Book Review - Chai Chai By Bishwanath Ghosh

 

One fine evening, as journalist/author Bishwanath Ghosh, while travelling in the Gorakhpur – Trivandrum Express from Kanpur to Chennai (then Madras), stepped out at Itarsi Junction to stretch his legs and relish a cup of tea, he realized that there were many such junctions, places where numerous trains halt every day, but not much is known about these junctions. Most travelers are familiar with the halts and the names of these stations, yet not many know about the history, culture and lifestyle followed at these places. This gave an idea to the author to write a book on places, specifically junctions, where trains and travelers halt briefly but whose by-lanes, cities and towns remain unsung.

The book is a travel-memoir, one can say, of the author’s brief tryst with Mughal Sarai, Jhansi, Itarsi, Guntakal, Arakkonam, Jolarpettai and Shoranur. – all junctions that connect one place to another and yet most travelers stay unconnected with. The author has crafted a wonderful narrative featuring the geographical landscapes of the places he visited, background stories and personality quirks of the people he met and his own experiences. The narrative has a comical tone at places and poignancy at others.

There is never a dull moment in the whole book. You get a brief and tantalizing view of the India that we aren’t much familiar with (unless you are natives of the places mentioned in the book).

As a frequent traveler who has crossed places like Guntakal, Arakkonam, Jolarpettai and Shoranur countless number of times since my childhood, as a travel enthusiast and a wanna-be writer, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It refreshed memories of my train-travel with my family.

If you are someone fond of train-travel, have countless memories of having travelled in trains and having passed through innumerable stations, some of which made an impression on you, and if you are someone who likes to know the unsung stories of people you meet or the places you visit, then this book is for you!