About The Author : Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu is a
self-professed travel enthusiast (her motto, “have money, will travel" is
almost respectable), fiercely independent, thirty -something, single, and
endowed with a wry sense of humor. A former travel and food columnist with Hindustan
Times, she has been regularly contributing articles to travels and airline
magazines and national dailies for over 15 years. She is on the book review
panel of The Tribune, having reviewed numerous human interest stories, with
travel and food being her preferred genres.
The Plot : It always helps having friends and relatives in the
right places , and Puneet, who traces her decent to the Arnauli family,
certainly has them. Her sister gets her a ticket, the Captain of the plane puts
her in Executive Cabin and so begins a journey that takes the reader on a tour
of people and their relationships; places, often taking the road less
travelled; and food.
Owing to a shoe string
budget she prefers staying with the people she knows, than at hotels. Trading
expertise with hospitality, she cooks Indian food for her hosts, though she
would as much love to check out the local stuff and beverage for which Europe
is famous.
Certain accounts like
the one about, ‘Goa' recreated in Germany, where "a certain suspicious
odour, reminiscent of evenings in and around Manali, pervaded the air,"
has a wistfulness about it.
Certain parts are
informative like the one about ‘Mitfahzentrale', a government-encouraged car
pool service for travelers, which takes her journey forward to
Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungry, Austria and France.
Certain descriptions
like when the author goes around exploring the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh,
and shares her agony of not being able to understand them, inspite of having
read a biography of the artist , is a good read. However her wry wit, wherein
she keeps reminding us that she is "over weight", is not something
that I could connect with, or rather make me smile (I hope imp not being too
harsh here).
Another aspect that I
could not seem to connect with was the different characters that pop
in and out of the journey - Anne Aunty, Moni, Kristen, Zina, Joszef, Eszter,
Sanjay, Gunjan, Kaushik, Georges. Certain dialogues, situation seemed too
personal to be listed in a book.
Now, if only the
author had not bound herself to those "cardinal travel rules" (you
will have to read the book to find out which), there would have been another
story! (I’m guessing here).I would definitely give it to her for having had the
courage to travel alone, however, since, she was travelling alone I was
expecting a little more from the book (call me a cynic here).
My
Opinion: All that said
and done, what would have taken a day to have read the book, dragged on for
three days. It was something what I would not have wanted to read, maybe because
of my liking for fiction and books that keep me engrossed. The entire book
seemed a little too fast, it felt like the author was in azury r had a certain
limit with the number of pages/ words that could be used. The tour through Europe
was the only one which was clear, the rest seemed like a blur, like a dream you
wouldn’t be able to recollect once you wake up.
The style of writing
is simple, however not one which leaves you wanting for more. What I liked was
the inclusion of pictures which did give a break from the reading (now I don’t know
whether that is good or bad). Also the cover of the book is striking yet simple
which lends it a second look for sure. And a small description in the index
about the places she has visited is also noteworthy.
My
rating: I would give it a
4/10
Credits
for information about the Author:
Image
courtesy: Google
