Beyond the shell

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”

– Samuel Johnson


I don't remember when I got bitten by the travel bug. It was probably on some cold winter afternoon while I was napping comfortably on a charpai(a kind of campbed) on the tiny terrace of my house in delhi. It must have been a huge,poisonous one, 'coz the bite is still fresh and itches every once in a while. Talk about lasting damage.

Anyway, once the itch begins, no medicine works. The only solution that I have found works wonders is simply packing my bags and heading off someplace, far from home. Pure, utter bliss.

I've loved wandering off to places for as long as I can remember. Blessed with parents who love seeing places, every holiday was spent in some new place, instead of the comfortable confines of the house.Sometimes, it was well known tourist destinations, sometimes a random place someone had told us about. For quite a few years in the middle, thanks to the school certificate exams, college, et al, the thirst for travelling was quite latent. It was the Discovery travel channel that brought back the itch and now a few months without a wander, reduces me to a screaming, moody, stress freak.

Writing about my experiences wasn't something that came up out of the blue one morning, as I was sitting on some secluded beach. It's something that I have been contemplating about for at least 2 years. But then, my ever faithful companion, Procrastination( who hovers around my head, whispering sweet "do nothings" in my ear) has never allowed me to put these constructive thoughts into action( big surprise :))

This is a traveller's blog, maybe even a wanderer's blog and not a tourist's. So what you would not find here is- famous places to see( the sightseeing kind), information about souvenir stores and where you can find good indian food/punjabi food/ burgers and pizzas.What you will find though is what the place felt like - the experience of being there.

Will end this post with one of my favorite quotes by one of literary world's geniuses.


“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain


 Hope you enjoy reading this!

Insanity check

In , In

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The elusive wanderer is getting restless. Goan dream part II is still “Work in progress” and she hasn’t left town in half a century ( read a month and a half). Saint Valentine’s day is right around the corner and EW(as I fondly call the elusive wanderer) is dying to be with her beloved nature.

What a truly sad time to be loaded with work. Should she take off by herself? Convince a long lost friend to accompany her? Or maybe simply take an imaginary trip. Nah!!

I guess insanity is slowly taking over. Here I am, writing on a travel blog because I am not travelling(boo hoo!) enough. Where are those beautiful waters, the scalding sands, the beautiful hills? Why aren’t they calling to me? Or perhaps they are and I am simply not responding ‘coz I am lost in the closed confines of my cubicle. So here’s some nonsense poetry( I know it’s quite a torture) to entice the Gods to lead me out into nature again.


An ode to a wild wandering from inside the cubicle


There’s a chill in the air, but no sign of a breeze,

The air-conditioning is causing my brain to freeze,

Stale air abounds in my claustrophobic cube,

And strong smell of glue from a flattened tube

All the green I see, is the cover of my book

Nothing so pretty to deserve another look

The computer screen is my only friend

Sleeping on the desk, the latest trend

The cubicle wall is the farthest I see

Is this really how life’s gotta be

How I long for the sights of the vast blue ocean

The feel of rain or some such sensation

To get lost in the green of impossibly tall trees

Smell the wet mud as I crawl on my knees

Smile at every squirrel that crosses my path

Have a natural, exfoliating bath

Sleep under a million twinkly stars

Shop in tiny, quaint bazaars

Race with the wind till I can run no more

And come home happier than ever before!


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2009 ·The Elusive Wanderer by TNB

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