Jasmine and Arnica

Since childhood, Nicola Naylor had been enthralled by India: "Images of goddesses and temples with monkeys, elephants and colourfully dressed people crowded my imagination. I wanted to go there. But my travel fantasies dissolved when I lost my sight as I was finishing university." Disregarding the warnings of others and her own private fears, Nic

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Many would balk at the idea of a white woman traveling India aloneand in particular, a blind woman. Throughout her childhood Nicola Naylor had been fascinated by images of the subcontinent and was determined both to realize her dream of visiting and to push back the stifling constraints imposed by perceptions of her disability. While depending on her third eyeor sixth senseshe explores India from the inside. Her account is both sensuous and enormously visual as she gradually rebuilds her shattered self-confidence, regains her desire to live life, and rediscovers her almost forgotten love of writing."