The Kenneth Anderson Omnibus: Volume 1: Tales from the Indian Jungle, Man-Eaters and Jungle Killers, The Call of the Man-Eater by Kenneth AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hooter: A collection of shikari stories based in South and Central India primarily
Kenneth Anderson born in Hyderabad in the 1900s - an author and a hunter - shares a collection of stories of his brush with wildlife across the years in the jungles of South India. I got to know of the book from the fact that the IT concrete jungle of Bellandur was infamous for man eating tiger roaming the jungles of Bellandur in Kenneth's time.
The stories follow a similar pattern of him hunting the hunted and the cat and human games they play - but what adds color is the set up to each story is very different and also paints a unique color to life in India in those days from his perspective - a relatively privileged individual thanks to his colonial roots whilst living amongst the common villagers in far and out places in rural South India refering to terms and jargon which are slowly getting erased from our day to day lives. Whilst the protagonist animal usually never makes it past the book , the author does add vivid color and imagery to the wildlife in the book and does try to morally justify atleast to himself why he had to take on that particular "man-eater".
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