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I almost lost interest in this book after reading the first chapter on Ram Janma Bhumi and Hindu politics (The Reinvention of Rama). It seemed like an extension of the stuff one reads in the papers all the time. So I set the book aside and didn’t return to it until very recently.
While flipping through it once again, I happened to see a chapter on 'Creating Cyberabad' - ie Hyderadab in the time of Chandrababu Naidu’s reign. Mark Tully had met with the CM and also interviewed many of his critics who believed his IT revolution was nothing but a sham and that unless he tackled problems at the ground-level, he would fail. That seems very prophetic now.

There are two other chapters that held my attention -One on the carpet industry in Mirzapur and apparent child labour involved in it and another one on Nizammuddin and the Sufi saints.
Then there’s a chapter on the Kashmir valley and Mark Tully also manages an interview with Farukh Abdulla, the then CM who he catches in an extremely irate mood. There’s an interesting chapter here on Water Harvesting projects taken on by some draught prone villages in Gujarat, driven by dynamic and innovative men.

One that I found particularly engaging was the chapter on Tehelka’s expose of corruption in defense deals. Mully meets Joseph –Tehelka’s man who actually carried out the sting operation-- and gets some precious dope.
Chapters like A ‘Tale Of Two Brothers’ that talks about V P Singh and his brother and 'Farmer's Reward' are mildy engaging but nothing exceptional all the same.
Tully and his co-writer Gillian Wright are privy to English breakfasts at their European friend's house in Mirzapur and are generally taken care of by hospitable people anywhere they travel in India, by people only too overwhelmed to have the ex BBC man among them.
Tully takes on the obvious themes on India but digs deep enough to give readers a more indepth perspective on these aspects. For example, most of us know about the farmer's plight in India but Tully goes a little more further in talking to people, exploring matters and looking into possible solutions.
Admirably, Tully is in no haste to make judgments and for most time, merely presents the facts as a balanced observer. Of course when truth stares at him in face, he seldom hesitates from making some strong points. He’s particularly scathing in his criticism of the bureaucracy and corruption that are eating into the country’s progress and posing biggest hurdles in its development.
All the same, there isn’t the same warmth in the writing as say a Shashi Tharoor when he talks on India but neither is there any trace of detached neutrality and pessimism of a V S Naipaul.
Mark Tully demonstrates genuine interest in the well-being of a country that he's reported for more than 25 years and most part, this is a fairly engaging read, even if doesn’t offer anything vastly original or unknown.