If I could give a book negative stars, it would be this one. This girl seemed to complain about everything she was experiencing in India. I think I yelled at the book every chapter, "GO HOME!" I read the whole thing hoping to witness her enlightenment and was highly disappointed. If you want a book which will give you more insight about India, read Motiba's Tattoos!

"Holy Cow" is about an Australian woman who spends close to 2 years in India. Its about her experience, her adventure and more importantly her "spiritual" journey across the various facets of religion. It also shows her transformation from an "extreme cynic attitude" to a more "adaptable and loving attitude" towards the country.

Being an Indian, it was interesting to read the perception and subsequent impression that an outsider gets/feels when they visit India. Sometimes it was interesting, sometimes assuming, sometimes sad and sometimes purely disgusting.

Needless to say, India is a land of contradictions. It has both sides of almost everything. Hence getting an experience and then subsequently capturing it in a novel without showing any bias or preference for any side is very tough. But Sarah does a brilliant job.

Though her experiences/adventure are mostly linked to the religious and spiritual side of India. She experiences almost all possible religions in India by visiting the most important religious places.

The novel is a slow read as its written more like a documentary with little connection between the various experiences. However it still comes across as a worthy and interesting read for anyone who lives or wants to see India. The novel might scare some but for most it will add to the intrigue and fascination that generally I have seen in most outsiders for India.

Try it out at your own risk :)

I found this to be an interesting read. Her story is about taking a long hard look at religions, faiths, and life.

Some of my favourite quotes include:
"I've always hated the old testament. It starts badly with all that boring begatting business, and the rivers of blood and slaying of children stuff scared me more than poltergeist. I grew up thinking god was a jealous, possessive and vengeful character that I wanted nothing to do with. But Mimi is making me realise I've been taking the bible way too literally."

"...My flimsy faith was too small and too weak to withstand this battering. How could Yahweh create such dreadful beings as we? How could Allah let murderers into heaven as martyrs? What kind of bad karma meant people could deserve to die like that? Where was the Sikh's spiritual strength to withstand hatred? The Buddhist focus on non-violence and happiness seems naive, the Parsis push for survival useless. If Sai Baba could take the moon from the sky, why didn't he stop this? where was the love of the Holy Mothers? The human race seems headed for self=destruction" (Referring to just reading about the attack on the world trade center buildings)

"As a journalist and a broadcaster I was so busy regurgitating information and analyzing words and events I didn't make the emotional space to truly process them and let them sit still with my soul. Now I am a citizen again and I'm viewing the current war as an ordinary human watching my species fail." page 276

Sure, she starts out as a whiny, self-entitled little brat who holds no punches, but by the middle her lashes become more like love taps, and by the end they can only be described as caresses full of care. I put off reading this book for some time due to the reviews that cite her selfish whining, but upon finishing, I found myself wondering if those reviewers ever even read this book the whole way through.
One reviewer so aptly stated: "If you have a lingering, romanticized desire to travel to India, this book will cure the crap out of that"--lol so on point. Frankly, I am rather sick of romanticized travel memoirs. Get Real or Get Out.
I appreciate Sarah's honesty in whining. I'm sure I would have the same kinds of whines. The culture shock is probably off the freaking charts, and it would take a fair amount of time to acclimate, even in the simplest of ways. In fact, had she glossed over the initial shock value, I would've called bullshhh and been much less interested in her experience because I would no longer find her story credible--anyone who thinks her complaints regarding cleanliness are simply overzealous overreactions was either born and raised in India or knows nothing about India at all. It's like all these first-world, Panera Bread-nibbling pansies who watch some sorta wilderness survival show on their 50"4K while naively boasting statements from their shiny black leather Barcaloungers, being all like, "I could definitely do this. I'd be so boss at this. Why are these people so whiny and stupid? I'll show 'em how it's done, just let me at it", but when the rain starts and the bugs bite and the hunger stabs, they're the first to complain, the first to quit. Sarah whined--and rightly so--but she never quit.
We can all sit in our comfy lives with our infinitely reliable public sanitation and our well maintained road traffic control and call her a self-centered cry baby, but until we do it ourselves, we have no right to pass judgment.
I learned a lot about much through this so very candid tale of her sometimes difficult expat experience. She didn't set out to paint a picture of India for good or for bad, she set out to tell her Truth as she saw it. And I think she did a bloody fine job at that.

To be honest, Holy Cow is dung-in-your-face kind of sardonic write up that will not be well ruminated by patriotic Indians (read right wing fascists). Add to that the author is a self styled India specialist, who seems to have understood the pulse of the nation because she has endured the myriad hues of religious complexity that makes up India. The book had a solid backing of strong reviews, from esteemed authors, and I told myself, 'Hey, why not?' I need to view India from the eyes of a foreigner; not from my myopic, rose tinted, culturally preconditioned, socially stunted, egotistical eyes. There is some merit to parity, after all..

Coincidentally, I was also reading City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi, an expansive travelog of a British historian that detailed the city of Delhi. And here comes the ta-da moment!

One author seived through dusty lanes, broken lives, muck, filth, silt, rain, dirt, disease, death and more. And he found life. Life that throbbed with vigor, energy and zeal. Life that survived centuries of oppression and conquest. Life that blossomed in a stagnant pool.

The other author mocked, ridiculed in spurts, showing off her ignorance now and then. India and Indiannes has been much of an enigma to many westerners and that is a given. Movies that have been projecting the poverty, strange customs, wild looking sadhus have only added to the allure. I won't put it past people who have never traveled this far south East to think that Indian soil and food are so contaminated that it is the breeding ground for many illnesses.

So it doesn't help when an author writes about the eccentricities of this multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-cultural, ethnically diverse, land and who summed up the nation as a sweeping 200 odd page odyssey. Having lived on this mayhem that we call India for not less than 4 decades, I still struggle to fathom it. It's a radiant peacock to some or a ferocious tiger to another. It's a land of elephants and snakes to some, while it could be a land of the Kohinoor to another. It can seduce you with mythology, and mysticism. In its 2000 plus year history of invasions and intruders, it warmly invites anyone who wants to explore, embrace or enjoy its essence.

India has always allowed different customs to coexist. And that's where hypocrisy and double standards take birth. On one hand, women are revered, goddess worshipped and on the other hand, women are subjugated and treated poorly. Poverty and superstitions are brothers here. Our social customs seem strange but they have a back story if you are willing to listen. It takes more than a couple of years to truly understand India. Merely exploring the teachings of various religions or observing their meaningless rituals doesn't bring about enlightenment.

Despite my chafed spirit, I still found the author engaging in her writing style, humorous at times, though at times this got wearisome because of the constant jibes loaded with sarcasm. Her experiences were interesting, but not profound. Her low tolerance to everything bright and blingy was more of a statement of her own personality than of the order of things on this side of the Pacific.

Should you read it? Why, yes of course you should. Especially if you are an Indian. How else would you know your own country and the impression it casts on people beyond the Himalayan borders? Yes, I'd definitely advise you to read it. Because if I really want to understand India from an erudite researcher, I have William Dalrymple.

I have read an enormous amount of travel writing this year, but this book is more than just an Indian Adventure; it is a spiritual journey. Sarah MacDonald follows the love of her life to India and then is left with nothing to do while her boyfriend travels constantly as a reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Company. So she takes up traveling herself. She travels throughout India learning about Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and different sects of these religions.
I appreciate and empathize with her search for a religion that coincides with her beliefs, rather than making her change to be part of the faith. She learns different lessons and values from each of the various groups and gurus, but also discovers elements that turn her off from following one religion alone.
She has a sharp wit and a great sense of humor. She is especially good at poking fun at herself. I laughed out loud at several of her stories...fun for me, not so fun for my travel companions.

I found this book while Arielle and I were backpacking through India. It's not that well written - annoying actually - but it has momements that just rang soooo true! Some of her descriptions and experiences were nearly the same as ours, but they didn't really make up for the rest of her quasi-religious experiences and documentations that cluttered the story.

I finally gave in and bought this book in exchange for The Moonstone in Khajuraho - it's sold in big stacks everywhere in India. But the old saying that you can be so open-minded that your brain falls out certainly applies to this travel story. Former Triple J presenter Sarah MacDonald finds herself living in India while her boyfriend reports for the ABC and undergoes a spiritual journey that takes her through all of the various roads to religion from an atheist base. The book is excellently written and it employs my favourite literary device of alliteration and assonance with amusing abundance while describing the frustration of all the brain-boggling bureaucratic bungling and cultural craziness of the Land of the Hindus that I myself am experiencing. However, it's often just too credulous about the teachings of religion, failing to employ any of her sceptical faculties. "Wow, each of us has lived millions of previous lives because this guy says so, gee". Plus the abandonment of Australian spelling and metric units of measurement made me feel she'd sold out. But it an amazing story, told with excitement and honesty and featuring many of the places and experiences so familiar to me as I cycled from Gwalior to Delhi.

A hilarious look at Sarah Macdonald's journey through India.

"In her twenties, journalist Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India and came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution and poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India - and for love - she screamed, "Never!" and gave the country, and him, the finger.

But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah's life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi, HOLY COW is Macdonald's often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians, and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life - and her sanity - can survive."

"Holy Cow" by Sarah Macdonald is the author's condescending account of time she spent in India. Her descriptions of what is actually a beautiful, rich, varied culture are narrow-minded and written in a tone that makes it clear she considers herself superior to India and Indian people. It's a shame that she didn't learn anything useful from her travels or absorb any of admirable values of Indian/Hindu culture such as acceptance, open-mindedness and respect for all beings.

Last but not least, the cover image of Lord Shiva clad in sunglasses epitomizes the racism and ignorance that fill this book.

If you do a quick backpacking trip through India or if you sit at home and think about what it would be like to travel through India, then some of what Macdonald says might rub you the wrong way. If you come here and try to settle down and live for a couple of years, you will find yourself going through the same learning curve Macdonald went through. Especially if you live in Delhi like she did. This book helped me know I am not alone! India is a really tough place to live unless you want to just hide away in a gated community and visit only private clubs and malls via chauffered cars. If you try to actually go out and live in India, it's tough- and Macdonald learned to do it.

I enjoyed this book and felt like I'd been to India by the time I was through reading it. She lovingly details all of the sights and sounds and smells, and really explores the country and its culture. Her experiences with the various religious groups of the area give a fascinating close-up view of the country's expansive and very complex religious system.

This is definitely a book I would recommend as a travel narrative, a story of personal growth, and really just a good fun read.