Many departures from conformity

Book review of Off the Beaten Track: The Story of My Unconventional Life

A change of address is hardly ever a mere shift in geography. Often, it signals a departure from one’s childhood — the home or neighbourhood one grew up in, believing that it contained the world. Sometimes, it is a fleeing. And almost always, it suggests a leaving behind — of people, of objects, a familiar smell, a beloved street.

Saeeda Bano’s memoir, Off the Beaten Track: The Story of My Unconventional Life, published in October this year, is a narrative of departures. Her life would have remained within the conventional realm of the household, had it not been for the