Must read for the Gen X and specially all the bureaucrats and politicians who don't even know or care what is going on.

India is not about IT or massive industrial growth or reforms its about the farmers and the millions who live on agriculture. We in this modern world don't even know that such kind of India exists.

We campaign to save our Tigers but none of us know that there is another endangered breed called as the Farmers.

Someone said it correctly "In this part of the word the value o...

while reading this book,you will definitely have the feeling ''I am far better off than many'' etc kind of feeling.But apart from the emotional kick of it,the book shows how well intended programs go wrong due to bad execution,stories of exploitation.Definitely we would love to think that they are two decades old situations and things might have improved but when google shows me the ''cut-off'' area is still defined as a cut off area,well,i guess such books still have their relevance...bottom...

This book is one of the best to understand the reality called INDIA.
Sainath is one of the best to get it right.
True to the heart , filled with humor.
He makes you laugh all the way through the pages with tears of grief.
It's really tough to have a book written in this way.
Hats offf Sainath sir.
Highly recommended for every true citizen of the land.
Don't live in an imaginary world...Welcome the reality of India through Sainath.....

The reputation of this book often runs ahead of its content. While it is an excellent work of journalism, it is essentially a collection of reports from the poorest of India's districts. Read as that, it is an informative account -- each story reads like a mini-ethnography into the lives of people. Anyone familiar with Sainath's reportage in The Hindu wouldn't be too surprised.

It would be erroneous to generalise the portraits in this book to all of India's poor. The variation within these s...

the best non fiction book I have read so far.. brilliant work

I thank Flipcart for sending acopy of this book very fast. The book is an excellent record of our govt's miserable failure to elevate the problems of the poor. At the same time India needs Mega projects to supply electricity which is totally inadquate for the demand. Naturally lots of poor get displaced by these and the govt. ought to provide adequate compensation in realistic terms to the poor tribals and Adivasis. Though the projects are well meaning, the compensation is swallowed by greed...

"Everybody loves a good drought" features stories from some of India's poorest districts. This book is a thoroughly researched study of the poorest of the poor and how they manage to live, or rather survive.

To cover all the issues faced by the poor in India will be a mammoth task; and hence the book features/covers places which is the author's account of visits to these places. The featured incidents in the book widely fall under the categories of Crazy development project schemes, Health &...

This book will give you the minute details of exploitation of the poor, especially the tribals and the adivasis by the government. A must read for everyone who wants to know what actual India is! I would suggest this book to all future journalists and Civil Service Aspirants. All the politicians, bureaucrats (IAS and IPS Officers) and Govt. Servants also should read this book to understand where exactly the problem persists and what kind of problems the poorest of the poor face in a country l...

If anyone wants to know how the poor in our country live, this is the book to read. Sainath has tried to give as much details as possible in the limited space to apprise the reader on what's it to be a member of a tribal community in the poorest of the poor districts of the country. It's focus is on the fact that tribals are debarred of the property they have been owning log before there was a country like India or a Government like Government of India ... All in the name of development. The...

I don't know what made me to pick up this book, either some blogpost written by a friend or just the title, or even newspaper. Nevertheless, once I picked up the book, I cannot put it down. Why? You might ask this question and my answer would be: It answered many of my questions.

I won't spill beans about this book. I'll rather say how to read it: with an open mind and questions in the mind. If you do so, surely you will get answers of what ails our country today and why naxalism as found it...