Compiled by Dom Moraes
Publishers: Penguin Books
Pages: 369
The Penguin Book of Indian Journeys, according to the description in the inside cover, is an anthology of travel writing on India. The image on the cover also gives similar impression. But once you start reading through the stories, it turns out that there isn’t much of travel element in some of the selected stories. Dom Moraes seems confused about what travel is, and tries to push his own perspective of travel to people who are looking to read romance of travel in the inner pages.
Some of these are weird if you try to put them as travel stories. There is one story about a journalist trying to understand infamous Bandit Veerappan, there is another journalist who follows Indira Gandhi and talks politics, and one more story is about rampant crime in Bihar. It is hard to understand what these stories are doing in a travel book. Moraes has tried to justify such stories in his introduction, but nothing convincing enough.
But to give some credit to the book, there are indeed some good write-ups that have gone into making the it. The well known names of Indian Travel Writing are all there – like Bill Aitken, Paul Theroux, Ruskin Bond and Stephen Alter. A story by Moraes himself, of exploring the tribes of Madhya Pradesh is an excellent read.
The good and unreadable are probably in equal numbers through the book. A what would have been a good book is spoiled by some unsuitable selections.
Author: Paul Theroux
Publishers: Penguin Books
Pages: 342
Theroux’s book on his epic train journey is now one of the most celebrated travel books. Theroux begins his journey from London, travelling on Orient Express to Iran and further to India, Srilanka, Myanmar, South-East Asia, Japan, Russia and back. The long journey took him three months, taking him through some prettiest regions to a few depressing ones too. And the landscapes changed considerably over time, from hot desert climes of middle-east to freezing temperatures in Siberia.
Theroux epitomizes the old saying in his book, all the time trying to tell his readers that the journey is more important than the destination. Indeed, the book is more about the journey, where he talks in detail about his fellow passengers and the changing window view from the train, while he talks very little about the destination where he spends his days between journeys.
Theroux’s book may not seem all that special in the days when every tom, dick and harry talks about Round The World travel and gap-year, but it stands unique in the fact that he made his journey by train, and the book is not much about the destinations. His writing style is very readable, keeping the reader travelling with him all the time. A worthy read, but one might also wonder if the book was worth all the fame it has acquired.
Author: Helena Norberg-Hodge
Publishers: Oxford University Press
Pages: 224
Ancient Futures is a book on Ladakh’s cultural and social atmosphere, its environment and changing face of Ladakhi civilization with the influence of modern world.
Hodge, director of International Society of Ecology and Culture, and founder of Women’s Alliance of Ladakh is an long time visitor to Ladakh. She has been vocal about sustainable development and preserving cultural values in the region. In this book, she writes about her own experiences of spending many years in Ladakh, the change she has been seeing since the time Indian Army built a major presence in the region and tourists thronged in large numbers.
The book has a good preview of Ladakhi culture, their way of living, the attitude of the people and their economic system. It is rich with personal experiences of the author from the days when Ladakh was still a secluded place to the times of modernization. Sometimes the book appears as though the author is working with a one pointed agenda to say that everything Ladakhi was good and the onslaught of ‘bad’ modernization has made irrecoverable damages. But nevertheless, it is hard to deny the facts she puts forward about the problems that come in with change. It is a well written, readable book and is worth picking up, for anyone who is interested in the life, culture and geography of Trans-Himalayan regions of India.