Indian Interiors

"Love India, and fascinated by Indian interiors? Want to take a tour of beautiful Indian homes at your own sweet pace, through villages and towns, stopping to smell the grass, wandering through palaces and mahals? This TASCHEN book is just what you need. Whether you are in the middle of summer in your country, or braving the monsoon storms, this book will make you want to curl up in a chair and enter a magical journey through India. ... That India is a land of contrasts is a well-known fact. However, the best way to see how varied India really is, is to step in to the homes of its people. If ever there was a book that banished notions about stereotypical Indian interiors, this is it. Excited when my copy arrived in the mail, I first read Indian Interiors or Interieurs de l'Inde (its French title) from the perspective of a non-Indian, feigning ignorance at the little facts that my mind already knew, absorbing myself in the beauty of my country as I looked through it and wondered at the marvel of India's architecture, grandeur, simplicity, ingenuity and creativity in doing up homes. I was blown away! ... I absolutely loved the India tour. I was pleasantly surprised that the book included huts, village homes and nomadic dwellings to bring out the true picture of Indian home design. I reread the book, this time with my desi know-it-all attitude, and I was surprised again; that it took a TASCHEN book to show me how beautiful our village homes really are, at the keen inherent design sense of my people, of the colors they resorted to, and the unique styles, as unique as the cultures they belonged to. I was even more delighted to see pictures of kitchens ... of most of the featured homes. What I loved in the book - The fact that it is picture-heavy with long, detailed explanations of pictures, just the way I like a design book to be. What I wish the book had included - A section on Karnataka homes. My home state and a few other important destinations were sorely neglected. ... How complete it would have been with pictures of typical Bhatkali homes, river dwellings in Kundapur, Mangalorean Catholic homes, the Jain dwelllings in South Kanara, the Gowd Saraswath Brahmin courtyard homes... well, I guess that's something I can remedy, perhaps TASCHEN would be interested in signing me on? ;)" thekeybunch.com, Maharashtra, India