Binoo K. John, fifty, is a senior journalist with the India Today group. His earlier two books were Curry Coast: Travels in Malabar 500 Years after Vasco da Gama (Konark Publishers, 1999) and Under a Cloud: Life in Cherrapunji, the Wettest Place on Earth (Penguin, 2004). He lives in Delhi with his wife, Rebecca, and son, Zubin.