A Writer In Transit

The author of immigrant, Montana finds that long journeys, on trains and taxis, often spark his creative muse. He says in travel, “newness is everything”

- Rajni George

An intrepid and thoughtful traveller, Amitava Kumar is the author of seven works of non-fiction, among them A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna, and two novels, most recently, the critically acclaimed Immigrant, Montana (published as The Lovers in India). Always guided by a sensitive understanding of context and place, Kumar is one of the most interesting contemporary writers we have writing about the different worlds we inhabit. Born in Ara and raised in Patna, he lives in Poughkeepsie, New York and teaches English at Vassar College.

What do you love and hate most about travel, today?

I like that travel gives you new eyes. When I arrive in a town, and am taking pictures, I realise that most often my best pictures are the ones taken on the first day. Intimacy is overrated; newness is everything.

What do I hate about travel? How much time do you have? The presence of large crowds in packed enclosures, waiting to criss-cross the earth, makes me think of what we are doing to the planet. I’m put in this mood to entertain pessimistic thoughts because I feel my age when I travel. My body aches, I want to lie down. I crave silence.

Your books bring alive small towns as much as big cities. Do you prefer one over the other?

When I was a student in Delhi, I would go to the ISBT and catch a bus that would take me out to the small towns. The trip was inexpensive and I relished the feeling of freedom. What matters in the end, however, is the stories that people offer you. I value that encounter more than the place.

I love the road trip in Immigrant, Montana (The Lovers, in India). What have road trips meant to you, personally?