Places In Between

This book was recommended by my roommate. She said it’s about a guy who is walking in Afghanistan. My first thought  was that the book is just some white guy moving in Asia to see poor hungry people reluctantly, I still put it on my list from NYPL.I got the book a couple weeks later and when I started reading I realized that the book is about a historian

Rory Stewart who waked from Iran to India on the same path that the Mughal Emperor Babur took in the 14th century. Now Rory had walked parts in Iran and again from Kabul all the way across Pakistan to India and Nepal. But he could not walk across Afghanistan while Taliban was ruling. In the later end of 2001 when Taliban government fell and the US forces took over the area Rory re-started his walk from Herat in Western Afghanistan to Kabul. The walk around a month long was started in January 2002 and I must say the winters are extreme. The book begins with the author starting in Herat and getting a letter from the governor Ismail Khan of Herat. This letter will be useful when crosses friendly territory in the neighboring regions. Once past those areas the author will have to gain other letters from local leaders. During his walk Rory wholly relies on the 'hospitality' of people in the villages that he crosses. He believes he will get shelter and food to eat from his hosts. He plans to cover 30-40 kms per day and carries a light and small backpack with essentials.

For the first couple days the author has company of 3 people Aziz, Qasim and Abdul Haq who have been assigned to help him get to Chaghcheran (half way through to Kabul). Realizing that its not easy to walk the three leave Rory and go back to Herat. From there on Rory walks alone  until later he picks up a dog and names him Babar who keeps him company. The narration of this book is very personal and its what the author views of the landscape and surroundings. Being a historian the author is very interested in the different architectural monuments (mostly in ruins or destroyed by the Taliban) that he crosses. He keeps the diary of the emperor Babar and occasionally, quotes from it as he crosses the same areas more than 6000 years later.

The author knows Persian dialect that he picked up from his walk in Iran and uses it for conversation. He tries to make conversation with his host about the culture and the change in governance. He realizes that most of the village people he meets have no idea about the WTC. The women have never been even 5 kms outside of their village. The men have been further but not far enough. They know only about their local rivalries and the issues of their farms and livestock’s. The author sees that rivalries between different clans run really deep and that the local chieftains rule their area and mostly the villagers are uneducated and unaware of the outside world. Towards the end of his journey the author is put in a precarious situation when he meets a local Taliban chief. His encounter with the Taliban brings out yet another flavor of Afghanistan.

The author fears that the UN and other organizations are not solving the real problem for the people. Walking from Herat to Kabul he has seen real people and their real problems. Unfortunately the people in the organizations "came from postmodern, secular and globalized states with liberal traditions in law and government. It was natural for them to initiate projects on urban design  women's rights and fiber-optic network cables. The villagers on the other hand were illiterate and lived mostly without electricity and television and any knowledge of the outside world. Versions of Islam, ethnicity, government, politics, proper way of dispute resolution and also they were on war for the last 25 years.". Village democracies, centralization and gender issues will be hard to sell concepts to most of these places. Most policy makers did not have the time and resource to study the new culture and instead they focused on poverty .

The book ends with the author reaching Kabul and taking the flight to London. He brings out the stark difference between the clean roads on London and the semi nude posters of women. Personally it's a good book and a good read for anyone interested in history, geography and politics of Afghanistan. I personally liked the journey of the author and felt like I was walking with him. At every point I was looking forward to the next village and the next mountain to climb. Though I will never be able to take the journey myself some responses he gets from the villagers would be similar to the ones he gets in remote villages in UP and Bihar. He does compare Afghanistan at some points to Pakistan and India and his description of mud houses does remind me of small village houses in India.

Today more than 8 years of his completing his walk across Afghanistan the war is still on, the democracy is still not in place, people are still suffering and Taliban is still fighting. I hope things change and hopefully the various agencies understand the 'real problem'.

My Rating: 8.5/10.0