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M. P. PRABHAKARAN

(books and articles)

[Pic to come]

About the Book

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This is the second book by M.P. Prabhakaran on his world-trotting experience. The first one, Capitalism Comes to Mao’s Mausoleum, was published three years ago. This book is devoted exclusively to the 30-day tour he undertook through 10 countries of Europe in the summer of 2009.

If academic qualifications are a measure of one’s learning experience, Prabhakaran says in the “Preface” to the first book, he has a string of them, including a Ph.D. in Political Science from The New School for Social Research, New York. “But,” he hastens to add, “what I learned from this prestigious American institution and, before that, from various academic institutions in India is no match for what I did from my travels around the world.”

In describing what he felt at the end the 2009 European tour, he goes a step further. “The more I travel,” he says, “the more I discover my ignorance.” He admits that his description is a mangled version of poet Shelley’s immortal words: “The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance.” But, he adds, he could not find a better way to express his enlightening experience.

The tour of 10 European countries, he says in the “Preface” to this book, opened his mind to various aspects of European cultures he had been quite ignorant of. Through the subsequent pages of the book, he shares with readers the knowledge he gained from conversations with people and from events and objects he got exposed to during that tour.

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The main purpose of bringing out this book, my second in the “An Indian Goes Around the World” series, is to share with readers the excitements I felt, the knowledge I gained, and, yes, the blunders I made, during my 30-day tour through 10 countries of Europe, in the summer of 2009. The content of the book is a combination of the conversations I had with various kinds of people in those countries; and the history, politics and social mores of those countries that made them into what they are today.

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The month-long tour, I admit, opened my mind to various aspects of European cultures that I had been quite ignorant of until I learned about them first-hand. It cleansed my mind of the many misconceptions I had about the peoples and events that shaped the destinies of the countries I visited. At the end of the tour, I found myself summing up the experience through a mangled version of poet Shelley’s immortal words: “The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance.” My mangled version: “The more I travel, the more I discover my ignorance.”

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The book can be ordered at amazon.com, xlibris.com or through any Barnes and Noble store in the U.S. The India edition of the book can be ordered at amazon.in, flipkart or pothi.com.  

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