FACE TO FACE
A river’s tale
MITA KAPUR
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Alice Albinia on how her book Empires of the Indus came into being.
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Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash
More than just a travelogue: Alice Albinia.
Looking at Alice Albinia’s slender frame, one wonders how she’d braved the extensive travels to delve into the religious and political history of the subcontinent for her book Empires of the Indus. “I thought I wa
s going to write a straightforward history until I actually visited the Indus for the first time in 2003. I realised that it was the impact of the river’s history on its present that was interesting and relevant, especially in a land like Pakistan. And what mattered particularly was how the people of the Indus viewed their history and culture; I wanted to know what was and what wasn’t important to them, who their heroes were and who were not. Almost everything I know I learnt everything from those journeys and those meetings.”
Travel writing allows for a multiplicity of genres to be woven in and there is still not too much happening from India though “some of the travel writing I like best is being written from India. There’s a lot of very rich travel journalism coming from here, I think. Often these examples were my inspiration.”
Following the story
“I wrote a book I wanted to read. Often what is interesting isn’t one thing or the other — not just history or just politics or just folklore or just ecology — it is all these things together. I think it is about being fascinated by the story you are following, and wanting to know more about it, and thinking about it from many different directions. It also helps if you can give it time. As far as I am concerned at least, among my favourite parts of the book were those that meant but staying in one place. Some things one only discovers in time.”
“Travel narratives are all about” being fascinated by the story you are following, and wanting to know more about it, and thinking about it from many different directions. Laughing, she added, “I drink a lot of tea, make a lot of friends, ask a lot of questions.” As a woman travelling alone in sometimes hostile regions, Alice didn’t find it very difficult. “In fact, I think it was easier being a woman than a man because in those places where men and women never have the chance to interact (if they are from different families) I was able to flit between those two separate worlds.”
Differences and similarities
Travelling in Pakistan and living in India, she has dealt with similarities and distinct differences; the many differences stand out more, she feels. Dealing with multi-culturalism and diverse ethnicities draws varied and textured reactions. Alice responded to them “generally with great enjoyment. By the end of my travels I had a great yearning to know about the place I come from and about which I know so little.”
Her interest in the Rig Veda comes from “its relevance to India; its extraordinary antiquity. Part of its fascination too is in its unknowable strangeness. It is unique; has there been anything written like it since? It is a historical record that represents the thoughts and yearnings of some people who lived here a very long time ago. But what were those people like and what were they trying to say? Probably we will never know for sure.”
Then there are moments and stories that she may have left out. “I will never forget the experience of travelling with my book back to the Indus lands. In Hyderabad, Sindh, for example, many people came for the event and talked in emotional, often angry, ways about their depleted river. And then three friends from Karachi, two of the sisters I stayed with for chapter three of the book and I went for a trip to a village called Hala where they make painted pottery. I have a lovely bowl on my windowsill at home which reminds me of that day. We ate our picnic sitting under a mango tree.”
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