TRAVELLING IN, TRAVELLING OUT

We travel all the time, from place to place, thought to thought. Thereare yet other journeys that we would like to make but are unable to,that exist powerfully in the mind, day after day, month after month. Until Jehangir Bejan Tata died in San Francisco in 2013, he had beenmaking one such journey for the last sixty-odd years when he was backin Shanghai, admiring the clean art deco lines of a home he left in 1952but which had never left his mind. Bir Bahadur Singh, haunted by asimilar longing, who left Pakistan during Partition, could actually makethe journey back, fifty-four years later, to pick up the connections fromthat long past time. In Travelling In, Travelling Out: A Book of Unexpected Journeys eminentwriter Namita Gokhale puts together an eclectic collection of twentyfivestories that take the reader on a journey that is surprising, movingand, sometimes, mischievous. From Advaita Kala's piece on her reactionto an intrusive security pat-down to finding one's identity as animmigrant in Amsterdam in an essay by Ali Sethi, there is a wide rangeof experiences to choose from. With contributors like M. J. Akbar,Rahul Pandita, Dayanita Singh, Urvashi Butalia and others among theguides, the reader can expect an unusual journey, one without the fear,moreover, of getting lost.