Many topics are covered in journalist and travel writer Pallavi Aiyar’s latest book, a collection of essays titled He travels elsewhereAnd the only way I can tie them together in this review is to use the author’s own premise when I put the book together—that every experience in life is a journey in itself, making every person on this planet a traveler, whether they leave home or not.
In appearance, the topics Aiyar covers are books, illness, language, parenting, passport, reports, poetry, and grief, and each of these eight words is the title of an essay, and each topic, to my surprise (particularly on the question of poetry), is actually worth investigating in the way a travel writer examines an environment new to her: with some background research, an attitude of discovery, and an eye for the differences and commonalities among the ways of life that make the world so fascinating.
The opening essay, “Books,” begins with a question about why India’s English-speaking, English-reading population (of a certain age) is obsessed with the works of Enid Blyton, and builds from there to the giant question that has tormented our minds since the advent of digital media: Why do we read? “Disease” leads us to the land of cancer, a place with its own language, customs, narratives and myths. “Hair” is closely linked to “disease”, and not only is it associated with cancer, it plays a huge role in international trade. “Passport” is about the power of travel documents (and some complain about the powerlessness of Indian travel documents), “Pedagogy” compares the education system Aiyar grew up in with the systems her two children navigate now, and “Grief” is about what she went through when her mother died. “Reports” and “Language” are my favorites in the collection, because they are the most diverse in terms of ideas, anecdotes, and viewpoints—and parts of the latter are funny.
Readers who enjoy May’s travel books, e.g Smoke and mirrors and Punjabi parmesanWe were hoping to get another of the same kind and we were not disappointed He travels elsewhere For as much as Aiyar asserts that life experiences are just as visible as travel experiences, she also asserts, in almost every essay, that nothing expands the mind as much as travel—of the earthly kind. This means that the book is full of travel tales, which makes me wonder, if Aiyar had stayed in Delhi all her life, what kind of articles she would have written.
He travels elsewhere
Written by Pallavi Aiyar
calm
p. 204; 599 rupees
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