A walk beyond the horizon

That kid in a pre-nursery classroom looking out of the open window. That’s me. That kid reading all the stories in his text-book even before the session begins. That’s me. That teenager using a lot of gestures and expressions while telling stories that he has just read. That’s me. That youngster scanning all travel adverts in the newspaper there. That’s me. That man you see there convincing his Specky, his wife, that opting for Spiti over another touristy destination will be better. That’s me. That man in dungarees front-rolling in the Indian Military Academy, that man in denims and black polo astride a bike, that man writing on a Surface Pro 4, that man clicking with a dslr, that man who tweets in rhymes, that man knows his way through the obfuscating social media platforms, that man who never gets up to stand in the aisle even though the aircraft is still taxiing on the runway… well, that man definitely believes that no mind is forever closed.

I believe that no mind is forever closed. The open mind loves to parachute over ever-changing terrain, prefers to jump in to have all assumptions scrubbed, hops from one perspective to another, understands the difference between ignorance and being unaware, isn’t bothered about prejudices, loves to express without being shackled by social grammar, questions well, and loves to reinvent life. If someone ever asked me to give a single word that defines an open mind, my answer would be, ‘Travel.’

Travel transforms strangers into friends… and friendly smiles that stay on in one’s memory

Travel?

Yes, and if I were asked to say the second vital word that helps me discover the world in an open-minded way, it would be ‘yes’.

So yes, it is travel with a yes
And yes to travel because yes
Is a good way start and yes,
Lest I forget, travel and yes
Is a walk beyond the horizon. Yes?

Even a No can sometimes mean yes
As a no to staying in is a yes
To going out to discover. Yes
Comes to us in many guises but yes
Means culture, adventure and more. Yes?

A bit on how I stumbled upon open-mindedness

The competition for defining open-mindedness is never between being wishy-washy, indecisive, or incapable of thinking coherently on one side and action and firm decision-making on the other. A friend, who is a psychologist, once told me that the simplest way of defining open-mindedness is to welcome new information. ‘When you come across something new, you need to fit it into your lifestyle or adjust your lifestyle so that it fits into that newness,’ he said, ‘and the best way encourage this flexibility is to travel.’

To be open-minded, one needs to say yes to every truth that one meets_travel

Kuala Lumpur_travel brings to us the ability to see things differently

Sydney_street artist. Travel brings us closer to perceptions, notions, and beliefs.

Thus I discovered travel. And an open-minded consciousness followed. Binding everything was a simple three-letter word called yes. The truth is that I wasn’t always one who loved adventure or culture or even long walks in forests. The prospect of talking to strangers made me inch back into my shell. Travel plans were like live ticking bombs to my mind. I remember my first real travel was flying to London and then going to York where Specky was a Commonwealth Scholar the University of York.

I was received at the airport by her and we walked from there to the tube-station where she asked me sign on a small form for a travel pass. I peered at the form and signed at the wrong place. I then cut it out and signed again. The black man at the ticket window waited patiently. I smiled nervously and said, ‘Never come across this kind of format, you see. We’re all learning, I guess.’

He smiled, ‘Hmmm… you need to learn faster, my friend. Or you’ll miss your train to York.’

‘Yes,’ I said and thought, ‘Accept and accelerate? Is this what travel is all about?’

And then what he said gave me enough to think about during my first ever journey on the InterCity from London to York, ‘Don’t worry. Move at your pace. Have a great time here. Cheers!’

That was the moment when my newly-brewed perception about accepting and accelerating changed to opening yourself to experiences with a simple yes. Indeed, it was #SayYesToTheWorld with an open mind.

A lot has changed

We are all certainly opening up. We’re getting freedom from inhibitions and clichéd opinions. No bias in heavy quantum aimed to pollute relationships. I remember travelling to London in the mid-nineties with Specky, my wife, who was a commonwealth scholar at the University of York then, and realizing that she was the only Indian wearing a salwar-suit as we strolled on the Thames river walk. But then this changed when we visited in 2010, 2014, and then in 2017 and London had saris and salwar-suits in plenty. Dresses from all over the world, in fact, dotted every touristy and non-touristy place.

Paris_move up and down and somewhere you shall discover the artistic truth of the city

The lightbox experience in Sydney where different angles merged in one image… almost what travel does to the mind

It isn’t only dress preferences that have changed with time and travel. There was a time when I heard too many voices searching for their local food even when I went to other states within India. I mean, how logical can it be to be wanting to eat only butter-chicken when walking the MG road in Bangalore or amongst the ruins at Mahabalipuram? To travel to Seoul and then lamenting, ‘All this is just weeds in salted water. I am dying to eat chapatis with rajma-chole!’ Utterly silly, of course. I loved my rendezvous with Kimchi there and with Som Tam, Pad Kra Pao, and even fruit fritters in Bangkok, Nasi Lemuk and Wong Ah Wah in Kuala Lumpur, Fish-n-Chips, baked potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding in York, stuffed olives and sangria at La Boqueria in Barcelona, and almost everything from any Patisserie in Paris, Falafels and Shwarmas in Amman… and there was no reason for my hankering for Indian food anywhere in any of the visits.

However, I do remember travelling to a small village in MP as a child of ten and when offered a bajra-ki-roti with a shallow fried locally grown green leafy veggie, I bawled and cried and threw tantrums until my mother calmly said, ‘When you are hungry, really hungry, you will eat this and then you will also like this.’

And I did like bajra-ki-roti with that saag. Simple. That was probably my first and last travel tantrum.

Let me now say that even food choices are far wider now. I mean, you walk around in Shoreditch, Spitalfields, or Brick Lane in London and you can literally walk into a medley of aromas from all around the world. This happens even in Cyber Hub in Gurgaon and probably in every city. I was surprised to find momos being sold in Jhansi… can you believe this? The truth is that as we opened up, the world too decided to open up! Travel, I guess, is the catalyst here. So a yes to travel indicates a willingness to be open to a wide horizon of stimuli and this, in turn, makes the world follow your steps. This is almost like the horizon gliding towards you the moment you decide to walk beyond the horizon.

Every time I pack my bags, I step into a new world

This walk beyond the horizon invariably starts with bags being packed. I must add here that travel actually begins the moment one begins to think about a place. This has happened with me. I saw a few photographs of Spiti a few years ago and they got fixed into my being. I began noticing articles in magazines and newspapers that talked about Spiti. I started stumbling upon TV shows that focused on Spiti and the region. I’m sure they must have been there earlier as well, but then my fascination brought them all to my notice… until I wrote some articles on my Andaman visit and won a trip to Spiti!

I am convinced that every adventure starts first in one’s own mind. I believe in this and know that this is not just any mythic mumbo-jumbo of my mind. Spiti happened and I fell in love with the cold air that came rushing down treacherous slopes and great mounds of loose stones. I conversed with yaks on slopes and donkeys covered with snow. I searched for and found terrains that spoke in rhymes. Every moment became a life-fulfilling adventure.

Such adventures happen every time I pack my bag. I know that so long as I move out of my zone of comfort, something memorable will happen. Like the time Specky, my wife, agreed to have a python wrapped around her in the floating market near Bangkok. Or the time when I drove the Formula 1 car in Sepang near Kuala Lumpur despite having a blood pressure that seemed to shoot up because of prawn allergy and my having remained awake throughout the night dabbing my swollen eyes with cold water to get back to normal. Or the time when despite my being out-of-shape and way-behind-in-fitness, I still completed the nearly twenty five kilometer walk in Petra, Jordan. Yes, we climbed Arthur’s feet in Edinburgh and went half-way up on Triund near Dharamshala. Each experience has been completely new and is entrenched firmly in some corner of my mind.

Floating Market_Thailand_travel frees us from inhibitions and taboos

Sepang_Kuala Lumpur_adventure waited because it must wait for travellers who must experience them all

Sepang_Kuala Lumpur_adventure waited because it must wait for travelers who must experience them all

Adventures aren’t just physically daunting tasks. My wife and I have loved watching sugarcane juice being converted into gur. We have gently held the petite flowers that give us cotton and loved the feeling. We have roamed around in Amsterdam looking up because almost every window had a new story to tell. I can tell you that window spotting walk was fascinating… and we did it even on La Rambla in Barcelona and discovered quite a few gems that are now in my library of pictures.

So yes, every time I pack my bags, I know that a new world awaits.

I use the world new because every time I visit London I find that the city has something different to offer. For instance, in our 2017 visit we discovered the mind-blowing chewing-gum art on the Millennium Bridge near Tate Modern and you can read my post on my blog. This isn’t the case with just London, I find even Delhi just as fascinating… except that driving pr walking around in this city doesn’t qualify as travel as I live in the city.

Relationships reimagined

Travel is some sort of jugglery with imagination. I say this because travel squeezes out inhibitions from one’s innards to make us open up to unimaginable conversations. Like the time we were walking in Southwark Park and stood outside a club where some people were bowling. So we simply walked in and to our surprise we got a warm welcome. The game was explained and we even tried our hands at the game. This was as exhilarating as the time we were inside the art museum in Jhansi and a casual conversation with the caretaker gave us all the information we wanted about Bundelkhundi art. In fact, he also told us where we could buy a lovely terracotta tava. Travel gives power to the solitary soul within and it comes out connecting with strangers. It could be that street artist in Sydney or the pottery instructor in Andretta Village near Palampur. It could be a little Laddhaki boy with a charming smile who told us where we could watch Lamas playing cricket or it could be a rickshaw puller in Old Delhi telling us where to buy the best shahtoot or where to go for the best rabdi-faluda.

Andretta village near Palampur_travel is about understanding differences and distortions and not wanting to make them all similar

Travel is the greatest match-maker

Well, not traditional match-making, let me hurriedly add. Travel does bring to us the wonderful joys that the world hides within its folds. Those of us who travel realise that these magical folds have a massive store of stories and relationships. Move out and discover the millions of stimuli that are simply waiting to be activated specially for you… at least this is what I felt. There were moments literally waiting for me to come and say ‘ooh!’ or ‘aah!’ in my own special way. Connect with the world, savor its myriad tastes, and experience all the weathers it can serve to you and you’d have understood what it means to have completed a journey or what adventure really means.

Travel changes the way we perceive the world. Travel changes the tone of our conversations with real and imaginary relationships. Travel makes both poetry and scintillating prose meander through present and future moments. Travel liberates. travel opens the gates to a life that would otherwise have been unimaginable. Travel has changed me isn’t as correct as saying that travel has brought me closer to what I thought I was like. In simpler words, travel brought me nearer to the reality that I am. Travel is more than just another walk… it is a walk beyond the horizon.

Hey, what are your picks for the next race? Taking place this year on Saturday 8th April, the Grand National 2018 is the highlight of a three-day racecard, and a magnet for horse racing fans around the world in Liverpool.