Travels act as doors of perception, to a world that remains largely unimaginable.
Every time I try to articulate the experiences I gather, the next journey breaks a few notions, and brings about the truth of how less has been seen and how less can be thought of. Tremendous people have been living tremendous lives out there, and a sea of experiences is present to take a dip into, where reaching the seabed seems inconceivable.
Time restraints and binding responsibilities have cropped up in life now, more than ever, and it does not allow me to run away from my problems anymore. Reality, now a days, does not provide the safe haven that was the comfort of my college and the close company of those who cared. Still the limited opportunities to travel provide unlimited reactions and reflections.
Recently I had been to a few places in Gujarat, and at numerous instances I realised something, could see things differently or just be astonished with mundane presence of the extraordinary in our lives. Leaving the lengthy list of anecdotes, I try to summarise and once again conclude something out of the recent realisations. But one thing is certain for me now, that life is definitely much different than portrayed or experienced by different people visiting the very same places.
Gandhi’s values and Sardar’s strength, the casual but rich heritage, the hordes of homeless people, Sabarmati river’s clean water, people wearing their religious identities conspicuously and unapologetically, freely roaming Gir cows on greatly laid out roads, the simplicity of Gujarati characters and their similarity to Hindi, and its wide range of words drawn not only from Hindi but also from Urdu, along with a lot of other observations fill up my memories.
The fact, that living in ashrams does not free one of their vile traits, was a welcome one. It’s an arduous task to inculcate humility, and an even more difficult one to get rid of anger.I could identify the inertness I had developed regarding certain aspects of life, how I had normalised looking at others’ ailments, and could not empathise as much as I used to before.
Once again, I am indebted by the care and hospitality of my hosts, and am just grateful for all that could be seen. I was able to have some of the deepest conversations, could regain some forgotten values and stumbled across thoughts that were challenging yet fulfilling to dwell upon.
In the beginning, I had planned out a decisive method to travel efficiently, to get the most out of my trip. Towards the end, I could only add more points to it. It is a scheme that can be refined through more diverse and radical journeys.
PS: picture describes the casual heritage 🙂 (gift to a maska-bun shop from M F Hussain)
Musings and Perspective 