India Country Reader

Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay, India

Reading the excerpts of Aloha Wanderwell's travels, I come across this bit:

June 4, 1924 – set to leave BOMBAY, cross INDIA
Headlines in English and Indian: YOUNG LADY TO CROSS INDIA BY MOTORCAR!
I was off to maelstrom Bombay—my first time alone at the wheel ever! In and out between bullock carts; missing buffalo by the skin of my teeth. Alexandra was by then dotted with staggered pyramids of Hankow’s cargo—silver bullion! Crews of near-naked coolies loading the weighty ingots made steering hazardous.

Cool! Treasure on the hoof! A little Googling reveals that Hankow was likely the English cargo vessel City of Hankow. Back then, Hankow was a city in China. Now it is a division of a larger city.

Then I come across the India Country Reader which is a 1300 page PDF file. The first story is from the right time and place and it is just amazing. I recommend it to your attention. If the PDF file is too much, you can also read it here.

A few names mentioned in this story have made it into Wikipedia:
         Ruth Saint Denis        (1879 – 1968) modern dance pioneer.
                   Ted Shawn      (1891 – 1972) male pioneer of American modern dance
              Martha Graham    (1894 – 1991) American modern dancer and choreographer
Doris Batcheller Humphrey (1895 – 1958) dancer and choreographer
             Charles Weidman  (1901 – 1975) choreographer, modern dancer and teacher
Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space in Becket, Massachusetts.
Barbital, brand name Veronal