A Train from Calcutta to Darjeeling | Mark Twain in India

A Book A Day - A Literary Podcast from India

The year was 1894. Mark Twain, the great American writer, had gone bankrupt due to some poor investment choices. Therefore, in order to extricate himself from the debt, he undertook a journey through the British Empire, which, back then, meant pretty much the entire world. The route provided a wonderful opportunity for Twain to deliver his lectures and also write a book, which was published in 1897 as Following the Equator: A Journey Round the World. I narrate some of the passages from this book where Mark Twain describes his train journey to Darjeeling.