Chai, Chai: Travels in Places Where You Stop But Never Get Off

In those numerous trips I have made to Delhi by train, I have always wondered if these big railway junctions are just places for loading food? Has the rampant modernisation made any impact on these otherwise sleepy towns that only wake up to the familiar sound of a train, assuming that they haven’t grown immune to the noise?

Well, I have stopped with just concocting these questions, and never bothered to disembark and find answers.

If you too have wondered what existed beyond those pallid boards in some of India’s biggest railway junctions, wanted to know about the lives of those who inhabited those towns that are highlighted in bold only in the country’s railway route -‘Chai, chai: Travels in Places Where You Stop but Never Get Off’ by Bishwanath Ghosh- is a must read.

Mughal Sarai, Itarsi, Jhansi, Shoranur, Jolarpetai, Arrakonam and Guntakal are familiar towns for a regular traveller, but they are rarely destinations. Ghosh makes an earnest attempt to extract interesting stories of the people who reside in these towns.

The author meets a homemaker-turned-prostitute, a dhaba owner, who has big dreams for his younger brother, and a sports goods shop owner in Mughal Sarai who tells him that the Jana Sangh ideologue, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, was found murdered in the railway yard in 1968.

These junctions are caught in a time warp and stand as a stark contrast to the modern India we know. Yet, outlining the difference, Ghosh doesn’t slip into mundane banter about disparity or other issues. His humour and simple prose coupled with engrossing encounters with locals, introduces you to ‘India hiding’. And, as if by magic, you see a new India that suddenly seems to shed its cover- an India that stands tall and untouched, retaining its identity among rootless modernisation and convoluted culture.

The book is refreshing in its concept and definitely deserves to be read.Thanks to flipkart.com

extremely readable book...thanks flipkart.com

Chai Chai is an extremely readable book.
But, at times you feel whether it is a commentary on the author's drinking exploits. But then, he managed to travel across the country and drank a lot of whiskey so that we could enjoy this book.