Journey To The Center Of The Earth - by Richard and Nicholas Crane

I had gone to the library with all the intention of bringing home a Stephen King novel. But somehow I couldn't locate any of the books on the bottom shelf where they are usually kept. The attendants were busy with people who had rushed in before the closing hours - the library would be closed the next day. Maybe next time, I said to myself as I set about finding something else to read. Then my eyes fell upon the book which evidently had been returned by someone recently since the attendants hadn't yet found time to return it to its proper place on the shelf. The title was misleading - Journey to the center of the earth. Definitely, this wasn't the journey chronicled by Jules Verne. The title had two names - Richard and Nicholas Crane. Never heard of them before.

Intrigued, I glanced at the back cover. Looked like the authors, who are cousins, have undertaken many journeys to remote places on earth on their bicycles and then written about them. But surely, there is no such thing as the center of the earth - I wondered as I thought of the caves filled with precious stones, raging dinosaurs and cute little blue birds depicted in the Hollywood movie of the same name. Turns out I was right and wrong at the same time. Sure, there is the center of the earth, albeit, rather less romantic. It is somewhere in China. And to reach that the two authors had to journey across Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Tibet and finally China. Oh Boy!

The journey began somewhere in Bangladesh and the authors didn't seem to think much of the densely populated country where the people, so the authors describe, are prone to turn aggressive to satiate their curiosity. I didn't look forward to the part where they would travel through India. It's one thing to criticize your own country but when an outsider does it, you are bound to turn defensive. But the Crane brothers, Brits both of them, had only the usual comments to make about the lack of cleanliness in India. And overall, they seemed impressed with the people - who weren't much curious about two foreigners - and the food dished out.

I was mainly interested in their impressions about Nepal - a country I hope to visit one day, and definitely about Tibet. So that part of the book was pretty interesting for me. To be frank, for someone like me who was born and brought up in a metro, the thought of cycling across foreign countries, in inhospitable regions, with the aid of just maps, without carrying any food, and only one set of clothes, is at once exciting and thoroughly frightening. I don't think I have it in me to trust total strangers to that extent. But the Crane brothers seem unfazed by the prospect, more or less throughout the journey. They stay wherever they can find accommodation - be it a tent, a settlement of huts where the residents seem slightly off their center or some cave right in the middle of a desert. They eat whatever is served up in the region they happen to be in - be it "Dahl" in India, Yak butter in Tibet or Stir-fry in China. And they do everything from servicing their bikes to navigating their paths. If anyone deserves to find the center of the earth, it's definitely them.

Now, if you ask me where this so-called 'center of the earth' is, I can only say that it is somewhere in China. All those calculations of latitude and longitude were completely Greek and Latin for me. However, that did not matter even a bit. What was more important for me were the authors' impressions about the cities and villages they traveled through - e.g. Urumqi, Golmud,Taklamakan - places that I am unlikely to visit, ever. It was like going to these places myself. What was equally important was their experience of the fellow human beings who didn't have much in common with these travelers except being human. Today world has become a smaller place and in the process events that underline the mean, base, evil part of the human nature are being beamed across the corners of the earth. It's so comforting to know that, barring a few odd experiences, there still exist people who will feed a tired traveler - even if it means sharing whatever meager food supply they have - without expecting anything in return, who will give them a shelter for night - even if their dwelling happens to be just a single room and who will drop whatever they are doing to make sure that these travelers are on the correct road.

I remember reading somewhere that the only reason the world still exists despite all the meanness, strife, hatred and evil is a handful of people somewhere who still believe in being human, being kind and being helpful. I suspect that there are more than a mere handful of such people because it would be too much of a coincidence if the Crane brothers met them all on their journey.

So finally when the authors did touch the center of the earth I felt like jumping to my feet and shouting 'Yes, they did it'! Because for me, it wasn't only the two of them but a lot many others who, though symbolically, were part of the journey.