Tales From the Road... - Aniket Ketkar

Tales from the Road... by Aniket Ketkar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was during the period that I was waiting to implement the change of lifestyle that I had decided on that this book was recommended to me. The recommendation came from a friend of a friend, whose friend had done something of the sort that he thought I was about to do. I looked up the book and was a little surprised at finding only a Kindle edition. At that time I did not own a Kindle and was, as I still am, a paperback fan. But once I did get a Kindle, it was not long before I went back to the book and ordered it.

The book is a memoir of the experiences of the author while he was on the road. There is a disclaimer right in the beginning of the book which warns the reader not to nitpick grammatical errors. Ketkar gives a brief introduction of himself in the opening pages and tells us that he is (or was) a charted accountant by profession and his aim in the book is to tell the story, rather than aim at establishing himself as a master of the language. But language contributes as much to making a book engaging as it's story. And the fact that Aniket Ketkar managed to write such an engaging book with such a simple language makes his story-telling all the more laudable. What appeals most in this travelogue is the personal touch that the author has added to it, but it's a right balance of personal emotions and travel information.

Aniket was a charted accountant in a big multi national firm but he always had a penchant to travel. And travel he did, but in a way that most of us Indians do : on a limited leash. On one such vacation, in Mongolia, he was reminded of his childhood dream to be a traveller. He then decided to take up travelling more seriously, quit his job and hit the road. The book is a product of the eight months he spent exploring various parts of south-east Asia.

I quite liked the book. It was thoroughly enjoyable and quite a light read. I read it slowly, a morsel at a time. There were many points on which I could relate to the author, there were many incidents where I was amused at how his experiences matched mine. There was quite a lot of information in the book that I explored further. I will definitely look forward to Ketkar's next set of experiences.

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