A travelogue is an interesting literary device to visit new places and see new cultures and familiarize oneself with people living in faraway lands. It has been an indispensable tool for historians to acquaint themselves with historic civilizations. A travelogue has a stamp of authenticity because it flows from the pen that is unbiased and the writer has a measure of detachment from the milieu he is commenting upon.
The writings of Marco Polo, Hieun Tsang have been insightful and have thrown light upon the society they have commented upon. The succeeding generations are indebted to these writers in showing their societies, as they were, from which they could measure their progress or regression which ever is applicable. The travelogue as a genre has flowered in the modern times with writers of the calibre of Salman Rushdie , VS Naipaul turning their hand to it.
It is a pleasure to also read a maiden effort by an author since it will be a labour of love for him and he would have put his entire soul into making a book worth reading and if he is lucky, remembering too. It is always the first book, which creates the maximum impact; succeeding efforts only enhance or mar the writer?s reputation. These thoughts crossed my mind when I picked the book, ? Butter Chicken in Ludhiana? by Pankaj Mishra.
The book is purportedly about small towns in India. The book is a series of short articles about his travels in small town India; he merely examines the effects of economic liberalization on these towns. He starts his journey from Shimla, which according to him is a small town, well I really do not know considering the fact that Shimla is a state Capital. His observations regarding the places he visits are surprisingly very superficial and merely trots out the common clichés we so often find written about India ie poverty, squalor and flith. His descriptions of the buses he travels have an element of familiarity and a sense of lingering sadness in it.
He excels in his description of the people he meets and manages to bring them to life in a vivid manner. He seems to be obsessed with sex as he repeatedly brings in situations, which has some reference to it. His account of the myriad forms of harassment that foreign woman tourist face in India is very well written and the description of Benaras as a sex -starved town and the reasons he gives are insightful and thought provoking.
As a book of travel, it unfortunately has not managed to bring out the? feel ? of the place as good writers are able to do. Even as a literary effort the book does not raise to expectations and there is no wonderful turn of words, somehow the book gives an impression of being a collection of articles which are disjointed and don?t actually coalesce as a book. The writer frequently mentions that he used to make notes when he conversed with people in trains, buses and it appears the scribbling has been reproduced without any editing.
Another grouse I have against the writer is that he has not covered the South well at all, a cursory mention about Bangalore in which he does not say anything which is not known to us. A town like Tiruppur, which is an economic success story, has been dismissed in less than two and half a pages, out of which two pages are devoted to his reasons for choosing a particular restaurant. I would have expected him to cover more of the effects of wealth on the locals.
He flatters to deceive and I would not recommend the book for its sheer superficiality and absence of any insight or depth in the book. However, as a first time effort, it is very commendable and I am sure that we will hear more of Pankaj Mishra in future. I will also look forward to his next book for which I hope will be a much better effort than this.