I happened to lay hands on the English version of a wonderful book "Narmada Parikrama " authored by Mr. Gangadhar Kulkarni. It chronicles an excursion that is arduous, challenging, exasperating yet highly rewarding. Walking a two thousand km long terrain along the banks of a great river such as the Narmada, with dense jungles, ravines, dangerous animals and snakes besides of course aboriginal cruel men must certainly be a stupendous journey undoubtedly.
Mr. Kulkarni made elaborate study of the region, meticulously planned entire paraphernalia while taking Good Samaritan's advice and wise counsel before undertaking the Adventure.
He is a true scientist, Geology being his vocation ; he is also endowed with deep insight into spirituality. And therefore one finds a beautiful amalgam of Science and Spirituality. He uses words such as 'hardware' and 'software' for his planning and preparations before embarking on the great pilgrimage, which required four and half months and trudging two thousand kilometres on foot.
In spite of exhaustion while negotiating almost twenty five km everyday, he kept writing daily notes in his diary. That explains secret of minutest details of the journey.
His style of expression is very simple, honest, illustrious and therefore it makes a very pleasant read. His own experiences of people and places is beautifully chronicled in the book. "
