Piotr Ibrahim Kalwas

Mystic Race

Excerpt

Piotr Ibrahim Kalwas, Poland’s only Muslim writer, has already made a name for himself as a travel writer describing his journeys mainly within Africa, so his latest book is a surprise, because it is all about India. What inspired him to go to this great country full of contrasts? He was not tempted by the cheap mysticism on offer for Western tourists, or India’s famous ancient sites. "Mystic Race" is not designed for the sort of reader of travel writing who is hoping it will be an alternative, literary tourist guide. Typically, in most instances Kalwas does not even give the names of the places and localities he visits. His travels in India are just a pretext for a journey deep inside himself, because as he puts it, "Mystic Race" is “internal rather than external reportage”. For him India is a sort of mirror, in which he tries to see through himself, and at the centre of that mirror there are always others to be found (perhaps I should write Others). It is his encounters with other people that afford Kalwas his most significant experiences. In India he comes across a wide variety of people, for shorter or longer periods of time: they include the three “Holiest of the Holiest”, who have remained in the same poses without moving for years, a street bookseller, the family of a musician whom he met on a train… and so on – there are lots of these encounters. During many of them nothing is actually said, or Kalwas just exchanges conventional remarks with the Others. However, it is not conversation that interests him either, but coming face to face with the Other. It is no coincidence that in this book he makes frequent references to the classic philosophers of encounter and dialogue, Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas. What is the point of these encounters? Kalwas tries to see his own face in their faces, to go beyond the apparently fundamental differences and find something that brings them together. And as a result, to understand himself better.

Robert Ostaszewski

Piotr Ibrahim Kalwas (born 1963) writes prose, essays and television screenplays.