Can a place really change
you as a person?
Or perhaps to rephrase that,
can a place really get you on the pathway to reclaiming yourself?
In the past one year alone I have
travelled to about 10 different places and I seem to be drawn into realizing that
my experiences from two of them in particular have been exactly identical.
That these places were
visited at very different points in the year (separated from each other by 11
months) is what makes it a little stranger.
That I’d almost forgotten what I’d learnt the first time around… and that the second time around it didn’t
seem all that accidental is what really got me thinking.
To be less cryptic, I was in Ladakh in September 2013 and Spiti Valley was where I was
about this time last month. The epiphanies, now in retrospect, bear an uncanny
resemblance.
Suddenly the world around me as I’d known it, which until Ladakh seemed to be both revolving and rotating in eights (however that was possible), seemed to have found its orbit.
No rocket science here however. Hence I asked the question at the beginning of this post itself.
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| Spiti - Aug '14 |
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| Ladakh - Sept '13 |
i. Occupy the moment (a phrase I have shamelessly lifted from
somewhere on the Internet): Whether stirring sugar crystals at the bottom of my
hot pipping cuppa tea in an attempt to stop myself from shaking like a leaf at
the chilly banks of the Tso Moriri in Ladakh
…or when finally learning that I was doing much better
on the trek when I synchronised the rhythm of my step with the rhythm of my
breath (even though I was still gasping at the altitude of 14000 feet), I
experienced for myself what was meant by peace within stillness.
Repeat lesson learnt in Spiti Valley too when after 3
days of being there it suddenly dawned on me that for the first time - since who
knows when - my mind hadn't raced to posing and attempting to answer existential
questions (like it does almost always).
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| Source: The Internet |
ii. Pausetive attitude (also inspired from someplace on the
Internet): So cycling down from Khardung La in Ladakh (which is the highest
motor-able road in the world at 18000 feet) with nine other co-travellers, it hadn't been too long
before I'd figured that I was the one at the tail end. I was the last one - much to
the annoyance of the driver who was asked to trail slowly (and now even more
slowly courtesy ‘yours truly’) should there have been an
emergency.
…Likewise, my takeaways after returning from Spiti are that I’m at
ease with where I am. That I am where I am because I chose to be
there, not where everyone else wants to be or wants me to be.
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| Caution - Rocky road ahead: Cycling down Khardung La |
iii. Self-wallah love (my own coinage therefore cheesy): I travel
and therefore cause (a) eyebrows to raise when it’s done solo and (b) jaws to drop when it’s done
with groups of people I do not know. It’s presumed that the introvert and
therefore borderline misanthrope that I am, I must despise humans and therefore
crave to be alone.
Me thinks it’s presumptuous
to not know what is meant by solitude.
Just as it is presumptuous
to not know that travel has always been a great way to meet real people in the
real (not virtual) world – who either second your beliefs (that like minded souls do exist) or provide comic relief courtesy
their quirks (because it does take all kinds of people to make this world).
And in both instances you begin to see yourself for who you truly
are, minus the pretensions or the expectations.
So you break into a smile
when you see your face in the mirror (even if the wind’s in your hair).
And because you accept
yourself, you are more accepting of others around you
Ahem! Misanthropy loves company too. Now who’d have thought?
Ahem! Misanthropy loves company too. Now who’d have thought?
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| Lil' reminders from a co-traveller so I don't lose sight of the horizon |
Then out of nowhere
you realize you are happy. Without any external stimulus per se.
Because:
-
You don’t feel the need to take responsibility for the things
that aren't within your control
-
Your head and heart are now aligned suddenly
-
And the mind feels like it’s resting (just when you’d given
up on ever knowing what that meant)
-
Life will still need to be figured out but ‘self assurance’
is a wonderful thing
- After all it is what it is. And all that there is, is the here and now
These days I hear myself mulling over this: Naysayers exist aplenty around me. Should then one also exist in my head? Hell no.