Few years back, I visited the southern part of India and visited many places like Munnar, Allyppey, Kovalam, Wellington, Tiruvanantpuram and Rameshwaram. It was while visiting Rameshwaram and the Rameshwaram temple when we heard all the tales and legends from locals, and saw all the murals and paintings around the city and the temple itself, and of course, a live demo of the rocks that float on water when inscribed with the name of Lord Rama, there was this deep desire within me to complete the trail of the journey of Rama. Visit places where he was born, places which were special to him, Sita temples in Nepal and so on.. But it was an extensive journey and despite harboring this desire for long, I never could partake it.
On the Krishna Trail is a unique book. The author Lalitha Balasubramanian decided to visit one of the places related to Krishna when her husband suggested to complete the trail by visiting every place related to Krishna and that is the very basis of this book. Its a memoir of this trail with details of all places, every temple, every tale, every legend and local encountered, along with helpful details like how to reach the place, what to visit, in what capacity, etc. The details are so colorful you feel you are actually visiting the place and seeing/feeling what the author was actually going through.
The book is also marked by photographs taken by the author during the journey and the author has decided to pursue pics of not only the more famous places, but also of the lesser famous ones and even certain important points and places. The temples and places she visits in the book range from old earlier constructed Vedic temples to the more recent ones.
As mentioned earlier, what makes her narration interesting is her coverage of all legends and tales related to each of the place and temple and then enhancing the reader experience with photographs of this place. Another major achievement of Lalitha has been that she has written this book from the viewpoint of a devotee and not that of a tourist. In my opinion, that makes all the difference that there is between what could have been a regular travel memoir and a heartfelt coverage of the life of Krishna.
I dont have any complaint with the book. The writer has been successful in keeping the narration interesting and you are always hooked to the chapters which is mostly what you wont expect with books covering personal travel details of the author. The author deserves full marks for achieving exactly what she had set out for initially.
I would give this book a perfect 5/5
The book is available on Amazon
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B097LBPRVW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
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