CHENNAI: Travel is without limit to this culturist Sundeep Bhutoria. Sundeep who has travelled to 50 countries, writes his foreign travel anecdotes in his book, My Life My Travels. The book has been written with wanderer-like anecdotes in a raw and disorderly fashion, just like his journeys.
He says, “My visits were not always meticulously planned. For instance, when I went to Argentina for a conference, I decided to travel to Chile, Peru and Venezuela. The only preparation, I took was to get visa of these three countries also before leaving for Buenos Aires.”
It took him a year to complete the book — from compilation to final printing — with rounds of editing in between. But he claims that he did not find the process challenging at all. “I simply wrote what I had seen and narrated my experiences as they were without any further additions so it was simple.”
Sundeep, a Rajasthan-born- Kolkata-based social and cultural activist, says he is a complete Indian at heart. He has travelled to about 50 countries. He adds, “I am always an Indian at heart and I carry my Indianness wherever I go. I keep a lookout for Indian restaurants wherever I go. Having roti and daal at least once a day is mandatory. I have also travelled more than 100 km just to have Indian food.”
A couple of years ago, he recalls, he was surprised to find no Indian restaurant in one of the most popular cities in the world — Rio. “There were no grocery stores where Indian items were available,” he rues. “I travel for adventure, and the best part of my travels is that I always try to connect with the non-resident Indian community overseas.”
Whenever he goes to a new country or city, he tries to compare their lifestyle, civilisation, traditions, and discipline with those of our country. Even though he doesn’t consume alcohol, he would visit pubs with his friends and acquaintances. “I visit pubs all over the world with my friends and acquaintances. I started visiting them when I was living in England as British pubs have their own charm.”
In one of the chapters in his book, he writes about his trip to Moscow and how it turned out to be a place he has never read or heard about and he writes “What we call development in history destroys history itself”.
He explains, “Seeing the condition of Moscow airport I was shocked. What I expected to see in a powerful nation and what lay in front of my eyes... the difference was unbelievable. The once powerful nation had devastation and ruin written all over.”
He recalls one of the bad experiences which gave grist for fun writing. He says, “My ignorance about the British system landed me in a soup. Once when I was returning home late at night, I was walking along the park and got scared of the streetlights which seemed to be lighting up and going out with every step I took. I started running and the lights too kept up with my pace. I was so scared that I spent the night on a park bench. I later learned that these lights were automated (to switch on and off with a person’s shadow).”
Though there were a few such instances, he says he also got to learn about Indian history while on a trip to the UK. “Seeing the Kohinoor and the British Parliament... both owe their origins to India,”
he says.