Prana is the Sanskrit word for ‘life force’, which cosmic energy seems to have inspired (and fuelled) Margaret Halliday’s three epic journeys around the Indian subcontinent as described in her first book Prana Soup: an Indian Odyssey, published recently.
The Broughton resident spent around 12 months in India between 1999 and 2001, travelling independently first from Delhi to Agra and Rajasthan; next, overland from Nepal to Varanasi, up to Darjeeling and Sikkim, south to Calcutta, west into Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu to the southernmost tip, up to Madras, west to Bangalore, Mysore, Hampi, Gokarna, north to Gujarat, back to Rajasthan and Delhi. And finally from Delhi north to Dharamsala, over the second highest road in the world – Manali to Ladakh, Rishikesh, back to Rajasthan, Mumbai and Goa, to Omkareshwar, Mathura and back to Delhi.
Halliday was born in England in 1949, later moving to Edinburgh where she raised two children and qualified as a science teacher. Following the double blow of her marriage break-up and the onset of multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis, she went on to teach at Marmara University in Turkey before travelling for the first time to India aged 50.
She fell in love with the country – its culture, people, sights and flavours – and Prana Soup has evolved out of the extensive diaries she kept during her time there.
Halliday's adventures across the subcontinent comprised a series of spiritual as well as geographical journeys, the highlights of which included Pushkar and Udaipur in Rajasthan, Orchha in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala backwaters, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Leh in Ladakh, Rishikesh, Agonda and Benaulim in Goa. She recalls meetings with the 'divine banker' Ramesh Balsekar in Mumbai; travelling by jeep from Manali to Leh in Ladakh; and finding herself in the midst of a rail riot in Aurangabad.
Prana Soup is a vehicle for Halliday’s virtual travel these days, as her mobility is now restricted to short distances using a walker. This is her first venture into print, but she has already written a second book about her experience as a single mum in the Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness of the 1960s and plans to publish it later this year.
A third work – about her post-Indian time as a wwoofer (a worldwide worker on an organic farm) in New Zealand and Scotland – is currently in progress.
Prana Soup is published in e-book and paperback formats by Prasad Press (ISBN: 978-0-9927404-0-5). You can buy it in Blackwells or via the website at http://www.prasadpress.co.uk/shop/4583021873
