Sindh Revisited

Book excerpt: Sindh Revisited is the remarkable story of the author's fascination with the early life of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890). It is the story of an incredible journey, too - deep into the heart of British India, and the India and Sindh of today. The very name of Sir Richard Burton conjures up images of adventure. His search for the source of the Nile with John Hanning Speke contributed to his being the best-known traveller of the nineteenth century. Burton was an outstanding orientalist, archaeologist, linguist, anthropologist, and a controversial diplomat. Christopher Ondaatje's Sindh Revisited is the extraordinarily sensitive account of the author's quest to uncover the secrets of the seven years Richard Burton spent in India in the army of the East India Company from 1842 to 1849. "If I wanted to fill the gap in my understanding of Richard Burton, I would have to do something that had never been done before: follow in his footsteps in India." The journey covered thousands of miles-trekking across deserts where ancient tribes meet modern civilization in the valley of the mighty Indus River.