Book review








‘As midnight approaches there is an aura of expectation in Cherrapunji . . . For a while even the pinpricks of light scattered here and there in the village, like stars in a constellation, seem to stop flickering. And then the rains begin.’
It is rain that has made Cherra famous, and Binoo’s mission is to unravel the mystery behind the curious phenomenon which brings this area as much rain in three months as the rest of the country might not get in a whole year. But as he makes his way into each corner and crevice of Cherrapunji, he discovers that it is much more than the ‘wettest place on earth’. After the bustle and tension of Guwahati and Shillong he finds in Cherrapunji a world of mesmerizing beauty peopled with unusual characters, from uncooperative bureaucrats and friendly auto drivers to women who run their own enterprises and forward-looking individuals who want to bring the sleepy little village from ‘under the cloud’ into the modern world of telephones and tourism. And he takes a quick and curious walk down the lanes of Cherra’s chequered history—a story of nineteenth-century evangelists and proselytization, the beginnings of education, the fierce earthquake of 1897 which almost obliterated the town, and battles against the colonizers.
Ranging with consummate ease over topics as varied as religion, cuisine and meteorology, Under a Cloud paints an evocative picture of life in one of the most unusual places in India.


About the author Binoo K. John is Associate Editor with Sahara Time, the broadsheet weekly of the Sahara Group. He has been in journalism for over two decades and has worked with the Sunday, India Today, Indian Express and Pioneer, among other publications. His first book, The Curry Coast: Travels in Malabar 500 Years after Vasco Da Gama, was published in 1999 by Konark. He lives in Delhi with his wife, Rebecca, and six-year-old son, Zubin.