This fascinating book on Indian identity is a journey with its ups and downs. The author tries his best to stay neutral, but at times it does get over passionate and an angry bias is visible. Sen sometimes seems in a trance repeating stuff that either makes you feel safe in a familiar territory and or makes you go "Not again". Sometimes he beats around the bush intentionally not wanting to highlight a disputed or vague topic. And at other times he is in such a hurry running after his departing train of thought leaving the reader stranded in middle of an intense conversation. But it does its job splendindly evoking in me a sense of pride and fanning my curiosity about being an Indian and being a Hindu athesit, about the scriptures and epics, about the fellow countrymen Tagore, Satyajit Ray and Aryabhatta, about its rulers Ashoka and Akbar, about its university Nalanda, about its history of multi religions and ethnicities, about its progress in science and astronomy. This is in no way an easy read but surely a book on history emphasizing reasoning over traditions deserves our attention.