The Book of Life - Andrew Jackson

 Andrew Jackson was a successful advertising man based out of London. Having tasted success by his early thirties he decided that life was not just about making ad films and money and decided to launch on a project of meeting the really old people across the world and making sense of life. So he and his wife Vanella packed off all their belongings and put them in a container of sorts and took off on a long journey across the world.

So they traveled to Russia, China, India, Bali, Africa, South America, America, Turkey and so many more countries. He and Vanella go through a lot in that time, the uncertainty of not staying in the same place for more than two days, dwindling finances, stretching their dollars, going through health issues especially with Vanella's intestinal obstruction condition. 

The people he meets are quite interesting - rather very accomplished people almost. people who met Stalin, worked on the atomic bomb, wrote movies, were with the Ottoman empire, and so many such interesting people who were part of revolutions, huge changes in history, and also many normal people. Some wonderful conversations and insights - like the one he had with Prof Deodhar who talks about watching the ball out of the bowler's hand. Or the one with Morarji Desai and how he beats Andrew at arm wrestling at 93 - and his urine therapy. The one with Charles Bennett the screenwriter, another one with a matador (who fought a bull at eighty), another one with the old twins in China and so on.

The last part when Vanella gets sick and almost dies in Caracas was very disturbing but thankfully she survives and it all ends happily. However I thought the book would be different - with more insights - and apart from the one question that he asks - why did you live so long, there was nothing that explored their philosophy of life or what they learned. Yes, some didn't drink, ate sparingly, worked till the end, stayed happy etc but for the scale of his work, a little disappointing. His story with Vanella's health crisis was most dramatic and I could not read it almost. I was so glad she survived that operation. They go to London and find that all their belongings have been stolen or vandalised and they start afresh. They also have a baby and that was so nice to know. What it does not deliver in terms of the wisdom i looked for, it made up in taking me on the journey of the couple. Andrew wrote those parts with great honesty and feeling.

I bought this book in 2008, in Crossword, Deccan Gymkhana, where Malay and I had gone to visit. I don't know why it took me so long to read it but I always wanted to. I like the wisdom old people have and I loved the conversations I had with Shobha's mother. Glad I ticked it off.