A long way Gone by Ishmael Beau

This book is Ishmael's memoirs as a boy soldier in the war ridden Sierra Leone [South Africa].

Browsing through the internet I got to know that this country is third lowest ranked in the human development index and seventh lowest in the human poverty index. Civil war went over for a decade starting from 1991 to 2000. During this war, different groups, the rebels, army kept fighting, for control over the country. The government was incompetent to handle the situation, and this led to military coup. The civil war continued until some peace was restored in 2001 when UN forces moved in and repressed the rebel army. War was over by 2002 and elections restored democracy by 2007. Over this course of time many thousands of innocent civilians were killed, forced to be homeless and flee for their lives.

Ishmael was born in 1980 in a village called Mogbwemo. He was 12 – 13 when he first experience war. Rebel army started attacking villages, killing indiscriminately and barbarically. He got separated from his family, never saw them again and was lost going from one village to another in hope of finding some shelter, food and more importantly a safe haven. He was with few of his friends initially, made new ones in course of time, which was some solace to him in the madness around.

Down Under

This book by Bill Bryson is about his travels in Australia [Down Under]. When I had read reviews on Bryson’s writings [online] & they hinted on his being a humorous style, I got tempted to order his books.


This book is a mix of author’s travels, many past anecdotes, general idea about life in Australia. Bryson seemed very fond of museums & national parks & have extensively seen as well as described them. Also he read quite a lot of books on Australia by local/non local authors, read local newspapers, and that became a source of many stories of past as well as present life in Australia. Was pretty interesting actually!

Shots in Ahmedabad..

In this trip to Ahmedabad [Jan 2010] I could not go for any sight seeing but I did click pictures of this n that.

Reaching on 17th Jan I had just missed Sankranti, the festival of kites which is one of the major festivals in Ahmedabad. But as can be seen from this pic, I didn't miss the kites much ;-)

This is one of the many pics of Peacock, I had taken during my evening walks in the cantt. You can find so many peacocks and peahens casually roaming around in the camp. They manage to scuttle away the moment you try getting near, and so all my shots are taken by zooming in on them. I also managed to get some pics of a dancing peacock, displaying its feathers. My persistence finally paid off well :-)

Wodehouse yet again

Took a breather from travelogues & read "The luck of the Bodkins" by Wodehouse. Even though the stories by Wodehouse seem more or less similar , they always manage to tickle my funny bone :-)

Eight Feet in Andes - Dervla Murphy

Ever since a friend of mine suggested me to pick one of Dervla Murphy's books, I have been on a look out for her books. But incidentally I couldn't find any in all the major bookstores in Pune, and finally I ordered couple of her books online. Normally I prefer buying books from a store, but my online book shopping experience was good enough and encouraged me to shop further from the comforts of my abode.

This book is about a trek by the author with her 10 year old daughter Rachel in Peru. They walked from Cajamarca to Cuzco, which lies along the lines of central Andes [approx 900 miles according to the book] in 3 months 10 days. This similar route was taken by the Spanish conquistadores [conquerors] sometime in 1533 when they conquered the Inca Empire in Peru.

Remembering the travels ... 2009 !

Well here's the last day of 2009 & tomorrow begins a brand New Year..2010..!!It has been a good year & I was able to make some wonderful trips as well.

Pic 1 : Trail in Coorg

Our first trip this year was to Coorg in Karnataka. It was our anniversary celebration trip & trekking on Tadiyandamol, walking on plantation trails, relishing Coorgi cuisine was exactly how I wanted to celebrate it :) This followed by meeting up friends in Bangalore, made this trip memorable :)

Turn in the South - V S Naipaul

Another book in the travelogue genre, and this one is about the author's travels and experiences in the American south.

As opposed to my expectations, this book started on a boring tone. Instead of focusing on travel, it was more about a family, what they are eating, where and how they stay, routine etc. This was how it began. Later on however it became apparent that it is a theme based travelogue, theme being: racism, slavery, post civil war situation of blacks/whites.

ahem :D

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star - Paul Theroux

After racking my brain over the cosmos I wanted to experiment with some new genre of books, and so I ended up picking up this travelogue. All these years I never tried reading any travel books, reason being I always felt that travel is something you should be doing and not something you sit at home & read about. And so I kept my distance from the travel magazines or books. But with this book my perspective has changed a bit. I still feel that travel is something you should be doing, but I guess it is something you can read about as well.


This book is a very light read, its like chatting with somebody who is narrating his travel experiences, where all he went, how did he travel, whom he met, some conversations he had, some history about the place, how it has changed since last he was there, how he felt about the place now. The route he has taken starts from London, through Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan & finally via Russia back to London. So basically he has covered many Asian & some European nations. He is actually retracing his path, taken some 30-40 years back.

Trip to Raigad Fort - 04Spet09

Well for this trip, the planning part is as memorable as the trip, so I might as well pen that down. With a long weekend coming up, we (myself n my teammates) wanted to plan an overnight trip to “some” place. Now why that “some” is quoted is because, we were as sure of going, as unsure of where we will be going. Our planning began with a backup plan - Aurangabad, stay at one of the teammates place & visit Ajanta Ellora. As people got into an adventurous mood, we decided instead of going for rafting followed by visit to again “some” place. But then people kept dilly dallying and changing their mind. One day they wanted to come n next day they were “not sure”. And hence the plan hanged till just 2 days before the weekend we were at the verge of dropping the idea of going “anywhere” at all. Finally half of us[5 out of the initial 10], mustered our enthusiasm again and a day before weekend fixed that “some” place to “Raigad”, booked vehicle n were all set to leave the next day. Phew :)