My tryst with the high mountains continues. After my recent long journeys in Ladakh, I am off again, now to Binsar in the lower regions of Kumaon. Its going to be a short, less than a week long trip, but am looking forward to this. I haven’t visited these parts of Himalayas and was longing to be there for a long time.
I am going to be there only for four days though. I would have liked to stretch it and visit nearby areas while I am there, but there is enough to do at home and there are some short trips to be done down south this winter.
India Travel Blog will continue to get updated while I am away, and of course there will be a report on Binsar once I am back.
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.
Delhi’s history is something that has drawn me into the city strongly, thanks to William Ddalrymple’s City of Djinns. Someday I hope to visit all those places he talks about and describes so well that I could feel the Delhi of the past unfolding as I read the book. A few images here, of what remains of Delhi’s past today.
Qutub Minar – one of the most imposing structures of Delhi is also one of the oldest surviving. Also see a photo essay on Qutub Minar
Nizamuddin Daraga – hidden behind a network of narrow lanes near Humayun’s Tomb, it is not easy to find out where the Darga is. A small hard-to-notice sign put up by ASI doesn’t help much either. When my rickshaw driver stopped at the main road near Darga, I looked around for the shrine, not finding any. It is easy to get lost many times during the short 5-minute walk from the main road to the Darga.
The library at Purana Kila is where Humayun died, falling down from a staircase. “The press release said it is an accident,” my friend who took me there told me, “but they say he was heavily under the influence of dope.” I had shot many more pictures from the leafy environs of the Kila, but unfortunately seem to have lost them somewhere.
Maharaja Ugrasen’s Baoli is right in the heart of the city, in Connaught Place but is not known to many. Surprisingly, though it is maintained by the ASI, it is not published in their list of monuments in Delhi. The Baoli is a very quiet place and is grand in size and depth.
The red fort is one well known monument the whole nation is familiar with. We have seen the images of its front gates many times on national television. Though it looks grand from the outside, the insides are hardly anything to talk about. Most of the structures inside are in poor shape and there are unsightly buildings built in the post Mughal period by the British and the Indian Army.
Delhi’s historical places are too many in number, and I know I haven’t even scratched the surface of Delhi here. To put into perspective, ASI’s website mentions of at least 174 monuments that they maintain in Delhi. There would be many more outside their dominion. Some day, I hope spend months in Delhi, exploring and understanding the past of Delhi through its monuments and bringing out more of city’s glory in images.
More about Delhi on paintedstork.com
* Photo Essay on Qutub Minar
* Walking trail – Old Delhi