Travelogue

"I love traveling"... something most of us nowadays fill in the "interests" or "activities" box while filling up our profile (or resume). Its so good to see that change. Earlier it used to be limited to sports or music or reading or stamp/coin collecting (the last one seem to have completely become a thing of the past). Do they actually travel is a completely different subject.

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago which said you can travel through the entire world by just sitting at home and  reading about those places. It sounds awesome. You can zip through continents with never having to worry about baggage! But its just never the same experience. Visiting new places, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and way of life.... No book or TV program can ever give you all these.

There are still many among us who consider traveling as a waste of time and money. They don't have a clue what they are missing. I haven't traveled a lot, but with whatever little I have, it sure was a very enriching experience. Luckily for me, my folks used to take us kids to short trips whenever they could. Memories of most of those trips are still very fresh. The night we all spent in a house boat midst of the Kumarakom lake was one of the best.

Most of my travels lately have been with friends. Almost all our trips during college was to different forests of  Tamil Nadu. My good friend Vikram's dad being the forest dept. chief was of enormous help. Internet is too public a medium to share all the experiences we had during those trips. And some were truly life changing. The night we shot a tiger in the wild during a night-safari in an open jeep, that was one of the craziest and most memorable of all. And for all you animal lovers out there, we shot it with a video-cam. I should have a copy of the clip somewhere.

I might not be able to travel to all the places I want to in my lifetime. I just wish I can do it as much as I can - it might not happen with the same set of amazing friends, it might not be to any exotic destinations - but traveling is something I never want to stop doing ever. I can't help but think of the following poem...
  
                                                "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
                                                  But I have promises to keep,
                                                  And miles to go before I sleep,
                                                  And miles to go before I sleep."
                                                                                               - Robert Frost