same effect on everyone if you don't originate from Pakistan or India but, I recommend this book to anyone who doen't know of the bloodshed in Kashmir and even if you do, it's a great book to read.

The problems involving Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir are complex and over time have become more and more volatile. To understand the history of this area and why it poses such a threat is not easy for someone who has only recently decided to learn more than what is provided on television or in the newspaper. Sumit Ganguly's book presents a thorough history. I have searched several sources both online and in other books and haven't found anything elsewhere that is not in this book. Ganguly offers more than one solution to the problem but it seems that no one is really interested in listening right now.

While Wirsing does present a fairly good argument, he presents a biased account of the dispute. He relies on evidence that is debated. Also, the book is very dry. There are much better writers that can relay the same information.

This is the best book I have ever read on the Kashmir dispute. I saw him on PBS last year and he was great. I recommend this book to everyone. It is informative and well written analysis of the Kashmir dispute.

This book describes a lot of information about Kashmiri Pandits and their culture and social heritage. A must read for everyone especially Kashmiri Pandits who may have forgot their roots in todays urbanization.

Sumit Ganguly offers an invaluable primer on the roots, history, and possible future of current tensions between India and Pakistan. Along the way he successfully challenges one fundamental myth that this conflict would not have occurred if there wasn't a dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. Ganguly notes that the seeds of the conflict go back centuries, even before the arrival of the British, due to bloody wars between predominantly Muslim and Hindu states on the Indian subcontinent. Yet he does bear the British Raj some responsibility, for promoting Muslim interests at the expense of other religious communities during the 19th Century. He strongly criticizes India for its complacency in its relations with Pakistan, forgoing possible opportunities to establish a long-lasting peace. He suggests that a peaceful resolution will be attained when both parties agree to the ceasefire line - or Line of Control - as the border in Kashmir and India offers the Kashmiris more political autonomy. Although this book may be a bit slim with regards to substance, it does an admirable job covering every facet of Indian-Pakistani relations. Without question it is essential reading for anyone interested in this ongoing crisis.

Ganguly provides a valuable service with this book, an accessible, easy to read historical account and observation of India-Pakistan relations, in the context of their frequent wars and crises since 1947. Credit goes to Ganguly for making a no-nonsense call on the source of most of the intransigence and crisis, Pakistan. The reasons are numerous and different depending on the crisis at hand, and the discussions extensive (yet easy to follow), but Ganguly lays most of the blame for the ongoing problems between India and Pakistan at Pakistan's feet, more specifically at the feet of its arrogant, immature, and impetuous armed forces. India certainly is not without blame both for creating and exacerbating tension with Pakistan, and Ganguly highlights this when required.

This is an excellent primer on India-Pakistan relations, tensions, and warfare since their mutual 1947 independence. Ganguly discusses (by chapter) the 1947 war of independence/Partition (The First Kashmir War), the 1965 Second Kashmir War, the 1971Bangladesh War, and the Kargil Crisis/War of 1999. He includes two very useful chapters on the seemingly unending relationship of crisis between India and Pakistan and the recently public nuclear dimension of the relationship. This 2001 edition concludes shortly after 9/11/01 and its unfolding consequences, with some short personal observations and minor assessment from Ganguly, but does not benefit from a detailed analytical exploration of how the 9/11 attacks and their international political aftermath will affect the India-Pakistan situation.

The presentation of this extremely complex relationship is straightforward and simple, at least as simple as it can be presented and still retain the key aspects of the history. Ganguly's narrative proceeds quickly, is easy to read and follow, and only briefly (in the introduction mainly) does he stray into dogmatic academic language. His simplification and logical, flowing delivery of this complex subject is a major accomplishment in itself. This is not to say that this is a dumbed-down history of India-Pakistan relations, not in the least. His abundant citations illustrate his depth of knowledge on this subject, and serve as ample sources of information and reference for those who wish to pursue individual issues further.

Throughout the book Ganguly makes a logical and very clear argument that almost all of the bases for Pakistan's continued intransigence on Jammu and Kashmir, hence virtually all of the reasons for Indian and Pakistani animosity have ceased to exist. Pakistan's assumed mandate of foundation, as a homeland for South Asian Islam, has lost its legitimacy through the various crises in Jammu and Kashmir and their outcomes, and due to the "loss" of Bangladesh in 1971. Sadly, the outlook for tension between the two is not good, as Pakistan has come to rely increasingly on Muslim nationalism and its attendant creeping fundamentalism in order to bolster its essentially hollow claims to Jammu and Kashmir.

The extremely useful citations are in the form of chapter end notes, and reflect Ganguly's total familiarity with all major, minor, and related India-Pakistan issues. This does require some distractive page-turning to get to the specific citation or additional point of fact as you read, but the end notes serve to maintain the smooth, flowing narrative. Especially useful in this book are the appendices, a collection of nine essential documents from the history of India-Pakistan relations, including the 1947 letter of accession of Jammu and Kashmir, the 1972 Simla Agreement, and the 1999 Lahore Declaration. These documents are crucial to understanding the more esoteric aspects of this enduring conflict, are cited frequently throughout the book, and the inclusion of them as appendices is very thoughtful. The 14-page index is thorough and references almost all persons, places, events, issues, and concepts mentioned in the narrative. The index does not include reference to any of the citations, requiring a thorough (and tedious) reading of them to derive maximum research benefit.

This is an excellent introductory study for any serious student of South Asian relations and foreign policy. As such, I recommend this book for high school AP and college-level introductory South Asian/World Politics courses. Its easy narrative and fast pace allow for quick absorption and general understanding without a weight of detail and context. Not to say context and details are unimportant, Ganguly offers his copious citations for anyone interested in pursuing individual issues and opinions in depth. For any casual reader on international affairs, this is a valuable introduction to the history behind and general current state of play in what is arguably the world's most dangerous flashpoint.

A very good potrayal of the Kashmir problem. The book does away with all political correctedness of assuming a false position of neutrality on all issues between the two neighboring countries, India and Pakistan, and reports factually, and as accurately as possible. I barely understood the problem before reading this book.

When I began reading this collection, it failed to take me in. I believe this was largely my own failing as a reader, because I was hesitant to give myself over to the language, because in places the English doesn't sound, well, "English," or "American." And there is a very good reason for this: the author, Agha Shahid Ali, is from Kashmir. But this linguistic "duality of tone" on the poet's part does not diminish the language and its power, in any way. In fact, it strengthens it. As I read along, I found myself wholly absorbed in the poetry, and I went back and read the first few poems again, once I had "gotten the various tones, and come to expect the unexpected ...," and I found I was then taken into these poems ...

These are poems about the author's homeland, Kashmir, and its state of insurgent devastation after (and during) struggles for power in that land.

Ali uses forms with spellbinding effect. "The Floating Post Office" may be the most powerful sestina I have ever read. It is a tribute to the soul's insistence upon itself and its own power, even in the face of devastation and ruin ...

Ali also has a few ghazals (an ancient middle eastern form) in this book, which are very powerful as well. He also employs rhyme to great effect, in many kinds of poems. He uses terza rima to fine effect, and also has an excellent villanelle in this collection.

In the end, though, it is not Ali's deft touch with forms that brings the reader back to these poems. It is the passion which is conveyed through the poetry itself, from the page, to the reader.

This is probably not the best book to recommend to someone who is not familiar with American poetry, but it is an excellent, powerful, passionate book of poetry, and I recommend it very highly.

This is a rather touching book about Kashmir.I feel it is very good and srtongly recommend it as something to read occaisonaly when you are feeling liberal

i stumbled upon this by accident and will never forget it. without a doubt, my all-time favorite book of poetry.