If it's Monday It Must Be Madurai

What is it like to travel with others for adventure lust and god? This delightful travelogue in which Srinath Perur embarks upon ten conducted tours is full of rich experiences hanging on to a camel in the Thar Desert joining thousands on a pilgrimage in Maharashtra crossing living root bridges near Cherrapunji rediscovering music while on the trail of Kabir and a lot more. As much about people as it is about places the book is also a reflection of the nature of popular travel today which is marked by the packaging of experiences the formation of tourist economies and compulsive picture-taking. How this influences tourists comes across vividly in their creation of a mini India on a bus as they race through treasured sights in Europe in their perfunctory devotion as they hop from temple to temple in Tamil Nadu and in their enjoying with sex workers far away from home. Ironic and often comic If Its Monday It Must Be Madurai is an idiosyncratic portrait of India and her people. About the Author Srinath Perurs writingessays reportage travelogues translationshas appeared in various publications including India Today the Guardian Fountain Ink Granta n+1 Hakai and the Outlook Traveller. Perur is the English translator of Vivek Shanbhags Kannada novella Ghachar Ghochar. He lives in Bengaluru when he is not travelling.