Samrat Pandit

Naïssam Jalal: Landscapes of Eternity

by Ian Patterson
April 27, 2026

It is impossible to spend any significant amount of time travelling in India without being affected by both its beauty and its poverty. The contrasts between the choking, sprawling metropolises and the river-crossed countryside--with its emerald rice fields and stepped tea plantations--are striking. So too is the chasm between deeply embedded spirituality and the cruel caste system. Then there is the food, the heady festivals and the beguiling music. The senses are bombarded 24/7. As Indian writer Arundhati Roy put ...