PEOPLE & PLACES
Jaipur, Shillong, and Goa, to
London, Paris, and Bangkok.
By the end of this year, I will
have participated in literature
festivals, ideas festivals, cultural
exchange programmes, and
fellowships in many of these
cities, reciting whole pages
from the book while trying
to look straight and breathe
normally. Bigger challenges
have been thrown at people, but
being asked to “only speak for
45 minutes so that the audience
has enough time to ask
questions” left me speechless.
Even harder was fi guring out
the codes of writerly travel:
attend a session or see the
sights, line up for the free lunch
or walk around and fi nd a place
to eat, after-party or room
service-and-Netfl ix.
I tried everything. Staying
back at the venue after my
session at a feminist festival
in London, I chanced upon
a twerking workshop that
screamed sisterhood louder
than some of the #metoo
panels. During a lunch break
at an ideas festival in Aspen,
Colorado, I piled my plate with
a specially catered Polish feastTHE PLACES TO WHICH
I usually travel can hardly be
called ‘destinat ions.’ Starting
in 2014, I have visited towns
and cities across India, from
Meerut and Ranchi to Surat
and Salem, to report stories
of young Indians’ dreams
and despairs. I did my best
to explore their known and
unknown charms: street food,
cafes, markets, and museums.
It became a routine: fi nish
work and fi nd something
interesting to do. And then,
things changed slightly. In
January 2018, I published my
fi rst book, Dreamers, which
profi led a set of young Indians
trying to make bigger and
better lives for themselves
in small towns. Released at
a time when the country’s
demographic dividend
threatens to be a liability for
the world, Dreamers received a
wide range of critical attention,
and I, travel invitations.
I had mildly anticipated
the former, but was wildly
unprepared for the latter.
My travel options spanned an
enviable range of ‘destinations’
in India and the world, fromTHE DILEMMAS IN
WRITERLY TRAVEL
Snigdha Poonam
Author
AS HER BOOK FETCHED HER INVITATIONS,
SNIGDHA POONAM FACED THE STARK
CHOICE BETWEEN BEING A WRITER AND
A TOURIST ON HER LITERARY TRIPS.
CLOCKWISE: COURTESY OF SNIGDHA POONAM; DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE/GETTYIMAGES; IMAGEBROKER/ALAMYThe Big Ben stands tall in
the heart of London.travelandleisureindia.in