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Friday, October 2, 2015

One Life To Ride : A Motorcycle Journey To The High Himalayas by Ajit Harisinghani : A Review


BOOK TITLE: One Life To Ride
ISBN: 978-8175992948
AUTHOR: Ajit Harisinghani
GENRE: Non – Fiction / Travelogue
NUMBER OF PAGES: 240
FORMAT: Paperback
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: I thank Fingerprint! Publishers for this review copy.
SUMMARY:
          Travelling across India on a motorcycle is an intimate way to get acquainted with its myriad cultures, each with their unique beliefs and lifestyle.
          One Life to Ride takes you across the hot and dusty plains of India to the highest motorable road in the world — the fabled Khardung-La in Ladakh.
          Along the way you'll meet Sufi saints, fake fakirs and homesick soldiers.
          You'll get stuck in an icy road river and be miraculously rescued.
          You'll feel the stress an average Kashmiri experiences everyday. You'll see how blind and dangerous religion can be if it is only followed in rituals and illogical beliefs.
          You'll see how friendly and hospitable everyone is on the roads of India.
          You'll come away feeling exhilarated, entertained and yes, also exhausted by the physical arduousness of the motorcycle ride.
          Witty, reflective and honest, One Life to Ride is a daring, real-life adventure guaranteed to keep you turning the pages. Maybe even make you wish you were riding pillion.
          More information is available on www.onelifetoride.com
REVIEW:
          Now before I begin this review, let me clear out a few things.
·        I am not a huge fan of nonfiction, especially a first person narrative. But I took this book up for review because of the unique title and intriguing summary. It did not disappoint me.
·        I am an avid biker, and really love travelling so on some level, I could relate to the events in the book. My impartial comments try to focus on the overall writing and presentation style.
·        My rating points are based solely on what the book promised and what it delivered. Too much confusion seems to arise here. If a book is called a travelogue, and I read it, I expect it to be a travelogue and if it fits the necessary requirements particular to its genre it is rated as good.
First Impression:
          Needless to say, the title was what intrigued me at first. When I received the book, I was impressed by the cover – simple and photographic at the front and plain white with text at the back. The slight embossing on the title and the author’s name are special touches. The book’s pages are white, and the overall feel is bendy and comfortable. The font typeset is easy to read.
Now the content:
          The book is what it says it is – a middle aged man on a Bullet, travelling through Himalayas and jotting down his experiences as a travelogue. From describing parts of the country to the people he has met, the author delivers every experience he remembers in his casual, not too wordy style.
          There are no main characters to speak of. But a lot of people the biker meets on his travels, from poverty ridden hotel managers to bicycle riding Sufi saints, this book has it all. I liked the description of the saint and the way he carries the food suspended in the bar of his bicycle.
          The book does not only tell you the joys of travelling, and just letting your hair against the wind – it also tells you how difficult it is to ride a bike for long periods of time. It lets you sympathise with a middle aged man who faces some hardships during his travels. But it also tells you how travelling is a great experience, one not to be missed if chanced upon.
          On the up side, the writing style is casual and interesting with slapstick humour and the occasional one liners. On the downside, this is not very poetic and descriptive of the scenery and this might disappoint some readers.
          While the author tries to bring every experience he had as a biker on paper, some moments have to be felt, not read about, to gather the full impact of how it felt. The journey over the Himalayas came to him easily, but the journey from biker to author, though pleasant, fails to elicit the awe he must have surely felt while he saw the sights in person.
          Overall, good attempt. But it might interest only those people who have an enthusiasm for this genre.
WHAT I LIKED:
·        The book’s look and feel. Mentioning it again because that was one of the reasons I continued reading this for a stretch of time even when the content bogged the speed down.
·        The down to earth, casual, sometimes satirical description of all the people the author met.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
·        Lacks the wow factor – somehow, the overall experience of having travelled with the author leaves one with a frustrated whimsical feeling of needing to go there to experience it in person.
·        The experiences seem like pages of a journal, some things are left unsaid – this might be a deal breaker for some readers.
VERDICT: A book for travel enthusiasts – if you either don’t love your Royal Enfield Bullet, or the simple sheer joy of being a solo traveller, you would find little to interest you here.
RATING: 3.8/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
In the author’s own words, taken from his website (http://www.onelifetoride.com/index.html)
I am Ajit Harisinghani and I live in Pune, India.
I am fairly non-ambitious, easy going kind of guy, who finds life a breeze and who enjoys living in India precisely because it is a place of surprises, thrills and chills!

I believe in JRD Tata's adage "Live Life a little dangerously".
I believe that an obsession with 'security' is the hallmark of an insecure mind.

By profession I am a speech therapist, trained in Mumbai and later on in various locations in the USA. www.speechfoundation.com is my work-website which focuses on helping young adults overcome speech problems like stammering, unclear speech, etc.

I have travelled overland across the USA, around the world on the hippie-train in the late 70s, and on a motorcycle from Pune to Ladakh (North-most), Thimpu, Bhutan (North-East) and Kanyakumari - the southern most tip of India, with numerous rides to Goa.
Next year (presuming one is alive), I plan to ride to north-western India - through the blazing deserts of Rajasthan to Jaisalmer. There I shall walk amidst the forts and imagine I'm a Rajput king!


EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback, Kindle.
PRICE: Rs. 175 for Paperback


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