On 20 Jan 2017 12:22 pm, "Udhay Shankar N" <ud...@pobox.com> wrote:
Posting this fond review of 'Travels With The Fish' in memory of the said fish: author Gopinath's younger brother and longtime silklister Ramu Narayan, who passed away last week. Farewell, Ramu. Udhay http://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/books/travel-cl assic-travels-with-the-fish/ TRAVEL CLASSIC: TRAVELS WITH THE FISH Funny, quirky and spontaneous, this book is a classic Indian travelogue October 11, 2015 C.Y. Gopinath’s Travels With the Fish appeared at a time, back in the old millennium, when Indian travelogues were thin on the ground, and funny, quirky, spontaneous ones even more so. Gopinath made his own rules, slipping in accounts of the pigs of Bhusawal and travels in rundown Bihar along with stories of his adventures in fancier places—Jerusalem and Chicago, Australia and France. The fish that he travels with actually stays at home and proffers bookish advice a priori and post facto. This armchair traveller is old school too; he knows his stuff, in that brainier pre-Internet age, from the Condé Nast magazines he collects and has internalised. Best of all is the food. Many stories come with a recipe thrown in—for the sublime aubergine and chicken that Gopinath ate at the home of his Cairo taxi driver which he reconstructed with much trial and error over years; or the green curry for which he smuggled in galangal by the suitcase from Thailand. The wry tone gives way to ecstasy only when he is describing eating, with a description of a humble rice and dal meal he had in Rajgir taking the cake. This marvellous book could, just as well, have been Travels with the Dish. -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) Delurking to share that I first read Travels with the Fish when was 12, on the recommendation of our drama teacher at school. It went on to become a favourite book that didn't stale with re-readings. Soon after I first read it, Ramu Narayan mentioned (at a silkmeet, perhaps?) that the Fish was based on him, and hearing this thrilled me to bits. Saddened to hear of his passing.
