Published by Penguin India, 2019, 272 pages

“How did I turn into that unwonted specimen—a middle-aged, middle-class mother of two from a conservative…background traveling solo, long before solo travel became fashionable among Indian women?”

Sudha Mahalingam loves to travel but her husband does not. So she takes off on her own or with unwitting friends. (Travelling with Mahalingam does seem to portend the end of those friendships, though.)

In a way she is an inspiration to those of us who are older and hesitant to take off on our own—she is quite fearless, to the extent that she believes in minimal planning. The result is that nothing ever goes smoothly—hence the refusal of friends to ever travel with her again. But, on the other hand, her experiences make for some good stories. Her travel is complicated by her limited budget and that she is vegetarian, which proves a challenge in China and parts of the ex-Soviet Union. 

I have to say her lack of planning drove me nuts! She often ends up in substandard accommodation but her limited budget is not always at fault—she leaves everything for the last minute and has to make do with whatever she can find. 

Mahalingam walks straight into situations, often blissfully unaware of what she is getting herself into. In conflict-ridden Kashmir, she drags her driver off to explore an area and only realizes later that she could have been got them both into danger. No wonder he was furious with her! There are some funny moments like the time she jumped a wall, or as she puts it, climbed it like a lizard in Fez, Morocco, to reach a hotel lobby (it did seem a bit far-fetched but it was funny).  

Among the adventures are some nice descriptions of the things she sees: the old part of Yazd, a desert town in Iran with its “labyrinthine streets” and “adobe houses whose earthy hues are relieved every now and then by exquisite turquoise tile panels and ornamental doorways”; the Dome of the Rock in Israel; and the small pile of semi-precious stones shown to her by Tamils in Moreh, a town on the Indian-Myanmar border.

Although I enjoyed the tales, I was also a little exasperated with her naivety, which can be forgiven in a newbie but she is a seasoned traveler. Also, it would have helped if the chapters were in some sort of geographical order—or at least clustered together by region. It is a little disconcerting to travel the world and suddenly end up back in India before taking off again to other countries. But she is nothing if not brave, and the last chapter has her skydiving when she is past 60. 

The title of the book seems a little ungrateful. The travel gods are not crazy—they have obviously been working overtime to keep Mahalingam safe! So she should be grateful to them and make sure they keep up the good work.

This review first appeared on Women on the Road.