4 out of 5 stars
The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.
I travelled with Mrs Trivedi from Madras to Bangalore overnight on the mail train. ‘First class this time so you are not overwhelmed. It was my second night in India and I was already overwhelmed.
So begins Joe Roberts’ trip to India. He is trying to make his way through the crowd at the station and is drenched in sweat and being stared at by almost everyone. She tells him he will get used to it…
Through a guy in Woking, he had arranged to stay with this family in Bangalore, in the Bhagpur extension. It was a mix of buildings with a mass of people moving around, trying to sell things to anyone they could. Couple that with the noise and smell, and he was overwhelmed once again. He is greeted by a small party that evening. He hadn’t really thought about the places that he wanted to visit while he was here, but a lady attending the gathering, called Mrs Sen, had other ideas. He soon had a month’s worth of excursions!
It takes him a while to get used to the intensity of the place. He visits temples, spends an afternoon with a strange visitor to the household and takes an uncomfortable and slightly terrifying bus journey to Bangalore. The monsoon rains kept taking out the power, and he could get no further because of the flooding.
Each journey takes longer because of delays and problems, and people just don’t understand why he wants to see this country. He takes a jungle trip to Mysore and ends up being the only guest in a hotel. It is a bit less jungly than he was expecting, but he does get to see some wildlife. River Lodge is a strange place, too, and he ends up staying with a true Burra Sahib called Colonel Bridgewater.
Back with the Trivedi’s again, they are joined by a illustrious guest called Dr Lal. He is a sericulturist who worked previously with the UN. He has several surreal conversations with the gentleman. Then he is off to Hospet and sadly catches a stomach bug that takes some time to recover from. When he is better, he travels on to the city of Vijayanagar.
Roberts is invited to give a talk at a school, so he prepares something for the boys. It is well received, but really only want to know his height, weight and what Alton Towers is actually like. Next place he ends up in is Otty, and he stays in a closed hotel with no water and some very dodgy food. He manages to relocate hotels before going off on a horse trek.
For his next trip, he is joined by Mrs Trivedi, and they head to the north of India to meet with her family. The slow train he takes gives him time to watch the landscape change from dry to wet. Sleeping on the train is a bit of a challenge. They stay at Mrs Trivedi’s father-in-law’s, and it gives him time to visit the area. He goes to Benares and finds that the overwhelming feeling he had in India is turned up to 11 here.
He settles into a pattern of having a few days with the Trivedi’s before setting off to explore other parts of the country. Until now, he hasn’t seen any Westerners in the country, but bumps into three in Mysore. They are there for a holiday, and they have a very different outlook from him.
He finds Bhadra feels very French, but it is still very much India. There are a load of nuns on the same bus as him, and he enjoys mixing with the locals and absorbing the atmosphere of the place. He chooses not to hire a guide, preferring to discover and experience the place for himself, though it is almost unbearably hot.
An unpleasant memory of Rameshwaram is the taxi drivers trying to rip him off as he is a Westerner. The low-level illness that he has had for a while finally breaks into a full fever. He heads back to the Trivedi’s to find them ill too! When recovered, he heads to Trivandrum and comes across a most arrogant and rude Englishman, who gets drunk and has no idea how to behave at all. He feels that he has reached the point where he has outstayed his welcome at the Trivedi’s and it is time to head home.
This is a really lovely travel book about Southern India. Roberts is a curious and gentle traveller. He is endlessly fascinated by the things that he sees and the people that he meets, and gets a fuller experience of the country by not having a set agenda, preferring to go with the flow. He is fortunate to have generous hosts. If you have read other travel books on India, I would still recommend adding this to your reading list. Eland has selected this to be included in their legendary travel classics and with good reason.
Well I thought I’d read this and my reading diary spreadsheet shows I did indeed, in March 2001, having acquired it in December 2000 (those were the days). I still have it so it must indeed be a good one!
My list only goes back to 2002 with a slightly sketchy list before that! It was good and it will be kept (because it is an Eland after all)