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  • The Twice-Born

  • Life and Death on the Ganges
  • Written by: Aatish Taseer
  • Narrated by: Neil Shah
  • Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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The Twice-Born

Written by: Aatish Taseer
Narrated by: Neil Shah
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Publisher's Summary

When Aatish Taseer first came to Benares, the spiritual capital of Hinduism, he was 18, the Westernized child of an Indian journalist and a Pakistani politician, raised among the intellectual and cultural elite of New Delhi. Nearly two decades later, Taseer leaves his life in Manhattan to go in search of the Brahmins, wanting to understand his own estrangement from India through their ties to tradition.  

Known as the twice-born - first into the flesh and again when initiated into their vocation - the Brahmins are a caste devoted to sacred learning. But what Taseer finds in Benares, the holy city of death also known as Varanasi, is a window on an India as internally fractured as his own continent-bridging identity. At every turn, the seductive, homogenizing force of modernity collides with the insistent presence of the past. In a globalized world, to be modern is to renounce India - and yet the tide of nationalism is rising, heralded by cries of "Victory to Mother India!" and an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence.  

From the narrow streets of the temple town to a Modi rally in Delhi, Taseer struggles to reconcile magic with reason, faith in tradition with hope for the future, and the brutalities of the caste system, all the while challenging his own myths about himself, his past, and his countries old and new.

©2019 Aatish Taseer (P)2019 HighBridge Company

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    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, very bad narrator/narration

Book has great insights. Aatish has wonderful perspective. I might READ it again.
Listening experience was bad.There was no need to make all the characters sound so woeful and their voice scratchy. I finished listening only because I wanted to hear the authors work. Sorry Neil Shah, you have to listen to it yourself and see how you can improve narration. uff

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2 people found this helpful