In a few more years, perhaps as little as fifteen, an entire generation of persons to whom dak bungalows mean something will have gone on to the circuit house in heaven. For that reason alone this book is welcome. Indeed, it was waiting to be written, and if the publishers can do no more than to send mailers to IAS officers who retired before 2000, they will sell a few thousand copies, no problem.
The book is full of arresting anecdotes, especially about the dak bungalows and circuit houses in MP. Rajika Bhandari has written with zest and curiosity, though every now and then she also writes about circuit houses, which were quite different. Compared to a dak bungalow, they were five star hotels.