We travel to escape from the drudgery of life to rejuvenate our mind and body. This in turn opens up new vistas to explore and experience the extraordinary that could include flora and fauna, mountains, oceans, lakes, rivers, ruins, monuments, religions, cultures and cuisines. If life is a journey, then travelling adds color to this journey. It enriches us in ways that are difficult to comprehend. In her book, Desha Bideshara Pathaprante, Bandita Nayak has tried to narrate her travel experience over three continents that include countries Italy, Portugal, Spain, Peru, China and Sri Lanka. Her travelogue has tried to vividly describe her experience that touched her heart, uplifted her spirits and made her stop and think, in places such as, the Roman ruins in Rome, the dazzlingly ornate Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, the exquisitely beautiful Alhambra in Granada, famous for its Moorish architecture, the scintillating golden interior of Cusco Cathedral in Peru, tens of thousands of excavated Terracotta warriors of Xianin China, and the Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha (rumored to have been brought from Dantapuri, the modern Puri of Odisha) to Kandy, Sri Lanka. Read more