Candid Tales: India on a Motorcycle

by Adithi Rao

Once upon a bike there was a girl called Candida, who traversed India from its southernmost tip to the Gurais Valley in Kashmir. Alone on her motorcycle, bursting with the spirit of adventure, she travelled through sun and storm, calling the sky her shelter and the ground beneath her feet home. Based on the actual five-month-long journey of renowned biker Candida Louis, Candid India on a Motorcycle rides off the beaten trail to discover eccentric and beautiful people (living and otherwise!), heart-warming cultures, and secret places in which she left her heart behind. In an age of fictitious super heroes, this book introduces the younger generation to a real live heroine of rare spirit and fearless heart, to inspire and electrify them to follow their dreams!

Genres: Nonfiction

164 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2020

Reviews

[Ayush Chauhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 25 old year lady working in an IT company took sabatical leaves to travel India on her Royal Enfiled motorcycle.
This book is an fascinating account of her journey of five months in which she covered around 32,000 Kms.
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In the journey Candida met many people, had good as well as bad experience but never looked back as written "She had come to understand that looking back can cause a girl to fall off her bike and break her heart."
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Beautifully written, this book will take you to a mesmerizing journey of India from Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
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Though it's short about 2 hour read but every page will give you an adrenaline rush

[Udit Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any travelogue is bound to create good memories because travel indeed brings new perspectives and insights into human culture. This book is about a 25 year old girl who decides to travel through the stretch of the country and fulfill her dream. The book is narrated very nicely and is extremely reader friendly. It is actually a fun read as one gets to travel with candida louis through the book.

[Pratyusha Sen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book includes about ten travel stories based on the travels of Candida Louis who went on biking trips around India for five months. The book starts with a baby Candida drowning her parents in cries of pain as she was teething one night. Her father had an incredible idea of taking her on a night-time bike trip that very night to make her stop crying. And guess what, it worked like magic. Gradually, the book carries us through various parts of Candida’s childhood and teenage life that are integral to her life as a biker and a traveler.

The travel tales start from the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Latching on to somewhere on her motorcycle, I traveled through a few more places in India such as Chandra Tal, Kashmir, Varkala, and Pondicherry. All the places I’m longing to visit already. The tales were mostly about her experience as a woman biker traveling around India and people (of India and outside) getting stunned by the idea of it.

Since the book is aimed at children and written by a children’s author, the writing was quite easy to navigate through. The book was short, light-hearted, and breezy. At times, I felt that a few parts were unnatural and were written in that particular way in order to make it appealing for children. I also expected that five months of travel through Indian states by a woman biker would carry more misadventure tales rather than only easy adventures. The author wrapped us up with a few legends and funny tales from the travels but it wasn’t until she took us to Pondicherry, I felt the thrill of going on a biking trip to somewhere. Moreover, the interview portion at the end of the book was even more interesting and I thought the tales presented in the interview could have done a better job if presented in the main portion of the book.

To be honest, I didn’t know this book was aimed at children before picking it up. And even if it is aimed at children, I didn’t feel like these tales would appeal to even children if they just consist funny stories and a couple of instances where Candida escapes trouble pretty easily. Adding misadventures and the stories of overcoming them would have been much more impactful and inspiring than plain and simple tales of travel.

I loved reading about Candida Louis’ experiences but I just felt like there’s much more to it and it’s not there in the book. I’d recommend this book to people who love to travel and want to read about a twenty-four-year-old someone’s account of traveling through India on her beloved Royal Enfield. If you’re someone who’s dreaming of such a journey, you can surely pick this book up. The book won’t tell you how to venture into this journey but it will inspire you to just do it.

[Jayakrishna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt the experiences of the biker were not fully translated into the book.

This book could have been written much better. That would have been inspired a lot of people.

[Koduvayur Harikrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adithi Rao's book, a kind of biography of Candida Louis' journey through parts of India makes for fairly interesting reading. It does come through as somewhat disjointed though. Certain passages in the book are more worthy of a much longer saga, where one could get to see the development of the protagonist's character better. In the 150 odd pages though, it appears the author expects the reader to already know all about Candida. One got the impression the book was written to meet some short deadline! Candida makes amends in the interview section at the end of the book, but one still cannot understand her "free spirit" in ignoring potential dangers involved in wading into a near-frozen lake, her explanation of lack of notices notwithstanding. Certainly, no one has the right to send her hate mail for this, but accepting such actions as anything but bravado would send extremely wrong signals to the very girls she is trying to inspire (in the school where the said interview takes place). That Candida is a well established biker now is another matter altogether. Not the kind of story I would rush to encourage teenage girls (or boys) to draw strength from.

[Arun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A journey that would inspire , so many beautiful moments . So many different experiences a rider would hve to go through .. well this is the experience of candida expressed by adithi .. it really took me a ride , it was like as if i was present over there and watching things happening ..

I did enjoy the ghost stories , theatre visit , Chennai stay at showroom and lake swimming, getting frozed , losing backpack , cyclone stay and visit to bakery . And those kids face at school lit up when they saw first time female rider .

It all accumulated with memories to cherish , lessons to learn , experience to feel .

Well " four wheel moves the body , two wheel move the soul " !! -

for me i feel " rider move the body , ride move the soul "

Well it was good read, all it was of little experience shared i believe .. may be there are more experiences .. which i would like to read .. hope .. it is being made .. !!

[Tasnim Taj Abontee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is based on a 5month long journey by Candida Louis across india on her royal enfield. Simply written, yet the writer did justice by portraying the urge to go free, the kindness of humans, the vastness of nature and the strangeness of how some communities are having to live in the same country.. Loved the protagonist, hope she is on a new adventure now..🤍

[Gurleen Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 25-year-old girl realizing her dream and passion towards biking, exploring the world, gaining life experiences, and her parents supporting her is a good read on a summer day.
Lucid, engaging and charming.

[Apoorva Matkar Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the writing very simple and felt like i was having a nice chat with the experiences shared in the book. The book took me back to the time when i traveled on two wheels from Mumbai to Leh.

[Jagruti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet book that definitely makes you yearn for adventure. I think it is probably meant for a younger audience, and I love that this book exists!