So why is it I FEEL like a winner?

I think when you travel to another country (or even another region within your own) you develop a special relationship with that place, don’t you? PwP has done that for me.

1. Because when I get appeals from Heifer International, I remember the modest beginnings of Passports With Purpose, when I was not yet an official travel blogger, so I could only contribute personally, not participate. But I was happy to contribute because Heifer is such a terrific organization, and I was blown away by what the community of travel bloggers had undertaken. How mind boggling that they could raise $7,500.

2. Because every time I think of Cambodia, a place I fell in love with when I visited,  I see in my minds’ eye a school that I helped to build (if you don’t want to get a lump in your throat, don’t click that link, from Michelle’s blog). That year the effort DOUBLED its goal of $14,000 to raise $30,000.

3.Although I’ve never been to India, I was part of an effort that enabled people to live in solid houses because Passports with Purpose, in its third year busted right through its goal of $50,000  and raised $64,000 to build a whole village. (Beth wrote about her trip to watch the building) A part of India will always be a part of me.

4. Because now I know that kids in  villages somewhere in Zambia will have access to books in TWO new libraries, because once again, bloggers from around the world and YOU, the readers of travel blogs, were so generous that instead of raising $80,000, PwP raised nearly $90,000.  I’ve never been to Africa, but I am now connected to Zambia.

5. Because each year, Passport with Purpose has introduced me to

• new-to-me charitable organizations, like this year’s Room to Read;
• enabled me to form closer ties with sponsors I love;
• made me part of a team of incredible writers with interests similar to mine.

Yep! I’m definitely a winner.

But some people contributed their $10 and walked off with some sensational prizes.  They are winners AND Winners with a capitol W.

I don’t know who all the winners are, but I do have the names of those who won the prizes I sponsored.

I do not yet have permission to use the name of the people who won the New Orleans 3-night stay at Hotel Monteleone. (They possibly are around the world in another time zone and we just have not connected yet).

But I will put them into this post as soon as I get them.  Meanwhile, if you’re checking to see if YOU won a prize from another blogger, check your e-mail messages–and be sure to check the spam filter, too. Not there? That’s okay–trust me, you’re still a winner.

Hotel Monteleone

Justin Lindblad of Willing Foot will travel to New Orleans for a three-night stay at the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Congratulations to Justin and thanks again to the wonderful Hotel Monteleone.

Interlink Books

Winner: Caitlin Fitzsimmons,  writes a wide-ranging travel blog at Roaming Tales (“Travels on Planet Earth” –see! I said it was wide-ranging).  Caitlin’s $300 book library from Interlink Books should fuel her future travels. Congratulations, Caitlin and thanks again to wonderful Interlink.

MacMillan Audio Books

Winner: Monique Rubin, a runner, ex-pat and mother, Mo  writes about her travel at Mo Travels.  She’ll surely enjoy listening to some audio books as she travels, thanks to the generous prize offered by MacMillan Audio Books. Congratulations Mo and thanks again to MacMillan, who have provided me with some great travel-inspiring novels.

You’re probably glad that I’m going to shut up about Passports With Purpose (until next year) and stop nagging you to donate. But I do have one more favor to ask.

Please, when you have a chance, utilize the products and services of our sponsors. And tell them thanks while you’re on line some time.

Sponsors from A Traveler’s Library:

• Hotel Monteleone
• Interlink Books
• MacMillan Audiobooks

The Heavy Hitters Who Underwrote the Whole Shebang this year:

•  RTW with Us (Platinum Sponsor)
•  Traveller’s Point (Silver Sponsor)
• HomeAway (Bronze Sponsor)

I can’t begin to express my awe and admiration at what Pam, Beth, Debbie, and Michelle have accomplished over the past four years. You go girls! What’s next? buy a small country??

Whatever it is, A Traveler’s Library is IN.

So, tell us–are you a winner, or a Winner? And if you’re a Winner–what goodies did you take home?

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Holly Tucker

Books: Recommendations by Holly Tucker

Whenever I interview an author, I ask for his or her favorite books to influence travel.  Here are suggestions from Holly Tucker, author of Blood Work for books about India to add to the travel library.

She said, “I’m fascinated anything to do with India.”

“My interest in India probably has more to do with the fact that my best friend grew up in Mumbai.  Her birthday is November 1 and mine is November 3, the same year. I still marvel at how two little girls could have been born nearly half a planet away and still became such close friends.  I’ve had a chance to travel twice to India with her family.  The second time was for a wedding in Bangalore. Books, both fiction and nonfiction, help me understand more about what I experienced there and, always, make me hopeful that there will be a third trip…if not more!”

The most recent books for travelers to India that she has read are

Dreaming in Hindi by Catherine Russell Rich

The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa (which is an amazing, but devastating read)

and Jumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake.

Read an interview with Holly Tucker about her book , Blood Work: A Tale of Medince and Murder in the Scientific Revolution.

Here at A Traveler’s Library, we have discussed many other books set in India.

The Writerly Life by R.K.Narayan, ed. by S. Krishnan

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

6 Favorites of Shelley Seale, plus her own The Weight of Silence

City of Djinns by William Dalrymple

Do you have other books about India that you would add to the list for travel libraries?

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

Congratulations to Susan Johnston, writer of a blog for writers called The Urban Muse, for winning the YakPak student backpack that was part of our Christmas Giveaway. If you’re disappointed, stick around, we have another YakPak to give away in January.

Huge thanks to YakPak for sharing one of their indestructible bags for readers of A Traveler’s Library.  Take a look at their colorful web site, and check them out on Facebook, too.  And thanks to everybody who entered the contest.

Hotel Monteleone

And thanks to the Passports With Purpose fund raiser for the purpose of building a village in India, Jessica Spiegel, blogger at Why Go Italy Guide, will be going to an Italian-family owned hotel in New Orleans, the wonderful Hotel Monteleone. Here’s a preview of what she’l enjoy at the Literary Landmark Hotel.

Sun C brand of Los Caballeros

AND Laura L. C. will be rounding up her cowboy gear for a trip to Wickenburg Arizona, compliments of Passports With Purpose (and thanks to the generosity of the Rancho de los Caballeros.) You can read about Ken’s and My experience at the ranch. Huge thanks to everyone who donated and helped bust right through the $50,000 goal to over $58,000. To keep track of the progress of the village that YOU built, and the lives you have changed, tune in to Passports With Purpose now and again. Thanks to the Five Cupcakes (aka Meg, Beth, Pam, Debbie, and Michelle) who organized and made it work.  Thanks to the major sponsors who put up the front money–lots of it. And hugs and kisses to the two terrific properties who let me host outstanding prizes–Hotel Monteleone and Rancho de los Caballeros, you’re da bomb!

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Building Lafti Houses

On my way home from shopping today, I heard an NPR segment on Marketplace about how giving to charity makes you feel as good as chocolate or sex. No kidding! Giving trips the same chemicals in your brain and gives you a glow.

And I gotta tell you that my participation in Passports with Purpose has been a real high. I hope that you will partake of this totally helpful feel-good opportunity, too.

Think how great you’ll feel to know that you have helped build a house in India through the charitable organization LAFTI, which strives to give independence to the poorest of the poor. If you have any doubts, think about what it would be like to live in this house, the normal housing for the Dalit, and click on the picture to read about the rough times they are having right now.

A Dalit family home before the new houses are built.

This is Why I’m Glowing

1.When I heard about travel bloggers using their travel contacts to round up prizes to be raffled for a good cause, I thought, “Now that’s a great example of the power of blogging.”

2. When I called Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, they quickly donated a two-night stay, plus breakfast and drinks in the famous Carousel Bar. And when I brazenly asked the manager of Rancho de Los Caballeros in Wickenburg, who had just hosted Ken and me for a weekend stay, if they would also like to donate to PWP, they volunteered a 3-night stay worth $1500.

I thought, “That’s the way a travel writer’ and her contacts are supposed to help each other out.”

3. When I first posted about this year’s efforts to build a village in India, one of my readers left the following comment:

What a worthwhile project. I had not heard of PwP or LAFTI before, but after reading up about both I put a note about (and a clickable image link to) PwP’s fundraiser in my blog’s sidebar. Thank you for blogging about this, pen4hire! Danielle, from Romantic Armchair Traveler.

She not only thanked me, but she put the PwP widget on her blog. And I thought, “Now that’s the way social networking is supposed to work.”

4. I sent e-mail blasts to friends and family members about the great prizes in Passports with Purpose.  A fellow women journalist offered to write about Passports with Purpose on her blog. When I thanked her, Linda Radke said, “It’s a small contribution to a worthwhile cause.” She has a fast growing publishing business in Phoenix, Arizona, and you can see her work at Five Star Publications.

I thought, “When you have a good cause, you just have to let people know about it, and that’s what networking is all about.”

So I’m letting you know about Passports With a Purpose one more time.  The deadline is Monday, December 13, midnight on the west coast of the U.S.  You put down a $10 bid on however many travel goodies you have your eye one, and when the drawing is done, you’ve won. Yes, everybody wins, because even if you don’t take home my recommended prizes of a two-night stay in New Orleans at the great Hotel Monteleone or a 3 night stay in Wickenburg at the luxurious Rancho de los Caballeros , you will have that Passports with Purpose GLOW.

P.S. Just keep your cotton-pickin’ hands off that Norway cruise, because although I’m ineligible to bid on the New Orleans and Wickenburg stays, I AM going to win the Norway cruise..or maybe the stay at Kimpton, or the one at Omni, or maybe Homewood Suites, or Home Away. Of course if I win the Nova Scotia B & B, I’ll have to go to Nova Scotia, but that’s a GOOD thing.

By the time you read this, I believe the original $50,000 goal will have been met, but why not build a few more houses for a few more families?  Why stop at only 25 families? Get glowing.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

GIFTS TO ORGANIZATIONS

Are you IN?? Click on image to bid on travel prizes.

PASSPORT WITH PURPOSE/LAFTI

DEADLINE DECEMBER 13. Time is running out. You can donate $10 to LAFTI in India through the Passport With Purpose web site, for each chance you want on a pile of fantastic travel prizes. And you can get creative and contribute  $10 in another person’s name as a gift to them. The drawing is on December 17, so if its a Christmas present you can either tell them A) Look what I won just for you; or B) Look how you are helping build a home for a person in India.

Here’s where to find a list of all the terrific Passports With a Purpose travel bloggers. They spread the word so YOU can make it happen. Many thanks to Peter Carey, adventurer and photographer, and keeper of a beautiful web site for this PwP list of bloggers and their prizes.

LAFTI is the Indian organization that the donations go to, and they operate in such a wonderful way, that I can’t possible explain it as well as this video.

The only problem is how to choose:

• A $1500 handbag?
• A zeppelin ride?
• 3 days at a luxury guest Ranch?
• An airplane ticket to anywhere in the United States?
• A cruise in Norway? (Hands off! That one’s for ME)
• 2 nights in New Orleans?
• And much more.

HEIFER INTERNATIONAL

When you donate to Heifer, you may choose the life-sustaining animal (or group of animals) that will go to a family in a developing country. Besides, didn’t you always want to tell your sister, “I got you a goat for Christmas”? Or give your busy brother bees? And Heifer will send a creative print or e-card announcing the gift of any amount. Or how about giving a very special travel gift?? Go  on a study tour.  Read more about Heifer’s travel and books.

COMMUNITY FOOD BANK

1 in 6 Americans, including 1 in 4 children is at risk because of insufficient nutrition. You can’t help everyone, but you can help one family for a year. Tucson Community Food Bank, started in 1976, is one of the pioneers in a movement that now can be found in most every community.  Besides giving bags of food to the needy, they provide a low-cost shopping store, have a gleaning program, and a community garden.  I’m sure you can find a food bank near you, or go to Feed America and help share the word, by giving a donation in the name of a gift recipient. Travel Gift Idea: Give someone a ticket to the January 29th Mardi Gras in Tucson. $100.

PRODUCTS THAT GIVE

DOY BAGS

Fruit Bag from Doy

I’ve talked about Doy Bags before, because I absolutely love them so much that one year I bought them for every female on my Christmas list, from one year old to–forty-something.  These bags

• Recycle material
• Provide  jobs to 500 women
• Are fair trade items
• Cut emissions by transporting by ship rather than airplane as much as possible.
• Are practical and durable.

Do yourself a favor and check the varied and colorful product list at their website. Great for travel, they offer Purses, shopping bags, wallets, backpacks,  and even jewelry–all from recycled containers and magazines. And if you can engage in some virtual travel to the Philipines by helping this enterprise.

TASSA TAG–cloth luggage tag

5 Tassa Tags

Order by phone, e-mail or PayPal

Price: $12.00 each, including sales tax (shipping extra–see web site)

TassaTags are fun, bright, hand-woven, cotton luggage tags that help you spot your luggage more easily when you travel.  I wanted one as soon as I saw them.

Women at the Regina Center in Nongkhai, Thailand produce the tags. The Center  provides education and income generating skills and opportunities for women. All proceeds from sales are returned to the producers. The project enables women to stay in their villages and keep their children in school, which are two major strategies in reducing sex trafficking. Now don’t stop reading, please. (I recently read a terrific book by mystery writer Nevada Barr that was harder to take than her knock-down-drag-em-out fights, because it was about child prostitution.)

And this gift helps an NGO called ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Child Trafficking), a non-profit children’s rights organization whose mission is to protect all children from commercial sexual exploitation. The tags do more than just raise money and give work to women in Thailand. Take a look at the Tassa site.

Books for Travelers (Music Road)

Music Gifts (Music Road)

Gifts for Travelers (What a Trip)

10 Perfect Gifts for Travelers Who Read With DISCOUNTS (A Travelers Library)

Do you look for gifts that give?  Share some of your favorites here with us. Thanks.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

A Bit of Romance on the Road?

Destination: India

Book: Peep Peep Don’t Sleep
by Ajay Jain

A GUEST POST by Dr. Jessie Voigts

Having a sense of humor while traveling is one of the surest ways to enjoy life and all
the riches it has to offer. One of my new favorite books is a hilarious photo journal
from India, called Peep Peep Don’t Sleep. And as we all know, reading while traveling isn’t limited to books – it can be signs, t-shirts, pamphlets, and more.

Written and photographed by Ajay Jain, this book is an inside look at culture, humor, travel, and the intricacies of language. We often read this with our 8-year old daughter, and laugh together. It is a book rich in culture and language, and so very funny. We were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Ajay about his book, traveling on the road, smiling, and more. Here’s what he had to say…

Wandering Educators:  Please tell us about your book, Peep Peep Don’t Sleep

Ajay Jain: Put simply, Peep Peep Don’t Sleep is a collection of funny road signs and advertisements that travellers can spot in India. In fact, the title of the book comes from one of these signs. Most of these are from the Indian Himalayas.

What prompted me to come up with such a book? We all notice and get entertained by road signs when we travel, but rarely have these been the subject of any books or even magazine features. Especially since most of us don’t travel enough to see all the different signs literally scattered all over.

Being a travel writer and photographer, I took this challenge upon myself. I had no idea how many interesting road signs existed, or what it would entail capturing all of them. If I didn’t get enough, the book would not happen. I had only one choice: hit the road like an explorer into unchartered territory. And be on the job till I achieved my objective. It took a year and over 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) of driving but it all came together in the end.
The inspiration was both providing an entertaining read, as well as creating an archive of these signs. They have a value today because they exist; the collection would be invaluable tomorrow when these are long gone.

Getting philosophical on the road

What was I looking for? Messages for drivers, advertisements and public notices – anything that would entertain and say something about the place and its people. It would be travelogue of a different kind. And were they a discovery! The ones on Indian highways are in a zone of their own. They shower you with words of wisdom, keep your mind sharp as you unravel their cryptic messages, tickle your imagination, amuse you and entertain you. In public interest, they lend a hand to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Since journeys are meant to be a pleasure, they remind you to ‘Smile Please.’ This is the expression this book wants to see on its readers.

No Photographing, Tourist!

WE:  What is it about road signs, language, and cultural assumptions?!

AJ: Different signs reflect different aspects. For example, many of these signs are put up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a division of the Indian Army responsible for construction and maintenance of roads along India’s international borders. Thought up by the engineers on the site, one only wonders why they put such signs up. Was it their attempt at cheeky humour? Was it a lesser grasp of the English language that makes them sound like this? Likewise, many of the shop signs and advertisements show an earnest effort to attract customers even if one flounders with the language.

To read more of the interview, please visit the book review section of Wandering Educators.

Jessie Voigts

Dr. Jessie Voigts is the Publisher of WanderingEducators.com and contributes each month to A Traveler’s Library. She has a doctorate in International Education, and is passionate about intercultural learning. She and her husband are Worldschooling their daughter, and enjoying every minute of it. She is also a nature photographer and lives on a lake.

Jessie  says she still laughs when she reads the book. Thanks for sharing, Jessie.

Every traveler has read signs–and menus–in awkwardly translated English.  Sometimes the humor is intentional. Sometimes it becomes philosophical. Share the funniest or oddest one you’ve seen.

Click on image to bid on travel prizes.

And speaking of India—We’ve raised $41,000 so far. Are you IN?? Here’s a sign you should click on. No kidding!

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

is ba-a-ack with a basketful of temptations for you, and A Traveler’s Library is sponsoring TWO great vacation prizes.

• Here’s WHAT it is
• HOW you can win prizes like fabulous vacations and travel gear
• WHERE the money goes

PWP Ingredients

We are so fortunate to be able to read and to be able to travel. And I feel fortunate to help to repay the universe by joining with other travel bloggers to raise money to build a village in India. The organizers are Debbie Dubrow (Delicious Baby), Beth Whitman (Wanderlust and Lipstick), Michelle Duffy (Wandermom) and Pam Mandel (NerdsEyeView), but dozens of bloggers will be participating. (The founders say they do their planning over cupcakes, so I think of them as the 4 Cupcakes. All those other bloggers are just frosting on the cake.)

Let me tell you that quartet is pretty amazing.  The first year, they raised $7,000 for Heifer International, one of my very favorite charities. I had just started blogging and wasn’t able to sponsor a prize, but I spent lots of $10 bills and won a couple of nice things.

Last year, I couldn’t wait to participate as a blogger sponsor, because the recipient country was Cambodia, a favorite destination of ours. The 4 Cupcakes set a seemingly impossible goal of $14,000 to build a school in Cambodia. Except that we all raised $30,000 instead. So the school got a nurse, clean water and  extra bookshelves. I couldn’t be happier to show you pictures of the result.

So…$7,000; then $30,000; (you can see where this is going, right? )…

The Cake is Rising

This year the 4 Cupcakes decided that one building is mere crumbs. This year, they said, we’re gonna build a VILLAGE in India.  The goal is $50,000, which will build 25 homes for people who never dared dream they would have a house to call their own. Passports Village in Karunganni, located in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

The money raised goes directly to the humanitarian organization LAFTI (Land for Tiller’s Freedom). That organization has won many humanitarian awards for its work with the people called untouchables in India.

A Traveler’s Library prizes

WIN A STAY IN NEW ORLEANS

Hotel Monteleone

Would you like to win a two-night stay in New Orleans? This year the return donor Hotel Monteleone, includes welcome cocktails in the famous Carousel Lounge and breakfast for two. Get ready to party in New Orleans. When Ken and I go to New Orleans, this is our first choice hotel. (The fine print: Three  day, Two night stay in deluxe accommodations at the historic Hotel Monteleone located in the heart of the French Quarter, New Orleans (room charges only, excluding Friday and Saturday nights).  The package also includes a welcome cocktail for (2) at the famous Carousel Bar, and American breakfast for (2) daily in Le Café.)

G-normous thanks to the classy Hotel Monteleone for their generous donation, second year in a row. What pals!

WIN A DUDE RANCH VACATION

The horse corral at Rancho de los Caballeros

And if New Orleans isn’t your style, how about a three-night vacation for two at a luxurious guest ranch in Arizona?  Rancho de los Caballeros provides a prize package worth about $1500, including all meals for two and riding activities. Ken and I stayed there recently and trust me, whether you ride or not, this is an awesome place. (The fine print: The ranch choses from the end of May through the first week of October, and this stay excludes the months of March and April. Activities other than riding may incur extra charges. See web site for details). This gorgeous ranch will welcome you because of the generosity of the owners and the manager who hosted me and then made this offer. Thank you for your amazing generosity.

Recipe for Success

I know you’re already getting packed for your trip, so quickly, let me tell you how to win. Go to the Passports With Purpose web site and donate $10 to LAFTI for each time you want to be entered into a drawing. Put all your money on one prize, or spread it out–your choice.  And it will not be easy choosing.  Chocolate, vanilla, banana, caramel, carrot cake—oh, sorry, that’s cupcakes.  I meant to say more than 100 prizes to choose from. Contest starts today and closes end of the day on DECEMBER 13th, 2010.

See all the prizes and make your choices at Passports With Purpose web site.

Read more about Hotel Monteleone.

Read more about Rancho de los Caballeros

Thank you sponsors:

• BootsnAll,
• LiveMocha,
• Round the World with Us,
• HomeAway,
• Traveller’s Point,
• Hostelling International,
• Quintess,
• Raveable,
• TravelPost,
• Uptake.

Those companies have donated from $1000 to $10000 to LAFTI already. Because of them, we were more than half way to the goal on day one. Check them out and say thank you.

So after you click over to Passports With Purpose, and check out LAFTI and choose your favorite prizes, then come on back and tell us what you chose. Okay?

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Temple Bazaar in Tiruvannamalai

Destination: Southern India

Book: The Writerly Life by R.K.Narayan, ed. by S. Krishnan

A GUEST POST BY MS. KIRAN KESWANI

If you would like a glimpse into India and its people, reading the writings of R.K.Narayan is a wonderful way to do it. He is a writer who wrote as if he were enveloped in quietitude, situated in an Indian setting which could have been everything but quiet! He seemed to have read deep into the minds of people in his family, in his street, in his town and in his country. He did this in a way that made every moment and the happening that belonged to it seem like it had a meaning and a purpose.

The Writerly Life is a collection of several essays and R.K.Narayan’s travelogue, My Dateless Diary, which uncovers an Indian mind as it discovers uncharted territories in America.The collection represents his non-fiction writing from the 1930s to the 1990s.

R.K.Narayan is one of my favourite Indian writers writing about India. With his acute sense of observation, he must have seen also the darker sides of India, but he did not write about that. He chose instead to dwell on simple people and their simple ways. In ‘The Crowd’, he writes, “Any crowd interests me: I always feel that it is a thing that deserves precedence over any other engagement. I always tell myself that an engagement can wait, but not the crowd.”

Kapaleeswarar Temple in Chennai

It is true that Narayan’s writings are based mainly in South India but it is a large part of the Indian sub-continent. For me, this was a great way to learn and love a part of India that I had known little about till I moved there with my husband, who belonged there and found it best to initiate his North-Indian wife into his culture through Narayan’s beautiful depiction of it.

Eventually, I became addicted to the South Indian coffee, because in a South Indian household, the day starts with the aroma of coffee wafting through the whole house.

I  read R. K. Narayan’s essay on ‘Coffee’  many times over the years and found it delightful every single time!  He says he never tired of writing about coffee. He was planning a noble work on coffee running to two hundred thousand words, that would be called a Study of Coffee. The first part would describe the philosophy of Bababuden, a Muslim saint who brought coffee to India and prove that the origin of coffee was saintly.

He writes, “A few observations will be necessary on the question of coffee temperature. This section will be called Thermodynamics of Coffee. In this section we shall strive to decide the right temperature at which coffee may be sipped. It must be understood that the temperature has to vary according to the occasion; the hot cup you may demand at home may not be suitable when you have to gulp down a mouthful and run back to your seat in a train whose engine has just whistled and just started moving.”

The Writerly Life also includes essays such as “Noise,” “Of Trains and Travellers,”  “Toasted English,”  “Bridegroom Bargains,” and “Reluctant Guru”. Narayan always said that he wrote all these essays only because he had to meet a deadline every Thursday in order to fill half a column for the Sunday issue of The Hindu and he somehow managed to do that for nearly twenty years without a break.

R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) was born in Madras and studied at Maharajah`s College in Mysore. His work includes numerous novels, five collections of short stories, two travel books,and other writing. He is well-known for his novels, Malgudi Days and The Guide, which was also made into a film. In 1980, he was awarded the A. C. Benson medal by the Royal Society of Literature. Narayan was also made Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

My deepest gratitude to Ms.Kiran Keswani ,who is an architect based in Bangalore, India, for writing this guest post AND providing the pictures. Kiran is currently researching the traditional bazaars of India. I met her through the Lonely Planet Blog Sherpa program. Her photo-filled, colorful blog  has been featured on Lonely Planet.com.

Please do not use the photos without the consent of Ms. Keswani. Thanks.

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A Hindu holy man

Book: Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple (NEW June 2010)

William Dalrymple is still trying to explain India.   He is well equipped to do that because in addition to accolades as a travel writer, he is praised for his scholarship and has lived part of each year in India for a couple of decades now. His highly acclaimed White Mughals and the best selling City of Djinns made him one of the must-read names mentioned when outstanding contemporary travel literature is discussed.

In  Nine Lives, he follows up his amazement at the many forms of devotion that he encounters in India with meticulous research and interviews that sometimes rolled on for days, so that his experiences become the experiences of the readers.

As he explains in the Introduction, he does not attempt to discuss all of the religions practiced in India. He portrays nine people whose beliefs differ significantly from the beliefs generally practiced in the Western world. From practices that seem understandable, if rigorous, to those that seem downright bizarre, we learn about religious minorities that even regular travelers to India may not have heard of before.

In order to get the stories, he travels from the Himalayans in the north to the oceans in the South and sits through hours-long rituals, walks alongside believers, and respectfully questions the practitioners.It is travel with a purpose, but the kind of mindful travel that we all would do well to consider.

He avoids judging the people he interacts with, even when he is faced with issues like assisted suicide and coerced child prostitution.The Jain nun, brushes the earth before her with a feather so as to avoid killing even a small being, but believes that the greatest act is to commit suicide by slowly starving. A Buddhist monk struggles with the issue of monks going to war. A mother who resented being turned into a religious prostitute as a child, nevertheless does the same with her daughters. But there are more heart-warming stories as well.

For the most part the stories read like stories and are clear and dramatic. A glossary in the back helps with unfamiliar terms. At times, however, the writing becomes as complex as the system of Hindu gods and goddesses.

Shiva

Many scholars believe that just as the Sufi fakirs of Sehwan Sharif model their dreadlocks, red robes and dust-smeared bodies on those of Shaivite sadhus, so the dhammal derives from the damaru drum of Shiva, by which, in his form of Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance, the Destroyer drums the world back into existence after dancing it into extinction.

I still am not sure what that passage is all about.

More understandable to a person reading today’s headlines is the struggle between the Sufis, who traditionally shared a place of worship with Muslims and the strict Wahhabis who are banning access of Hindus to Muslim mosques. An illiterate woman accuses them of hypocrisy, and quotes an ancient poet:

Why call yourself a scholar, o mullah? You are lost in words.

You keep on speaking nonsense, Then you worship yourself.

Despite seeing God with your own eyes, you dive into the dirt.

We Sufis have taken the flesh from the holy Quran, While you dogs are fighting with each other.

Always tearing each other apart, For the privilege of gnawing at the bones.

It is difficult to see a single thread that ties these nine lives together, and indeed, Dalrymple does not try. If they have anything in common, it is poverty in material possessions but richness in spirit. Seldom does one encounter cynicism or doubt.

Although I have never had any interest in traveling to India, I definitely enjoyed this book, and consider it worthwhile both as sociology and as a travel book for those interested in learning more about the complex and varied country. A definite plus for the travel library.

I wrote earlier about an essay Dalrymple wrote about travel writing; and guest Sue Dickman wrote about City of Djinns. The photos above come from Flickr and are used under a Creative Commons license. Please click on the photos to learn more and to meet the photographers. A pre-publication review copy of the book, Nine Lives, was provided to me by the publisher, Alfred A Knopf.

Do you like to delve into the religious customs of a country that you are visiting? Does such a book count as travel literature?

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Author: Tahir Shah

A GUEST POST by Travel Writer JUDITH FEIN

Travel Literature that Inspires Me

When I sit down to read a good travel yarn, I want to be swept away by an author who is a mystic, humorist, analyst, adventurer, stylist, fabulist and information nerd. I want to get caught up in someone’s crazy quest to find the ancient gold mines of King Solomon in Ethiopia, the secrets of Indian magicians, the way jinns can take over a person’s life in north Africa. I like to finish a book and burn with desire to hit the road again so I can experience the deep brilliance, fascination and craziness of cultures that are not my own.

That’s where Tahir Shah comes in. He’s that once-in-a-generation writer who makes it impossible not to travel, not to dive in where others fear to swim. He actually did go to Ethiopia, running through an obstacle course of hyenas, deceit and physical misery, to find the source of the gold that the Queen of Sheba supposedly brought King Solomon. That book is called  In Search of King Solomon’s Mines.

And he really did become the apprentice of a sadistic magician in India, who initiated him into a hyper-intense world of sleights of hand and sleights of heart. That book is Sorcerer’s Apprentice (out of print, but available used).

Casablanca Great Mosque

More recently, he bought a dilapidated house in Morocco, The Caliph’s House, peopled with jinns, wacko workmen and more mysticism than a book can contain, so the rich content spilled over into a second book, In Arabian Nights, where Shah set off the find the story in his heart. It’s a kind of Sufi Wizard of Oz, with adventures that are puzzling, intriguing, funny, wild, and eventually bring him home to himself.

When I read Shah’s books, I want him to actually find King Solomon’s mines and the story in his heart. But, most of all, I get caught up in the adventure, in the process, and I’m not attached to the outcome. For me, that’s what great travel reading and great travel is about.

Judith Fein

Judith Fein is an award-winning travel journalist who has contributed to more than 85 magazines, newspapers and internet sites. She is the co-founder and editor of Your Life Is a Trip and her website is Global Adventure.    Her book, LIFE IS A TRIP, will be coming out soon. It takes the reader along on l5 trips into other worlds and other cultures where a different way of dealing with life can enrich any reader’s existence.

I first met Judie Fein on a press trip in non-exotic, but very interesting Richmond Virginia. Ever since then, I have been in awe of her fine writing and her accomplishments, and am pleased to be a contributor to My Life is a Trip. I can’t thank Judie enough for sharing this author with us. Believe me, his books are being added to my wish list post haste. (Photo is used courtesy of Creative Commons license. To learn more about the photographer, click on the photo.)

Judie focused on her go-to author for travel inspiration.  Do you have an author that you trust–that you find yourself returning to again and again? I will read anything written by Patrick Leigh Fermor or Norman Lewis

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.