Travel facilitates the optimal discovery of the locale, the environs and the ethos of the places visited. It also results in imploration of one's self. It is indeed a quest for the real self beneath the multiplicity of trivia dominant in a quotidian existence. Vikram Seth, an Indian writer in English, undertook such an exploratory travel from his cozy place in Stanford to his roots in Delhi, through China, Tibet and Nepal. His sharp eye, occasionally marred by his poetic style, recreates the magic, the mystery and the misery of the places he visited. This article traces the explorations and the experiences of human warmth and emotional empathy felt by the author for his hosts and self-fulfillment.
In
some senses travel writing is about straddling
in commensurate worlds, of bridging gaps, of making
sense of the differences in culture. The writer's perception
is potential enough in travel writing. It is different
from any other genre: Imagination doesn't have enough
of freedom. It, rather, remains within the framework
of reality. As a genre, it has limited similarity with
biography or autobiography. In the later two genres
the primary focus is on the `life' itself. But in the
former `travel' forms the basis of the writer's perception.
Common elements, however, are truth and strict adherence
to it. All these genres are postmodern in character.
Travel
writing gives the reader a real `feel' of the writer's
perception of the places, people, culture, customs and
art of a particular place. The reader begins with the
writer's perception but grows with his own perception
and feeling. Thereby the field of referentiality grows
more and more. Thus the entire text of travel writing
is not closed; it is rather open-ended. Moreover, there
is no didactic or ideological base of travel writing;
no aestheticism but pleasure in it. |
