The Journey in Search of the Ultimate
When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to VS Naipaul, the Swedish Academy specially considered his travelogues than his novels. Some years back, a group of researchers conducted a study on the reading habits of the people of Kerala and found that the first place went to travelogues and second to autobiographies. Novel, short story, drama and criticism all came only after that. Maybe because travelogues enjoyed ample marketing potential, travellers going out of Kerala wrote as a routine about the places they went to and published them. Some wrote such books without going anywhere. They simply sat in their reading rooms and wrote 'travelogues' going through a number of books!
There were no telephone, Internet or e-mail services when the famous writer and Jnanpith award-winner S.K. Pottekkatt made his travels. He found his hosts through letters and conducted many long journeys with very limited facilities. Being a storyteller by birth, he drew beautiful pictures of the places he went to using most beautiful words. Malayali families living in foreign countries attracted the particular attention of readers. The seeds of stories and rough sketches of characters came out of such travelogues. Along with SK, the reader also enjoyed each journey.
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