Travel Sojourns’

Travel is one of the most sought after escapade for people all around me. I am tempted to pen my 2 thoughts on how this important “escape” has changed in meaning with the changing phases of life.

As a kid, I have  travelled a lot, and none by own design. The place was decided by my parents and so were all the arrangements. I just had to follow the itinerary. I don’t have exclusive memories of whether I have enjoyed those vacations or not..but I do have memories of the places I have visited..so am assuming that I must have enjoyed travelling back as a kid as well. These vacations were all about spending time with parents which otherwise was difficult when your father has to struggle to set up his business. The location, activity, FB quotient of the destination or the photographic opportunities didn’t matter. What mattered was spending time together.

As I grew into a young lady, travel turned into business trips and accumulating air miles. “Living out of airport” was (i assume it still is) the modern day version of “living out of suitcase”. Personal vacations, if any, were also driven by activity or what you could achieve at a specific place.

Then the Facebook phenomenon hit home. You watched the whole world travelling in the small screen of your home page. Your social status was no longer defined only by your qualification, designation or the locality where you stayed. It was defined by the locations where you vacation. The world got divided into down market South East Asia to upmarket Europe. As if Zodiacs was not the only important match, people started matching travel interests as well while choosing life partners. Let me please clarify here, I have not been an exception to this. Travel played a very important role in choosing my life partner as well.

As a married woman, travel was more about exploration of the place and of your relationship. As a married working woman, it was to prove to the world that we were travelling places and hence all was fine with our relationship…and we were doing extremely well for ourselves. Capturing a couple picture at Niagara falls to post on FB was more important or was given more time than watching Niagara falls itself. I still remember how a dear one chose his honeymoon destination basis how many “likes” it would get on Facebook.

Extension of this is a phase which I am living now. Travelling with young child. Frankly, its life coming full circle. Place does not matter anymore, its more about how much time we can spend with the child, what can we show her and how travel can help unleash her imagination. If you get a couple of hours to hang your boots while your kid sleeps that’s more than what you can ask for. Seriously, those 2 hours could be at Miami, Puri, Switzerland or home..does'nt matter.

Well let me not be all cynical. Like every tunnel has light at the end, there is still hope. Off late, I have realized that travelling has become more about finding inner peace for me..about living experiences that give direction to my thought process…about meeting people who have real lives. This travel is what I am probably  enjoying the most. While my FB page is getting richer in terms of my knowledge about different geographies (yes, I am finally beyond jealousy and I see these posts by friends as Geography Knowledge Enhancements), I think my life is getting much more richer for the experiences.