TRAVEL
A woman's search
MAITREYEE S. GANAPATHY
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A journey and a memoir, memorable for its candour and drama.
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Eat, Pray, Love; Elizabeth Gilbert, Bloomsbury, Rs. 495.
IN Eat Love Pray, Elizabeth Gilbert's takes us to places as diverse as the streets of Rome with their magnificent fountains, to an ashram in a dusty village in India to the lush paddy fields of Bali. But the book is about a journey in more sense than one. In her own words, "it is one woman's search for everything" across the three lands.
I am not aware if there are any rules for travel writing and travelogues because if there were, Gilbert's writing would surely qualify as one without necessarily being one.
So while she fills us with the most exotic details of the places she visits and lives in, there is something else holding the reader to the pages — the tumultuous happenings in our narrator's life.
Upheaval
Gilbert's personal life is in upheaval when the book opens. Money, career, loving husband — none of it seems to give her any joy. She is not sure what she wants but is absolutely certain that marriage and motherhood are not among them. Her steps to undo her mistakes only seem to result in more trauma.
At one level, travel is what she does to get away from the mess that her life has become. At another, it would seem her destiny lay in these travels — such a profound impact they have on her.
India, as a "spiritual destination" looks like an obvious choice going by her need for healing and the fact that she was already introduced to the ideals and philosophy of a certain Guru who has an ashram here.
But not before she visits Italy from where she pens her 36 "tales of pleasure". Unlike a tourist, she wants to experience the place through living here in the real sense.
Instead of a hotel room, she stays in a rented apartment. She enrols herself in an Italian language class and does the everyday things like buying vegetables, paying the electricity bill etc.
A foodie in Italy
In Italy, food ranks high in her priorities. She delights us with descriptions of food and food joints such as the Pizzeria da Michele. At da Michele, which has "only two rooms and a non-stop oven", Gilbert loves her pizza so much she feels like she is losing her mind and has in her delirium come to believe that her pizza might actually love her in return.
In contrast, India becomes a land where ritual and renunciation rule her stay. A small ashram that the writer does not want to identify, "situated in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere" brings about the most profound change in her. She spends long hours in meditation, chanting mantras, and although finds this the most tough, singing the "Gurugita".
And although the account of her stay at the ashram is laced with humour and a certain lightness, the intention is anything but. Like a yogi, she tries to connect with the Almighty through a regimen of meditation, scholarly study, practice of silence and devotional service. And she passes on many a nugget of knowledge.
A balance
Finally at Bali she finds a balance between the two starkly different ways of living — where pleasure and prayer meet and makeher a whole new being. Inspiring and entertaining, Eat, Love and Pray combines in it a journey and a memoir, memorable for its candour and soulful drama.
Gilbert arranges the book as a prayer rosary or a japa mala. Like the 138 beads in the mala, there are 138 stories in the book. The stories are arranged in three sets, dedicated to "leisure", "devotion" and "balance" — with 36 tales each.
Elizabeth Gilbert's earlier writings include Pilgrims, Stern Men and The Last American, a non-fiction.
Her contribution to the Gentleman's Quarterly magazine on her experiences as a bartender at the Coyote Ugly Saloon inspired the film "Coyote Ugly" released in 2000.
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