Travel Writing in India: Prospects and Pitfalls
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ts demise was predicted as far as back as the 1930s but it endured, and even in our day, despite the internet and Google Maps allowing us to access any part of the world virtually on our devices, travel writing will stay as the best window into other cultures, says a panel of travelogue writers.
Travel writing "is one of the most ancient forms of literature, predating the novel by thousands of years and a form that has appeared simultaneously and independently throughout the world", said writer William Dalrymple as he kicked off "The Travel Session", featuring legendary travel writer Colin Thubron, Anthony Sattin, and Gerard Russell among others, at the final day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on Monday.
Thubron, who has over half a century experience of travel to exotic and rarely-frequented (then) places across Europe and Asia after chronicling his first journey in "Mirror to Damascus" (1967) - the one such work on the Syrian capital in over a 100 years, contended that the end of travel writing was predicted in the 1930s, but "it refused to die".
Internet, Google Maps may have allowed people to virtually plot the entire globe and view from the comforts of one's home, but he maintained that "the feeling of being in the place is different to seeing it on the desktop" and expressed confidence that although different generations might approach travel differently, the impulse for adventure remained the same.
"One must dare to do something special, as it always yields into something great," said Thubron, whose other works include "Among the Russians" (1983), "Behind the Wall: A Journey through China" (1987), "The Lost Heart of Asia" (1994), "In Siberia" (1999), and "To a Mountain in Tibet" (2011).
British journalist and writer Sattin, who read from his book "The Pharaoh's Shadow: Travels in Ancient and Modern Egypt", a nuanced and evocative journey in time and space through the country's past to its conflicted present, said his experience showed him that the way ancient Egyptians lived thousands of years ago continues to define existence there even today.
Indian journalist Salil Tripathi, who has been to over 50 countries, said he likes looking at places "through their literature or their people or their history", while American writer and journalist Alex Shoumatoff noted how adventures can be inspired from the strangest of places.
Travel writing "is one of the most ancient forms of literature, predating the novel by thousands of years and a form that has appeared simultaneously and independently throughout the world", said writer William Dalrymple as he kicked off "The Travel Session", featuring legendary travel writer Colin Thubron, Anthony Sattin, and Gerard Russell among others, at the final day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on Monday.
Thubron, who has over half a century experience of travel to exotic and rarely-frequented (then) places across Europe and Asia after chronicling his first journey in "Mirror to Damascus" (1967) - the one such work on the Syrian capital in over a 100 years, contended that the end of travel writing was predicted in the 1930s, but "it refused to die".
Internet, Google Maps may have allowed people to virtually plot the entire globe and view from the comforts of one's home, but he maintained that "the feeling of being in the place is different to seeing it on the desktop" and expressed confidence that although different generations might approach travel differently, the impulse for adventure remained the same.
"One must dare to do something special, as it always yields into something great," said Thubron, whose other works include "Among the Russians" (1983), "Behind the Wall: A Journey through China" (1987), "The Lost Heart of Asia" (1994), "In Siberia" (1999), and "To a Mountain in Tibet" (2011).
British journalist and writer Sattin, who read from his book "The Pharaoh's Shadow: Travels in Ancient and Modern Egypt", a nuanced and evocative journey in time and space through the country's past to its conflicted present, said his experience showed him that the way ancient Egyptians lived thousands of years ago continues to define existence there even today.
Indian journalist Salil Tripathi, who has been to over 50 countries, said he likes looking at places "through their literature or their people or their history", while American writer and journalist Alex Shoumatoff noted how adventures can be inspired from the strangest of places.
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