In her twenties, journalist Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India + came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution + poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm + told her she would return to India—and for love—she screamed, “Never!” and gave the country, + 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. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, + it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality + inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life + death.
Holy Cow is Macdonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos + contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam + Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis + Christians + a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis + Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones + New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—+ her sanity—can survive.
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. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, + it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality + inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life + death.
Holy Cow is Macdonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos + contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam + Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis + Christians + a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis + Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones + New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—+ her sanity—can survive.