Travels on My Elephant by Mark Shand

Started on a whim and pursued with a passion, modern-day adventurer Mark Shand's remarkable journey through India on the back of a 30-year-old elephant named Tara covered 800 miles, from the Bay of Bengal to the world's largest elephant bazaar at Sonepur on the Ganges. This story of man and elephant is by turns exciting, terrifying and moving. With an ear for the comic, an eye for the exotic and a taste for the bizarre, Shand paints a vivid picture of Indian life, customs and locale as he takes us through his daily adventures with Tara in this transporting memoir.

This was a delightful book that I read at the same meandering pace as the author's trip aboard Tara, his faithful elephant. It gives a good behind-the-scenes look at what elephants are like, what it is like living among Indians, and some of the different cultures are that make up this vast and diverse nation.