Do you have a bucket list? (The things you wish to do before
you kick the bucket or the things you live to do before u die). Well, I have
one and I realized that more than anything, most of the list had places which I
wish to go – exotic locations, adventure beckoning and spiritual calling. The
thing is I have had them on my list since long and haven’t checked even a
single box yet and I don’t see myself doing it in the near future as well. Why?
I am a reluctant traveller.
I have friends sending me links like the 10 breathtakingly
beautiful places in India you must visit or 20 stunning ways to look at the
world. I get absolutely awed seeing them and the first thing I do, add them to
my bucket list and may be post back a link of 30 epic places you must visit
before turning 30 (There’s no scarcity for such lists these days J ). So, it stays there.
The bucket list gets bigger and byte-r while I keep visiting the 4-5 places I
can never ignore going, even if I want to ;-) .
Thinking of the reasons why I don’t actually travel, I have a few jotted down.
- 1. Busy with what I’m doing (which is nothing)
- 2. Seeking permission from parents and getting to hear the 40 things you shouldn't do on a trip advice play on loop.
- 3. Need to find company
- 4. I’m a miser
- 5. And above all LAZY, yea L-A-Z-Y.
Once in a while, I watch a movie which explores life through
a journey of self realization, a friend whom I emulate shares her experience of
the recent travel she had been on and the next one on her list, a desk partner
in class whispering about the places she would like to visit with her guy and
the endless pictures of my friends posing before the places I had bucketed
popping up on my Facebook wall. Such things give me this new found urge of
letting go all my thoughts and actually making the trip bang on. But it’s just
a matter of time before I let my laziness take over.
It actually makes me feel guilty that I’m wasting my life dreaming
about these places and finding someone to blame on for my inaction. And then
there’s this conversation which happened with a friend which made me realize
that it is not the place which actually excites me but the thought of it. It’s
the idea of travelling that I am fond of, not travelling itself (It’s something
like I like music but I don’t want to play it myself, I appreciate creativity
but I am least creative myself and so on).
I quote my friend, “It is just the idea that I like. I am
not sure I would actually enjoy being in those places. I don’t know because I
haven’t been to those places. I would rather sit down and have some good
company. The few places I have been, the memories of the trip are always the
people and the fun we had with those people, not the places exactly. I don’t
think I can sit at a beach or a mountain top and just gaze at the infinite sky
or sea and that somehow alters my life”.
How true! I felt goose bumps when I watched Alia Bhatt @
Veera in “Highway” cry uncontrollably at the glimpse of the gushing water in
her final destination, a sense of purity and achievement. But is that what I would
feel or do when I get there! I doubt. I would rather be confused or bored of
the gaze rather than amused. It’s always the people you are with that are important,
here or anywhere. Places just form the backdrop for a beautiful memory like the
troupe dancers who go unnoticed behind the typical Bollywood Hero &
Heroine, however ravishing they are. They
form cues to the wonderful companionship that you experienced.
I would rather live with the regret of not being to a place
than take that tedious trip to sit on a mountain top for ten minutes and feel
bored (that’s just the lazy ME :P ). I would be comfortable watching “In to the
Wild” on my laptop, listen to my friend share her adventures or go out for a
coffee on the next street J.
My favorite place would always remain wherever I am, cos that is where I AM.
;)
