Thirty Percent Chance Of Enlightenment

Often hilarious, ultimately profound, Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment begins when Tim Brookes embarks on an adventure that starts in a hurricane on an icy mountain top in New Hampshire and takes him to India to watch the monsoon come ashore and write about the elaborate, almost mysterical art of monsoon forecasting. When the rain begins, however, a series of misunderstandings finds him banned from every single office of the India Meteorogical Department.

Before long, his journey turns into a cross-country road trip in search of the true meaning of the monsoon-a trip that takes him through the spice villages high in the Western Ghats, to a Hindu wedding at which all the main participants end up drenched, and leaves him ankle-deep in a holy river where the temple elephants bathe. He discovers the history of the umbrella, the bizarre ritual of rain-inducing donkey weddings, and for his erratic and dusty labors, he ends up being rewarded with a glimpse into the spiritual nature of water.

Tim Brookes is the author of the cult classic A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow chosen as one of the best travel books of 2000 by Booklist and the New York Times. He has written for National Geographic, Outside and half a dozen other travel magazines, and he has been one of National Public Radio's top essayists for more than 20 years.