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Sunday, 4 August 2013

Travelogue of a Brit on Indian Roads: The Nanologues

“Where was the rulebook? Where was the Indian Highway Code that set down how drivers in India should deal with their infinitely pluralistic roads? Where was the law that ordained correct lane driving, overtaking rules, guidelines for the interaction of animal & machine, of the two, three, four and eight wheeled vehicles? Surely someone had to have sat down & created a manifesto by which all of India’s incredibly diverse road beings could live together in harmony?”

-         Vanessa Able, author of the Nanologues
Imagine a Brit  on Indian Roads; then imagine the said Brit to be on a mission to drive across the length & breadth of India; then imagine her to be a single white female; then imagine her to be ALL by herself; and the final…imagine that single, white, alone, backpacking Brit driving a Nano all over India!!

The fellow Indians who are reading this post must be shaking their head in exasperation & bemusement & a little amusement too. Why would you want to travel on Indian roads in a Nano?? An SUV is your go-to vehicle. But then all us fellow Indians will shake our heads & surmise just one thing – “firangs” (please read foreigners) are weird!! And so is their sense of travel. But we cannot deny that most of these said “firangs” actually KNOW how to travel, in a way that it becomes an experience of a lifetime for them.

So in 2010, Vanessa Able, author of this book, decided to go backpacking across the length & breadth of India & discover her inner Che Guevara in the land of “nirvana” & “diversity” or whatever “firangs” fantasise it to be. Her choice of vehicle was a Tata Nano, world’s cheapest car and her aim was to cover 10,000 kms in India using that car. So this is her route map:

Mumbai-Nangaon-Pune -Goa-Bengaluru-Kanya Kumari-Puducherry-Andhra Pradesh-Orissa-West Bengal-Bihar-Uttar Pradesh-Nainital (Uttarakhand)-Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)-Mcleodganj(HP)-Amritsar(Punjab)-Delhi-Rajasthan-Gujarat-MP-Mumbai!! WHEW!! Travel around India this is!!

I read about this book on HT’s Economic Berliner, The Mint’s Saturday edition, Lounge. Lounge that comes out every Saturday has this enviable section of book recommendations, which in my opinion is one of the best!! I read about this book there and a self-confessed road-trip freak that I am, I immediately bought it, to read up about the most enviable journey of the world in my lovely country, which I intend to do one day!!

So, Vanessa, bought a Nano; fair choice since she was backpacking & was obviously on a budget. She started her journey from Mumbai- & so the Nanologues followed through.

At 315 odd pages, the book is a super breezy read. Vanessa has painted the picture of her road travel so perfectly that I felt I was in her Nano travelling along with her; she lovingly calls her Nano, Abhilasha – to connect with her car on a more emotional level, as they were two bona-fide companions on this great journey. The book starts with her apparent shock at the colossal & complete chaos that Indian traffic sense & roads are to final realisation from all Indian drivers “madam, we are like this only” to finally her attempt & driving the Indian way (read honk horns even if not required, cut & overtake people as though your pants have caught fire, drive in wrong lanes, & by god ki kasam…dare you show patience!!) & then mastering of driving in India the very Indian way.

The book is out & out fun memoir of her travels; however, one thing largely loomed in my mind when I read the Nanologues. India is possibly the rarest combination of so much diversity in one country that the sheer magnitude of it overwhelms you. In one country you have the best of mountain ranges - Himalayas, an ethereal desert like Thar, an organised state like Gujarat, never ending green coastline of South India, the gorgeous backwaters of Kerela, the oh-so-lovely coffee plantations down South, the sandalwood jungle drive in Andhra that fills you with a life you could never know, the ancient monuments & relics that date back centuries, the soul-stirring tea plantations of East, the wonder of Madhya Pradesh, the enviable forest reserves, the party life of Goa, the urban charm of Mumbai, Delhi & Kolkata, the food of UP, the simplicity of Bihar, the chaos yet surreal spiritual charm of Benaras, Rishkesh & Haridwar, and last of all the gem of India – Ladakh. With so much of diversity, the author could not come up with some descriptions of the beauty of these places. Her descriptions of beauty were few & far between. Most of the book came out as more of a crib ride of Indian roads & traffic, which was positively funny, but after a point it felt like a journey from hell & hardly any fun at all, which I fail to agree with. The rapidness at which India changes its colour, people, habits, cuisine, culture, customs is a thing of discovery & actual “nirvana” that firangs keep talking about. Where was that? Agreed the author could have had a miserable time on Indian roads with potholes galore, but was she not prepared for it before embarking on the journey? Agreed, the Indian traffic sense is assaulting on the senses, but doesn’t the sheer magnitude of India make up for this.

As a travelogue, Nanologues is all about Indian Roads, bad traffic & driving sense (that I agree with), people trying to fleece, people too dumb to react to her urgency for directions or any other question, bad hotels, upset stomach due to over-spicy food and this goes on to an extent where I wanted to stop Vanessa & take over her car & take her some nicer spots instead. While I agree fully with all that she wrote, and NO- her intention is not to malign India & its countrymen at all, but is just an honest account of what she felt & saw; but the fact that in travelling across India all she could talk about was roads & traffic sense & Nano as a car only was quite underwhelming. You do not travel India & not talk about its vastness, its gorgeous & varying landscape that leaves you numb with amazement, and oh its awesomely finger-licking cuisine that changes face in every state of the country & emerges victorious in every state!! Where should I begin – Rajasthan’s spice laden food, to Gujarat’s sweet & sour food combo, to Maharashtra’s street foods, to the lovely coastal food – the Goan style fish curry & Kerala style fish curry both so different & yet so delicious, to Andhra’s Nawabi food & Lucknow’s Nawabi food- both born of same palette & yet so diverse, to Tamil Nadu’s simple, unassuming & soul-satisfying fare, to Kolkata’s mustard laden lovely fish curry, to Bihar’s simple & soul touching “litti-chokha”(steamed balls of whole wheat dipped in clarified butter & eaten with spicy aurbergine curry), sattu parathas & Bihari mutton (simple, spicy curry of mutton, ginger, whole garlic, cooked till tender), to UP’s simple dal-potato curry-roti fare!! Sky is actually the limit!! In fact as a traveller you can collect an array of wine to go with every cuisine & carry it with you to pair with food of every state (something I did in my Rajasthan road trip)…but it was quite underwhelming & sad that Vanessa could come up with none.

To be fair, Vanessa has criticised herself & her crib stories too, and has given words of appreciation as well, but as a traveller it was a bit underwhelming to see her embark on a journey of a lifetime & not explore these wondrous aspects of India!!

Still, I rate Nanalogues, as a good, fun, breezy read. It definitely made me think how Indian government is downright negligent towards building India as “the” backpacking destination of the World – which in turn will just help Indian Economy grow manifold without over-dependence on agriculture & IT sector; and our own callousness as Indians in not providing the best of hospitality for a foreign traveller despite all our big talk of “athithi devo bhav” (a guest is equal to God). Still a little more India in the book could have been so much better!!

TIP: Read it over a weekend. It will go zip-zap-zoom, like Vanessa in her canary yellow Nano!!

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