Bestselling authors look back at their creations with pride and joy. But, Bharati Thakur is an exception to the rule. Her much-feted Narmada Parikrama: Ek Antaryatra, launched now as an audio book, is referenced as a key travelogue for anyone circumambulating the Narmada river afoot.  The 2009 book was prescribed as part of the graduate syllabus in SNDT Women’s University of Mumbai. It was a finalist entry in British Council’s (London) International Young Entrepreneur Publisher Award.  While its Hindi translation is much appreciated, the English rendition is due this year. The book has won literary and social recognition; the author has just been conferred the Madhya Pradesh government’s Nanaji Deshmukh award. 

Thakur, 64, however, is not happy when the exodus of parikramawasis, particularly from Maharashtra, in the past decade, is credited to the popularity of her book, currently in the 12th print run.  She feels Narmada Maiyya’s devotees need not crowd her banks “for the sake of pompous claims”. She refers to the scores of YouTube videos floating in the cyberworld in which parikramawasis have claimed miraculous darshan of Mata Narmada and Ashwaththama.