Beijing, Apr 10 (PTI) Indian author and journalist Pallavi Aiyar has launched her latest book, Travels in the Other Place: Pursuing the Self in Eight Acts, at a get-together here.
Travels in the Other Place is a blend of her memoirs, philosophy, and travel writing.
The book, in her words, is an original and introspective collection of eight essays that explore identity and belonging across shifting geographies—both physical and emotional.
Spanning a life that stretches from a bookish childhood in 1980s India to a shock cancer diagnosis in Spain in 2022, the book offers readers a kaleidoscopic view of the self in motion, she said.
It turns the lens of a foreign correspondent inward with insights that are both personal and universal, she said while interacting with Beijing-based journalists and literary personalities on Thursday.
Each essay of the book captures her life at a different stage of life, in a different part of the world, she said.
Over a career spanning more than two decades, Aiyar has reported from China, Belgium, Japan, Indonesia, and Spain, besides India.
She is the author of seven books, among them Smoke and Mirrors, a China memoir that won the Vodafone-Crossword Book Award, as well as Chinese Whiskers, Jakarta Tales, Punjabi Parmesan and Orienting: An Indian in Japan.
She worked earlier as the Beijing-based foreign correspondent for several Indian newspapers, including The Hindu, between 2002 and 2009.
She was the recipient of the Prem Bhatia Memorial Award, besides the China-India Friendship Award presented by the then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Reflecting on her work, Aiyar noted that Beijing remains central to her intellectual and professional journey. “It is a place that shaped how I think about the world and myself,” she said.
“Being a foreign correspondent helped me learn as much about myself. Launching this book here feels like closing a circle. A homecoming of sorts. This was the geography in which I first found my voice,” she said.