Journey to India

Alicia Satchel is a Toronto-based writer and poet.

This book is not only about travel. Thompson’s personal and spiritual
growth becomes a journey within a journey; for him, traveling involves
discovery and exploration of self.

Well-crafted imagery lets us taste the salt of the sea and become
light-headed with the summer smell of English fields. We meet luminaries
from Oxford, Norway, and Orthodox Russia of 40 years ago, along with
less illustrious types like ships’ boatswains.

The author’s impressions of the nitty-gritty of daily college life in
the Southern state of Travancore in the 1950s is a dryish slice of India
served with only modest flavoring and fated to appeal more to the
conservative literary palate of historians than to the average reader;
however, the people, landscapes, and prevailing atmosphere of the
college enclave are vividly portrayed. All readers will surely delight
in Thompson’s striking descriptions of breathtaking moonlit nights,
dramatic monsoons, a surprising encounter with a snake, and winsome
friendships with cherished canines.

In all, this is a beautifully crafted memoir that conveys among many
colorful impressions India’s immutable natural heritage.