Lost Worlds

Michael Wood's A South Indian Journey (previously published as The Smile Of Murugan) and Alice Albina's The Empires of The Indus are both about the loss of tradition and culture.

Wood describes his visits to the "deep south" in Tamil Nadu over 13 years (starting in the early 1990s), where he develops strong bonds with a family in Chidambaram, especially with Mala, the matriarch. He also travels the pilgrimage circuit, and observes ancient temple rituals and customs first-hand. The author's sensitive descriptions of temples and gentle portraits of people he encounters are wonderful to read. He immerses himself into everyday life, anthropologist-like.

Wood calls Tamil Nadu, the "last classical civilization" because Tamil culture has arguably withstood the effects of modernization more than other Indian cultures (or other ancient cultures of the world, for that matter). However by early 2000, he sees dramtic changes in the lifestyles of Mala's children as they grow older, marry and have children. Their lives in rapidly urbanizing cities such as Madras, though an intricate blend of east and west, have lost many of the elements that made their parents' lives whole. At the end of the book Wood laments,"But how wonderful is difference, and how diminished we will be, if the global culture takes hold everywhere, and destroys these worlds; thoughtlessly rubbing out encoded identities which have grown over sometimes thousands of years." He does however, acknowledge the economic and educational benefits modernization has bought Tamilians.

Albina travels the length of the Indus cataloging and recapping the history of cultures that thrived along the the river over the past few centuries. The river weaves it's way through Tibet, India (Ladakh), Afghanistan and Pakistan. Therefore her books spans Vedic times, Alexander's invasion, the growth of Buddhism in Afghanistan, early Afghan invasions of India, the birth and development of Sikhism and so on. Unfortunately, Albina's book reads more like a history lesson interspersed with her travel difficulties, rather than a diary of observations and insights. Wood's book is just the opposite. But her main point is is unmistakable, ancient ways of life along the river are fast disappearing, without a trace.