Travels & Recommendations

    I once had a crush on a boy who loved to travel. He was six years older and I was still in high school. Whatever he did became something I instantly liked. So I grew a fondness for travel. But this wasn't all. 

    As you'd agree, travelling requires money, a little courage and a lot of planning. And I take pride in my organization and time-management skills. I also believe I am pretty courageous, having endured so much since a young age. So yeah, all I needed now was a little bit of money, because the rest came naturally to me.

    Then came the era of Instagram- with all its alluring reels that grab the attention of your subconscious mind and convince you that YOLO (You Only Live Once) and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) are the only things that matter. Being a 'Gen Z' kid as they call me, I jumped on the bandwagon quite enthusiastically and dreamed of exploring places ever since I joined College.

    But a bigger truth that I realised upon reflecting is that all these reasons that I listed are superficial ones that one would tell the world. The real reasons behind our actions are often deep-rooted and safely secured in some corner of our hearts. These are the most genuine factors influencing how a person feels, thinks, behaves and reacts.

    In my case, I have had a confined childhood. Confined in the sense that, I was born in a household that ran on a budget (like most brown, middle-class households). Travelling wasn't a priority for us, considering that the breadwinner was one, and there were three kids, one with medical issues. Naturally, education was the only factor that was consistently uncompromised. Every other need, desire, want, wish, whim or whatever you call it, was rejected, not by the parents but by the three of us - the three very understanding, mature and sensible kids that our parents now take pride in.

    Like my elder siblings, I learned the art of not dreaming or wishing for things extravagant and expensive since I was a kid. When you suppress your wishes for too long - one of two things happens - either you outgrow your desires and don't feel the need to even consider them as valid things (as in the case of my sister), or you grow up to become this uncompromising adult who only lives to fulfil the unfulfilled wishes of yore (as in my case).

    Clearly, I had to travel, I had to shop, I had to be superficial like all the people I was surrounded by as a kid. So welcome to this page of my blog that deals exclusively with the places I have seen ever since time, freedom, and money became accessible to me. Like the other pages in this blog, this page titled 'Travels & Recommendations' is a work in progress. I will update this as and when an opportunity presents itself.

    So far, I have been to Mysore, Goa, Pondicherry, Kerala, Amritsar, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coonoor, Ooty, Shillong, Kaziranga, Guwahati, Hampi, Kolkata and Puri. That's the list so far (August 2023). I hope to find the time to list the places to see in all these destinations or the places I visited in all these destinations, sometime soon. Till then, take care, and keep chasing your dreams - I'm doing that too!