The dynamic tapestry of contemporary India comes alive in the pages of Tantric Picnic: Tales of India by Dutch writer Hans Plomp. With humour and warmth the author chronicles this country of paradox, where the ancient and modern, the splendid and the sordid, endlessly collide. Carving a route well off the beaten path, Plomp probes the heart of India — the holy fools, village life, legends and myths, ruins and bazaars, the sway of tradition and the tug of modernity. With the steady, compassionate gaze of a pilgrim he notes the ironies and also the miracles of India today, in memorable tales certain to delight both the experienced and armchair traveler.

Hans Plomp was born in Amsterdam in 1944. After his studies he became a teacher, but he gave up regular jobs for good when his first novel De Ondertrouw (The Banns Are Up) was successful. He took an active part in the playful Dutch Provo Revolution of the Sixties, which made Amsterdam one of the hippest places on the planet. Hans Plomp has traveled extensively, especially in India, where he spent some five years. In 1982 he toured the U.S. with a group of Dutch poets, performing with Anne Waldman, Diana di Prima, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Amiri Baraka, Ira Cohen and many other kindred artists. He has published novels, short stories, poetry and essays. Some of his English poems were published in City Lights Pocket Poets Series #42: Nine Dutch Poets.

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Jordan Zinovich was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. He left Canada in 1974, and since then has lived in Crete, England, France, Guinea Conakry, Holland, India, Spain, and New York City, where he now resides. He has published six books: Two historical biographies about personalities involved in the opening of the western Canadian north — The Prospector: North of Sixty and Battling the Bay; the critical anthology Semiotext(e) CANADAs (of which he was Project General Editor); the novel Gabriel Dumont in Paris; Cobweb Walking, a collection of poetry; and the poetic radio play John Chapman’s Harvest. His work has been translated into French and Dutch, with radio performances in New York and Amsterdam. At present he is a senior editor with the Autonomedia Collective, one of North America’s most notable underground publishing houses.

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