Diarios indios

The Indian Diaries comprise three notebooks: "Jaisalmer" (1992), "Bangalore" (1996), and "Varanasi" (1999), to which we have added, for this edition, a final notebook: "Farewell to India" (2005). After a pilgrimage or "via crucis" along the steps bordering the Ganges, where life and death intertwine in breathtaking scenes, the reader follows the journey of an observing consciousness that ultimately becomes the object of its own observation. These pages are not simply a travelogue, nor do they reflect an impulsive search for an exotic spirituality; rather, and more importantly, they represent a firm distancing from prejudices and preconceived notions. We are undoubtedly witnessing a powerful exercise in training one's gaze to remain neutral in the face of the unpleasant and revealing, sublime and painful scenes that this encounter with the sacred river and its people presented to the author. For Chantal Maillard, writing these diaries is a testament to a subdued way of observing reality and also of observing herself with the utmost strangeness.