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HAVE PEN, WILL TRAVEL
BY M J AKBAR |
 An enjoyable
travelogue — a compilation of articles describing the author’s
journeys to places all over the world. Many of these had originally
been published in Akbar’s columns. The author travels the world
extensively and, in his inimitable style, proceeds to write about it,
giving us a glimpse of places that we may never get to see. Aside from
visiting different continents like Africa and America, Akbar also
explores the furthest corners of India. His witty observations and
keen insight make the book engaging and informative at the same time.
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Buy Here
- Travelogue Bylines
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CHAPTER/REVIEW OF HAVE PEN, WILL
TRAVEL |
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Does M.J.
Akbar have a multiple personality disorder? There seem
to be two Akbars. One is an erudite and trenchant
commentator who's authored books on Nehru, India's
blood-splattered sectarian riots, and the spiritual
dimension of jihad. The other-as revealed in this
compilation of travel writing and reporting that
originally appeared in his column, Byline-comes through
as an irrepressible and irreverent fresher who, having
done a bunk from college, has embarked on a duniya
darshan with a backpack full of attitude and a
penetrating eye for detail that can skewer a sham at 20
paces. So which of these two is the real Akbar? The
answer of course is that they both are.
The duality is an optical illusion caused by the fact
that Akbar is that rarity among Indian intellectuals,
one who is not above occasionally letting his highbrow
down to play to the gallery and run the risk of not
being taken seriously by those who confuse gravity of
demeanour with gravitas of thought. In this picaresque
Globetrotter-nama, which spans five continents and a
tizzy of time zones, he swoops to conquer the reader
with the beguiling ease of a raconteur in a late-night
bar who tells you travellers' tales of faraway places
and people, the remoteness of distance banished by the
immediacy of the telling.
"Travel continues to broaden the mind and slim the
wallet," says Akbar as he takes you around the world and
back again, from civil war-ravaged Somalia in 2006
where, in a Mogadishu hospital full of bullet-torn
bodies, Dr Ali the White breaks into a Hindi film song
("May I add that he got the tune right!") to the genteel
grottiness of Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday bash at
Windsor Castle ("'Two, four, six, eight") Who do we
appreciate? The Queen! Does the British monarchy work
precisely because it is powerless? People cannot hate
anyone without power.Instead of power, it has influence
and it would be foolish to underestimate the depth of
this influence"). Sound sense. For Buckingham Palace, or
for 10 Janpath.
Flying across to the New World ("America from a window
in the sky is geometry decorated with electricity"),
Akbar discovers a continent that "smells of food and
stinks of indigestion. One half of the great American
economy sells food and the other half sells medicines
for its effects." Written in 1998, could this have been
a prescient glimpse into the future where what might be
called the sub-prime rib crisis would lead to a global
economic convulsion?
A visit to Florence leads to a reflection on art and
culture. "Are art and culture synonymous. Dante wrote
super poetry, but was he cultured? On the Prophet, Dante
is vicious. Can a bigot be cultured?"
Readers will discover their own favourite flavours in
this moveable feast with a difference. A minor quibble.
Wasn't it Dorothy Parker, and not Ogden Nash, who said
that men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses?
But what the heck. Even Homer can nod, particularly when
suffering transcontinental jet lag. All in all, his avid
readership will hope that MJ, as everyone calls him,
will long live up to his credo: have pen, will delight.
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Sources India Today - Globetrotter Nama by Jug Suraiya |
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Blood Brothers
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Blood Brothers by M J Akbar
(Last Published 2006)
Blood Brothers
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MJ Books & BB Reviews
Prayaag
My grandfather died while I was playing on his chest, that was
my first stroke of luck. My elder aunt, dark, wise, hunched
against her corner of the courtyard, promptly declared that his
soul, seething with miracles, had passed into me.
- READ
EXCERPTS & INTERVIEWS
TinderBox: The
Past and Future of Pakistan
by M.J. Akbar
PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS
PUBLISHERS INDIA
BOOK LAUNCH:
Tuesday, 11
January, 2011
Click
for Tinderbox Page
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