From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of Ghost Wars and The Achilles Trap, a trek across a socially and politically damaged South Asia Bestselling author Steve Coll is one of the preeminent journalists of the twenty-first century. His last two books, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and New York Times bestseller The Bin Ladens, have been praised for their creative insight and complex yet compelling narratives-and have put him on par with journalists such as the legendary Bob Woodward. Now, for the first time ever, the paperback edition of On the Grand Trunk Road is finally available, revised and updated with new material. Focusing on Coll's journeys in conflict-ridden India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan as a bureau chief for The Washington Post, On the Grand Trunk Road reveals a little-seen area of the world where violence, corruption, and greed have had devastating effects on South Asians from all walks of life.

The Grand Trunk Road is one of South Asia's oldest and longest roads. For centuries, it has linked the eastern and western regions of the Indian subcontinent, running from Bengal, across north India, into Peshawar in Pakistan up to Afghanistan. Today it

The Grand Trunk Road is one of the oldest and longest highways in southern Asia. Through oral testimonies, photographs and texts, Tim Smith explores its history and shows how close links between Britain and places along the road continue to this day. The Grand Trunk Road was the main artery for conquest by the British Raj and passes through the ancestral homes of many British Asians. For the first time, the story of the profound impact of the British on this highway and its people is told in image and word.

The Grand Trunk Road stretches 1600 miles, from Calcutta to the North-west frontier. Some 50 years after, it served as an escape route for 15 million refugees, following Independence and Partition, the author travels the road on a 1940s Enfield Bullet motorbike.

Authentic Regional Cuisine of India is a beautifully written and illustrated cook book, as well as a travelogue and history of the famous Grand Trunk Road since its emergence as India’s first route for traders. The book follows Hardeep Singh Kohli’s travels along this age-old route, starting in Calcutta and linking with Lucknow, Aligargh, and Delhi before curling north into the Punjab. This book takes a fascinating look at the food, culture and traditions that have sprung up along the road, with recipes that reflect the eating traditions of the real India. The recipes are provided by Anirudh Arora, head chef at Moti Mahal in London, who has devoted his career to researching the long-forgotten cuisine of rural India as found along the old Grand Trunk Road. Nostalgic favorites include ‘bhalla papadi chaat', a dish discovered in the streets of North India featuring crisp-fried pastry and chickpeas with a tamarind and mint chutney. From the seductive barbecued flavours of the Punjab to the sublime dals and vegetarian food of Lucknow, this is an eye-opening look at Indian food.

‘I have come to believe that the best kind of walk, or journey, is the one in which you have no particular destination when you set out.’ Ruskin Bond’s travel writing is unlike what is found in most travelogues, because he will take you to the smaller, lesser-known corners of the country, acquaint you with the least-famous locals there, and describe the flora and fauna that others would have missed. And if the place is well known, Ruskin leaves the common tourist spots to find a small alley or shop where he finds colourful characters to engage in conversation. Tales of the Open Road is a collection of Ruskin Bond’s travel writing over fifty years. Here, you will encounter a tonga ride through the Shivaliks, a hidden waterfall near Rishikesh, walks along the myriad streets of Delhi (one of which used to be the richest in Asia), trips down the Grand Trunk Road, stopovers in little tea stalls in the hills around Mussoorie, and an excursion to the icy source of the Ganga at over ten thousand feet above sea level. Enriched by rare photographs that Ruskin took during his travels, Tales of the Open Road is a celebration of small-town and rural India by its most engaging chronicler.

A look at the cultural, or intercultural, exchange that took place in the Silk Roads and the role this has played in the shaping of cultures and civilizations.

AMERI-KHAN: Frontier Duty on the Grand Trunk Road A novel by Gordon King The book lays out in vivid fashion US diplomat David Booth's assignment during the Eisenhower Presidency to open an American Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, pioneering an American diplomatic presence in the wild lawless area between the great Indus River and the border with Afghanistan. It included the fabled Khyber Pass, Baluchistan Province in the far south, and the majestic Himalayas in the far north, an area which for centuries had known only the law of the rifle and the rigors of tribal ways. The Grand Trunk Road, alive with legions of walkers and caravans, ended in Booth's district, thousands of miles from its origin in Calcutta. He made a home for his wife and children in Peshawar, opened an official American office, and hired a staff including an advisor who happened to be a member of the ruling family of a northern principality. The new office dealt with a myriad of cultural, bureaucratic and practical crises in the process of getting firmly established. (cont'd on back flap) For example, an elderly American woman died in a local hotel--and her corpse was accidentally switched with that of a tribal Khan, creating a sensation among the Pushtun tribes. An American Colonel, in charge of a training detachment assigned to the Pakistan Army, turned pacifist with messy results. A church bazaar dissolved before a riot. Later, Booth spent five nightmare days in a hospital with bulbar malaria--5% recovery rate--before retreating to his prince advisor's mountain home for a recovery. After two years of further adventures and crises for David and his family, two young Americans from Missouri arrived on foot after endless months of trekking, determined to walk around the world. Despite David's help and advice, the World Walkers managed to insult a local tribal Khan with the result that they were forced to make a quick guarded trek through tribal territory toward the Afghan border--a flight that provoked tragedy. And resulted in David welcoming his transfer orders from Washington.