“Transit Lounge” is a contemporary book consisting of short incidents, observations and reflections while travelling to 30 countries across six different continents during the last 15 years.

The book is a personal account of travels to places in Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and Mauritius), South America (Venezuela and Argentina), Asia (China, Iran, Kuwait, UAE, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka,Malaysia and Thailand), Europe (UK, France, Italy,Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Georgia,Turkey, Croatia and Romania), USA, Australia and New Zealand.  It was interesting to observe all these different cultures and people from an Indian perspective.

The book is a compilation of small incidents and events during such travels; it includes losing an air ticket, dealing with difficult custom officials or getting mugged in a prime location in a foreign country. It is based on observations that someone with an Indian context will find most noticeable while talking to a taxi driver, walking through the local markets or going to a tourist destination. In essence, it is about an Indian travelling the world and discovering India in the process.

Review-

A candid account of travel to various countries in the world. Transit lounge  by Sunil Mishra is a book of experiences worth the read, based on the early times when the author had started travelling for work, the book takes us on a tour that any other modern day book probably doesn’t.  Since its about the author travelling to those countries, years ago, a reader will find something new in everything. You can make a mental comparison of the current amenities and of the times that were. It was always something new to discover and always something new to read about. I was fascinated to read that their dinner cost them half a million Cedis (currency of Ghana), and you could see posh cars running on the roads, almost everywhere. I always had a soft spot for Africa and the first twenty three pages were and absolute delight.

The book is written in a good spirit, making the pleasant feeling of the journeys contagious for the reader. If you are a travel enthusiast or someone with wanderlust buried under the dust of daily chores, this is the book for you. It’s your ticket to those places that the author goes, without moving a muscle.

The narration is a treat to read as it is written in a simple manner, including not only what the author saw, but also what he felt about the hoi polloi. The author did mention some of his little adventures on his trips but mentioning those would just spoil all the fun.

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The best thing about the book was the way the author leaves his roots behind, only to find the branches of the tree, wherever he went. He left India to find it.

The book is highly organized. It has eight chapters, each representing some part of the globe. You could read the book from first to last or jump to regions which interest you more, if you don’t belong to the patient clan. My first choice was Africa and since it’s the first chapter itself, I went from first.

Of all the other chapters, the last chapter about Latin America, managed to grab my attention the most. There are not too many articles or stories based on Argentina and Venezuela so, as mentioned earlier, there was my something to discover.

This book is a clear example of how different yet similar, the people are all over the world.

The book has a minimalistic yet attractive cover.

Ratings-

Cover- 3.5 star

Title- 3.5 star

Blurb- 4 star

Content- 4 star

Writing and Presentation- 3 star

Overall- 3.6 stars out of 5

The book has a great content and some developmental editing would do wonders to the book.

The book could have been better had the author written it in a more involving way, including more of his thoughts and his interaction with the locals on a personal level.