In the Himalayan Nights

From the book cover:
Dehradun City, Himalayas, India 1977: Two bright, beautiful, lesbian research assistants accompany their Indian professor to this city near the tense borders of China and Nepal to observe the "holy-war" dance of the Mahabharata and its link to polygamy and local heroes (or villains?). The girls begin to question the holiness of the Bhagavad Gita's two polygamist avatars while watching the dance, even as they fall in love with India and their friendly hosts. While gathering data on women's rights violations, caste discrimination, and animal cruelty, they discover more about their own culture, their relationship and themselves.

When their hosts uncover the women's secret love-life, they turn against them and the research team's existence is threatened. Will the Indian "holy-war" become a personal one between locals and outsiders, men against women, polygamists against lesbians, Indians against Americans?

My Review:
I have mixed feelings about Anoop Chandola’s In the Himalayan Nights. On the one hand, I really enjoyed reading it because it exposed me to the basic tenets of the Hindu faith in an unbiased format. But on the other side, I’m disappointed because it doesn’t quite live up to the synopsis on the book cover.

Narrated by Archi Rainwal, an Indian professor who works in the United States, the novel is for all intent and purposes a re-telling of the Mahabharata – the Sanskrit epic about the 18-year war between the Pandava and Kauravas princes. The war would have taken place sometime between 8^th and 9^th century BCE. Himalayan Nights is set in Dehradun City, Himalayas, India in 1977.

Professor Rainwal, his wife, Tula, and two research assistants, Marla and Jennifer are in the northern region of India to study the dance of a Mahabharata and how it relates to modern Indian society, female roles, the caste system and the country’s heroes. The chapters alternate between modern India (1977) and the war. In the modern sections, Professor Rainwal speaks with members of different sections of Indian society to get their thoughts on the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita (the scripture part of the Mahabharata), India’s caste system and other topics that arise from the nightly dances.

The story really isn’t about Marla and Jennifer. Professor Rainwal describes their backgrounds and provides the reader with info as to what they think about certain topics and their general dispositions but it’s really not a story about their relationship. In the last few pages of the novel, their Muslim interpreter/tour guy tells the professor that he’s discovered Marla and Jennifer naked in bed together and that they shouldn’t be honoured, but no real fuss is made. The professor is relieved that there is no mention of the CIA, because that would put their research project in jeopardy. The story then fast-forwards to Dr. Rainwal's return to the U.S. and he mentions that he hasn’t seen or heard from Marla since the night he discovered the truth about her relationship with Jennifer. But, he does mention that he’s seen Jennifer’s work as a research assistant. Marla was the more vocal of the two so it leaves one to wonder whether something happened to her.

Despite my thorough summation of the novel, I don’t feel I’ve spoiled it for anyone wishing to read it. It’s such a full book with so many little details that I’m definitely going to read it again. This story reminds me of Greek mythology, particularly the Trojan War.

4/5

About the book:

In the Himalayan Nights by Anoop Chandola

ISBN: 978-0982998700

Publisher: Savant Books & Publications LLC

Date of publish: March 24, 2012

Pages: 286

S.R.P.: $16.95