Voyage of the well-read

Lonely Planet guides are not the only must-reads for a holiday

I often want, before going to a foreign city, to read literature set in that city. But between packing and scrambling for visas, there is little time for, say, the memoirs of Orhan Pamuk. So I usually travel as a literary blank slate.

This holiday to Rome, Venice, and Florence had been organised back in January, and I had planned to read Patricia Highsmith's “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” or the Venetian parts of “Brideshead Revisited.” But as the months crept up, I hadn't even flipped through a phrasebook, much less soaked in the history and atmosphere of Italy.

With just weeks to go, I scanned my shelves for what might be useful. Shakespeare is not. He wrote “Othello” and “Julius Caesar” on a London street, and it shows. But subsequent British writers saw the foreign places they wrote about. Mostly they showed English sensitivities clashing against Continental aesthetics, and they worked in plenty of scenery.

Full report here Hindu

Armchair travelers will relish 'India'

The 13 stories in India: A Traveler's Literary Companion attempt the impossible: to capture the essence of a subcontinent that feels like 20 countries teeming within the borders of one.

Readers will see familiar names with contributions from Salman Rushdie ("The Prophet's Hair") and Vikram Chandra (an excerpt from "Sacred Games"), but the collection's value lies in the stories from writers unknown in the United States.

Phanishwarnath Renu's humorous "Panchlight" follows a group of Bihari villagers who have purchased a lantern but don't know how to light it. A story by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, whose novels form the basis of Satyajit Ray's "Apu" film trilogy, showcases the ingenuity of a Calcutta man trying to win back a lost job.

Full report here Cleveland.com

In the footsteps of Ibn Battutah

There are probably as many forms of travel writing as there are journeys. In fact, as the great 19th-century storyteller Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “There is a sense ... in which all true books are books of travel”. Reading, rambling, writing are all connected in a delightful chicken-and-egg circularity. The Arabic language recognises this: the related words sifr, a scroll or volume, and safar, travel, are both to do with unrolling – of paper in the hand, of ground beneath the feet.

Given the vastness of travel literature, we’re all bound to have our likes and dislikes. Patrick Leigh Fermor, in his nineties but yet to finish his great trilogy on walking across Europe in the 1930s, is a particular favourite of mine; so too are the almost forgotten Norman Douglas, brilliant illuminator of the Italy of a hundred years ago, and Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, describing their rambles in the highlands of18th-century Scotland. Freya Stark and Wilfred Thesiger are my giants of Arabian travel, while among the Arab travellers themselves, the14th-century Moroccan Ibn Battutah is the colossus (so colossal, indeed, that I sometimes feel my own three books on him have only scratched his surface). Among my dislikes, I particularly recall a book entitled Baghdad Without a Map as having nothing at all to recommend it except its rather catchy title. It was an example of travel narrowing a mind that was prejudiced before it set out.

Full report here National

REVIEW: Journey to the Holy Land

REVIEW

Journey to the Holy Land - A Pilgrim's Diary
Amir Ahmad Alawi
Translated and with an introduction by Mushirul Hasan and Rakhshanda Jalil
Oxford University Press
Rs. 650
Pp 271
ISBN: 0198063466
Hardcover

Blurb
One of the five pillars of Islam, Hajj (literally ‘effort’) is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world stretching back to the time of the Prophet (seventh century ad) and even earlier. Before the age of organized travel, the journey spread across sea, deserts and mountains was perilous to say the least. Nonetheless, the hajjis (pilgrims) trivialized the dangers in the knowledge that they would soon enter the House of God.

Translated and introduced for the first time, Amir Ahmad Alawi’s Safar-i Sa’adat (Propitious Journey), written in 1929, is a firsthand account of this quintessentially Muslim journey. Presented in the form of a roznamcha or daily diary, the work is much more than a personal narrative of lamentation and triumph. Alawi watched, listened and recorded with an air of confident authority. His catholic vision captures the comingling of cultures and peoples, and he candidly comments on the social, economic and political conditions of the places he passed through.

The comprehensive Introduction, while locating the place of hajj in Islam and describing some of its well-known customs, rituals and practices, provides a broad understanding of hajj in colonial India. The special piece, ‘My Experience of the Hajj of 1916’ by J.S. Kadri, information on movement of ships meant for hajj passengers of 1929 and a detailed glossary add value to the book


Review
A pilgrim's progress to Haj Hindu
Amir Ahmed Alwai wrote Safar-I-Sadaat in Urdu based on his daily accounts of his Haj experience. He undertook the Haj journey that spanned more than four months, beginning January 31, 1929. This book is its English version. The objective evidently is to make it accessible to a wider audience. One of the negative offshoots of the British colonial rule has been the damage native languages suffered on account of the dominance of English, which virtually became a global lingua franca, so to say. And Urdu is among the worst victims. The irony of it all is that the most vehement of the critics of imperialism are also the most committed champions of English. This translated work can well be seen as an attempt to demonstrate that native languages are indeed a reservoir of vital sources of historical and other information and are as effective a medium as English to tell the human story.

Quite enlightening is the 69-page introduction which provides an incisive analysis of the contemporary literature on Haj experiences, apart from giving a detailed account of Alwai's life, career, antecedents, and, more importantly, the socio-historical importance of the region he belongs to. Marked by profound scholarship and intellectual richness, this piece bears the unmistakable imprint of Mushirul Hasan, who has a towering presence among contemporary historians, thanks not just to his several volumes of scholarly work but also to his creation of a new genre of historiography on modern India by employing varying methodologies. There is also an interesting chapter by J.S. Kadri, titled ‘My experience in Hajj in 1916', which provides a comparative perspective on such empirical accounts of Haj pilgrimage.
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This above all Telegraph
I have never been on a pilgrimage. I admit I never had the least desire to do so nor would go on one now except as a spectator-journalist. However, I also have to admit that everyone known to me who has been on one speaks highly of the emotional satisfaction they derived from the experience.

All religions believe in pilgrimages. For Jews and Christians, it is Jerusalem, the birthplace of both faiths. They also have lesser places of pilgrimage like Lourdes in France, where it is claimed that the sick are miraculously healed. Hindus have their Kumbh melas where they go in millions to bathe in the holy Ganga. The Sikhs have their five takhts (thrones), with the recent addition of Hemkunt Sahib in Uttarakhand. By far, the most spectacular of all pilgrimages is the haj to Mecca and Medina. It is obligatory for all Muslims who can afford it. Millions of Muslims from all parts of the world gather there to offer prayers. Those who can’t make the haj go on a lesser pilgrimage called umra. From the pictures I have seen (no non-Muslims are allowed in Mecca or Medina), the haj makes for an impressive sight, with thousands of similarly attired people going through their genuflections with military precision.
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Everyman’s Mecca Outlook
Western scholars have noted that from the fourth to the 16th century, pilgrimage was the dominant mode of travel to the Middle East and the most common paradigm for travel writing. The Crusades were fed as much by religio-political aspirations of regents as by the desire of European ‘commoners’ to see the Holy Land. It was they who often formed the most vehement of crusaders, a rag-tag army trailing behind the knights and princes.

Again, from the 19th century onwards, there was a revival of the practice of pilgrimage to the Holy Land from Europe and the US. While this history of Western pilgrimage has been widely studied, the parallel history of Haj pilgrimages is only now being excavated and examined in English. In this context, the book under review—the first English translation of Amir Ahmad Alawi’s Journey to the Holy Land, and the excellent introduction by translators Mushirul Hasan and Rakhshanda Jalil—is a major contribution to a burgeoning branch of study.

Welcome to Bombay, circa 1850!

Meet Deepak Dalal and allow him to take you on a tour of the Sahyadri mountains and Bombay in the mid 19th century.

If you are one of those who loves to travel and also to read, you must have read the novels by Deepak Dalal.

From his first book, Lakshadweep Adventure, (1997), Dalal has taken his readers to a different part of India with every story — a wildlife sanctuary in Ranthambore Adventure; the snow-capped heights of Ladakh in Ladakh Adventure and its sequel, Snow Leopard Adventure; and to the heart of a tribal way of life in Andaman Adventure.

As the names suggest, at the heart of each story is an intriguing adventure surrounding two teenagers, Vikram and Aditya. Hence, the series is also called the Vikramaditya Series.

In May, Dalal will come out with his next story after seven years. It is called Sahyadri Adventure and is set in the Sahyadri mountain range in Maharashtra. The first book is called Anirudh's Dream, while the second is Koleshwar's Secret.

Full report here Hindu

India the shimmering dream

Clover Stroud reviews an early account of a motorbike trip through India and an encyclopedic gourmet's guide to Italy.

This surprising book is an account of the first motorbike trip (made in 1933), through Iraq, Iran, Pakistan (then called Baluchistan) and into India, by the 20-year-old Max Reisch and his travelling companion Herbert Tichy. Reisch went on to have a successful career as a travel writer. The book has never been out of print since it was first published in Germany in 1949, testament to the enduring appeal of Reisch's youthful and forceful narrative, combined with a strong sense of empathy with the people and cultures he encountered. Reisch's boyish enthusiasm for the road makes this a pacy read, as well as providing a colourful insight into Middle Eastern cultures during the first half of the twentieth century. The challenges of travelling by bike are prominent, and make for entertaining reading.

Full report here Telegraph

The wise guy and the sensitive cop

Like Jen, the protagonist in her memoir Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert was a plucky blond American woman in her 30s with no children and no major financial worries. As the book opens, she was going through a messy divorce, followed by a stormy rebound love affair.

Awash in tears in the middle of the night on the floor of the bathroom, she began to pray for guidance, “You know — like, to God.” God answered. He told her to go back to bed. She embarks instead on a year-long pilgrimage to Italy, India and Indonesia!

“I wanted to explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well,” Gilbert writes. “I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy , the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two.”

Full report here Economic Times

A different travelogue

The legendary Himalayas and the rivers originating from them have been an irresistible attraction for travellers from within India and abroad since ancient times. There are innumerable books recording the serenity and the ethereal beauty of this hallowed mountain range — for instance German philosopher Hermann Keyserling's The Travel diary of a Philosopher and Tapovana Swami's Himagiri Viharam (Malayalam). This book is a Tamil translation of another notable book in this genre, which transfuses the ennobling experience of the onlooker into the veins of the reader.

What set this book apart from the rest are: the delightful and detailed description of the mythological and historical background; the wealth of geographical information; the interesting stories drawn from the folklore linking the past and the present; and the author's personal accounts of his interaction with the common folk in the places he visited. It is to the author's credit that he has not allowed his devotional faith to stand in the way of highlighting the large-scale pollution and dumping of wastes taking place there, the severe damage caused to the eco-system as a consequence, and the harmful effects of globalisation. The tour, starting from Delhi, takes Veerendra Kumar and his team to holy places such as Rishikesh, Haridwar, Gangothri, Yamunothri, Kedarnath and Badrinath before terminating at Gandhiji's Anasakti Ashram in Kausani. While speaking about Karna Prayag, the author strikes the emotional chord by the way he narrates the story of Karna (of the Mahabharata).

Velli Panimalaiyin Meedhu (Tamil): Translation of M. P. Veerendrakumar's ‘Haimavathabhuvil' by Sirpi Balasubramaniam; Kavitha Publications, Rs 600

Full report here Hindu

On location

Delhi-based travel junkie Puneet Inder Sidhu debuts with a book on her back-packing experiences across Europe

The last couple of weeks have been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for her, but that’s the kind of adrenaline rush 30-something Puneet Inder Kaur Sidhu thrives on. Just back from the recently held Indo-Bhutan Friendship Car Rally, where she was the sole woman driver, Sidhu is now busy promoting her debut book, Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe (Rs 150; Frog Books)—an account of her travels across Europe. When we meet her, Sidhu is nursing a bruised ankle, but she is quick to point out that the rally had nothing to do with it. “I went mountain biking post the rally,” she laughs.

A writer by profession, and an inveterate adventure junkie, Sidhu has been trawling across the Indian sub-continent, Europe, South Africa, North America and South East Asia over the years. But one of her favourite trips was her rather inexpensive journey across Europe about five years back. “I hadn’t planned an extensive trip when I left India,” she says, talking of how she landed in Germany at her aunt’s place, with lots of time and little money to spare. While she was looking for cheap travel options, she chanced upon a carpool network, the Mitfahrzentrale, which would transport her across continents. “That too at almost the cost of a dozen beers,” she grins.

Full report here Indian Express

REVIEW: Roadrunner

REVIEW

Roadrunner: An Indian Quest In America   
Dilip D'souza
HarperCollins
Rs 399
ISBN: 9788172239060
Paperback

Blurb 

What do we learn when one great democracy looks at another? Alexis de Tocqueville's seminal Democracy in America answered the question 1800S. Today, India is the world's other great democracy, and maybe the answers are different. 

Through stories large and small, this book shows us America as refracted through the eyes of an Indian who is critical but not intolerant, understanding but not starry-eyed. From gawking at wall murals by German World War II POWs in Texas to getting to know the bikers for Christ at the annual bike carnival in Sturgis, from charting the history of immigrant Icelanders to driving a fire truck in a quiet mountain town, D'Souza travels American roads, discovering old cultures and new concerns in one of the most revered and reviled nations in the world today. 

More important, he explores the lessons in that process, for India and for readers everywhere, as he searches for meaning and nuance in ideas like patriotism and being liberal, in a country's sense of self.Passionate and perceptive, wry and empathetic, this book is ultimately about what it means to belong. Wherever you are. 

Reviews/ Interviews

India, Indiana Hindu 

And that is what makes Roadrunner interesting: the fact that, for a change, it is a “Man goes on long journey” story. It is the United States, seen from the outside in, by an Indian like you or me. Someone who could be an old friend: intelligent, sensitive, observant, and above all, sharing a similar world-view. It is a reversing of the gaze, as it were. 

Death Ends Fun India Today 

D'Souza confines himself largely to his American experience, only occasionally using a comparative compass, to try and make sense of post-9/11 America and its impact on Americans in general. He doesn't always succeed but it is not an easy task. He finds, predictably, bigotry and tolerance, hatred and love, tragedy and triumph in equal measure. Where he scores is that he hires a car to touch base with towns and places few people have heard of. Like Greenwood near Selma, the origin of the Blues and the civil rights movement, where he arrives a a charismatic Barack Obama is chasing an impossible dream: to become the first Black President of America. This is Alabama where white racists savagely subdued black civil rights marchers. Today, they hand out cards saying "Bama for Obama". 

One for the road Hindu

The Indian subcontinent has been an endless source of exotica for travel writers of all times - from the colonial to the present when the remotest corner of the world is just a Google search away. Those of us who are feeling a bit exhausted by being the constant target of this gaze may be enthused by the very idea behind Dilip D'Souza's "Roadrunner: An Indian Quest in America".

Not that Dilip started his travel writing project with any agenda of "reversing the gaze", to borrow an esoteric phrase from post-colonial literary criticism. "I didn't think of it like that when I was travelling there at least. Having lived in America for more than 10 years, I felt the need to understand better what has become my second home," says Dilip. "But I guess it could be read like that," he adds after a pause. Through a series of stories about people and places from across the United States, the book offers a view of the vast country that is not inspired by awe, and yet is not dismissive. The stories are sometime funny (check out the chapters "Opening Lines" and "Fifth Wife"), sometimes poignant and sometimes even insipid. 

Country road took me home Mint 

...the Roadrunner template is simple: Hit the American highways, meet the American people, find the Indian parallel and there you have it, a compilation of 36 essays that traverse the breadth of the US. Steering clear of run-of-the-mill parachute journalism but not quite going the regular travelogue way, Roadrunner is perhaps best read as a highly individual account of a country and its people and everything in between, from politics and pedagogy to garbage disposal and the Grateful Dead.