Bon Voyage!

Sindakhed Raja Fort

Sometime back my friend said that every individual really thrives for two things in his life- A house to settle down and a car to get long away from that house! There is something about visiting different places that almost no one can resist. And I have always been a big travelling junkie. Lucky for me, I am raised in a family where everyone likes to visit new places, so I guess the travelling bug was planted in me a long time ago.

Kaziranga National Park, Assam

Mini-Train @ Darjeeling

Apart from short one day trips near my hometown, the trip I distinctly remember from my childhood days is when we went down south. Be it the magnificent Marina beach at Chennai (then, it was called Madras), the serene clouds and hills of Ooty, the eye-catching architecture of Meenaxi temple at Madurai, the amazing cycling tracks of Kodaikanal, the auspicious Tirupati temple or the deep blue sea at Kanyakumari and Rameshwaram, the southern part of India had left me marveled and amazed! It was in this trip I realized one thing- India has such diverse culture that one could visit these places again and again and still would get something new to see and learn.

As I grew up, school trips became something I looked forward to. Climbing the Daulatabad fort with my friends, learning about Wind Mill of Aurangabad from my teachers, being awed by the beauty and scale of Ajanta-Ellora caves and all this amidst of singing and dancing in school bus! There was also a short trip to Lonar Salt Lake I arranged in the 9^th grade with my friends (I guess that was the beginning of ‘In charge of arranging and coordinating trips’ phase :-p)

What I liked the most about these trips was that no one cared about day-to-day stuff when on we were out. And also it’s amazing how much you can learn by visiting different places. For example, I developed an early interest in the history of Maharashtra because I went to many forts and other historical places like Sindakhed Raja. And I always thought of myself as NOT a beach person until I visited Ratnagiri and Ganpati Phule.

In recent years I got to go to places like Nepal, Darjeeling (by far my most favorite hill station!), Matheran, Bhimashankar, and of course an amazing college excursion to Meghalaya and Kaziranga National Park, Assam. North-eastern states of India are blessed with natural beauty and what they all have in common is a zealous culture. Another reason my college trip was memorable for me was the 60 hours long train journey and my big suitcase (always a bad idea to carry extra luggage on such long expeditions!).  

All those who love to tour would tell you that there is an exasperating side to taking a trip, and that is the ‘planning’ part! I and my couple of friends have experienced this for past 2 years that nothing takes away the fun of a trip as an extravagant planning session (in our cases 4-6 sessions). For we plan and plan and plan and almost half our plans do not pan out L. Thanks to excessive Mumbai rains or terror threats or the biggie- permissions, we had to let go of our many trekking trips. But we did manage to go on a not-so-impromptu Lonavala-Lohgad trip and a road trip to Alibaug (long story :-p). And these trips were an indication for us to stop planning and just picking our bags and going where we want to go…if only we would learn!

Taj Mahal

A spontaneous outing has its own charm and fun; this I realized last month when I went to Agra-Mathura with family and friends without thinking, planning or even applying for a leave! I just took a decision and got in to the train and now I thank that moment I decided to go on this trip because otherwise I would have missed the most spectacular view of Taj Mahal, birthplace of Lord Krishna, and not to forget a fun-filled journey back home where none of the 15 of us had a confirm ticket!

Kanyakumari

All these travelling sprees have certain common things- fun, learning experience, certain tough times, and did I mention lots of fun?! Someone has rightly said that ‘Life is a journey and those who do not travel, read only a single page.’ For as happy as I am that I did not stick to reading a single page, there are so many pages that are still to be read! Next in line are the amazing chapters of Gujarat and Rajasthan and someday may be even Egypt, Greece, Paris, and (this one I keep praying for) Venice!  

Venice