![]() With the help of a particularly long bus journey, I read the book in 2 days. The previous day we had had a conversation about poverty in India and whether it is in any way helpful to give someone 10 Rupees. I came across the book in a secondhand book shop in Cochin, whilst my friend and I were seeking refuge from some particularly persistent scarf salesmen. This is why I am so glad I read A Long Way Home whilst I was still in India. You’re no longer horrified by the small children cleaning the trains, your heart no longer hurts for the thousands of people sleeping at the side of the road, and you start to find the begging at every turn, annoying rather than upsetting. ![]() As awful as it is to say, after a while you turn yourself off from it. Poverty in India confronts you from all sides. It had been repeated so often that I barely stopped to think that the poor, barefoot children roaming the streets of India are just that. It was usually followed by ‘they won’t receive any of the money’ or ‘ you’re only helping their exploitation’. ‘ Don’t give them any money’ replays in my mind, a sentence I’d hear numerous times escaping the lips of Indians and travelers alike. ![]() They pull at our trousers and beg for money for naan bread and shampoo, grinning and showing us their blackening teeth. Two small children run through the main train station in Pushkar, bright red mud and sand caked into their hair. A Long Way Home – memoir set in India and AustraliaĪ Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, memoir set in India and Australia.
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