Let’s stop fooling ourselves. No matter how many stamps our passport might hold and how many air miles we might have collected, most of us remain tourists pretending to be travellers as we narrate our experiences of walking on the virgin sands of Bali or diving into the pristine waters off the Melbourne coast. But Rahul Jacob comes across as an author with utter honesty and sincerity in his debut offering Right of

Passage – Travels from Brooklyn to Bali, a compilation of travel pieces and stories written by him over the years. “We are all tourists and to pretend otherwise is a bit pretentious, unless you go for months at a time,” he tells me. His book is equally forthright, with a discretionary note by the author in the lengthy prologue, stating that “he travels for the fun of it” and that his approach to travel “is to be led by my obsession of the moment.”

If given a chance at re-incarnation, I would choose to be Rahul Jacob just to have a go at his job. Having been the travel, food and drink editor of the Financial Times in London since 2003, he is sweet enough to confess that it’s like “being on a paid holiday”. Though he complains about being chained to his desk most of the time, his travels have
taken him to faraway lands and this book serves as a by-product of those journeys. Generally, you’d be wary about reading a compilation of columns posing as a book, but Jacob’s style of writing works in his favour. The most
interesting facet of this book is the narrative, interlaced with Jacob’s interpretation of the places on the basis of his sharp observations and economic, historical and cultural references, apart from personal little vignettes and anecdotes as well.

So be prepared to see New York from the eyes of Jacob as a fresh graduate looking for his first job and finding it with Fortune, comparing the Bali of 1930s and today and finding startling similarities, and his amusing account of Singapore as a nanny-state where ‘Don’t quote me’ statements coming from everyone around you reveal what lies underneath the layers. Luncheons with eminent personalities like novelist
Vikram Seth, chef Madhur Jaffrey and writer Jan Morris, whose writings he’s a self-confessed fan of, give perspective
and add variety. Looking at a place from a tunnel vision, he admits, might not appeal to all. It’s even exasperating in
certain pieces, where you yearn to get some relatable information but are left with personal stories, historical references or too much insider information instead. “But it often works because the microcosm tells a lot about the big picture. To write about a place like Goa as if you were discovering it would be farcical,” he says. Fair enough. Another interesting departure is a section of his hilarious accounts on celeb spotting, the joys of travelling economy class and the pleasures of travelling in trains.

As a compromise on the part of his otherwise personal observations, Jacob provides a Fact File at the end of each
travelogue, perhaps to appease those who are looking at extracting some valuable info on things like where to stay and what to eat. The writings won’t transport you to exotic lands but when you get there yourself, you’ll be a sharper and a more informed traveller with a capacity to look beyond the obvious. Or a tourist, so to say.