Seduced By the Beauty of the World: Travels In India For many months over a period of several years, Dutch anthropologist/photographer Iman Bijleveld and American novelist Don Bloch traveled through India. As they moved among the people in the countryside and on the back streets of the great cities, they were enthralled by the rich sensory experiences that awaited them at every turn. In Seduced by the Beauty of the World they capture the vibrant subcontinent, depicting rarely viewed ceremonies and rituals and aspects of daily life not often observed by tourists or portrayed in books about India.
It was while journeying through India that the authors discovered the concept of masti, a Sanskrit term that stands for quiet, ecstatic surrender to the beauty around us. As Bloch says in his introduction: “Masti involves seeing the world clearly and whole, and knowledgeably enough to fall in love with it. Not so much seizing the day, as letting the day seize you.” That spirit perfectly describes Seduced by the Beauty of the World, a masterly blend of Bloch’s lively travel writing and Bijleveld’s compelling photographs.
Customer Review: SEDUCED BY THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD
BEAUTIFUL BOOK AND IN GOOD CONDITION. THANK YOU.
Customer Review: A MAGICALLY SEDUCTIVE BOOK
This magical book of beguiling photos and writing seduced me with the beauty of the world its authors captured. These aren’t just colorful shots of India, but shots and text so vivid that I felt as if I were partaking in this “masti,” the Indian philosophy which Bloch describes at one point as not so much seizing the day as letting the day seize you. I’ve been to India, but with Bloch and Bijleveld as guides, I felt I could move beyond the “rich surfaces” of the place, as Bloch aptly calls them, to the treasure beneath. The very first picture takes us inside: we’re looking through two doors, the first giving onto a courtyard where someone minds a child, the second into a room beyond where a squatting couple polish gem,stones in their primitive shop. Whether the pictures are of tea pickers at lunch, their babies in baskets by their sides, or a naked holy man or a stonecutter using the heels of his powdery feet to steady his saw, there’s masti in every one. Bijleveld’s colors, the warmth of his eye, the brazen light suffuse each scene with human feeling and fellowship, of the viewer and the viewed. Masti is in Bloch’s stories of encounters with barbers and fishermen, hijra and Sufis. It’s in his descriptions of a man’s “driftwood” face, a sari enveloping a woman like “a pod,” the “soothing growl” of the yoga master, the dance of old women who “brace their feet against their partner’s, clasp each other’s wrinkled hands, and lean back and start spinning, their gaunt arms fully extended.” This isn’t just a great holiday gift, it’s a joyous holiday in itself.
