[torryquine]

I saw a great book I wanted to buy in India, but we were half way through our trip and I didn't want to carry the thing the rest of the way - so I thought I'd be able to get it at Higginbottoms in Chennai.  No such luck.

Now I try to find it on Amazon and there are two books of the same title and I can't remember the authors name.  I don't want to make the mistake of ordering the wrong one as both are pretty expensive.

The one I'm looking for is about the lives and welfare of temple elephants - a subject I'd very much like to know more about.  Can anyone tell me the author of this book so I don't make a costly mistake?

Thanks as always

[iwanttogoback]

is this what you are looking for?  'Gods in Chains' by Rhea Ghosh, reviewed at:

http://static.teriin...105/reviews.htm

[priya]

Just reading the review depressed me.

OT - and the same thing is happening here.  Young ellies being taken from their mothers to be trained to carry rich tourists on safari.  Conservationists are trying to put a stop to it however.  Hopefully they'll succeed, but its doubtful.

[malkers]

Both are listed here at a much lower price, all you need is somebody in India to post it to you using book post and you'll be laughing!

Vik, how about it matey!

Fabmall

Scrub that, looks like you can get it cheap here also.

Foundation Books

[Vik]

malkers, on Nov 17 2006, 02:49 PM, said:

Both are listed here at a much lower price, all you need is somebody in India to post it to you using book post and you'll be laughing!

Vik, how about it matey!

Fabmall

Scrub that, looks like you can get it cheap here also.

Foundation Books

Picking this book off the street vendors would work out even cheaper..  

how many orders do you want boss..

[torryquine]

Yes, that's the one.  Amazon didn't even give a vague description.

Vik/Malkers if we can work something out that would be great.  It looks like an informative read if a sobering one.

Yes, it's quite depressing to see how distressed some of the elephants are.  The two that stick in my head were at temples in Trichy - the Ganesh temple on the hill and the big one at Srirangam.  Both ellies looked like they'd completely lost their marbles and displayed that repetative behaviour you often see in captive elephants who are under-stimulated - swinging their trunks in the same way over and over again - awful.

It doesn't have to be that way - we met others who appeared to quite enjoy their "work".  Laxmi at the Virupaksha temple in Hampi is a good example.  We watched her playing with school children and fed her bananas on our way in....  on the way out, she clearly recognised us and probed our pockets for more.  That's how an ellie should be - interested and interacting with it's surroundings, they are such intelligent creatures they should not have to do something as boring as just stand in a dark temple all day.  Her mahout clearly took good care of her, she was in very good condition.  I'll post some pictures of her.

Having said all that, when we were on the way from Trichy to Coimbatore, we stopped while the driver got directions.  I was talking about those elephants to Mr TQ, when I looked out of the window and saw an old lady rummaging in a pile of rubbish.... how bad did I feel - stressing out about the mental health of some elephants when real human distress was right in front of me....  But that's compassion for you - not a logical thing, as we've discussed before somewhere.

[vistet]

Another on-line option : try contacting vedamsbooks.com . It´s not listed there , but they have located unlisted books for me . Hardbound or heavily illustrated books seldom cost more than 25 USD , including airmail.Prompt service, always receive my orders on the seventh or eight day.