Keki N. Daruwalla, a poet and writer joined a team of car rallyists,
wildlife experts and photographers on a car trek
that covered the Himalayas from the Siachen glacier to Kibitho, the
eastern most point and has come out with this well researched fascinating
travel account. He gives a sweeping political history of the regions along with
several apocryphal stories and legends, He writes about the flora and the fauna
adding wry, friendly and stingingly wicked humour to his absorbing narrative. He
takes the readers to authentic source materials such as the Himalayan
Chronicles, 19th century travel literature, the 1885 Himalayan
Journals by Joseph D. Hooker and A
dictionary of Hinduism, Buddhist Monks and
Monasteries of India. He presents
the travel as an inward journey, as an education and an cherished experience. Ladakh
and Kashmier, Garhwal and Kumaon, Nepal and Sikkim,
Bhutan and the Eastern Himalayas each has stories to tell. Stories such
as how Claude White, the then British Political Officer stripped the Sikkimese
king of his powers resulting in the conflict between Sikkim
and Nepal.
Or how the Gurkhas lost no time in trying to erase and deface the history of Sikkim written
in the Peminogtchi Monastery by the Lamas. Running along the myths and legends
are the many strands of faith of the multicultural India and its porous borders. The
hallowed places of Badrinath, Arunachal, Pashupatinath temple
of Nepal and the impressive picture of
reclining Vishnu at Budhanilakanta Temple near Nepal leave a mark. The Buddhist
trail takes the team to Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha. Ashok Dilwali’s
pictures such as of the Cathedral of Kohima, mountains of Annapurna
and Kachanjunga are mesmerising. Interestingly, at the end, Keki N. Daruwalla
gives an imaginary description of the Himalayas
as they could have looked 50 million years ago.