Travel means what ?

Is it a break a from the routine. Change of scenery from monotony and the drudgery of daily life. Just a snobbish thing to do. Succumbing to peer pressure. Or are these cliched definitions.

For me travel is opening up a window to a world one has never imagined. Not only the customary glimpses from the car window, at the fast receding horizon. Nor it is taking pics at landmarks, to let the world know that you have been there. Nor it is ticking the boxes.

It’s like a dream that is seen with open eyes. Where one is just a neutral observer without any control of the directions, where things may move. Without any judgemental thought. Soaking in the the way of life, the hardships and joys of the people one meets. Trying to understand, though one may never completely understand the thought processes of the residents of the place one is visiting. Their way of looking at everything. Which may be at odds to your ways and your way of life. Right from dressing, food, approach towards work and a lot more.

Yet in the end, making one realise how small and tiny one is, in the grander scheme of things.

©️ShashikantDudhgaonkar