Book Review: Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored

Title: Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored 
Author: Rishi Kapoor & Meena Iyer

Publisher: Harper Collins India
Pages: 284  
Price: Rs 599
Genre:Autobiography / Films
Rating: 6/10
Format: e-book 

About the book [from the publisher's website]

 
Only, Rishi Kapoor was and is so much more. Few actors in Hindi cinema have had this sort of a career arc: from the gawky adolescent pining for his schoolteacher (Mera Naam Joker, 1970) to the naughty ninety-year-old (Kapoor & Sons, 2016), Rishi Kapoor has regaled audiences for close to fifty years. He won a National Award for his debut, became an overnight sensation with his first film as a leading man (Bobby, 1973), and carved a niche for himself with a string of romantic musical blockbusters in an era known for its angst-ridden films. He was the youth icon that is still the toast of the satellite TV circuit. The songs he lip-synced are the bread and butter of all radio stations even today. Then there was the second coming after a brief hiatus in the 1990s – as one of the finest actors in mainstream Hindi cinema with powerhouse performances in films like Do Dooni Chaar, D-Day, Agneepath and others. Characteristically candid, Rishi Kapoor brings Punjabi brio to the writing of Khullam Khulla. This is as up close and personal a biography as any fan could have hoped for. He writes about growing up in the shadow of a legendary father, skipping school to act in Mera Naam Joker, the workings of the musical hits of the era, an encounter with Dawood Ibrahim, his heroines (their working relationship, the gossip and the frisson that was sometimes real), his approach to his craft, his tryst with clinical depression, and more. A foreword by Ranbir Kapoor and a stirring afterword by Neetu Singh bookend the warmest, most dil se biography an Indian star has ever penned.


Thoughts: 

Bollywood biographies attract a lot of eyeballs and interest, especially if you are a Bollywood buff. Rishi Kapoor may not have been part of any path-breaking cinema but by virtue of being part of Bollywood’s supposed first family, his biography was anticipated to be interesting.  

As the book promises, Rishi Kapoor is candid about his life. He talks about growing up as Raj Kapoor’s son and how they were always allowed to drop in on their studio, how he dropped out of school to be part of the movie business, his debut, his years as the rich lover boy on the celluloid; he accepts that he never experimented, never prepared for any role, never went out of his way to work with anybody. He just kept on doing what he was offered. 

He writes “For decades, I had breezed through a steady line-up of romantic roles. It came so naturally to me that except for choosing a new jersey, there was little pre-shoot work to do.”

He is also unafraid of ruffling some feathers in the way he points out his grievances with colleagues like Amitabh Bachchan or Rajesh Khanna, or with friends like Rakesh Roshan and Jeetendra. 

The biggest charm of this book is its candor and openness, as if he is unafraid of being judged. Otherwise about his life or filmography, there isn’t any insight. 

The book also lacks a structure; though he writes about his father and grandfather, his brothers and sisters, his children, his wife, his movies; yet the stuff somehow does not seem organized in a logical way.

He has also written about his family. There is no new revelation apart from the fact that may be his daughter also nursed a desire to be an actress but let her ambitions bite the dust because her father was protective (?). Most fathers are protective. But to not let your daughter pursue her dreams is selfish. 

As a boyfriend, he was difficult and extremely possessive. Neetu Kapoor keeps on saying that she dreamt of having a family and not of stardom. But he admits that he never went out of his way to encourage her to pursue acting. As a father, he always remained an unapproachable guy like his dad used to be. He never questioned the kind of relationship a father and son must share. He did not bring his personal approach to the relationship.

The biggest revelation is to accept as Raj Kapoor’s son of the former’s affair with Nargis and Vyajantimala. And another thing note-worthy in the entire book is what Naseeruddin Shah told him once -

‘Why don’t actors, male and female, understand that hands have been given to us by God as a biological part of the human body? Why do they have to do all kinds of weird things with their hands when they don’t know what to do in a scene?’ 

It is not an exciting read, it is not unreadable either (I finished it in a day!). It is just an open account of Rishi Kapoor’s life. Do you get to know him as a person? Yes, you do. I don’t know if the expected outcome was positive but to me, he came across as snobbish, even selfish a lot many times.

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Book Review: Wise Enough To Be Foolish by Gauri Jayaram

Title: Wise Enough To Be Foolish

Author: Gauri Jayaram

Publisher: Jaico Books

Pages: 216  

Price: Rs 225

Genre: Fiction / Contemporary Fiction

Rating: 7/10

Format: Paperback

‘Wise Enough To Be Foolish’ is a ‘fictionalized memoir’ of its author Gauri Jayaram. Frankly speaking, almost always the first books are drawn from the author’s life experiences but this word ‘fictionalized memoir’ is a new one for me, and I am not complaining. She has altered a few details here and there to protect identities and make the story more interesting.

The tone of the story is personal, as if the author is narrating to you the 28 years of her life, making you privy to her secrets, thoughts and experiences. Her openness and honesty are refreshing for an autobiographical work that does not aspire to be sensational. She talks about her failures as well as her successes with equal ease and acceptance. She tells you about her many failed relationships and relationships that failed her.

Gauri takes us through her life right from the time she was born [in fact even before]. She tells us how her parents got married when her mother hadn’t even completed her degree. This line really tickled me: “a well-settled Punjabi boy from the armed forces (fauj) in hand was better than a degree in the bush.” From being an aimless teenager to a goal-oriented youth, from an insecure child to a confident young woman; Gauri’s life has several inspiring, coming-of-age moments.

Her story may not be overtly extraordinary but there are many things which will resonate with you if you are an Indian girl from middle class background. Gauri is a victim of ‘the Middle Child Syndrome’. Being the middle child among three siblings, she always craves for unconditional love from her parents. Aimless about her life in her teens, she finds inspiration to turn it around at the right time. Living on her own in Mumbai and Bangalore for higher education and career, combined with the exposure that big cities and travelling offers, helps her grow into a confident woman of the world. Sports always played an important role in her life and continues to do so. But there were too many relationships which did not work [I got confused after a while]. Gauri mentions at some point the alternative title for the book was ‘finding love’ [if I am not wrong] because eventually at the centre of everything was her unfulfilled need for unconditional love and acceptance, where she does not need to be anyone else but herself.

All these years, Gauri lets her heart decide the course of her life and not head. For the multi-faceted woman that she is now, she certainly achieved what she sought out for, with a bit of luck and faith in herself. I was thrilled how eventually everything fell into place and she found a perfect partner.

It was a light-hearted read. There are enough twists and turns which keeps the story going at a good pace, and the fact that it is autobiographical makes it more fascinating. I really liked the way she has added updates about people where she writes about them because in an autobiographical account, the reader wants to know what those people are doing now. It is unusual that she decides to do it at that point because it is usually done at the end of the book. But I liked it this way because the character is more relevant at that point. The author has also discussed social issues every now and then, which was relevant to the story like female infanticide, preference of boy child, stigma related to divorce, inter caste / religion marriage, child abuse, etc.

Moreover, the cover page is charming and perfect for the story. The title is also interesting and captures the essence of the story well.

So, the fact of the matter is it may not be a literary masterpiece but there are enough reasons to read it, if you like contemporary women fiction.

Here are a few lines quoted from the book:

 “But no day is like any other, no people are alike, and no lesson the same.”

 “And as time goes by, I’m becoming a bit like him, and he is becoming like me. It is a crazy type of love. Yet it is like a candle – that gives warmth and lasts longer..”

Note: Text in italics has been quoted from the book.

Review Book courtesy: Jaico Books

Image source: Jaico Books

Book Review: Nobody Can Love You More by Mayank Austen Soofi

Title: Nobody Can Love You More

Author: Mayank Austen Soofi

Publisher: Penguin Viking (Penguin India)

Pages: 240

Price: Rs 399

Genre: Non Fiction / Society / Anthropology

Rating: 10/10

Format: Hardbound

‘Nobody Can Love You More’ by Mayank Austen Soofi is an attempt to bring out the ordinariness in the extraordinary lives of the women of GB Road, the notorious red light area of Delhi. The author is gently probing, deeply observant and extremely patient in following the lives of sex workers of kotha (brothel) number teen sau (300) for three years. The best thing about this book is that though it keenly observes, it never judges; neither does it seeks pity for those women. It never interferes in your own inferences as a reader.

The author started going to GB Road to teach English to Sabir Bhai’s (a brothel owner) children. The children lost interest in English after a couple of months but Soofi found himself “fascinated by the ordinary aspects of the lives of people who, I think, have been shepherded by circumstances into living extraordinary lives.”

Kotha (brothel) number teen sau houses the malik, Sabir Bhai and five women – Sushma, Fatima, Phalak, Nighat and Sumaira (and Mamta and Roopa for some time). Soofi finds it easy to talk to the elderly Sushma who talks about her experiences, her distant past and her dreaded future, her ‘working hours’; and even cooks for him.

In the stories of these women, are the reflections of several others who are cooped up in the dingy brothels (80 of them) in 42 buildings of GB Road. There are chapters on the lives of sex workers, their children, the brothel owners, pimps, people connected to the sex workers or GB Road like shopkeepers below their brothels, priests and caretakers of a temple and a Sufi shrine, people who knew about the evolution of these brothels over the years, and so on. Each chapter starts with a black and white picture that sums it up.

Although the author is repulsed by the idea of eating food, drinking water or sharing meals there, because of the filth and lack of hygiene; yet he understands that he cannot expect them to open their hearts to him if he does not even agrees to share food. He admits that sometimes it was suffocating and depressing to be part of lives of those people; his own life was in complete contrast to their’s. 

The lives of sex workers are surprisingly ordinary. They cook, pray, raise children, fight among themselves, earn money and have ‘working’ hours. They do not behave differently anywhere except at the place of their trade and during their ‘business hours’. They are modest in places of worship, and like any other customer when in a shop.

It is interesting to find out about the evolution of kothas over the years. Earlier rich and royalty used to be their patrons. The nautch girls were associated with courtesy, etiquettes and sophistication. Things took a dramatic turn after independence, and more importantly after Emergency. Over the years, the condition of kothas deteriorated. Now the red-light districts are full of dingy, dirty, tiny cells where women sleep with strangers for a measly sum of Rs 100-200 and a constant fear of losing youth. Their mannerisms are crude and in-your-face.

What stood out for me was how their daily routines were effortlessly entangled with the conversations with Soofi. On one hand Sushma talks about her past, while she cooks dal for him and also wonders how he can have just boiled dal. Also, in the scene where Soofi is conversing with Roopa and Nighat, they behave like any other ‘shopkeeper’. When they get customers, they go with them, return in a couple of minutes, take the money, ask the customers to come back again, and join back the conversation with Soofi – all with matter-of-factness. 

It is also ironical how this section of society generates intense curiosity and yet behaved as if they do not exist. For example, the shopkeepers below these brothels say pointedly that they have nothing to do with those women; they never talk or wish each other on any occasion. Also, as Hasan Khurshid, the ‘legal’ journalist points out that they were told to never look up while crossing GB Road because it brought shame to be found looking at those women.

The cover page is impressive; and it suitably teases you with the hints of what lay inside the book. The image of cheap cosmetics and ornaments with the blurred image of a woman on the cover page, and a green locked door with jasmine gajra on the handle reeks of a brothel.  

Nobody Can Love You More is a remarkable work of non fiction that handles a sensitive subject delicately, while at the same time offers an intimate commentary about the lives of women of kotha number teen sau and their surroundings. 

Review Book courtesy: MySmartPrice Books - Get the Best Deal on Books!

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Book Review: Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald

Title: Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure

Author: Sarah Macdonald

Publisher: Bantam Books (Random House)

Pages: 320

Price: Rs 375

Genre: Non Fiction / Travel / Memoir

Rating: 8/10

Format: Paperback

I first read ‘Holy Cow’ in 2006 or 2007. It was interesting to look at Indian diversity and idiosyncrasies through the eyes of an outsider who wanted to make sense of the chaos. I loved it. But in order to appreciate this book, you must have the ability to laugh at India’s eccentricities. It is one of the very few books which I have re-read and enjoyed.

Sarah Macdonald, an Australian journalist, broadcaster and presenter, did not like India on her first visit and never wanted to return. But she returns to India after almost 11 years to be with her boyfriend Jonathan Haley. “Holy Cow” is more of a spiritual journey of the author which takes her through interesting experiences and people.

She writes right at the beginning: “India is Hotel California: you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

In her early days, her cynical self only finds the problems: widespread poverty, no respect for time, no sense of space and privacy, people gawking at western women, dirt and filth, the unbearable heat, poor medical standards, etc., etc. But soon she decides to make the best of her stay in India, since Jonathan was away most of the time for long duration owing to wok commitments. Sarah’s experiences were diverse: finding anything but peace in the spiritual ‘market’ of Rishikesh, brushes with death in the forms of earthquake and double-pneumonia, making sense of the Indian marriage scene (its close connection with family and honour), cleansing of mind and finding inner peace through Vipassana, learning about Sikhs and meeting a unique group of white Sikhs, grim realities of a paradise lost in Kashmir, experiencing Jewish rituals, getting blessed by Mata Amritanandamayi, meeting film stars, exploring Christianity at our Lady of Velangiri, to name a few.

There are several such books by western travellers / journalists / explorers but Sarah Macdonald has a distinguished voice. Some may find a few of her observations or comments offensive, but you must remember while reading this book, or any such book, that this is a personal journey of the author. In this particular book, we find Sarah Macdonald transform from an atheist to someone who begins to enjoy the expansive spiritual roads India offers, its many religions. At the end of it, she is humbled by India’s accommodating culture, affectionate people, diversity and experiences. At the end, if you really read it with an open mind, there is not a thing to offend. She sounds a little conceited in the beginning but I think, it is purely to bring out the contrast in her transformation from someone not amused by the situation in India to someone who had begun to enjoy the “organised chaos”. 

Few gems from the book:

About the Hindi she learnt from her teacher who scoffed at the use of street language:

When I thought I was asking a taxi driver to take me somewhere I was really saying, ‘Kind sir, would thou mind perhaps taking me on a journey to this shop and I would be offering you recompense of this many rupees to do so, thank you frightfully humbly.’ And I have been greeting filthy naked street urchins with, ‘Excuse me, o soul one, but I’m dreadfully sorry, I don’t appear to have any change, my most humble of apologies.’

These lines beautifully capture her thoughts on religion:

“I realise I don’t have to be a Christian who follows the church, or a Buddhist nun in robes, or a convert to Judaism or Islam or Sikhism. I can be a believer in something bigger than what I can touch. I can make a leap of faith to a higher power in a way that’s appropriate to my culture but not be imprisoned by it.”

She says about her trip to Pakistan:

“I feel like I’ve travelled between two divorced parents who are trying to outdo each other.”

About war against Afghanistan

This war has shattered my Great Australian Dream – the fantasy that I could be part of the world community with all its benefits but isolated enough to be safe and separate from its violence and brutality.”

And finally, her thoughts on India towards the end:

”India’s organised chaos has exuberance and optimism, a pride and a strong celebration of life. I truly love it. There’s no place like this home.”

It is an interesting book; and people who love to read about India, or Non Fiction in general or travel stories in particular will love it.

Review Book courtesy: MySmartPrice Books - Get the Best Deal on Books!

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Book Review: Return To India by Shoba Narayan

Title: Return To India

Author: Shoba Narayan

Publisher: Rain Tree (Rupa Publications)

Pages: 269

Price: Rs 395

Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir

Rating: 9/10

Format: Hardbound

I read Mint Lounge, mostly because I love reading about culture, books, movies, urban life, etc. So I have read and enjoyed Shoba Narayan’s columns. When I first came across this book, I was completely charmed by its cover page. It evokes nostalgia. I noticed the author and the subject of the book, much later. And then, I just had to read it. Thanks to Blogadda, I did not have to wait for too long.

In ‘Return to India’, Shoba Narayan writes about her journey from being a young girl chasing American dream and better opportunities, to a mother caught in an emotional quagmire of how to provide the best of both countries (India and America) to her children. In the author’s words, ‘immigrant dilemma is at the heart of the book’.

The book begins with her pressing desire to escape from India and its many problems, to chase better opportunities in America, to live a better life and to become whatever she chooses to become. She had romantic notions about life and opportunities in America. And the book eventually tells us, they weren’t unfounded. Shoba achieves much more than she ever dreamt of and in fields she would have never explored in India.

However, the book is not so much about whether she gets the kind of opportunities she dreams of, rather it is about finding one’s identity. In that way, it also reminded me about ‘the Namesake’ by Jhumpa Lahiri. When she talks about her younger self, cajoling and convincing her parents and family to let her go abroad, she could be anyone of us. It mirrors the life of so many young people who leave their homes for education and better opportunities, whether for a different city or a different country [as she also mentions in the Prologue]. The angst of a parent is the same. The underlying fear that the child would never return, is the same.

America never fails her, with its wonderful people, myriad of opportunities, and a great lifestyle. For the 15 years of her life in America, first single and later married, she is never bothered by the weighty questions of identity and roots, culture and family. Only when she becomes a mother, she dreams of providing her daughter with the same kind of loving environment, familiar surroundings, loving grandparents, fussing relatives, as she had experienced while growing up. In India, people go out of their way to help relatives and friends even if it meant inconvenience for them. That is how we are raised and that is how we become.

Though she considered herself modern and adventurous, Shoba surprises herself by agreeing for arranged marriage. And later, as a mother, she is always consumed by thoughts of how to keep her children rooted in Indian culture while living in America. Life comes a full circle for her when she feels a similar kind of angst like her mother on the question of whether she would be okay if her daughter chooses to marry an American. She discovers that actually under the surface, she was quite traditional.

I loved the book. The author has a fresh voice, and her writing style is witty, particularly in the first half. She is a natural writer and draws the reader to the story well, never losing his attention. Although I did find the part on her dilemma of returning to India a bit long drawn but may be it actually was. Such decisions are not easy. For quite a long time, she goes back and forth on her decision, even till the last moment. The various conversations are interesting. Towards the first half of the book, she is particularly charming, adventurous and exciting, while toward the ending, perhaps because of the dilemma she was in, there is restlessness.

But all said and done, it is a fabulous book. There is something to which every reader would relate to whether it is the dreamy-eyed young girl or dynamic woman chasing opportunities, young students leaving home for education or those in 20s-and early 30s driven by ambition and passion, angst of a mother or the many challenges of parenthood!

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Book Review: The Green Room by Wendell Rodricks

Title: The Green Room

Author: Wendell Rodricks
Publisher: Rain Tree (Rupa Publications)
Pages: 356
Price: Rs 595
Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir / Autobiography
Rating: 10/10

Format: Hardbound

At the onset, ‘The Green Room’ stands out because of its gorgeous cover page – a black and white picture of Malaika Arora Khan in Wendell Rodricks’ famous mussel top, and the yellow colour spine.

‘The Green Room’ is a personal memoir by Wendell Rodricks about his life, his many passions and inevitably, the fashion industry, when he is completing 25 years of being in the business. If you think this book will be full of fashion jargons and about a rich lifestyle, you cannot be more wrong. This book is about a person who is driven by his passions, and who rose above his humble beginnings to realize his dreams. It is about a person who has lived his life well, who is content in what it has to offer and who makes the best of the opportunities, always eager to learn.

In ‘The Green Room’, Wendell Rodricks sets the pace with the ambience and feel of a green room, which is essentially the backstage room during fashion shows where models get ready. The early chapters are about his family tree and its roots in Goa, his humble early life in a glorified chawl at Mahim (Bombay), graduating from Dadar Catering College in pursuit of a glamorous career in hospitality, working as summer trainee at Taj Mahal Hotel and starting his professional life at Centaur Hotel (Santa Cruz, Bombay). He moves to Muscat for better opportunities and money to support his family income.

Muscat, in retrospect, had a far reaching impact on his life. He met his love and long time partner Jerome in Muscat, and with his support, changed his career track and went on to pursue fashion. Wendell Rodricks studied fashion in Los Angeles and later in ‘the fashion capital of the world’, Paris.

The book chronicles Wendell’s journey through the years – his ordinary early life, returning back to India to flag off his career in fashion (and ‘put India in his clothes’), teaching fashion students at SNDT, Mumbai (as he would say, he was “born to teach, to guide, to mentor”), his stint at the prestigious Garden Silk Mills, his First show ‘The Premier Collection’ for Glitterati, international acclaims, some stand-out shoots which made him famous, his articles for a myriad of publications and different subjects, setting base in his beloved Goa putting his promising career at stake, his fascination for Goa and its culture, stint at FIT, association with the first Lakme India Fashion Week, his path breaking work with Braille in fashion (the Visionnaire collection), involvement with environment conservation, his brush with politicians and politics while at IFFI, legalizing 21 years old relationship with Jerome by signing PACS, promoting Goan culture and Goa artists, researching Pano Bhaju (the old Goa costume), his extensive, enviable trips around the globe and many such important events and engaging snippets of his life.

He talks extensively about his shows, inspirations for clothes, how a designer works, the making of a fashion show, behind the curtains incidents, and yet it is never boring or repetitive.

In the early chapters, he also highlights the things which reflect the early indications of a designer’s eye, for example, the detailing of his aunt’s dresses, the sketches he made while in Muscat, the spectacle that stayed with him from childhood which he would later recreate in his clothes or shows.

He has kept the book delightfully above any controversies or scandals of the fashion world. He is also quite matter-of-fact about being gay. He handles it sensitively, and points out that while people look at the sexual element of gay love, for him it was just a celebration of love. 

He is a natural storyteller and a gifted writer; picking anecdotes and events, and relating them with the same gusto and detail as they would have occurred.

He is often funny.

“One day, Mr D told me to go to Salalah. ‘By buffalo,’he said. ‘I have booked it!’ He was joking, I hoped.

The Buffalo turned out to be an old World War II aircraft …..”

“I would not do another film again even if they dragged me by hair, I decided. Seven years later, however, I was happily on the sets of Madhur Bhandarkar’s film Fashion.”

“There were three vanity vans in the lot where film was being shot. On one was a sheet of paper that said ‘Priyankaji’. The next said ‘Kanganaji’. The third – yikes – ‘Wendellji’!”

He is full of wisdom.

“There would always be people with less or more, I figured, and there is no point in comparison. Even now, I am always content and hold to the belief that the best things in life are free. The stars in the sky, the monsoon rain, the pleasures of a walk on the beach …”

“I sat later on a parapet, over the bridge under which Princess Diana

 would die so tragically a few years later, looking at the Eiffel Tower with tear-blurred eyes. Madame Saint Laurent was right – I had to put India into my clothes. I needed to go back to my country.”

He is amusing.

“I watched in horror as she came hopping down the ramp with mincing geisha steps. What the hell was wrong? Then I saw it. The dimwit had put both her legs into one palazzo leg. And then, horror of horrors, because the other leg was dragging on the floor, she had picked it up delicately to hold like a sari pallu or dupatta. The other models grinned and zoomed past her as Madam Mannequin continued to hobble on the ramp.”

He fittingly describes ‘Fashion’ as “that magical world of youth, colour, beauty, glamour, exotic travel, luxury, passion, ambition, corruption, intoxication, scandal….”

The most extraordinary thing about Wendell Rodricks is his relentless pursuit of knowledge, his passion for life and childlike enthusiasm for new things. His passion for fashion, traveling, food, Goa, culture, history, heritage, art and music; and the love and warmth with which he talks about his partner, are hard to miss. His enthusiasm for life is infectious and inspiring.            

He comes across as a prolific personality, and a fitting prodigal son of Goa.  He heaps praises on people who believed in him and supported him in different phases of his career, but most of all, his partner, who encouraged him and believed in his dreams.

At some point in the book, I stopped evaluating the book and style, and got deeply interested in him as his person and his life. This book is for everyone because simply put, it is about a person who accomplishes so much despite his modest beginnings.

P.S. At the end, my head was spinning with the information on all the traveling he has done. He has visited a mind-boggling 269 countries and 965 cities (at the time this book was being written).

Read Excerpts from Wendell Rodricks' The Green Room

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The Liquid Refuses To Ignite by Dave Besseling

Title: The Liquid Refuses To Ignite
Author: Dave Besseling
Publisher: Hachette India
Pages: 336
Price: Rs 395
Genre: Non Fiction / Travel / Memoir
Rating: 7/10

Our expectations from a book are different just as our motivations to read a book are. For me, a travel book offers an opportunity to experience the unknown, meet new people and explore new places, while also relishing the stereotypes of familiar territories sometimes. Travel books are interesting on many levels.

I was reluctant to start this book for a while. The cover page, the illustrations, the back cover, were not giving away much. I have this fear of not liking a book after starting it, because I do not like to abandon a book midway.

Honestly speaking, I liked the book in parts. I liked the parts where the author provides insights on the places, makes witty analysis on certain socio-cultural aspects, pursues his spiritual curiosity, and shares interesting experiences. But the parts which were replete with drugs and booze had nothing much to offer or entertain or enlighten (and those run for quite a few pages)! May be those were the times of self discovery or indulgence for the author, but for readers like me, it does not offer much.

The author is well-travelled. He is not running away from anything but travelling has become a way of life for him. He gets an itch to move on after he spends some time in a place. Though in later pages he also shares his fear of ending up lonely and aimless at forty!
This book captures the author's experiences in Varanasi, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Prague, Kathmandu, Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang, Manali, Kashmir, Malavalli, Delhi, which are interesting and diverse; but not necessarily related to the place. From attaining enlightenment while sipping a glass of lassi to discussing the technique for garbage disposal with fellow American Renee in Varanasi; from exploring his potential as an artist in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Berlin to seeking spirituality in Meditation Retreat at Chiang Mai, Thailand; from missing the 'action' in Kashmir to discovering the hash business in Manali; from analysing the types of gawkers to questioning the life of a three year old lama who 'would have no childhood, no adolescence and no choice'- this book offers many such interesting experiences and thoughts.