Nariman Karkaria a young Parsi from Gujarat had always wanted to see the world. So he left home as a teenager with fifty rupees in his pocket to do just that. After working in Hong Kong and Peking for a few years in 1914 when war was in the air he decided to volunteer for the British Army. Passing through China Manchuria Siberia Russia and Scandinavia he reached London early in 1915 and managed to register as a private with the 24th Middlesex Regiment. He was now a Tommy.
Incredibly Karkaria saw action on three major fronts in the next three years. In 1916 he was in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme. After convalescing from an injury he was sent off to the Middle Eastern Front where he fought in the Battle of Jerusalem in 1917. He was then transferred to the Balkan Front in 1918 where he served in Salonika. After being discharged he returned to India and wrote a book in Gujarati about his years of travel and adventure which was published in 1922.
Karkaria's war memoir is truly one of a kind. And in Murali Ranganathan's brilliant translation this astonishing story comes alive with rare immediacy and vigour.
Amazing! An astonishing find! - AMITAV GHOSH