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Akhtar Husain Raipuri’s memoir The Dust Of The Road offers a varied fare to its readers. The wide range of his experiences and the eventful times through which he lived makes Raipuri’s memoir interesting. A man of sound secular upbringing and Marxist leanings, Raipuri’s account of his travels and travails is in fact a retrospective glance cast over a life lived to its full. Be it his love for nature, animals, music, literature or adventures, Raipuri peppers his book with interesting episodes and anecdotes. A quick look at the contents of the book reveals a man of many parts and multifarious tastes—a polyglot with a wanderlust—a combination which enables comparative cultural critique and often yields fascinating critical insights. A self-made, self-taught man, Raipuri mastered Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, and Bengali early in life and his pursuit of knowledge led to the learning of many other languages of the world as well as acquaintance with their literature, music and culture.