WINTER KUARIPASS TREK 2025 BY PULAI....MY OPINION

 Yet there is no doubt that Pulai’s portrayal of this kind of journey, along with the description of the travel route itself, is truly engaging. However, with the intention of reaching a wider audience, I wish to share a few personal observations. Whether to accept or reject them lies entirely within your and your readers’ rights—there is no doubt about that.

I am a serious reader of travel literature. I have read many travelogues—writers like Umaprasad Mukhopadhyay, Prabodh Sanyal, and Debendranath are, of course, well known. In recent times, thanks to social media, I have also had the opportunity to watch interviews of several travellers, such as Tarek Anu (Bangladesh). Within travel literature, the geotraveller Bimal De deserves special mention. Very few people know this Bengali traveller, yet he was an extraordinary narrator and a courageous explorer. I cannot refrain from saying a few words about Bimal De.

Quoting from a piece written about him: “From childhood, he was free of all restraints. Many times, he ran away from home, drawn by the call of the distant Himalayas, and wandered through known and unknown pilgrimage sites across India. His life was enriched by a close association with many saints and yogis. In 1956, when Tibet was almost closed to foreigners and political circumstances had nearly severed relations between India and Tibet, Bimal De, without any preparation, travelled to faraway Lhasa with a group of Nepali pilgrims. From there, he left the group and went completely alone to Mansarovar and Kailash. At that time, he was only sixteen years old.” Later, the story of his Kailash journey was published as a travelogue titled The Last Pilgrim of the Great Shrine. The book is an invaluable contribution to travel literature.

In 1967, he set out from Kolkata on a bicycle to travel around the world. He had only 18 rupees in his pocket, but an indomitable courage in his heart. After travelling around the world for five long years, he returned home in 1972.

Anu Tarek, too, expresses in his distinctive manner that travel is not merely about packing one’s belongings and setting out; within travel, there is also a philosophy, a profound respect for and love of nature.

What I wish to say is this: when narrating a travel account, it should not be limited only to stories of coming and going. There is room to speak of many more things—things that readers of modest intellect like myself also wish to hear about. For example, the rivers along the route, the communities that live there, the relationship between mountains and human life, and so on.

I have shared these thoughts with you privately. Please forgive any impertinence on my part.

https://youtu.be/KPnPgR4F3A8?si=damYiTeD22mMlKYb

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