I read Maya Radj's free online ( mayaradj.com ) novel, R's Journey - The Wounded Elephant, before I travelled to India and avoided many pitfalls. Many thanks to the author, who, clearly based on recent travel experience, depicts the wonders and challenges of a spiritual journey (yatra) in India.
It was also a fun and education novel that taught me a lot about Indian culture, spirituality, philosophy, history and politics. I felt proud to be of Indian origin when visiting the country.
From the novel's summary:
It's the story of a life-changing three-week period in the life of R. Sharma, a young graduate living in <st1:city w:st="on">New Delhi</st1:city> in contemporary <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>. It is a story of ignorance and discovery, of illusion and reality.
After completing his undergraduate degree with high honours, R is still searching for a first job in the Indian capital. It is a deeply frustrated R that we discover at the start of this novel, a young man who has lost faith in his country and who begins to loathe it.
Fortunately, Mohini, his sparkling girlfriend knows how to cheer him up. Behind a mask of superficial frivolity characterised by a passion for Bollywood movies and their stars, she hides a clear agenda about her future and that of her boyfriend – they should leave <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region> and emigrate to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>—like her cousins, who are now enjoying a regal life there. Encouraged by Mohini, R begins to nurture an American dream. After all, his elder brother Ashok is now a successful computer programmer in a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city> company.
R asks Ashok for help. Initially very reluctant,—much to R’s bewilderment—Ashok eventually agrees to help his younger brother. However, prior to R’s departure, Ashok demands that his younger brother visit their family guru, Pundit Yogish Doobay in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Varanasi</st1:place></st1:city>. Oddly, Ashok also asks R to hand-deliver gifts to five of his university friends. The young man, already daydreaming of Los Angeles’ attractions, grudgingly agrees to undertake what he feels will be a highly unpleasant three week trip across the poor and dirty country that he now despises. Unknown to him, this journey is part of a plan orchestrated by Ashok to open his younger brother’s eyes on the hidden treasures of their country of birth.
Indeed, at every step, the journey provides plenty of surprising discoveries for the young would-be migrant—through experiences that re-shape his thinking and will likely change his outlook on life forever.
R starts his journey in the mystical city of <st1:city w:st="on">Varanasi</st1:city> on the banks of the sacred—and highly polluted—<st1:place w:st="on">Ganges</st1:place> river. There, Yogish Doobay reveals some of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s deepest philosophical and spiritual treasures: Yoga and Ayurveda, the stages and aims of life, Vastu, Maya and reality.
In Jaipur, the capital of majestic Rajasthan, R meets Colonel Singh, a direct descendant of Rajput kings who challenges some of the young man’s assumptions about Indian history and politics.
In Mumbai, the country’s economic powerhouse, as R watches the flow of poverty-stricken rural migrants flocking into the city, he reflects upon the social and political challenges facing <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> and Ashraf offers him an emotionally charged taste of Hindu-Moslem relations. To R’s surprise, the gift that Ashraf unwraps looks exactly like the Colonel’s, an elephant-shaped sandalwood paperweight that conceals a hidden message. But, like the Colonel, Ashraf does not wish to discuss the mysterious gift nor its contents!
We follow R as he visits Jeremy Souza in Goa, a popular seaside resort in <st1:place w:st="on">Southern India</st1:place>. There, Ashok’s friend and R discuss a few controversial aspects of the region’s colonial past.
In the southern <st1:city w:st="on">temple city</st1:city> of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Madurai</st1:place></st1:city>, R meets Nandan. The fourth of Ashok’s friends proudly shows off his new Ayurvedic clinic to the young man. He also explains why, unlike Ashok, he chose to return to his hometown after living and working several years in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Nandan’s father, an expert Ayurvedic practitioner, introduces R to the fundamental concepts of this ancient science of healthy living.
On the last leg of his trip, R meets Gautam, the last of Ashok’s friends in Bodhgaya, a historic Buddhist pilgrimage site in rural <st1:place w:st="on">Bihar</st1:place>. There, R learns from Radha’s about the different styles of classical Indian music and dance, and the fifth of Ashok’s friends reveals to R the astounding secret of the elephant-shaped paperweights…and that of the journey. It is a shaken young man who then hurries to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Varanasi</st1:place></st1:city> to seek advice from his guru! Along the way he begins to realize the influence that this journey has had on him.
Back in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Varanasi</st1:place></st1:city>, Yogish Doobay listens sympathetically to his young disciple, and helps R to see the light and find balance through some chosen teachings from the Vedants and the Upanishads.
‘R’s Journey – the Wounded Elephant’ is a novel of self-discovery that also outlines key aspects of the culture, philosophy, spirituality and history of India—the country hosting the world’s oldest continuing civilization—, against a backdrop of contemporary socio-economic and political issues, at a time when more and more people are turning their eyes toward this ‘Wounded Elephant’ struggling to rise.
This novel also aims to stimulate some thinking about immigration and its causes: poverty, underdevelopment, and the growing expectations of the youthful population of the ‘developing’ world.
