तथागत आंनद की पुस्तक ORIENTA WISDOM मचा रही है धूम
आईएएस अफसर आनंद श्रीवास्तव के पुत्र है लेखक
डॉक्टर रजनीश शर्मा ने किताब की समीक्षा में किया अहम पहलुओं का खुलासा
Book Review
Title: Oriental Wisdom: Odysseys of a Young Indian
Author: Tathagat Anand Srivastava
Publisher: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Year: 2025
ISBN: 978-93-7003-614-7
Genre: Travel Writing/Reflective Non-fiction/Youth Literature
Short Summary
Oriental Wisdom: Odysseys of a Young Indion is a reflective travel narrative that chronicles a young. Indian’s journey across Southeast Asia. Through humorous incidents, cultural encounters, and everyday travel challenges, the book explores how travel becomes a powerful medium of education, self-discovery, and cultural understanding. It emphasizes learning beyond textbooks, highlighting empathy, adaptability, and observation as true markers of wisdom.
Review
Oriental Wisdom: Odysseys of a Young Indian is a refreshingly authentic travel narrative that transcends the conventional travelogue format. Written from the perspective of a young Indian traveler, the book documents a multi-country journey across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, while simultaneously offering reflective insights into culture, human interaction, education, and personal growth.
What distinguishes this work is its dual narrative voice-innocent yet perceptive, humorous yet philosophically inclined. The author skillfully captures everyday travel episodes-airport delays, cultural misunderstandings, chance encounters with strangers, food preferences, logistical mishaps-and transforms them into meaningful life lessons. Each chapter subtly integrates “lessons learnt,” making the book pedagogically valuable without sounding didactic.
The narrative structure follows a day-wise itinerary, which lends clarity and continuity, while allowing readers to experience the emotional rhythm of travel: anticipation, fatigue, excitement, frustration, wonder, and reflection. The portrayal of parental figures adds a sociological layer, presenting a microcosm of the modern Indian family navigating global spaces with cultural rootedness intact.
Stylistically, the language is lucid, conversational, and engaging. Humour is used as a narrative tool rather than embellishment, and dialogue-driven storytelling enhances readability across age groups. The author’s observational strength is particularly evident in interactions with locals-taxi drivers, tour guides, fellow travelers-highlighting how travel becomes an informal classroom for intercultural. learning.
From an academic standpoint, the book contributes meaningfully to youth travel literature, experiential learning discourse, and cross-cultural studies. It underscores the idea that education is not confined to classrooms but is deeply embedded in lived experience-a theme highly relevant in contemporary pedagogical debates.
In conclusion, Oriental Wisdom is not merely a record of places visited but a thoughtful exploration of how travel shapes perception, empathy, and maturity. It is recommended for educators, parents, young readers, and scholars interested in travel writing, value-based education, and modern Indian narratives in a global context.
