I think a bit more about this aspect of the situation would have been helpful, but the reader will definitely get the feeling of what it was like. Somalia, the most failed of all the failed states of this world, hardly existed by the time the author got there. He found that while illegal fishing by Asian and European trawlers off the unpatrolled coast of Somalia might have triggered piracy, the whole thing had gone a lot further by 2008, when any commercial ship from any nation became a target for the well-armed, GPS toting pirates. He gleaned information about methods and finance of piracy, about distribution of ransom money, about the `government' of Puntland, the breakaway section of Somalia that is home to most pirates, and even-from some Romanian mariners-what it felt like to be a captive. He befriended some top pirates, didn't chicken out when people got nasty, and chewed khat with everyone. Bahadur (which by the way, means `brave' in Hindi and Nepali) lived up to his name. While I won't say this is the best-organized book I've ever read, it certainly is interesting. Risk and adventure to achieve your life's goals-both Bahadur and the pirates took the challenge, but I'd say the author was ultimately more successful. They had very few other options if they ever wanted to "be somebody", if they ever aspired to get a car, a house, a bride, or a regular supply of khat (qat), the ubiquitous drug of choice in Somalia and Yemen. Some of them didn't even bring enough fuel to return to port if their venture proved unsuccessful. (Though I think journalism school might have given him some better organizing skills in his writing.) The young pirates operating from such ports as Eyl, Garacad, Hobyo, and Harardheere on the long, mostly barren Somali coastline also risk their lives to hijack a commercial ship and bring it back to port. He forsook writing dull reports and going to journalism school and instead, risked his life in a mad adventure designed to propel him into the ranks of the established journalists. He didn't like his life and so resolved to do something "completely different". But though he may not have thought of this himself, it seemed to me that his life resembled theirs in some way, the main difference being that his activities were legal, while theirs were illegal.
Jay Bahadur took his life in his hands and went to interview the pirates of Somalia, the ones who hijack ships in a vast area off the coasts of East Africa and Arabia.
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