Don’t Ask Any Old Bloke For Directions: A Biker’s Whimsical Journey across India by Palden Gyatso Tenzing.

About the author

PG Tenzing is from Mangan; a small town in North Sikkim. Graduated from Delhi University and qualified in the IAS exam in 1986. Posted in Kerala where he served for 20 years before quitting in 2008 to embarked on a nine-month 25,320km ride across the country on his Enfield Thunderbird. This book is all about that journey and more…

Review

The book is really an interesting read and would appeal to you if you consider it as a record of life’s wisdom instead of a travelogue. Throughout the book Tenzing focuses more on the accounts of people he met throughout his journey and not entirely on the places or routes he took.

Tenzing started his journey with a few possessions and the cash from his retirement benefits. Covering almost all the States and Union Territories, he traversed 25,320 km during his nine month journey. On the way, he encountered “numerous waiters and mechanics — fleeting human interactions and connections that seemed pre-ordained.” His views on life and death, friendship and love are spiced by a certain dark humor. But his conviction that everything revolves around the sacred bond that humans share with each other and with the universe is inspiring. Somewhat similar to what Paulo Coelho shares in his novel ‘The Alchemist’.

This book may not be in the same league of ‘The Motorcycle Diaries Ernesto Guevara’ or The Alchemist as it’s just an account of the people he met during his journey. But it will inspire you to lose all the inhibitions, go out there and do what your mind tells you to do.

My take away.
I love to hate this guy. He has done what many of us fancy doing but can’t convince ourselves enough to do it. So, we end up cribbing about being caught up in day to day mundane life, and how life has reduced us to mere rats in the never ending corporate rat race. Whereas here is P.G. Tenzing, an IAS officer who dumped his job, to get on his bike and kick off to a quirky ride across the country. Isn’t that amazing? It is for me; as this is something that’s right on top of ‘Things to do before I die’ list.