Monisha Rajesh says she can remember the euphoria of the moment when the journey to India was fi nalised. The map of India, spread on her desk at the London offi ce of TIME magazine, had suffered serious mutilation, because, in all the excitement, she had dropped a big blob of blackberry compote on Bangalore! Taking a cue from the advertisement of an Indian airline which planned to connect 80 Indian cities with the rest of the world, she chalked out an itinerary that covered 80 Indian cities via one of the world’s largest railway network.
A friend’s friend, a professional photographer, happened to be heading to the same part of the globe around that time. He was called on board and christened Passepartout after a character in the Jules Verne novel that inspired the title of the book. None of the trips were booked online so that every train ticket could be collected in hand. The story of the four-month sojourn, ‘Around India in 80 Trains’, was released in India the other day. Of course, Monisha knows how to hook you onto a story, if this e-mail interview is any clue.
Your name gives me the feeling that I am talking to someone whose roots are in South India, if not in Kerala?
I am indeed South Indian. My mother’s family are from Hyderabad and my father’s are from Chennai.
What are your early memories of India?
Holidays were always quite fun and I remember Kwality ice cream tubs for Rs 3 and drinking bottles of Thumbs Up on Elliot’s beach with my grandparents. But when we actually moved to India, it wasn’t very pleasant. I was born and brought up in England and moved to Madras when I was nine. I was bullied at school for having an English accent, slapped by teachers if I asked questions in class and remember my parents being very unsettled at work. My older brother was sent to boarding school and I rarely saw him, so all round it was a really difficult time.
If not for this trip, when was your visit to India likely to take place?
I’d been to India four or five times before, but it was never for very long and it was normally for a family wedding in Hyderabad or Madras. I’d never really seen India as a tourist.
When did the book come into the picture? And was it 80 trains from the beginning or was it decided after the book came into the scene?
From the moment I decided to do the trip it was always going to be a book, and it was always going to be called ‘Around India in 80 Trains’, so it’s really satisfying to see it come to fruition.
What was it like connecting with the people of India, knowing that you belong here in one sense but cannot help being an outsider?
Not hard to be honest. That’s the one lovely thing about people here - particularly on the railways - they’re always very curious and keen to chat to you no matter where you go. Although I do resent the fact that they often highlight that I’m an NRI or ‘firang’ which is silly because as much as I’m English born and bred, I’m still Indian, I was raised very much aware of our roots, our language, our food, our history etc and I consider myself lucky to be able to straddle two cultures quite comfortably.
Did India disappoint you in any sense?
Yes, I grew very despondent with the commercialised aspect of spirituality and religion and felt that it had largely become a money-making affair. But you’ll have to read the book to get a better idea of what happened to me during that four months and why I came to that conclusion.
So is there a different perspective or insight that you have gained about train journeys in general?
Absolutely. Trains are not just a means of getting from A to B, they’re a lifeline to hundreds of millions of people and I think people take for granted quite how much they connect the country. I joined the Lifeline Express, the world’s first hospital train, which parks for four to five weeks at a time in rural areas in need of medical care and they invite patients on board to be operated on for polio deformations, cleft lips, cataracts and ENT issues. People were so dependent on the train and it was heart-breaking to see.
If you want to come back, what would that be for?
More travelling! While I covered a huge range of the country, most of the trips were quite short and I didn’t get to spend enough time in certain places. I’d love to see more of the north especially Leh and Ladakh.
If there is one detail or event that you would add to what has already gone into the book, what would that be?
I went along to a laughing yoga class in Mumbai when I was having a bit of a low point (missing home and feeling a bit miserable in general) and it was one of the most fun and wonderful things I did. And it worked, cheering me up instantly.
Can you tell us something about ‘Passepartout, the fellow traveller’?
Passepartout got the nickname from the character in ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. He was a friend of a friend who just happened to be going to southeast Asia at exactly the same time as I was planning my trip, so we met up, discussed it and he decided to come along with me. Once out here I then discovered that he considered himself a “devout atheist” and that’s when things began to get a little hairy...!
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