HOW TRAVELLING EXPANDED MY HORIZON

As a naïve little girl, I saw the world around me, my neighbours, my school and the local park as the world itself. I had my own little dream that surrounded that little world of mine. I hadn’t explored much until then. But things changed drastically the minute I stepped out of my comfort zone. That little protective bubble that I had, built around me, seemed to have popped when my parents decided to show me a new place every vacation. Now, I don’t think I will fit back into that bubble. Once we have outgrown our cradle, we can’t fit back in, no matter how much we try.  

I have always been an outdoors girl, which has made this lockdown all the more difficult for me. I have always been the kind of person who would go all around the place for no particular reason, go to a far-away store to get an item I could have probably got at a far closer store. Just a small car ride gets me excited. 

 I always wonder how things are different today considering how the world has shrunk. I can always see a place in Europe or North America or Australia on the big screen, but I will never be able to experience it unless I decide to take out the time to visit the place myself.

 What we see immediately around us is only a slice of the real world. We live in one way while somebody from another district might think of that life as different from their own. 

I had never done much work around the house at the age of seven, so it shocked me when on one of my vacations, I saw a teenaged girl help her mother run the little hotel that we were staying in. She had school, but she still decided to do her bit in running this little family establishment.

Little things like these change the perspective of a little girl’s thought of what the world is made of. Life is not a bed of roses. Travelling definitely makes me want to take the time out to thank God for all he has given. It also instills a feeling of humanity and makes me believe that there are still people out there who want to be a positive change in this world. 

So many different cultures and traditions, languages and dialects, terrains and climates, is what our world is and it needs to be explored. Everyone has a story, similarly every place has a history. Taking the time to get to know the place has become my passion. 

I enjoy looking for something special, something unique that a new place has to offer. Travelling has never been only for pleasure. Observing different places and interacting with new people taught me that the little world I had gotten used to was a miniscule part of the real world.

 I have definitely met a lot of different people with amazing stories to tell.

On my trip to Japan, I met an old man in a park. He sat there feeding the little sparrows that took food right from his fingers. He had been around, in a different city of course, during the Hiroshima bombing. He showed us a few pictures of himself as a boy.

I, an aspiring author, am extremely glad that I got the chance to travel with my family as this is where the writing bones in my body got triggered. I had a small diary as a child, which I carried around on every trip. I would note down the places we visited in the day and what was special about the place. Slowly it turned into travelogues and finally into articles about the place. I’ve read in multiple places that travelling boosts creativity and I would say that I have experienced this personally. 

One thing travel has definitely taught me is to be open-minded. We can learn so much from different people. The Barong dance in Bali, the Maoris of New Zealand, every culture is unique and beautiful. Just like India has so many different and beautiful cultures and wonderful traditions, every community has a teaching. We can learn so much and attribute the best in our lives. 

My family and I have tried not to eat at chain restaurants during our trips and actually taste the local cuisine. I can never forget the fried groundnuts and puffed rice that we bought near the Kodaikanal lake. After a long bicycle ride around the lake, this was the one thing I was waiting for. And how can I not mention the street food of New York. The falafel rolls and the one dollar pizza slices are somethings I can never forget. The hot maggi, with a local twist had become our lunch for many days during my trip to Sikkim. The best food I had on that trip was at a dhaba in Assam.  The paneer subji and butter naan with the butter flowing down my hands makes me crave for it even now. 

I believe that learning never stops. Everybody is a student of life and the world is our classroom. There is always something new to learn.