July 31, 2010

PG Tenzing

Ran across a sad bit of news last night: PG Tenzing died of cancer in Sikkim on Monday July 26. I never knew him, but last year I read and reviewed his book, Don't Ask Any Old Bloke For Directions: A Biker's Whimsical Journey Across India , here.

As you can see, I was critical of the book. But nevertheless, while reading it I got a sense of the spirit of this man, his integrity and wide-ranging interests. (And in fact the substance of my criticism was really that there should have been more of that in the book).

My loss, that I never met PG Tenzing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly my point.I enjoyed the book as I could relate to the places and people as I am in Kerala. But the book could have been more descriptive and more critical.But maybe Tenzing felt that time was running out!

JP said...

I don't agree with the view that the book should have been more descriptive. The wit, brevity and humour of the writer is what makes this an extraordinarily readable travelogue. Verbosity is not a virtue is proved by his brief, succinct yet loaded observations. This book is a masterpiece and it is sad that we cannot have more from a sparkling character and a gifted writer.