India fascinates many people. But why are women, especially, drawn there? Twenty-seven women writers - from Canada, the US and the UK - share their experiences in thirty-seven emails, and so provide some answers to this question. Poignant, humorous, outrageous and astute, these stories come from the big cities and remote villages, the beaches and ashrams, the trains and buses. They speak to the mysterious relationship that women and India seem to share, as well as to themes common to all India travellers: meeting the challenges of getting from here to there, adapting to the many faces of the unforeseen, and learning the art of waiting. And then there's the food, the smells, the clothes; the poverty, the distinct gender roles and attitudes, the ubiquitous con artists; and the exuberant children, the spirituality, the discovery that all is not what it seems. These voices inspire nostalgia in those who have already taken this journey, and dreams of India in those who haven't. Yet.

Janis Harper is a college and university English instructor, a Vancouver actor, and singer-songwriter. She has co-founded two local periodicals and published journalism and scholarship. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Canadian literary journals, including Room of One's Own, Contemporary Verse 2, and Tessera, and in the international fiction anthology, Lost on Purpose: Women in the City.

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