Getting Away

'The wind whipped around her face, tendrils of hair coming loose from their bun. The air smelled different here, it felt different too. She opened her eyes and found the stars twinkling in a different sky. A smile lit her face and her heart started beating a wild rhythm. She was free.'

 

A road under the scorching heat of the sun, roofed by bent coconut trees, the sea stretching behind the groves of trees, its rippling water glistening in the afternoon light. A cottage in the middle of nowhere, with thick foliage under and above, the sound of crickets and the pattering of rain providing music at night. A land of burning white, with black and white peaks, unique flakes falling from a black sky, fire crackling in the grate, soft music in the background and you waltzing. A city full of life and activity, high-rises taking the place of trees, screens and signs and lights illuminating the roads, honking of taxis providing a different sort of music. A soft yellow land, with cool contrasting blue flushing on the shore, again a different type of music to the ears.

That is travelling. Everyone's idea of travelling is very different. One might just want to relax in an extravagant resort or one might want to go to all the famous tourist spots. Maybe you want to discover all the places which haven't yet been rendered impure by human touch, or maybe you are hungry to visit each and every place in that area, running like bulls let out from a cage.

Travelling is a very subjective thing, a very personal experience. Everyone has a different reason for undertaking journeys. It might be an escape, a temporary getaway from whatever you are facing in your life. Or it might be a curiosity, a thirst to see what the world looks like outside of your little circle. Maybe you are running away from something, a person, a past that haunts you. Perhaps you are looking for a place where you belong, some place where you can drop all those layers that hide the gem of a person you actually are.

But these differences don't really matter. Travelling after all is travelling. It is getting out of your usual environment, being a discoverer for some time, seeing new places, new cultures, meeting new people, eating new food. You get to breathe in a new air, you are a stranger to everyone around you, you can be anyone you want and no one will ever think that you're being fake or ingenuine. You can recreate yourself for those few days and you feel free.

The importance of travelling struck me a few days ago when I noticed something bizarre. Some nomads had left behind four horses in the open ground behind my house one day. It's been three months now and the horses are still there. They keep grazing through the day and sleep through the nights, never bothering to escape the open land where they have been for the past few months. We humans are not like these horses. Sure, our lives might also be as monotonous as the lives of the horses, but we cannot sit still in one place. We need to keep moving, keep finding new things.

One of the most interesting characters in one of my favourite shows once said that humans have the unique ability to make any place their home. That is probably the undercurrent in any sort of travelling, isn't it? A desire to find a home away from home, a quest to find your place and your people, the comfort of knowing that no matter what happens, there's always a haven waiting for you.