WAYWARD WANDERERS

Description

ABOUT THE BOOK

The first travel book covers destinations we have sought out in the last decade. The second one, the present volume, too covers the countries we have travelled to of late. It goes further back to my student days : the jeep ride through the Middle East, the hitch-hike through Europe while at St. Stephen’s, the visit to Cuba while at King’s and the trip to Allende’s Chile when I won the World Press Institute Fellowship during my initial years as a newspaperman.
Admittedly these do not cover the countries visited in as much detail as the ones I have gone to in the last ten years. But they do capture the flavour of my earlier travels, the mood, the ever-pervading hunger to reach out, to discover. Sumant is the protagonist of the two chapters “Jeep Excursion Through the Middle East” and “Castro’s Cuba and Allende’s Chile”. Sumant is the pseudonym of yours truly. The jeep trip took place soon after I completed my first year in St. Stephen’s (1965). I went on the Cuba trip in 1968 and the Chile one in 1973. These describe the countries as they appeared at that time. The other visits have taken place since 2013.
To capture the trips in the first volume, I have included their synopsis as presented by me to the various book clubs : the Sainik Farm, the Vasant Vihar and the Intellectual Book Club. And it has the reviews of people who took the trouble to analyse, assess the book.
The cover of the book depicts street art we came across on Graffiti Street in Sao Paulo. The back cover shows us, the Stephanians, who travelled to Europe; though three of us are there in the photograph, only two eventually went on the trip. The lady in the 1968 shot is Mrs. Biju Patnaik, Naveen Patnaik’s mom.
As in the past we would like to acknowledge the prompt and resourceful manner in which Farzana Haque of Wanderers has facilitated our trips to remote corners across the globe.
I thought of describing the trips in brief I took during the different phases of my life: England-Geneva student years, journalism days, and as an NGO activist. But then thought better of it.
Now to the current book : Come travel with me.