Finished reading a bulky and
heavy coffee table book “In Search of
Solace” written for promoting tourism of Arunachal Pradesh.
It’s an interesting reading.
Readers and tourists will come to know about state’s many unknown and less
travelled beautiful places besides helping them to improve their general
knowledge and information about Arunachal Pradesh.
Every chapter will transport
you to different distant land with nothing around you but beautiful pristine
natural beauty abundantly found in the state.
The authors have described
and mentioned state’s beauty in such a way that every travel lovers and even
the readers will be fascinated to make a trip to Arunachal Pradesh after
reading this book. Detail information about important visiting places has been beautifully
described.
Even after finished reading
this book, the beauty of Arunachal Pradesh will virtually linger in your mind.
Images and experiences of
those diversities including those chill water, lush green, misty mountain,
thrilling hanging bridges, innocent people, gushing of mighty rivers, splashing
of streams, colourful and enchanting festivals, enthralling chanting of the
priests during different rituals, diversity of rare fauna and flora remain
fresh and refreshing. One can virtually experience the diversity of Arunachal
Pradesh while going through In Search of
Solace.
However, all said and read;
the book is not sans mistakes. Many spelling mistakes in names and places
are there.
For example, the author has
mentioned Narmi Matmur Jamoh as Narmi Manmur Jamoh (page 84). Chongkham in Namsai district has been
incorrectly mentioned as Chowkham
though it was formerly known as Chowkham.
While mentioning about a
brave warrior of the Indian Army’s 2 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles Shere Thapa who fought against the
Chinese in 1962; within a paragraph Shere
Thapa becomes Siri Thapa (page
227)creating confusion among the readers.
One of the places in Anjaw
districts, Kibithoo has been mentioned as Kibithoo and at the same time it been
mentioned as Kibitoo.
Two inappropriate images
have also been inserted while describing about the beauty of Anini in Dibang
Valley; the Place of Idu tribes. Photographs clearly show that they either
belong from Lohit or Anjaw district (Page 137)
Equal distribution of space
is not given while mentioning many places and districts. Some districts and
places are described at lengths while few are given only couple of paragraphs.
Not much has been covered about Palin, Sangram, Koloriang, Lohit and Anjaw.
Describing about the
importance of Thukpa, the author
mentions about the Nyishis of Doimukh in Papum Pare district, seems
inappropriate. The writers could have mentioned some other food items commonly
consumed by the Nyishis in place of Thukpa.
Even I am confused if
outsiders are allotted land in this state or not when writes mentions about
Daporijo in Upper Subansiri district, “The woman who migrated 20 years ago. Now
the local tribal have taken her North Indian breakfast stable so well that not
only her business roaring but she has got some land for herself”.
The blunder that I find in this book is mentioned below when editorial
says:
“You would be delighted by the pastoral Khampti community in Dibang Valley and the hospitality of a people who even today plough their fields with help of Elephants”. The Khampti are found not in Dibang Valley but are the inhabitants of newly created district Namsai bifurcated from Lohit district.
While trekking through
Namdapha, the writer finds, “Except
squirrels we have hardly seen any other mammals and given the nature of the
terrain, I am not very much optimistic (page116).The state government must
put her attentions towards this issue to address the concern.
However, if these mistakes
are overlooked, this coffee table book is an interesting reading that says many
positive aspects of the state from tourism point of view.
One of the authors was so
mesmerized by the beauty of snow clad mountain pass Mayodiya around 60
kilometres away from Roing in Dibang valley when the writer says, “Why film makers rush to Europe for shoot
when they can get the best sight here in India.”
This bulky coffee table book
is the compilation of these authors Aruraag Mallick, Sankar Sridhar, Anup
Sharma, Anand Banerjee, Vaibhav Todi, Hamari Jamatia, Priyanka Joshi,Anup Kutty
and Prena Singh Bindra.
Besides the writers themselves,
Priya Ganapathy, Arif Siddiqui, Doli Ete, Vikram Gogoi, Jitendra Singh, Parvin
Singh, Dhritiman Deori, Eric Kilby, Mike Jhonsing, Pankaj Kumar and Raju Singh
have contributed their photographs.
However, how I wish some
local writers and travelers were also involved and engaged in editorial board
in making this coffee table book.
The forward notes are given
by Pema Khandu (A Diverse experience), PD Sona (Jewel of the North East), Sonam Chombay (Go on an Adventure) and Taru Talo (Festival of Life) which are not only interesting but portrays
true positive picture of Arunachal tourism.
Released in 2014, this
coffee table book In Search of Solace
is published and produced by CMYK
Printech Ltd with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
Finally minor yet important
drawback that I observed is the price of
this coffee table is missing if any case anyone desires to buy this book.
