River Dog

Title: River Dog – A Journey Down the Brahmaputra

Author: Mark Shand

Publisher: Abacus, 2012 (First published 2002)

ISBN: 978-0-349-11514-6

Pages: 332

 
Another travel story by a foreigner through India, another nice piece of travelogue that is a tribute to the country. Even with shortfalls and want of infrastructure, mother India attracts visitors from far and wide to her bosom. Mark Shand is diehard traveler – he has spent much of his life travelling. He has ridden through the Andes on horseback, completed the London – Sydney motor race, been shipwrecked in the Pacific while attempting to sail around the world and made a tour of Bengal on an elephant. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and associates with many conservation groups worldwide. This book presents the story of Shand’s travels through the Brahmaputra river where it flows through India and Bangladesh. The mighty river is known by many names, Tsangpo in Tibet where it originates, Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Jamuna, Padma and Meghna in Bangladesh where it flows into the Bay of Bengal. The author was unable to obtain permission for travelling through Tibet and he made up for the shortfall with a truly memorable journey through the Indian and Bangladeshi territory. To add a curious detail to the arrangements, Shand was accompanied by a street dog from Assam, christened Bhaiti. The end result is an unforgettable account of a trip through the artery of Assam. Traversing the entire length of the Brahmaputra is remarked upon the last great adventure in Asia, but judging from the truncated passage described in the book, it may seem that the author got fed up by roadblocks raised by the authorities at every step of the voyage.

A travel of this sort needs a wide network to arrange things and material. Apart from commercial establishments, Shand’s extensive friend network is also mobilized at times. This is an aspect of Indian nature that is at odds with its proud remembrance of heritage. Whenever we Indians see a white foreigner, we shed all our inhibitions and scramble to provide help to him or her. This peculiar reaction may be a remnant of the servility some of our ancestors displayed to the British. This knows no boundaries between the common man, the rich or highly placed bureaucrats. We listen to anecdotes when Shand obtained what he sought, with a song, to say. Maybe that is one of the reasons why accounts of cross country travel come from European or American authors alone. Foreigners have an unfair advantage in getting help from Indians. Likewise Shand had a smooth way of things at Delhi and Guwahati and even with the military zonal headquarters at Kolkata which easily ratified the author’s itinerary even though the army was not informed of his travel through Arunachal Pradesh, which is declared as a sensitive area. The author reported at the army post in Gelling and told the problem. He had to stay put at the army base till his case got cleared from Kolkata and with full hospitality too! One would wonder what terrible hardship an Indian would have to undergo in a similar situation. 

The story is lucidly told with a streak of humour running prominent as the spine of the narrative. In fact, the travelogue is not at all great, by any stretch of the imagination, but the story told by Shand is so appealing and immersible that we would demur to put the book down. The author is so straightforward in his descriptions and his respect to India, her religion and customs is credit worthy. He wasted no opportunity to have a dip in the holy water whenever a chance presented itself. He visited temples, fairs and holy places with great respect to the pilgrims thronged at these places. However, such considerations do not prevent him from consuming non-vegetarian delicacies while on the trip. But here, we must all allow for the hardship and the harsh climate in order to grant pardon to him on this count.

Journey through Arunachal Pradesh along the banks of the Siang river (as Brahmaputra is called here) is very tough and filled with perils at every step in the form of bridges about to collapse, venomous snakes and poisonous beetles which he had to swallow alive. Maybe to relieve the rigor of the journey, Shand embarks on childish ventures like searching for the remains of wooden plates used for signaling by an ill-fated survey party in the 19^th century. Naturally, none was collected, but that was evident to the readers, right from the announcement of his intention to do so. Shand’s obsession with his street dog companion is also sure to elicit amused disdain from most Indian readers.         
     

The story also comes out with the pathetic conditions prevailing in Bangladesh in terms of poverty, overpopulation and lack of infrastructure. Not that India is exemplary on this front, but when compared to her neighbor, India seems to be far better. All travelers through Bangladesh have remarked about the country’s large population which has become literally unmanageable. Agriculture has not kept pace with it, partly due to severe annual flooding of the Brahmaputra which affects the whole nation.

The book is very appealing and is a page turner. This should be kept on one’s side for pleasant reading.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star