If two is company and three is crowd, then coming together of people from different religions, age-groups, ethnicity and occupations with the aim of exploring new destinations has to be a conducted tour. While there are many pre-conceived notions about this form of travelling, Srinath Perur’s If it’s Monday, it Must be Madurai—A Conducted Tour of India is an insightful peek into the world of group travelling that mainly comprises middle-age families and friends, and older couples who are through with all “responsibilities” and now wish to travel.
For a traveller who is more interested in the journey and isn’t bound by any day itinerary, opting for a conducted tour might be near suicidal. Yet, the author chooses this form of travel to give his own perspective, discuss stereotypes and experience a variety of tours—a pilgrimage, a slum visit, a desert safari and men-only tours.
This anthology takes the reader to Europe, sand dunes and camel safari in Jaisalmer, the less-talked about sex industry in Uzbekistan, the backwaters and spice gardens of Kerala, lush forests and wildlife reserves of Kaziranga in Assam, congested bylanes of slums in Dharavi, Mumbai, and the annual pilgrimage walk of Warkaris in Pune towards Pandharpur temple in Solapur.
Except for a few tours, the Bangalore-based writer feels like an outlier in most because of his pony-tail that marks him as a misfit in a group judgemental of his appearance from the very start. He highlights this aspect of discrimination well in his writing and with a pinch of wry humour.
But this compilation is more than just travel writing. The author raises intelligent questions about the idea of travelling, the herd-mentality of travel tours and the damage tourism causes to the environment and cleanliness of a place. He observes how the occupants of a tour-bus may not be interested in the art or history or architecture of a place, but the very idea of seeing a well-known tourist destination and clicking pictures as a testimony of their presence is enough for them to visit it.
The author also notes how such tours provide moments of privacy to many couples who live in communal, joint-family structures.
“....but a couple’s first trip together in twenty years of marriage, or a woman visiting a place where she can dress differently and spend time with her husband away from their joint family is significant to them in its own way,” he writes.
Perur, who is a travel writer, also packs in history in the book that adds to its richness. While we read about his experiences of travelling in a group to various places, we also learn just as much about the history of those places.
It is a candid, humorous take on the world of conducted tours and the many banes that are a part of it.