On 2009-08-02 Linda Blanchard, Midland, TX USA wrote: The writing in ´Humbler Than Dust´ illuminates India with the glow of Mona Lee´s own inner light. The degree to which we learn about Mona as much as India is quite remarkable, and not in a self-serving ego-feeding way at all, but through that very ´humbler than dust´ clear-eyed honesty that Gandhi meant when he wrote the quote that gave the book its title. I can only imagine that Mona would be someone I´d really enjoy hanging out with.
I found out about this book while I was looking at a bike to take with me on a trip to India (which I am planning on for a few years hence). I was at folding Bike Friday´s website when I spotted a mention of this book about a retired couple riding their tandem for a couple of months in India, and since I wanted to know what I´ll be up against (and get tips for what to bring) I ordered the book.
Drawn from Mona´s diary, the story carries us from arriving at the airport and stepping out into the Indian night and unsuccessfully fending off the touts who want a piece of their action (any piece will do.. taxi? hotel recommendation? carry luggage?); through negotiating the city in auto-rickshaws and on bike,; staying with strangers met on the way and new friends met via email; sleeping in tents, or in grim hovels that pass for hotels, or fine houses; shopping at 3-sided stalls and seeking potable water; having the water bottles stolen by nomads; dealing with rough roads and many flats; and much, much more.
With only a few stock phrases of Hindi, Dick and Mona are limited in their ability to communicate fluently, but this does not slow their immersion into the real life of India as they meet and eat with generous souls all along their way. Mona finds the constant scrutiny and tendency to swarm as unsettling as has every writer I´ve read upon first encountering the lack of privacy and personal space, and straightforward questioning of who you are and what you´re about that is the norm in India (but which would seem rude and intrusive in America). Yet every word she writes is suffused with her own down-to-earth nature and respect for everyone she encounters.
What impressed me even more about Mona´s tale was her willingness to talk about her personal preoccupations: from cleanliness, to the warmth of a sweater, to dental floss (no longer offered for sale when she was there due to a factory closure) and theories on immunological strength, she is unafraid to state just what she thinks, and then to learn from the experiences her travels bring to her. Just as she opened herself to the lives of those she met, she opens her life to us, and we are all better for the exposure.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in bike touring, India, or who enjoys reading travel stories. And when I go to India I will go with off-road tires, spare inner tubes and patch kits, baby wipes, cough drops, and remember to bring extra dental floss.
. And summed up by saying Well written view from street level. Currently Humbler Than Dust: A Retired Couple Visits The Real India By Tandem Bicycle has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
Humbler Than Dust: A Retired Couple Visits The Real India By Tandem Bicycle can also be found in the following searches:
Seaboard Press claimed Dick and Mona´s arrival by tandem bicycle in rural villages of India is like a circus come to town. Each time they stop, they are mobbed. Usually more than a hundred people close in around them. Or in this moving scene: ´. . . Dick boldly usurps the left edge of the blacktop and lets two big trucks roar around us . . . Another truck waits behind honking indignantly in demand of room to pass between us and a loping camel cart whose driver gapes sideways at us in abject wonder. After all, in this corner of the world an old white couple on a bike is positively bizarre in contrast with the mundane appearance of a camel driver sitting on a mountain of burlap bags, his white turban bobbing up and down.´They begin each day of their 1,000 kilometer journey not knowing what they will eat or where they will sleep that night. Lodging, if available at all, does not afford basic comforts taken for granted in many countries. Often there is no hotel, and they depend upon the kindness of strangers or camp out under the stars. On a visit to the Gandhi´s home museum Mona is inspired by a poignant quote from his autobiography. ´The seeker after truth must become humbler than dust. Only then and not ´til then will he ever find a glimpse of truth.´ The story takes the seeker along on a series of horrendous and at the same time humorous adventures wherein truth is found in intimate encounters with life, people and culture at its humblest. The truth they gradually discover is that the beauty of life can best be attained by biking headlong into adversity. Dick Burkhart and Mona Lee are a retired couple trying to circumnavigate the globe by tandem bicycle and popularize the concept of a global parliament directly elected by the peoples of the world. Humbler Than Dust is the true story of their two-month travel adventure in India as well as their organizing escapades at the 2005 World Social Forum in Bombay. Throughout the journey they meet a host of wonderful characters who help them in many ways. They even get some help from Ganesh, the popular elephant-faced god whose spirit permeates the atmosphere of India.
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