And that leaves only

Kolkata. Which is phenomenal by my standards, as though of you who've read the previous post might have realised. As for the others, all it takes is one sentence to bring you upto speed- i hate travelling.

But this year has seen me visiting 3 of the (erstwhile only) 4 metros in the country.

Mumbai - February - last visited 2006 April, and that was only because i had to get inducted, professionally, that is. Judging by my tenure, fat lot of good it did. I was a frequent Mumbai visitor in the 80'sthough - before the bhai stuff became popular. No, there's no connection. Shivaji Park was the usual venue, with a bit of Peddar Road and Malabar Hill thrown in. And then i stopped going to school, and that ended the summer vacations.Sigh

Chennai - August - last visited 1999 or was it 95? Damn, i'm really getting old. 95 is easier to remember because of the 12th Std results and the giant B&W poster of Aishwarya Rai to celebrate it. Yup, its 99 coz i boarded the Corromandel Exp from there for my first Kolkata trip.

Delhi - September and October - last visited 1993. And a much forgettable trip.
I dont think I'll do Kolkata, at least that leaves my tarnished record some chances of redemption ;)

until next time, traveller's outlook

The Travel Bug

All the travelogues, all the travel programming on TV, and all the photos on image sharing platforms- I've read them all as messages, but never picked up the bags and set about travelling regularly. Now, i can give operational excuses, but i also know that those are not the real ones. For quite sometime now, I've had a block in my head, but could never decipher it myself. And the worst part is that it wasnt always like this. While i've never been a travel freak, i've never shied away from it either.

It took Nude Ellie to give me an insight into this bug. The first and easiest insight is that i am incredibly lazy. Even that trip might not have happened if it werent official :). And it is perhaps only fitting that it was an office space that gave me a thought.

I've realised that travel necessarily means meeting new people. And not just meet, but also see large amounts of humanity that i may not meet, but faces that i know exist. In this case, floorsand floors of cubicle farms.

Now this might sound weird to many, but that to me, is a bit like those starlit nights. And while i love staring up at the sky, I've slowly built up a revulsion to the other thing that evokes in me a feeling of insignificance, a feeling that i haven't done anything to be truly special.Ego/ Frustration? Or plain old existential angst?

untl next time, wanderbust?