The Impact of Travel

"To travel is to live" – Hans Christian Andersen

It was around 6 PM. The pilot had just announced that we will be commencing our descent to Hyderabad.

I didn’t really like it.

It was the end of a 26-day long tour to New Delhi and around. In the course of this, I had seen a lot of new places and met a lot of new people. It went so fast – I felt like it was a week. It was tiring, without a doubt. And yet I yearned for more. I had got so accustomed to this deviation that I was totally unwilling to get back into the normal routine again.

What is it about travel that enchants so many people? What is the secret of wanderlust?

I remembered the stranger girl who calmly asked me directions in an overwhelmingly crowded place where she was totally lost. I remembered the American guy in the hotel who said “Shukriya” as we kept the elevator door open for a second more until he entered. I remembered being witness to the majestic Taj Mahal and its perfection on such a massive scale. And the wily salesman who sold us a fake marble showpiece (as we discovered later) right in front of it. The secret tunnels of the Agra Fort. The city of Agra, which is virtually a diamond and a ruby shining amidst an enormous stockpile of shambles. Would Shah Jahan ever have imagined that his city, the capital city of the mighty Mughal empire would one day be reduced to these ruins 400 years later, compared to other cities in the vicinity?

Travel is more than just looking at new places. It introduces you to so many varied kinds of people and their customs, their traditions and their ways of life. Sometimes, it even takes you to a different era. It gives you a real idea of how diverse and huge the world is beyond your regular lifestyle. It gives you the urge to break out of your comfort zone and try new things in a figurative sense as well – which is something one definitely needs to do if they have to achieve something great.

I think one of the best decisions I made during this tour was not to switch on the internet in my phone at all. It feels great to stay disconnected. You feel like you can’t live without a constant update on what’s happening in the world but trust me; sometimes it’s actually the other way round.

Travelling makes you introspect. It makes you know yourself better. It makes you grow.

And this was just the impact of travelling to another city within my country. Who knows what more I’ll come across when I travel the whole world?

(and hopefully Mars too :P)

This pic was taken by me during the tour

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.