Riches and knowledge of India have attracted many foreign invasions. Each time, Indian culture has emerged stronger. Like a great melting pot, India has assimilated invading cultures and yet maintained its glorious core.

What are the strengths of Indian culture that have enabled it to survive for thousands of years? Were there persistent scientific endeavors that shaped Indian society? What kind of discoveries were Indians trying to make when three thousand years ago they were dealing with such large numbers as "1,971,956,574 years"?

How did ancient Indians figure out that if you pierced the globe and emerged on the opposite side of the globe from India, you would find an advanced culture (Americas)? What is the driving force behind the predominance of vegetarianism in India? What enabled them to perform plastic surgery more than two thousand years ago?

Did they know the role of the spleen in driving the characteristic red pigmentation of blood? Has the Om (ॐ) symbol been discovered in the ancient Americas?

Pather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, consisting of Harihar, Sarbajaya, Apu and Durga, both in their ancestral village Nishchindipur in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life. The story explores the anguish and loss they face during their travels.

It first appeared as a serial in a Calcutta periodical in 1928 and was published as a book the next year; it was the first published novel written by the author. It was followed in 1932 by a sequel Aparajito, which was later also adapted into a film of the same name by Satyajit Ray.