A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving!!” Guess these are words of Lao Tsu.
So... where did it start?
Was it this that I was brought up in the most picturesque place on earth?
I was brought up in God’s own country and spent my first two years in Aranmula. Guess, it can’t get more beautiful than that. I think being able to appreciate the beauty of creations started there- it certainly must have started there.
Was it in the genes?
The earliest conversations I remember having had with Appa had elements of travelling and his having stayed in different places in the country. That he had a transferable job and we moved every 3 years made it more prominent. Amongst other things in life, rather, most things in life, he taught me to communicate with nature. He continues to do that...
Was it my own restlessness?
My friend once told me that monster.com and I have “Never Settle” in common. I simply cannot stay put in a place- literally and metaphorically. That is the etymology for my pseudonym Musafir. There is an inherent need to move on. Now, couple that with this that I am incorrigibly emotional (some call me Kilomental) and I struggle to let go. Deadly combo na...
They say that when you really really really want something to happen, the entire universe conspires to get you “that”.
Well, I always wanted a job where I could travel around. And somebody up above the world so high said, “Tathaastu” or “So be it”. By the time I was 26, I had travelled to 24 of the 28 Indian states and once to the middle east. I loved bragging about this until the day I met the guy, who at 18 had travelled across the 7 continents.
Let me take you to an incident that happened 8 years back. In the days when walking 15 kilometres in the day was effortless to me, I was struggling to take one step more after just 15 minutes of the trek up to Kedarnath. And then this elderly gentleman walks up to me, smiles and tells me, “You respect the mountains...and the mountain shall respect you.”
That message has remained with me ever since. Rather, I have tried to internalize it. The creator has been very generous with his creations. Let me share with you, through the entries on this blog, my experiences with some of His/ Her creations.
I shall try and make this trip enjoyable... Have fun :-)
As I sign off, these lines from a song play on in my mind, for more reasons than one- “Ek raah ruk gayi, toh aur jud gayee... Main muda toh saath saath raah mud gayee... Hawa ke paron par mera aashiaana”
