Reason, Travel, Creation and Greene

Hi!

I talk about books after a long break. In these disturbed times, I am a little ashamed to admit that I have not found the unforeseen leisure that has fallen in my lap, disagrreable. I read more than I usually do. And also found time to finish some long-pending writing.

 Perilous times test rational beliefs most severely. An impending doom which seems to eclipse all hope and from which no escape appears in sight, confounds reason. Heart if not mind, then restlessly seeks solace in faith. Faith in the boundless kindness of an unknown but omnipotent superpower. But a moment’s pause should disabuse the gullible heart of its incredulous belief. It seeks reprieve from the same power that unleashed the apocalypse. Corona scourge has highlighted role of science in human life while religion has taken backseat. Governments all over the world are formulating, evaluating and reinventing strategies to ward off this virus through and solely on the advice of leading scientists of the world. Jerry A. Coyne’s fabulous book, Faith VS Fact lucidly explains why religion and science can never go hand in hand. Like Kipling’s east and west, ‘never the twain shall meet’.

This pandemic will affect each aspect of our lives, in ways that we cannot even speculate now. One of its prominent preys, not difficult to imagine, would be travel. Travel, that heavenly recourse of few in our world, who earn and save enough, to afford few days of involved idleness. I find as much pleasure in actual travel, as in months of excited planning. We stand robbed of this innocent preoccupation of our mind. Fortunately, there is a substitute for actual travel, a source of vicarious joy, although a poor one, in the form of a well written travel book. Armchair travel has its own compensations. It provides a wider choice and access to such places and activities as may not be within reach of all. I present here two finely written travel books.

 Appalachian Trail in USA is one of the longest trekking routes in the world. A long trek in mountains is the most delightful way to spend a vacation. I have done a few, mostly in Himalayas, and each is etched indelibly in mind. Bill Bryson describes his experience of trekking the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods, in his inimitably hilarious prose. Book will cheer all, even in these despondent times.

 Not many may have heard of, and fewer would have read, Eric Newby. He was an English writer of travel books in the mid-twentieth century. Fans of travel writing should not miss him. I talk about his Slowly Down the Ganges today, his account of sailing Ganges from Haridwar to Calcutta in 1960s. He too maintains a humorous tone in all his books and is sheer fun.

  Practice of an art form for its own sake is a lonely business, whether it is writing, painting, music or science. G.H. Hardy was one of the most eminent mathematicians of twentieth century. In his breathtakingly beautiful and poignant book, A Mathematician’s Apology, he writes about his passion which was mathematics. Indians remember Hardy, as the Cambridge mathematician who discovered the genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan. This is a very short book. If not for anything else, read it for its sublime prose.

  I suggest another Graham Greene book today, The Comedians. It is a funny, sad tale of human travails, set in the Greene’s favourite landscape of Latin America, this time in Haiti. It is a great book and also one of Greene’s best.