Chasing the Monsoon

Frater narrates an eccentric journey following the commencement of the Monsoon (the annual rains) from the South to the far North East of India. On the way he has a great deal to say about the weather, of India and its people. The real strength of this account is Frater's ability to connect with Indians, and to observe their observations of him, and of his quest. It's an immersive account, this is possible as close an impression of Indian life you could possibly get without actually being there. The beauty of it of course is that it doesn't strain or over-reach itself. There's a lightness of touch and even imprecision that reflects the actual experience of anyone travelling in another culture - and India particularly. It is a show more masterpiece of travel writing.

But it's not just an account of a journey across India, but also one of Frater's life, connecting a childhood growing up in the South Pacific to his final destination in India, and a lifelong fascination with weather. The threads of this story within the story are equally fascinating, and revealed with wonderful delicacy, piece by piece as Frater makes his way across India, leaving the reader to wonder if this wasn't the main story after all and wishing for more.

There is only one other account of travelling through India that I have read that comes anywhere near to this, and that is Michael Wood's 'The Smile of Murugan: A South India Journey'. I recommend both very highly. show less

This is, without doubt, the most fascinating travelogue I have ever read. Frater follows the monsoon from its genesis in Kerala up to Cherrapunji in Assam, the wettest place on earth: in the process, he gives fascinating insights about India, the monsoon, India the monsoon (a strange entity!) and human nature in general. His writing is wryly humorous (without being sarcastic) and sympathetic at the same time.

Being from Kerala, I know and love the monsoon. So it was all the more enjoyable for me. As I read the book, I could almost smell the smell of the first rains on parched soil, what we call "the smell of new earth".

Highly recommended.

This book surprisingly failed to engage me. I know what they say about the cover and the title, but I still got fooled. Without analyzing too much, I think one reason could be because I shifted from my kindle to the paperback edition I owned, with really small font size to boot, and I had to read most of this one lying down because I had hurt my back. That may have affected my concentration in no small measure. Or maybe I just wasn't interested.

The passages to do with description of the weather are well written, but how many of those can you take? But they were few and far between. I think what also did me in were the frequent lapses into entire passages from books with "olde" english, with facts and tid-bits perhaps interesting to show more researchers, but something I had little interest in. I could at best only scan those to get back on track. I did read 'em but I wasn't paying attention. A good bit of the book was about the author trying to obtain permission to get to Cherrapunji.

I wish the entire book was like the last chapter. It would have been more readable. This one was a very tough exercise in trying to get the book over with. I only persisted because I'd bought the damn thing. Hodja's Peppers. show less