How Traveling Around India Made Me Smarter

I had always heard that travel helps in developing one’s personality, which I never believed until I took my first solo trip. Having read a lot of posts about positive things in life, I had to overcome my pessimistic side. It was high time that I started looking at the bright side of things, people, and places because I had started feeling too gloomy. Things that gave happiness to people made me worried. Finally, I decided to go for a solo road trip and then group trips, lots of them. Let me share how travel changed a naysayer into an optimist.

Not comparing myself

Before I went out of Mumbai, I always used to think of the bigger car my colleague has, the diamond rings on the hand of my sister, and the posh house of my neighbor. No matter how hard I tried to ignore all these materialistic possessions people had, I would always find myself feeling awful about not having them, even though I lead a decent lifestyle. While traveling around Kerala, I saw the happiness on the faces of deprived kids. People in the villages had very little compared to what I had, but they did not want to have anything from me. Not even once I heard them saying that my watch was glittering or my car was looking so good. On the other hand, I had heard myself talking like that to myself and others. Those scenarios in Kerala and many other naturally beautiful places taught me that there was no use comparing my life to that of others because there will always be someone richer or poorer than me.

Getting out of the comfort zone

Staying in a campsite near Pune taught me to survive outside my comfort zone. At that place, we did not have proper toilets, water was scarce and very expensive, food choices were not there, and we had limited clothes with us. Until that vacation, I had always stayed in hotels, traveled in a Self-Drive Car Rental or a friend’s car, and ate at restaurants while carefully selecting from an assortment of foods. However, staying in the camp taught me that I should not take my possessions for granted and I learned to find bliss out of my comfort zone, which was my office and home.

Not being lazy

Travel is not cheap, and that I knew already. Perhaps that is why; I never went for a vacation for so many years of my job life. Thanks to my friend, Rohan, who pushed me to travel with him because he did not have company. We went to Indonesia, which was certainly expensive, and we could not afford to sleep in the hotel rooms. Rohan was very excited about visiting each place marked on his itinerary, and I had to comply because we had limited time in hand. We made the best use of our days and nights in that gorgeous country, and returned home with our phones loaded with photos. Looking back at those memories, I thank myself for not being too lazy to move beyond the beaches.

The best thing that travel has taught me is that I should never doubt my capabilities. I used to spend a lot of time thinking negatively about the things that I wanted to accomplish, but hesitated to even begin. I always wanted to learn dance, but I thought that I would not be able to move my body.  Traveling to Kerala gave me the confidence to dance and I enrolled in the classes as soon as I returned. This is a good number of accomplishments, for sure, and many more to come.

How I got lucky because of rental car in Delhi

My office is in Connaught Place in Delhi, and I commute by bus. Like every other day, it was Friday and I stepped out of the office to catch my bus at 6 pm. I was there at the same bus stop where I have been going to since the last two years. I rushed to reach the bus stop at 5:55 pm so that I do not miss the bus. Just when I was walking swiftly towards my destination, I felt a minor push from a man. I almost fell at the push, but I could not do anything about it. It is common for the Delhi-ites to push people to make way for themselves.

The man probably wanted to catch another bus, and hence ran after it. However, I could not reach my bus stop on time, and I could see the bus going away right in front of my eyes. I cussed that man for making me miss my bus, though he had caught his bus. Now I had to wait for another half an hour or more to find another bus on my route.

I took my phone out of the bag and got busy over various social media sites. What else I could do? I had to pass my time somehow. Occasionally, I would look up at other people indulged in talking, walking, and a few of them eating chana-bhel from the vendor at the bus stop. Just when I was about to get back to my phone, I saw a colleague from my office in a car that was decorated like a poster.

He stopped near me and told me to hop in. I gave him a puzzled look and said, “I have to wait for my bus. And how did you get this funny car?”

He laughed at my reaction, and said, “It’s from the promotional offer running by a company that gives car on rent. Jump in for a quick ride; I’ll drop in back in a few minutes. Else, I’ll drop you home.”

It was an interesting offer, indeed. I did not take me long to hop in for a quick ride.

Coincidentally, we drove in the direction of my bus route. After only a kilometer or more, I saw a huge crowd of people around one spot. We thought that there must be an accident. However, it turned out that the bus that I had just missed was overturned because the driver was trying to outpace someone. He could not control the vehicle and hence, the bus capsized.

I felt immediate gratitude for that man who had pushed me!

Luck was on my side that day. I had missed the bus for good.

I later learned that no one in the bus had been seriously injured, but a few passengers were admitted to the hospital for minor bandage. I reached home with my friend in that blessed Car Rental, and thanked God that at least I arrived safely, no matter a few minutes late.

Why I Hate Traveling for Work

Traveling is something that has always been very close to my heart, but of late, I have started hating it. I don’t like to pack my bags anymore as I used to do earlier. I don’t like to experiment with foods the way I did a few years ago. All of this happened because I decided to choose travel job over desk job seven years ago. Only the first year in my job was great as I loved exploring new cities, but everything started becoming tiring after a while. Let me tell you why I don’t like my job anymore and why I want to return to a normal life.

No rest

Traveling for leisure is a different thing and doing such a pleasing thing for work is a completely different scenario. I hate waking up at 4 am to catch a flight at eight in the morning. I have to pack my check-in luggage at night and I cannot afford to pack a huge luggage since it takes a long time at the airport to submit and take it back. I hate waiting in the long queues even when I cannot stand straight for a minute. There have been times when I feel like I would crash any moment, but still I have to be there for an important job in a remote city in the other corner of the world.

No time for sightseeing

When I first went to Pune, I had thought that I would see as many sights as I can after my office. However, endless number of meetings and trainings were lined up for me in the administrative center and I could not even eat my lunch at peace. When I reached my hotel at 9 pm, the first thing that came to my mind was to have a glass of wine after a shower and crash in the bed. Three days went like this in the city, and my plans of going around Pune in the evening went down the drain. I have seen many cities around the world now, but some of them are only for the namesake.

Eating just anything

More often than not, I do get free food during my travels, but I have started hating it now. I don’t like the free meal coupons that include only fast food or unhealthy fatty cuisines. I rather prefer a bowl of cereals with milk in the morning, or just a plain egg omelet rather than lavish foods in every meal. Instead of having beer every evening, I try to grab a glass of fresh juice no matter what. The office parties do not interest me anymore, especially when my body clock is against the local timings.

Poor health

I can realize my deteriorating health whenever I eat unhealthy foods for a week or more. My body starts giving me signals that I need to bounce back to a healthy routine as soon as possible so that I can enjoy my work as well as weekends. However, no matter how hard I try, I can never be as hale and hearty as I would be at home. I used to work for a Self-Drive Car Rental company, have good food, maintain a stable routine, and go for parties only during weekends. Now I can party throughout the year, but it does not interest me anymore. As soon as I get a chance to be with my family and my cats, I take a flight to my hometown and spend maximum time with them. I don’t say that traveling for work is bad, but it saturates me after a while.

Thank God it’s Friday! I’m off for a Weekend Getaway

Every week on Friday, I get a feeling of doing something exciting. Rarely, just once in three months, I feel like sitting and home to relax. If I sit at home for continuously three weeks, it makes me restless for the entire weekend. I have to be honest with myself every Friday and make a plan with family or friends. Like every week, we made a program to go for bowling in Gurgaon, which unlike Delhi, is not well-connected by public transport. One has to own a car or hire a cab or an auto-rickshaw to commute in National Capital Region.

Anyway, Blu-O in Gurgaon is the place where we had to go. My friends picked me up from my office in Cyber City, and we were off to have a great time in Blu-O. The place is a gaming station where we can do bowling, play snooker, and many other games. I have zero experience in bowling, but I had a great time continuously failing and passing at the sport. Though we had a plan to return home after bowling, no one wanted to go home. So here we were off to Jaipur in an instant. Without looking back for a moment, we set off to the Pink City. On our way, we booked a hotel in Jaipur so that we can rest our heavy heads when we reach.

Early morning in Jaipur

We had driven at a leisurely pace from Gurgaon to Jaipur; we reached our hotel early in the morning. Thankfully, the hotel looked as it was shown in the pictures, and the rooftop construction was brilliant. The real Rajput architecture was used on the pillars and walls; it felt great to be there and watch the early morning sun. The houses and hotels in front of us showcased an entirely different picture of the Pink City. In that case, I feel that every city has a different mood at different points of time during the day.

A day spent in Rajasthani style 

Khameeri Hara Matar Poori was something I had never heard about, but it was a delectable dish that we had with Thandai. We decided to take some rest in the hotel until historical monuments opened. After sleeping for a couple of hours, we were off to Amer Fort, which is located pretty away from the central city. Nevertheless, it was worth taking the pain to reach there. Amer Fort is a sheer example of the royal lives of the Rajputs of the olden times.

We could not realize where we spent our three hours in the extensive Amer Fort. We had to force ourselves to get out of it and set off for Hawa Mahal. This place was again a brilliant piece of architecture with hundreds of windows. While clicking photos in the pleasant winter sun, it felt great to just sit there with friends. Although we wanted to visit more places in the city, we felt too tired to go ahead. So we decided to go to the hotel, but before that, the girls in the group wanted to shop around for Sarees and handicrafts. Maharani market is a beautiful place where we got almost everything we wanted. We bought things for ourselves and souvenirs for our families.

Just like every other weekend, this time was also spent well wandering around Jaipur in a Luxury Car Rental that we had taken from a car rental company. One more day went in a significant way, and I look forward to having many such great times with my friends.