Travel writers like to have an unusual angle to their journeys, whether it’s being the first woman to unicycle the entire length of the Danube, or following the precise itinerary of a 19th century Duke who sailed a steam-powered hovercraft around the coast of Iceland. However, no matter how many travel books you have read you won’t have come across a journey involving such unusual means of transport as that undertaken by Ajatashatru Ogadh Rathod in The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir who got trapped in an IKEA wardrobe.
A best-seller in France, the book that I shall now refer to as TEJOTFWGTIAIW is a novel written by Romain Puertola. It recounts the tall tale of a fake Indian fakir who heads to Paris to buy a new bed of nails. What is supposed to be a simple overnight trip becomes more complicated when he mistakes the bedroom department of IKEA as somewhere to stay the night. The journey takes several unexpected turns as the wardrobe he hides in is transported to England, where he is found, treated as an illegal immigrant and returned from whence, they believe, he came.
Rathod is not honest. He is the kind of man who will not only pay a taxi driver with a fake Euro note, but then steal it back to use again. His life in India was built on deceit. Unsurprisingly his amazing feats were scams, helped out by a cousin in on the trick who would supply food during his amazing fasts.
Puertolas was working as a border guard when he wrote TEJOTFWGTIAIW. His experiences of immigration issues and knowledge of the attempts of people trying to reach the good countries inform the book. It manages to be a light-hearted story of the redemption of a crook and an informative introduction to the perils and problems faced by those trying to reach Europe illegally. Serious issues of emigration and the desire to lead a better life are covered, and the unfair lottery of birth location is made clear. Ongoing mispronunciation of the hero’s name feels out of place and doesn’t give the humorous effects intended. Everyone who the fakir comes across has a different interpretation of his name, usually spelled out phonetically.
IKEA should be pleased with the advertising. It is an easy read and introduces topics not usually seen in comic works.
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