Where the Indus Is Young
Where the Indus Is Young chronicles the hair-raising exploits of the intrepid, beer-loving travel legend Dervla Murphy, often described as the first lady of Irish cycling. It tells of a mid-1970s winter spent–by choice, no less–in Baltistan, a perilous terrain harsh and inhospitable, by far, even in summer. Keeping her company is her garrulous six-year-old daughter, Rachel, given to scientific query at moments most inopportune, and a sure-footed, even-tempered Balti mule christened Hallam. For three months this indomitable threesome walk along hazardous Indus and Shyok gorges into craggy snowbound Karakoram valleys. They travel light and lodge with large-hearted Balti hosts, in ramshackle British-era rest houses, or abandoned stone dwellings, subsisting mostly on a diet of apricots, eggs, chappatis and tea. Expected hardships notwithstanding, the mother-daughter duo endures, perseveres, makes copious notes, and manages to retain both enthusiasm and sense of humour to the very end.
‘On their honeymoon, they seemed a perfect match: a dazzlingly handsome couple despite the twenty-four-year age difference; witty, intelligent and fashionable. Jinnah was tall and thin with sharply chiselled features; Ruttie was dainty, warm, spontaneous, with a look of sparkling mischief that made her irresistible.’
Though long in the know of her scholarship, I was served an opportunity to participate in a heritage walk led by academician, performing artist, and cultural activist 
Feasts and Fasts – A History of Food in India is Chicago-based food historian Colleen Taylor Sen’s most recent culinary outing. An ambitious effort at exploring the history of Indian gastronomy, the fascinating journey of which, this richly illustrated single volume traces from the Indus Valley Civilization to its present incarnation. It is served as a detailed introduction to the dietary evolution of a diverse sub continental people since prehistoric times, with generous dollops of myriad influences that have accorded it the status of a much-preferred world cuisine today. The author peels away, chapter by chapter, how faith, climate, geography, foreign rule, among others, shaped our culinary heritage and modern day food habits.
It demands more than just a sturdy pair of legs to consider an expedition such as the one Levison Wood embarks upon in Walking The Himalayas. The promise of a Channel 4 series lessens none the daunting challenge at hand. That it has been done before offers little succour either. Because one man’s trudge across the ‘raised eyebrow over India’ (Michael Palin) could well be 1,700 high altitude miles through five (often hostile) countries over six months, for another. Ergo, it requires you to be a hard as nails ex-paratrooper, inhabitant of African and Asian wilds, globetrotter, photographer, and journalist, all rolled into one. Above all it mandates an old-fashioned notion of exploration to take you through what is irrefutably an endurance test rather than enjoyable tryst.
