One of the most important lessons we learn from this pandemic is about the uncertainty of life. Life has always been unpredictable, even before this phase, but now that we have learnt the depth and strength of this fact. And it is the same for everyone. True, even the richest and the most famous are no exception. Even the most successful celebrities also are human beings and aren’t untouched by this fact. Aditya Raj Kapoor is one such personality as well.
Aditya Raj Kapoor comes from one of the most renowned Bollywood families – the Kapoor clan. He is the son of late Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali. Also a nephew of late Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, he is also an uncle of Karishma, Kareena and Ranbeer Kapoor. Aditya was almost obviously supposed to be known as a Bollywood actor but he re-directed himself just before starting. Precisely on the eve of him beginning the journey as an actor, he gave up the thought on being asked to do so by his spiritual Guru Ji. And it happened for good. He had earlier served the fraternity as Assistant Director though. But soon after quitting from Bollywood, he got into the business. Eventually, he took a break from that too and decided to go for a solo bike-trip around the world and made it happen!
Kapoor has worked as an Assistant Director in several Hindi films and his English language directorial films like Shamaal, Don’t Stop Dreaming (2007), and Sambar Salsa (2007). His company has developed amusement parks in Mumbai and Delhi. But the feeling of accomplishment that this around-the-world solo-bike-ride trip gifted him, was probably unknown to him before. No surprise that he decided to bring it out as a memoir. Aditya maintained a diary throughout this tour and turned the same into this travelogue-cum-memoir named Quest with some additional inputs.
Aditya believes that he had developed some fierce instincts as a wild animal after his mother Geeta Bali passed away. He had gone shattered after her demise. Then Shammi Kapoor had a second marriage and Aditya’s second mother filled in the gap. Aditya confessed that his second mother turned him back into human with her dedication and determination. He says both his mothers had a totally different personality though. Even in the initial parts of his book, Aditya doesn’t fail to acknowledge the crucial role played by his ancestors in his journey. He pays due regards and respect to them.
Quest -A travelogue-cum-memoir of Aditya Raj Kapoor’s journey around the world, published by Evincepub Publishing – comes across as a beautiful read indeed. Anyone who dreams to go for this kind of traveling must go through it once at least. Not very surprisingly, a large number of forewords have been provided for the book by various dignified personalities, the foremost being from the pen of Jackie Shroff.
The description of Aditya Raj Kapoor’s experiences comes across as a set of beautiful memories covering the ones with his family and more. One of the catches about the book is that instead of limiting his memories to only those with big names in the journey, he has also been inclusive for the ordinary along the way. This makes the compilation all the more beautiful and heart-touching.
Aditya fondly calls Quest as his ‘soul travel’ book. Why not? After all, he would have hardly earned this kind of wisdom and learning on a movie set. Also known by his nickname Mickey, Aditya Raj Kapoor was expected to follow the familly’s glorious path to fame and stardom. He had even started his career as an Assistant Director at RK Studio. Instead of following the beaten track, he took a plunge into areas as varied as charcoal painting, business, spirituality, biking and writing. He tried his hand at biking at the ripe age of 61 and went on a solo world tour through a staggering 18 countries and engulfed an whopping 35000 kilometers into his journey.
Needless to say why this book is so special to the author as well as his readers. Books of this kind are any way special because the readers get to learn a lot of things that the author has learned the hard way. But Quest, in particular, becomes even more so because it’s the elaborated version of its author’s journey around the world. This is a rare experience even today and in the present pandemic scenario, we can only imagine doing this.
All in all, a great read by the author – Aditya Raj Kapoor. Quest is all set to spread a lot of positivity in these otherwise hard times. A reader wouldn’t regret taking it up as his or her next lockdown reading. Last but not least, great work by the team Evincepub Publishing as well, as usual.
