When I landed at Odyssey Bookstore in Brookfields Mall just five minutes before the event began, I thought I had lots of time. You see, I was going by the Indian Standard Time Syndrome; 6.00 p.m. means 6.15 or even 6.30 p.m. In fact the last launch I attended at the same place began so late that I couldn’t stay for the actual event. So when Sundari Chander, the compere for the evening, opened the proceedings at exactly 6.00 p.m., I shook my head in disbelief. And looked around wonderingly. The place was full; the organisers had to bring in extra chairs and there were people still standing around.
Hema Iyer Ramani’s Soulscapes: Travels and Conversations in India is a travel book with a difference. “Understanding a place is as important as understanding a person,” said Hema, of the philosophy underlying her book. Though she loves to travel, her health does not allow her to indulge in it. So Hema decided to combine armchair travelling with the actual experience. She noticed that some people had a “soul connect” with a certain place and so, when they spoke about their experience, it was almost as if she was present in that space and time. She recorded these experiences and thus was born Soulscapes. The book turned out to be quite the family affair: Hema’s husband, artist V.V. Ramani, designed the cover and the illustrations and her niece, Kalpana, helped with the editing.
The book features 19 locations including Udaipur, Sikkim, Dwaraka, Kottakal and Banaras. Her selection of people is as varied as the places: dancer C.V. Chandrashekhar, historian Chithra Madhavan, and Carnatic musician Aruna Sairam. Aruna, who was the Guest of Honour at the launch, gave the audience a pleasant surprise by launching into ‘Vaishnava Janato’ after Hema read an excerpt from the chapter on Dwaraka. Aruna also spoke about the city’s connect with Krishna. According to her, one tribe still dresses only in black because it’s still mourning his death. “Not that they’re a sad people,” she quickly clarified. “It’s just that they want to remember what they’ve lost.” Another vignette began with the remark that “he is not a god there. He is child, friend, guide... a part of everyone’s life.” She then went on to underline that by talking of how people shop for clothes for the idol of Krishna in their homes. The shopkeeper expresses no surprise; only wants to know “how tall is your Krishna: three feet; six feet?” And the clothes: muslin for summer; velvet for winter and only a loincloth during times of extreme heat. She spoke of women who wove garlands of cotton wool so that it would not be too heavy for the child.
When it was his turn to take the mike, B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar - Chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore, who released the book - first expressed surprise that Aruna was as accomplished a speaker as she was a musician. “What more can I say?” he asked. Then, looking around at the expectant faces, he spoke about the book (“it take us to so many places and teaches one how to see a place”) and the revival of the reading habit (“I am happy to see so many people at a book launch.”).
M. Krishnan - Managing Director of Krishna Sweets who received the first copy - said that the author reminded him of Sanjaya of the Mahabharata who narrated the events on the battlefield to Dhritarashtra. Through her book, Hema was narrating the experiences of well-known people who had a physical, emotional and spiritual understanding of a place.