There Are Other Rivers

The Last Day: to the Sea 

“Each day looks as beautiful as the roads that lead to the sea.” 

“Beep... beepbeepbeepbeep... BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP.”
 I know instantly where I am. It is a new day. India.
 I feel f…

The Last Day: to the Source 

“I know that it might be better for you to come out from under your might-have-beens, into the winds of the world.” 

“Beep... beepbeepbeepbeep... BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP.”
 I know …

Nightfall 

“When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch... I don’t improve; in further words, once a bum always…

Freedom 

“But the word timshel – “thou mayest” – that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open... Why, that makes a man great... He can choose his co…

Sunset 

“Better a thousand times that he should be a tramp, and mend pots and pans by the wayside, and sleep under trees, and see the dawn and the sunset every day above a new horizon.” 

Today may fini…

Struggle 

“You can boast about anything if it’s all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.” 

It’s hard to get my head round the idea of a “struggle” whilst sitting in a …

Challenge 

“You’re too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.” 

Doing something fun is fun. Ther…

Afternoon 

“I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory or slobbed for a t…

Quest 

“If one were properly to perform a difficult and subtle act, he should first inspect the end to be achieved and then, once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely a…

Pilgrimage 

“We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go Always a little further: it may be
 Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea.” 

Pilgrimage makes pra…

Religion 

“I have no bent towards gods. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul.” 

Religion is an integral part of India. Even my river is a goddess, revered at shrines alo…

Noon 

“And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.” 

The sun is at its …

People 

“I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.” 

The people I meet are a highlight of the journey. I meet good people, kind people, funny people, mad and sad and one or tw…

Joy 

“Every man has a retirement picture in which he does those things he never had time to do – makes the journeys, reads the neglected books he always pretended to have read.” 

I like doing exciting,…

Landscape 

“And then – the glory – so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outwa…

Learning 

“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.” 

My life really got going the day I finished formal education. I began enj…

Food 

“What does a man need, really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment.” 

A boy a…

Curiosity 

“I’ve never been content to pass a stone without looking under it. And it is a black disappointment to me that I can never see the far side of the moon.” 

Go somewhere new, try something dif…

Morning 

“And again there are mornings when ecstasy bubbles in the blood, and the stomach and chest are tight and electric with joy.” 

The water in the emerald paddy fields glints as I walk. A confetti…