TRIPTEASE
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My passion, my
interest and my dream is to travel. I love traveling. Reading and watching
travel news and programs brightens me up. I am always eager to go on trips, vacationing
and sightseeing. It’s thrilling, and
refreshing!! Oh! To the spirit of adventure!! It’s an unbelievably beautiful planet earth,
and life is short, so I need to make the most of my time and step out of my house
to see places. I believe traveling is
an education in itself. Once out of the safe cocoon of our home and
surroundings, we learn, learn and learn. By meeting new people, coming across
different cultures and customs, we realize that there is a world beyond us.
This is what intrigues me. A quote by Mark Twain that I like, and had once read
in the Lonely Planet (http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1742200796),
so I wrote it down in my personal copy of quotes and favorite lines. It goes
like this: “Twenty years from now you
will be more disappointed by the things you didn´t do than by the ones you did
do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade
winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” This is exactly what I believe in, to seize
every opportunity that I get to travel. It’s a curious, inquisitive mind that
will love to travel.
I have traveled quite a lot, in my opinion, and each
experience has been very unique to me. There are so many more places that I
need to go to. There are a variety of things that I enjoy while traveling.
Every place, new or old, has a story to tell. Every stone speaks of its past. Some
are historically rich places, while others are purely meant for enjoying the
scenic beauty; some places bring out the spiritual being in us, while some
sleepy old towns, just allow us to rest and cut us off from the regular humdrum
of life. I must not forget to add the variety of foods that we can enjoy in
different parts of the world. Each place provides for a new gastronomical
experience. A change of weather, people, customs, food, landscape, and almost
everything refreshes the mind and feels like a superb getaway.
My favorite trips have been with my extended family. There
have been a couple of trips with my sisters and their families. We have been to
places like Goa, Karnataka, and Punjab together. All of these places are in
India. Goa is famous for its beaches, temples and churches. Located on the
western coast of India, it attracts a lot of tourists from all around the
world. It has a history dating down to ages, with various dynasties that ruled
Goa, and later the Portuguese. It is a city vibrant with people from different
cultures settled there. So along with enjoying on the beaches and eating food
cooked by its indigenous people we visited the churches there. Topping the
list, among my favorite places visited was the tomb of St Francis Xavier. The
body of the saint is said to be lying in its tomb and has not got decomposed
for centuries now. This is something that truly got me so intrigued. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier).
I even bought a postcard from there for good luck. One of the most fascinating
things in Goa were the churches that we saw, with beautiful stained glass
designs and pictures. Goa is also one of the important ports of India. Needless
to say, with family, traveling gets all the more fun. Bonds get strengthened, and
that is what it was for me.
Another positively memorable trip that I made with my
family, including parents was to Amritsar, a city in Punjab, North West India. Both
my parents are from Amritsar, their birthplace, and they left the city and
moved to another state, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, years ago. They were going to
see the place after forty odd years. I remember going there as a child and
after that their families sold off all their properties, and moved out to
Mumbai and other places, so we no more went there, and life went on. It was only
when my sister thought of taking us to our parent’s birthplace, to mark her
silver wedding anniversary that we got excited at the idea. Amritsar is a city distinctly
known for its large hearted, happy caring and hospitable people. Its rich food,
and an agrarian lifestyle, is unique to its people. It is a very urban city,
which has suffered the onslaught of several invaders that came to India to
plunder, loot, and ultimately make India their home. The people of Amritsar can
be characterized as brave, gallant and courageous, having fought many wars, and
played an important part in the freedom struggle. My mother visited her school
and the Principal of the school extended a warm welcome to us. It was an extremely
emotional moment for all of us, when the Principal dug out the new admission’s register
in which my mother’s and her sisters’ names were written in ink by her father.
It brought tears in her eyes, going back so many years, so many memories, of
childhood, home, friends, and teachers came flooding into her mind, that she
could not contain her tears. She even went ahead and accepted the offer of the
Principal to address the students’ who had assembled after the lunch break. I
had never seen my mother address a gathering, but to see her so happy and speak
so confidently, made me feel so proud of her. She had a Muslim friend; whose
name she saw in the register, who she said, did not come back after the 1947 bloody
riots, when India and Pakistan became two separate states. Visiting the Wagah
border, the gate where the Indian army is on one side and the Pakistan army on
the other, was another sentimental moment for both my parents. Both had
families on both the sides, had lost their friends, property, and all the
emotions attached were suddenly cut off. Other than that it was such a pleasure
to see them reminisce about the years gone by. My father showed us where he
first saw my mother, and where he met her dad to ask for her hand in marriage. They
met people whom they knew, went to localities where they lived, lots had
changed, of course. They even went to their favorite eating haunts, and enjoyed
the meals of their choice. A rare and unforgettable trip, full with emotion,
fun and sightseeing!!
Well, there have been lots of lovely trips, and it does not
take long to recover details from the store of my memories. It’s wonderful to
see hospitality at its best, when we go places. For me traveling is a spiritual
experience. And above all, any place is
made by its people, and all the history that is attached to it. So here’s to
more globetrotting!!