Finally;
In the last 2years, when I was traveling non stop, I spent a considerable amount of time reading features/blogs written by foreigners about traveling in India. Inspite of being an Indian that has spent close to 29yrs living here, I would say exactly what all the Americans, British or French say. Nothing can prepare you for backpacking in India. And one can never finish traveling the country.
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One has heard enough about travel transforming world view, shaping perspectives, and making one a better person. Agreed, all that hopefully happened to me. But more pertinently what it really does is leave behind a craving for more travel. Over the last few years I saw it metamorphosing from being an interest to now being a nearly psychotic obsession.
Ironically I walked out of my travel job a few months back, audaciously. I was weary of continuous living out of a suitcase/backpack and needed some idle time. Or so I believed. It took me two days of a cube job to realize that I’m done with cubicles for good and travel chaos is where I will find my peace. I had to quit a dream job to find out that travel is what settles and gives food to my restless energy.
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I have also learnt that the essential element is not where you travel to, but simply that you do. Some of the most overwhelming travel experiences I have had in India, have not been in exotic locations where I went to river raft, trek or bodysurf. It happened in bland interior rural parts of the country, where I was either working towards an education initiative or indulging in photography.
Stuck at crossroads, I now have two options.
Stick it out in my claustrophobic cubicle, stare into excel sheets all day long, practice plastic smiles, and start my days with “I wish I could...” Live for the weekends, and cry over ennui of weekday weariness. Ofcourse I would then be rewarded with a fat pay end of the month.
Call it quits and move back to my travel job, get my dose of adrenalin rush every second day at an airport or railway station, fall in love with a new person from a different part of world every third day, and get lost in a different town every fourth. Ofcourse in that case, I would not have all the money in the world.
I have made my decision.
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Friday, October 01, 2010
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6 comments:
Ha ha ha..
"Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast...a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not
enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. while you can. While it is still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and
explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness,
that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise
you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards."
-Edward Abby
I am so reminded of the above saying that I had to tell you this :)
And I have no freakin' clue who Edward Abby is!
Oh my goodness Vish, i had not read this comment for long. This is soo what i HAD to read.
Anything that can get me out of this drab cubicle and out into the open country and PAYS me for it, would be my dream job.
Some have it lucky. Others are stuck commenting about it.
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