A Note on Interviews and Surveys
Formal work on research for this book began in the fall of 2008 when I applied to the University of Lethbridge’s Human Subject Research Committee for approval to interview people who had made the journey. By this time, I had already identified through ads in the Globe and Mail fifteen individuals who had travelled between Istanbul and India before 1980. A second ad, run in same paper in the spring and summer of 2010, identified nine more individuals, to whom were added two other people I knew who had made the journey. In total, between August 2009 and July 2011, I conducted interviews with twenty-six individuals—among them, three couples—who had made the journey during the period in question. All these interviews were conducted using a standardized questionnaire that included open-ended questions that allowed for more in-depth follow-up questions. All interviews were recorded and later transcribed by a graduate student, Abraham Tinney. In reproducing their words, I have on occasion made minor adjustments, typically for the sake of clarity, but have in no way altered either the content or the spirit of what they said.
In November 2014, I ran a third ad in the Globe and Mail, which read simply, “Wanted: Photos, diaries, or notes from individuals who travelled over land between Istanbul and New Delhi before 1979.” The premise of this ad was that, while recollections were useful—as obtained in the earlier interviews—memory can be faulty and that original documents might provide additional information. Within days, and even after the ad had been withdrawn, I received numerous phone calls from interested parties, many of whom had notes, diaries, letters, photos, and other memorabilia from their Middle East travels that they willingly dedicated to the cause.
As I began writing in spring 2015, I realized that my sample lacked respondents from outside Canada and the United Kingdom. (Many of the interviews I conducted in 2009–11 were with transplanted British citizens now resident in Canada.) I subsequently ran a fourth series of ads, beginning in the fall of 2015, in Australia (the Herald Sun), Germany (Die Zeit), the United Kingdom (the Telegraph), and the United States (the New York Times). The following summer, I placed the same ad in the Los Angeles Times.
Twenty-two individuals wrote responses to the same questionnaires used in conducting the earlier recorded interviews. Out of the total of forty-eight individuals, all but five agreed to have their names used, although I later provided a sixth individual with a pseudonym. These six appear in the text as “Ernest,” “Jean,” “Karl,” “Max,” “Robert,” and “Arthur.”
The vast number of those I interviewed or who completed questionnaires had been born in Canada (19) or the United Kingdom (15), with others from the United States (6), Australia (2), West Germany (2), and one each from India, Ireland, Sweden, and Venezuela. At the time of their journey, the vast number also were citizens of Canada (21) or the United Kingdom (17), with others coming from the United States (6), West Germany (2), and one each from Australia and Ireland. The disproportionately Canadian contingent reflects my initial reliance on ads in the Globe and Mail.
Of the forty-eight individuals, thirty-five self-identified as male and thirteen as female. The average age at which they set off on their first journey to India was twenty-four and a half. Although most were baby boomers, thirteen were born prior to 1946. In keeping with the period, the mothers of most of those I interviewed were homemakers or held clerical jobs, while the fathers were the primary breadwinners, variously working in blue-collar, managerial, or professional jobs.
The names and dates of all those interviewed or who completed questionnaires are listed in the bibliography.