PICO IYER'S AUTUMN LIGHTS: SEASON OF FIRE AND FAREWELLS. A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE.

In the contemporary world, terms such as multi-culturalism and multi-identities have become common parlance. Although migration has been a feature in society since times immemorial, its connotations have been gradually changing with the passage of time. History records forced mass movements from one country to another in the world for political, economic and religious reasons. But there have also been voluntary migrations. Today increasingly we find people who choose to migrate to another land for the sheer pleasure of it. Pico Iyer, journalist, memoirist and travel writer is one such person. In fact, he chooses to spend his time between two countries - America, where his mother lives and Japan, where his wife is. Japan cast a spell on him the very first time he visited it and he was sure he wanted to return to it. But he is happy to live there as a tourist. My paper focuses on his recently published book Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells, which is autobiographical in nature. I have brought out his concerns about the impermanence of life and human suffering that emerge in his ruminations which are interspersed with an engrossing commentary on the society, culture, places, events, history etc. of Japan. Enthralling descriptions of the Autumn season add to the poignancy of his awareness of fleeting time in the autumn of his life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]