Dalrymple`s seventh book is about the lives of nine Indians, a Buddhist monk, a Jain nun, a lady from a middle-class family in Calcutta, a prison warden from Kerala, an illiterate goat herd from Rajasthan, and a devadasi - or temple prostitute, as seen during Indian travels The book explores how the lives of each of these people, each of whom represent a different religious path, have been affected by modern India`s extraordinary growth and development. The book was published by Bloomsbury to great acclaim, The Observer remarking that it "ranks with the very finest travel writing".[1] On publication it went to the number one slot on the Indian non-fiction section best seller list.[2]