On Pico Iyer | One of the Greatest
Travel Writers of all Time!
Reflections from today’s Sunday Times
Rich Takeaways!
As they say, the Sunday Edition of the daily Newspaper is a real literary treat – a melange that stills the heart, and steals the soul, even if it is for that evanescent and ecstatic ‘state of statis’.
And so it was, that I grabbed my copy of the day’s newspaper, when in page 18 of today’s Chennai Edition of the Times of India, I chanced upon an interview with Pico Iyer, one of my all-time favourite travel writers – who’s been labelled as arguably the world’s greatest living travel writer due to his insightful and thoughtful approach to exploring different cultures and places.
One thing that makes Pico Iyer’s travel writings stand out is the fact that, he so beautifully weaves into his travel narratives – his intensely personal reflections – reflections that are highly introspective and philosophical – that make his travel writing an endearing treat for the travel-savvy soul!
His latest book (that comes close on the heals of the LA wildfires) titled, Aflame: Learning From Silence, is yet another testament to his profound reflections on solitude and spirituality.
In an interview with Sharmila Ganesan Ram, the traveller in him finds expression.
Before we go into the book, let me also foreground the fact that, Pico Iyer lives in Japan.
A few excerpts for us –
Like families in LA, you had to pick up the pieces after a wildfire ravaged your home in Santa Barbara in 1990. How do you look back at this time?
I was caught in the fire for three hours, saved only by a Good Samaritan
with a hose. I lost my next three books, all of which were in handwritten
notes. In many ways, I lost my boyhood dream of becoming a writer.
When finally, a fire truck came to tell me I could escape, I went to an all-night supermarket to buy a toothbrush.
That was the only thing I had in the world with which to start afresh.
I wrote an essay in Time magazine the very night of the fire, describing the hot summer day I’d just passed through and being stripped clean of every last possession.
I ended my article with a haiku from the 17th century I had picked up in Japan –
My house burned down
I can now see better
The rising moon.
So, two hours after losing everything material, I saw that not everything was lost.
You famously don’t own a cellphone...
… I’ve never used a cellphone. I already have enough data and
distraction; what I lack is time and space to process it. I value giving my
loved ones my full attention. I travel often so I’m glad I don’t have a
cellphone to further fracture my focus.
Your writing has evolved from chronicling the outer world to exploring the
inner world. What prompted this shift to spirituality?
A monk’s life is only as rich as what he can offer the world, and a
traveller’s life is only as deep as the stillness within…
signs off Pico Iyer.
What beautiful thoughts for a blessed Sunday.
Well, close on the heels of this interview with Pico Iyer, I thought of sharing from my past reading of Pico Iyer –
It’s titled, A Beginner’s Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations published in the year 2019.
The epigraph to the book bares it all –
Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.
- SIMONE WEIL
Then come the opening lines that literally hook you much-o-much to the soul of this sagely traveller -
I’ve been living in western Japan for more than thirty-two years, and, to my delight, I know far less than when I arrived. A land of streamlined surfaces gives you very much what you expect—and so much you didn’t expect, under the surface, that you don’t know what to do with it.
The home of collected inwardness has also shown me daily how much, as Proust observed, “a change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world, and ourselves.”
The phrase ‘collected inwardness’ here could connote a person who is calm, self-controlled, and introspective!
Travel teaches you this ‘collected inwardness’ says Iyer.
And most of the book is indeed a paean to the power of the ‘sounds of silence’.
As eminent critic Scupin Richard would call silence as - ‘the still, solemn music of the soul’.
Sample this from the book –
“Is it a problem if I call the Apple Service Center from here?” I try.
“No,” he says, which is a problem, since “No” in this situation could mean “It’s not okay,” or “No, it’s no problem at all!”
I take the safer option and sit there in silence as he completes his call. Then we pick up our shared silence.
Yet a few more -
A perfect date in Japan involves accompanying a loved one to a movie, watching the film together in silence and then, on the way home, taking pains not to talk about it.
Words only separate what silence brings together.
More important than learning to speak Japanese when you come to Japan is learning to speak silence. My neighbors seem most at home with nonverbal cues, with pauses and the exchange of formulae.
“What is the best thing about Japanese culture?”
“Silence,” he says, as he closes the door, and rolls down the window. “It’s a silent world.”
This book is indeed a transformative read for the lover of silence, stillness, solemnity and harmony!
To sum it up, if Gandhi is known for his experiments with ‘truth’,
Pico Iyer could be known for his experiments with ‘silence’!
To sign off, you may want to listen to one of my favourite numbers ever – The Sound of Silence by the famed folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel!
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