Wanderlust in a Continent called India

Wanderlust in a Continent called India

About 13 years back ,on a flight back from Mumbai to Bangalore, I had met an avid Japanese traveler sitting right next to me,who had marveled at what India had to offer in terms of tourism.Here was one foreigner who was starstruck with India and its diversity of terrain,culture,religion and language and was surprised , how we held together as a nation without falling apart.And this was long before India was touted as the next big thing to happen in the world economy.He had exclaimed that India is not a country ,it is a continent! Though I could see where he came from, literally an island nation but without being dismissive of that, especially when the fact remains that another island nation kept us in thrall for 200 years.I saw the point he made so pertinently, that India had so much to offer.My sincere advice to all real travelers is to explore the real India before you explore the world!

The traveller: In a Lonely egregious Planet

Have you ever wondered why a physically exhaustive activity like wanderlust actually rejuvenates you ? Some of you may find the term a bit too footloose,and tourism or simply travel, a bit closer home , though there’s a clear difference in their respective connotations.

I’ve enquired many people about their opinions on what makes them go around places around the world. A few of the responses are :

1.A sunshine..a whiff of fresh air:

 It helps us keep away monotony and drudgery of everyday lives.A week out, can detoxicate you of your physical stress and mind and helps kill monotony and depression.More often than not people come back more refreshed and enhanced in their clarity of thought after a travel.Actually your thoughts are a function of the milieu that you are in, both physical and psychological.An idea could germinate and grow while you are travelling,because you are not pulled down with the prevailing challenges and extenuating circumstances .The idea can grow into a resolve if nurtured well.Out of the many travels I remember my Dirang/Tawang trip as one which naturally detoxified me when I was going through troubled times,the almost no population geography of Arunachal was mystifying, as well as awe inspiring.When a soldier while chatting over a cup of tea,near sela pass told me that at such heights even soldiers when they land up for the first time are not allowed to run/walk for a week,just to acclimatise. Only then did I realise how nature still rules.But that travel also helped me set my future plans ahead, before taking a plunge into an uncharted territory.

2.The Sensory experience:

To witness something in reality and experiencing it with all five senses is like internalising it,which becomes a part of your psychological being, till the end.   A complete sensory experience only when you decide to go beyond visuals.The sounds need to be heard,the smell and flavour has to be experienced,the food needs to be tasted,and the texture explored.It is an image you carry in your psyche and not in your handycam/full format,though I’m not underplaying its importance.It is about how you felt and why you felt so,in that fleeting moment of a dusk or a dawn in a forest or on beach or riverside,or a when you witnessed a one horned Rhino,a mother tending to its baby,or when you saw those monkeys in the caves of kishkindha or badami,known to be a part of a mythological monkey kingdom,or you find almost naked zarwa tribals ,hitherto known as fierce and wild,sitting next to you while you crossed over to middle Andamans in a ferry.Or when you tasted chicken roasted in a bamboo,a tribal delicacy of Orissa and Andhra.Or you exchanged views with a media-famous undertrial,whom you met on a train sitting right next to you, supposedly responsible for a mini genocide,talking perfect sense and going philosophical…it actually sets you thinking.The list is endless…

3.Broadening your horizons:

It aids learning and seeing things in proper perspective.Seeing and feeling is learning, is true about things, once you see them as it were.You can relate to historical places events, once you start understanding the geography of History.It is true for understanding a terrain as you read in a geography text.It is true of religious places as well, most of the famous Buddhist monasteries are located on a hill top, so when you reach on the perch, you can really relate the philosophical thoughts evoked by such isolated places which gives a bird’s eye view of population clusters below and the society therein,amidst nature,which only gives you more food for thought ,the quest for truth.

4. Appreciate the Humanism:

Helps to appreciate the fact that human nature all over ,are essentially the same and that the man made barriers, more often than not, are political, and enemies and friends, imagined.Many people,while travelling recounted, that the people of the neighbouring country always warned about the people of theirto be explored neighbouring states, being quirks or eccentric,but on exploring the land and mixing with people,the people were found to be as good natured as the others, despite their differences,and the story repeats itself over and over.However there are risks associated which need to be weighed before taking a decision.Long time back when I was exploring a place in Chhatisgarh called Rajim,where you ve got to cross the river on foot to reach the temple.I came back and did not find a place to have my lunch ,then I was invited by the school master to come and have a vegetarian

Lunch.In a place called jiti tea gardens in dooars,very near to the Bhutan borders we were stranded in a small hutment,because of heavy torrential rains, which doubled up as a small pan/grocery shop,the shopkeeper, a bhotia finding us cold and numb with rain,got tea leaves from his home and made us some milk tea,to keep us warm, and despite us offering money never accepted it.

More often than not we are guided by prejudices and isolated experiences and of course the religio-political narratives only help to perpetuate such myths.

5.Back to Basics: Manage oneself Better

Helps an individual become more confident ,and often people come back and say that travel has been a life changing experience for them.Many times people come back from travel to find themselves coping up with the vagaries of life better.The underlying reason being, once thrown into uncertainties and unplanned challenges,one hones up his or her survival skills.

 It may be basic human instinctive skills on test and tempered, that gives a mental stability to people coping up with ups and downs ,later on in their lives.

6.Spirit of adventure :

The thrill of exploring as a sport or activity something unexplored or less explored which gives the momentary adrenaline rush and tingles your testosterone levels to such an extent that the successful achievement of the same not only gives you satisfaction but dispels fear,makes you alert and instills confidence. Also people take part in activities fraught with reasonable risk or pure risk.People start with rappelling,river rafting,to bungee jumping ,parasailing to para jumping,from snorkelling to deep sea diving from trekking and climbing to mountaineering.So people travel down to such places to experience it once in a lifetime.

Once while going to Yumthang in North Sikkim,which was a long awaited trip,because of a landslide the roads were cut off and the army helped us cross the shooting zone virtually by carrying the kids and luggage manually.We were give an option to go back or resume our journey in whatever private jeep that was available on the other side,we opted for resumption.After sometime to our dismay we found out that the jeep had a serious engine problem and at every 100 metres of climb we had to find and pour water as a coolant which impeded our journey.The mountain springs came in handy.However where we should have reached la chung village before evening we were into the night and on a steep climb deep into forest when the fan belt of the jeep broke.The driver asked us to stay put in the middle of the forest to go and find help down as the jeep could only be steered down.Here we stood,two of us in middle of the night half freezing and with cold at those heights with a 3 year old kid and a couple of fellow travellers.That dark night we sat nervously on a rock,by the side of the road, star gazing and thinking what next to do. However after about an hour and a half,our driver did show up,we did thank our stars.Not before invoking all sorts of emotions within us. 

7.Keeping up with the joneses:

It is something which remains unstated, but loud and clear in the way a majority of people treat tourism.It is a travel undertaken under peer pressure.Falls more in the category of tick mark tourism or a bucket list to complete.Flaunting trophies in terms of photographs and material evidence of things brought along,gifts,trivia and memorabilia, bombarding details to unsuspecting folks who often are part of a close group,to get even, or build up an aura.However what starts as a peer pressure may continue or end in a very different way as people make different meanings out of different experiences.So it may serve as an initiation for the uninitiated.So when for the first time I visited delhi ,I visited the monuments as if I was finishing a course,it was a tiring expedition with a shortage of time I barely managed to see it all but was able to flaunt my delhi photographs the ultimate evidence that I had seen it all.

However It was only after I started staying at Gurgaon that I explored all those at leisure, that I had a sight seeing experience .I did start exploring in the true sense of the word and I must say it was an enlivening experience to explore the History of Seven cities.The city of twirling dervishes and djinns,of chiraag e delhi ,and that of the the mythical god Bramha who emerged there with the four vedas and pandavas who built their indraprastha.

8.Pilgrimage:

Almost all religious sects prescribe people to travel and pay homage to holy sites at least once in a lifetime and this has traditionally been one of the prime movers of people and a precursor to family travel.People travel in search of divinity and gaining a higher fulfilment in the spiritual journey called life.In India If you look at the centres of Pilgrimage you ll find why this country had a concept of a nationhood,even before there was a united nation called India.It covers every conceivable terrain far and wide giving a new flavour of travel and exploring cultures,which though diverse had a similar underlying quality of exploring minds and capitulating to truth.Rameshwaram near the palk strait,Gangasagar in the largest delta of the world surrounded by mangrove forests of Sunderbans,Jagannath Puri near the sea and near the confluence of a couple of rivers,Dwarka ,where the original town remains submerged under the sea, Marutirth Hinglaj ,in the middle of a desert,and Kailash Mansarovar or Amaranth on top of Himalayas.Reaching the highest point of the Famous Pemyangtse Buddhist Monastery in Sikkim near pelling, the heights stirred up deep feelings which for the first time in my life,I felt was spiritual and philosophical.

People wander in search of truth,to refine and test established philosophical axioms and pit it against deeply experienced ones ,from myriad events,encounters,observations and analysis, try and find tested patterns which gives rise to new hypothesis and neo enlightenment.True of Buddha,Zarathustra,Moses ,Guru Nanak,Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda.The list is endless with a few known and many unknown.

But on a philosophical note everybody is a traveller in search of some or the other personal truth.In this land of seekers,that is India, this has always been a way of life and Vanaprastha was meant to be a reflective spiritual end to the journey called life.

Limitations to be excercised while travelling :

However many of us fall prey to the superficial, in the name of broadening our horizons.We travel but hunt for the home style food and complain when we do not get it and are not ready to explore.We rarely interact with the local people but still make sweeping statements about them.It is like enjoying a shower with the raincoat on. We rarely try to understand and respect the local traditions.Rather we compare and judge.We do end up irritating locals with our uninhibited display of boisterous gang mentality.We look for physical comfort,good food and that immaculate look for the selfie.We grow adventurous with our dresses and end up annoying people.This to my mind should be avoided.

People go and disturb animals in their natural habitats,like forests or even artificial ones like a menagerie and end up becoming intruders in the true sense of the word.Travelling is like being in sync with the prevailing culture being explored ,soaking in its variety it has to offer, and carrying a bit of it back in terms of a fulfilled experience without creating much of a disturbance for the people struggling in their own way, to eke out a living.

One might have left the physical comfort of one s own home but to carry the same mentality across, according to me,interferes with the basic philosophy of travel.

The way we travel:

The way we travel,the companions on the journey also shape the contours of a travel and sometimes also underlines the purpose.

1.Travel with a larger family:Together we Come!

Often many people travel with the larger family to share resources and share a we time together which is otherwise very difficult to organise.There has to be a central glue who would balance the various needs and requirements and also drive the purpose of travel,so it is more of a change of setting and light outings accompanied with good food and letting the spontaneity flow,is the essence of this kind of travel.It is better to work out the rules of the game before hand which loosely defines the roles and responsibilities and little priming on do’s and don’ts to follow tweak arounds.There is limited flexibility.

2.Travel with immediate family:Family Time!

A form of travel,which has added flexibility and typically comprises of the couple and the kids. This kind of travel has more flexibility both in terms of choice ,spends and in terms of exploring deep.However family members need to be attuned well to the purpose of travel.Otherwise you may be tempted to just explore a home out of your home,or in other words just the precincts of your hotel or resort with a plethora of human comforts thrown in.Most of the resorts only advertise that.Nothing wrong if that is your way to your ultimate Nirvana.

But If the family members know the challenges and are ready to undertake it,then this can actually work out to be quite a team to travel with,in the way sharing happy moments ,which is otherwise rare in a busy life.This apart from travel helps strengthen the intra familial bondings and also helps reveal another side of you ,your spouse and your kids.

3.Travel with friends and acquaintances:Gang up!

The office tours or school and college tours also fall in this category.One needs to be pretty responsible while you tour in a gang.Because often people fall in a gang mentality which gives people a false sense of power which ends up disturbing the environment and annoying the people who are hosting you and the area that you are travelling.Choice and flexibility is limited and you need to have a central authority who is able to steer people together with their myriad quirks.However Corporate travels also fall in these category but with the difference that it is event managed and the stress is more on team bonding on an outing,and it is more disciplined and better managed ,as the entire team is bound by some underlying principles of corporate behaviour. But may not be exploratory in nature.

4.Travel with a few close friends: private party!

Travel with a small group of closely knit people or friends who are known to each other and are sensitive to each other’s needs .You do not need to bear with traditional mindset of a larger family and its prejudices thereof.Wife and kids relate to the other family as friends and the costs are shared, the burden of planning,booking also facing exigencies and challenges are shared.A great way to travel,where tolerance levels get tested,but with a little priming on joint decisions and alignment of purpose,it could only reinforce the experience.Also private parties thrown on a day end,only accentuates the we time.

A sort of risk mitigation and cost rationalisation with kids finding playmate and wives acquaintences,with a certain degree of flexibility in plans which could be open to change ,with a bit of alignment between the members.

5.Travel with Strangers in a group:In a group without being found out!

Travel Agents who band together strangers to share resources, often group travel or conducted tours fall into this category.You are rest assured about your food and your cultural sensitivities,it is like carrying a bit of your home along with you.

This kind of tour has flexibility as well as limitations,as you always compete and complain, but flexibility in terms of not having to take along others rigid views, as most of it is planned out well in advance so immutable to personal opinions .Limitation is that you cannot plan anything out of your schedule.But have somebody to fall back,who in this case may be a tour manager,or members of the group befriended, in case of an untoward incident.The good part of this kind of travel it ensures you touch upon everything possible in a single tour in terms of things to see but the flipside is almost no flexibility on exploring it according your time and taste.It would be another race with time,and leisure,would be spent in tick marking points to see.But it is good as a menu card and would be great if its followed up with the real follow up exploration,maybe later,which might not be possible for many.

5.Travel Alone:Lonely traveller in the Lonely Planet

Despite having tasted and tested all,I recommend this to everybody to try this out at some point in life, as this is the pristine form of travel where you are on your own.This is completely how you want to plan or have no plan at all ,just flow with the drift.This is a form of adventure where you push your own boundaries and limitations and also enjoy the spirit of exploring.This might be reflective, thought provoking and a life changing experience fraught with risk,but thoroughly enjoyable and rejuvenating.Go as you like is the essense of this kind of travel,you have nobody to answer but yourself.Start by a trying out a heritage walk route, in your city.Here you might find good natured strangers becoming your co travellers for a short journey.

Personal tips: Always travel light,Only carry what is required,an insect/mosquito repellant creams,torch and pen and a scribbling pad apart from essential medicines should be carried.Also avoid hogging too much in your lunchtime if you are on a journey.

Epilogue:

Leisure Travel should not about be about putting a tick mark against a destination or event or an exotic dish,but experiencing the milieu with all its senses,it is also about soaking in the myriad flavours of culture ,cuisine,people,activity and nature, and finding pleasure and fulfilment out of it.It is about pushing your personal boundaries and experiencing the unexplored with all five senses and not just visuals.It is definitely not about flaunting trophies but living the moment with a deep satisfying experience,which rejuvenates the mind and spirit, even if it exhausts your body.

My prescription is travel just for the love for it ,the passion within your self will explore the rest.