It has been some time since I wrote something. I feel terribly out of touch while writing this down, but a friend of mine has inspired me to write this.To be more accurate, To write. This may not be the most appealing piece of work i could come up for those who are expecting a standard travelogue. I am neither a great traveler nor a great adviser for those who are planning for a journey of experience. So please bare with me on listening how it came into mind, how the plan shaped up, how it happened. Since I don't want to restrict whatever it is in my mind i would be splitting this up as chapters. I would be going to the past a bit to bring down some memories and thank a few people who made this happen. So please bare with me on some of those boring parts.
How it came into the picture
Hailing from Gods own country- Kerala, I was never a travel enthusiast who explored the possibilities that nature, human history and culture has offered us. Just like many people I found excuses for not trying out to be in places which fell out of my comfort zone. Introvert in nature, could be the easiest phrase I could come up with. But just like everyone's life there came the situation where I had to shed my introvert-ism (blame me for killing English, but that's how I "desi"-fy certain words on my own) and deal with people who are absolutely genuine, smart, outspoken, kind-hearted, and nuts. These aren't the behavior patterns of separate set of individuals but were collectively found in all among the particular set of people i was working with. (By the way i am an IT guy). This environment was totally new for me and made me go thru the unexplored side in me. Travelling was one among many things I learned (no mastered, just started) from this wonderful set of people.
My first journey with them was to Goa which was on the new year week of 2016. It was my first trip after college and it was totally different from previous encounters as we were on our own, not so organised and exploring places which we had no idea about. As an absolute amateur it was a good experiencing the party city of India and the beautiful beaches at a time when there is hardly any place to enjoy solitude. It ended as a decent experience and I was looking forward for the next journey with them . At the end of September the plan for north Indian trip shaped up all of a sudden.
The destinations planned were Bangalore, Delhi, Agra and Manali. The leader of our trip Mr.Annan ( that's how we call him) who plan the trips came up with the time to travel, which made me sad. It was planned to happen on the last week of December which would conclude after the first two days of 2017. This was not possible for me due to two reasons: one, a friend of mine was getting married on January 1( talk about right timing) and i had no choice of missing that one. Second, cold climate makes me totally sick, physically and mentally. Born and bought up in one of the places which experience the highest temperature in kerala- Palakkad, anything less than 25 Degree Celsius had always kept me down.So when the plan came up, I let them down citing these two reasons. I had regretted the decision but when the team came back after the trip they said it was good that i didn't join them due to the cold climatic conditions in Manali at that time. They advised me to select a time when the temperature is around 15- 25. That's how the plan ended up in first week of may.
If you are planning to visit Himachal and you find it difficult in cold conditions April-May would be decent time for you.
After the interest popped up, the next important thing( i would say the most important thing) to do was getting a gang and do planning. My roommates(2 of them) were supportive to the idea of trip but they were not sure about their leaves and one of them said 0% chance of joining when i said about the time to travel. I knew some of my friends had interest and went on to ask as many of them to join the trip. I could write or possibly shoot a short film using the conversations for putting up a team for the trip but i would like to restrict it as
In the end, three people(including me) had backpacks ready. It was none other than my roommates. And then it happened....3 people , who had never traveled beyond south India, set out for a North Indian trip for a period of 8 days. None of them were fluent conversing in Hindi.Infact only one of these barely spoke basic lines of the language. Guess where they were going?
Delhi... Agra.... Shimla.... Manali.... Amritsar....( Delhi was only a drop by location due to some last minute changes in planning).
How it came into the picture
Hailing from Gods own country- Kerala, I was never a travel enthusiast who explored the possibilities that nature, human history and culture has offered us. Just like many people I found excuses for not trying out to be in places which fell out of my comfort zone. Introvert in nature, could be the easiest phrase I could come up with. But just like everyone's life there came the situation where I had to shed my introvert-ism (blame me for killing English, but that's how I "desi"-fy certain words on my own) and deal with people who are absolutely genuine, smart, outspoken, kind-hearted, and nuts. These aren't the behavior patterns of separate set of individuals but were collectively found in all among the particular set of people i was working with. (By the way i am an IT guy). This environment was totally new for me and made me go thru the unexplored side in me. Travelling was one among many things I learned (no mastered, just started) from this wonderful set of people.
My first journey with them was to Goa which was on the new year week of 2016. It was my first trip after college and it was totally different from previous encounters as we were on our own, not so organised and exploring places which we had no idea about. As an absolute amateur it was a good experiencing the party city of India and the beautiful beaches at a time when there is hardly any place to enjoy solitude. It ended as a decent experience and I was looking forward for the next journey with them . At the end of September the plan for north Indian trip shaped up all of a sudden.
The destinations planned were Bangalore, Delhi, Agra and Manali. The leader of our trip Mr.Annan ( that's how we call him) who plan the trips came up with the time to travel, which made me sad. It was planned to happen on the last week of December which would conclude after the first two days of 2017. This was not possible for me due to two reasons: one, a friend of mine was getting married on January 1( talk about right timing) and i had no choice of missing that one. Second, cold climate makes me totally sick, physically and mentally. Born and bought up in one of the places which experience the highest temperature in kerala- Palakkad, anything less than 25 Degree Celsius had always kept me down.So when the plan came up, I let them down citing these two reasons. I had regretted the decision but when the team came back after the trip they said it was good that i didn't join them due to the cold climatic conditions in Manali at that time. They advised me to select a time when the temperature is around 15- 25. That's how the plan ended up in first week of may.
If you are planning to visit Himachal and you find it difficult in cold conditions April-May would be decent time for you.
After the interest popped up, the next important thing( i would say the most important thing) to do was getting a gang and do planning. My roommates(2 of them) were supportive to the idea of trip but they were not sure about their leaves and one of them said 0% chance of joining when i said about the time to travel. I knew some of my friends had interest and went on to ask as many of them to join the trip. I could write or possibly shoot a short film using the conversations for putting up a team for the trip but i would like to restrict it as
In the end, three people(including me) had backpacks ready. It was none other than my roommates. And then it happened....3 people , who had never traveled beyond south India, set out for a North Indian trip for a period of 8 days. None of them were fluent conversing in Hindi.Infact only one of these barely spoke basic lines of the language. Guess where they were going?
Delhi... Agra.... Shimla.... Manali.... Amritsar....( Delhi was only a drop by location due to some last minute changes in planning).
-to be continued....
Nice one Suvin.. Keep traveling
ReplyDeleteI feel it's from the heart of a traveller who wants to explore more of what we call our mother nature.To know our mother nature,the privilege of being her son can only be experienced in wild solitude as you said.So please don't restrict yourself and keep sharing your experiences in travel.It really was a worthy one for not just travellers but others who explore world digitally!
ReplyDeleteNice one suvi! Keep writing!
ReplyDelete