There always used to be a long list of places I wanted to visit. I believe this quest for new experience started with the TV shows I watched in my childhood days. I adored those hosts who travel to different places in India and abroad, experimenting some bizarre foods, working with people from different cultures or simply enjoy the scenic places the way mother nature has portrayed...
The hosts were never too flashy nor too sporty...yet they captured the attention of the audience with their excitement, which in my view is not as fake as talk show hosts. This was still when Doordarshan was the only TV channel available in small towns like mine. Probably, you would have guessed what show I'm talking about. Yes..it's Surabhi!! For those who have already got the lines on forehead thinking how many times Surabhi's hosts have travelled, I should say 'Not much' but the places they picked to visit were absolutely amazing. I am not exaggerating...'ABSOLUTELY AMAZING'.
I still remember this show when they went to Maldives....the crystal clear water, the transparent crab with a tinge of orange on the shell hiding under the sand, numerous fishes in all possible permutations and combinations of colors, delicate corals....I swear I did not hear a word of my mom's impatient dinner calls. I realized for the first time...what can truly mesmerize me. My obvious question to my dad, 'Dad, can we go there someday?' to get an expected response 'Probably, when you grow to be a rich person to afford travel expenses'. I could not sleep for a long time that night...whether or not the eyes were open, all I could see was, 'a romantic blue sea with white sand, colorful fishes, shy crab....a sea world that's beyond my imagination (different than what I saw in video game) and of course, Renuka screaming 'No, I don't want to get into water. I'm scared' while Siddhartha was testing his courage. The overwater bungalows became my obsession since then....I decided to spend the most memorable vacation of my life in an overwater bungalow (growing up I realized..it must be my honeymoon).
As I grew up, several books I read kindled the spirit in me to travel and see the amazing world with endless surprises. The book that narrated the experience of a eight year old boy traveling from one end of Russia to the other and the way his visual center is trying to photograph everything he saw for the album that he treasured in his memory. The first snowfall of the winter as the train starts moving....the moon that incessantly follows him all the way to the new city... the conductor who did not want to steal those glorious moments of the young boy and left without verifying his ticket..there was no story in that book but a beautiful narration of a curious young boy observing the outside world for the first time. As you would have guessed, I saw snowfall in my dream. It seemed better than the snow Arvind Samy and Madhubala enjoyed in 'Roja'.
As a teenager, the books that rekindled this interest was S. Ramakrishnan's Thunai Ezhuthu and Desaandhri. His writing presented Lonavla as a simple painting on an inexpensive canvas and it feels as if one perceives the world he describes through a window in that painting.
I am still reading several travel memoirs and have not started serious travelling yet. Moreover, its not fun to travel with a person who is constantly in motion making plans without taking a moment to enjoy the simplest things nature offer. I like to travel alone and meet strangers....like a nomad...leaving my concerns behind. Just need to grab an opportunity. Wish me good luck my dear reader!!
The hosts were never too flashy nor too sporty...yet they captured the attention of the audience with their excitement, which in my view is not as fake as talk show hosts. This was still when Doordarshan was the only TV channel available in small towns like mine. Probably, you would have guessed what show I'm talking about. Yes..it's Surabhi!! For those who have already got the lines on forehead thinking how many times Surabhi's hosts have travelled, I should say 'Not much' but the places they picked to visit were absolutely amazing. I am not exaggerating...'ABSOLUTELY AMAZING'.
I still remember this show when they went to Maldives....the crystal clear water, the transparent crab with a tinge of orange on the shell hiding under the sand, numerous fishes in all possible permutations and combinations of colors, delicate corals....I swear I did not hear a word of my mom's impatient dinner calls. I realized for the first time...what can truly mesmerize me. My obvious question to my dad, 'Dad, can we go there someday?' to get an expected response 'Probably, when you grow to be a rich person to afford travel expenses'. I could not sleep for a long time that night...whether or not the eyes were open, all I could see was, 'a romantic blue sea with white sand, colorful fishes, shy crab....a sea world that's beyond my imagination (different than what I saw in video game) and of course, Renuka screaming 'No, I don't want to get into water. I'm scared' while Siddhartha was testing his courage. The overwater bungalows became my obsession since then....I decided to spend the most memorable vacation of my life in an overwater bungalow (growing up I realized..it must be my honeymoon).
As I grew up, several books I read kindled the spirit in me to travel and see the amazing world with endless surprises. The book that narrated the experience of a eight year old boy traveling from one end of Russia to the other and the way his visual center is trying to photograph everything he saw for the album that he treasured in his memory. The first snowfall of the winter as the train starts moving....the moon that incessantly follows him all the way to the new city... the conductor who did not want to steal those glorious moments of the young boy and left without verifying his ticket..there was no story in that book but a beautiful narration of a curious young boy observing the outside world for the first time. As you would have guessed, I saw snowfall in my dream. It seemed better than the snow Arvind Samy and Madhubala enjoyed in 'Roja'.
As a teenager, the books that rekindled this interest was S. Ramakrishnan's Thunai Ezhuthu and Desaandhri. His writing presented Lonavla as a simple painting on an inexpensive canvas and it feels as if one perceives the world he describes through a window in that painting.
I am still reading several travel memoirs and have not started serious travelling yet. Moreover, its not fun to travel with a person who is constantly in motion making plans without taking a moment to enjoy the simplest things nature offer. I like to travel alone and meet strangers....like a nomad...leaving my concerns behind. Just need to grab an opportunity. Wish me good luck my dear reader!!
