Contd....
My Guru – on intent and travelling!
“I have travelled to so many places and I visit all the important tourist
spots in that place. I’ve travelled more than 30 countries and whole of India. But
yet, I don’t understand what you are speaking of. I plan my itinery very
carefully and check out everything to be done, seen at every place. I’ve had
great fun yet I don’t relate to what you have just said. How come?” asked my
co-ignorant from behind.
God! Where we glad he asked! Most of us had travelled a lot but she
seemed ‘alien’ in her talk when she explained this ‘travelling experience’.
A person need not visit tourist places at all. Yet he would’ve had
journeyed if he had wandered in the streets and by lanes of the city/towns he
had visited. If he had interacted with locales, walked through it’s flee market
he would have found himself. But one who goes visiting as per check-list comes
back just the way he went – incomplete, irritated, bitter and lost.
One who comes home to the same setup and finds everything to be different
and beautiful had ‘journeyed’ right! He knows he can’t go back to being ‘his
previous self every again’! He knows he’s changed – for better and richer
person! His boundaries have widened. He has broken many boundaries even without
trying to. When he left his home he was his caste, his region, religion
(Telugu, south Indian, Indian
etc...) et so.
But when he returns he’s lost them. He is a human – boundary less and
above language, caste, religion and barriers. This is the ultimate purpose of
travelling. Have you felt it? Lived it? Experienced it? If not, you haven’t
travelled yet
inspite of visiting 30 countries” she said with an understanding
smile. “The person who comes back with a baggage full of complaints and
problems that he faced or that place of visit has then he had just visited that
place. He has been a tourist. If he has stories to share, then he has been a
traveller”
“Then why do you ask us to travel if we are not doing it right?”
Contd....
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