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BOOKS:
AUTHORSPEAK
AKHIL BAKSHI
Free
Wheel Drive
Akhil
Bakshi, 45, wanted to revive India's academic and cultural links with
Central Asia. So instead of doing what most (stuffy) politicians and professors
are wont to do-hold a conference and vociferously profess their dedication
to the cause-Bakshi bid his wife and two-month-old daughter goodbye, assembled
a team of "scholars, geologists, and archaeologists" and hit
the Silk Road on Wheels (Odyssey). Bakshi is an old hand at traversing
unchartered, often unusual terrain. The Road to Freedom (1998) was based
on his Azad Hind expedition which retraced the route taken by the Indian
National Army during World War II.
To his second
travelogue, the NGO activist with a degree in management studies-how bizarre
is that? - brings to life a handful of historical figures. One bumps into
a sulking Tamurlane, an ebullient Huen Tsang, an erudite Chengiz Khan,
and good-luck charm Milarepa in a style reminiscent of Khushwant Singh's
Delhi. "I wanted to bring the past alive for the reader," says
Bakshi. Other thoughtful inputs include editing out sections that might
lead people to "mistake" him for a "dirty middle-aged man
always ogling at girls", and injecting a liberal dose of humour into
his writing.
Bakshi's
two-and-a-half months of leading a convoy of five Mahindra Armadas along
the Silk Route involved considerably more gain than pain-eating exotic
foods, fingers grazing the walls of Buddhist grottos in the Taklamakan
desert, beholding an expanse of steppes in Kazakhstan, and, of course,
basking vicariously in the popularity of that great Indian export,
Hindi films.
"In Turfan, we met a man claiming to be a descendant of Chengiz Khan
who recited dialogues from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar for us," he grins.
Next up for Bakshi: travels through the supercontinent of lore, Gondwanaland,
driving from the tip of Kanyakumari to South Africa. "It's such an
exhilarating feeling. You just want to break out and run wild," says
Bakshi. Suddenly, the plush confines of Delhi's India Habitat Centre take
on a dull sheen. It's time to take a trip.
-Sonia
Faleiro
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Enron
symbolises everything that's wrong with the way reforms were handled by
M/s Rao & Manmohan, says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor