Book review - walking in the clouds - A journey to Mt. Kailash and lake Manasarovar

THE PLOT: 

Mt.Kaliash is unscalable. Some attribute it to spirituality while some to the way it is formed. There is a saying that no human can scale it because, for any human to scale the mountain, need to have a high level of spiritual cleanliness which is almost unattainable for the common man.

As I looked at sample pages, well the book was not about scaling Mt.Kailash itself but it was about going round about Mt.Kailash and lake Manasarovar by trek. Nonetheless, I picked the book when it came under the recommended reads in the travel section hoping for an interesting read.

Indian Author, Kavitha Yaga Buggana who has a comfortable life with two kids in Hyderabad after returning from USA, along with her childhood friend and decides to do Manasarovar and Mt.Kailash trek overcoming the reluctance of their families. Its about indomitable spirit of two common women in their forties attempting the trek. 

MY THOUGHTS: 

             The language is simple with vivid explanation. The story flows without hiccups and is a short read of 150 Pages. She starts with describing how she feels low when she sees other foreign trekkers in her group far ahead on the first day, her friends from Hyderabad far behind her and the way she is stranded alone in the middle of huge mountains. She goes on to say how every time they planned manasarovar trek, it crashed down due to one or the other reason and finally third time they got to go on this epic journey.

             This is definitely a good read for free spirited people. It pushes us to think how a common man stuck with family can also think about going beyond the realms of reality and dream about doing something different. It talks about the guts she has and the risk she takes to make her childhood dream come true. She talks about meeting people from different parts of the world on her journey and what has driven each of them to take up this epic journey.

            Through out the book she enriches her writing with the mention about facts like Indo-china war in 1978 and how it affected the whole Mt. Kaliash pilgrimage visits. She talks about the sects in Buddhism, about the real struggles of Tibetan people and about their history. When she is hit by severe AMS and she cannot continue the parikrama around Mt.Kailash she is heart broken.
She also connects it to the great Zen master Dogen's saying "A flower falls even though we love it, a weed grows even though we do not love it" and realises that it is important to accept both the success and failure, good and bad and stay on common grounds. The book is loaded with information on various topics and I personally love these kind of books which enriches our knowledge after we have read through them.

MY RATINGS:

Language : 5/5 :     Simple and easy to understand, vocabulary orients towards easy to moderate.

Flow :         5/5 :     Perfect flowing story 

Knowledge:4/5 :   Good blend of mention of facts, history and personal experience

Do I recommend? : Definitely "YES"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Kavitha Yaga Buggana lives in Hyderabad, India with her husband. They have two children and a very excitable golden retriever. ​Her essays and short fiction have been published in The Hindu, River Teeth Journal, Tehelka, Out of Print Magazine, JaggeryLit, and Muse India Magazine. Her travel memoir, Walking in Clouds was released in December 2018 by HarperCollins, India. ​In previous avatars, she was a software engineer in Chicago and a developmental economist doing field work in Angallu village, South India.