I have a friend who once pointed out that our names reflect what we really are. He insisted that my first name was because there is a certain steadfastness in my nature. That it is very easy for me to maintain the bond and the signification in choices I make – be it friends (yes, always first), tasks, or hobbies. I was surprised, for I was pretty young at the time and didn’t really think much about what I was doing. But I link the earth (that is the meaning of my name, if you haven’t caught on so far), with being in its place always. But I was born with a wanderlust! I have always wanted to go to places, see people, understand what world is, especially when it is different from mine. The history, the architecture, the life-style – everything that shapes a civilization.
I have travelled in Europe – albeit for a few weeks, and it has been wonderful, for I have had the opportunity to live with a couple of families, make new friends – see it the way people who live there see it. But then I realised that I had seen very little of my own country, and I have, for the last few years, made it a ritual to travel to various parts of the country, each year, to celebrate my birthday. It is the season of rains, season with very few tourists and the places are wide open, available for me to view and explore. I have enjoyed to privilege of having stood out as a lone woman travelling in parts of the country, where a woman travelling alone, is a sight herself. I have had the experience of simply being nodded off as yet another tourist, who may or may not understand the intricacies of life.
I have, as a rule tried to stay at “posh” places – yes I am indulgent – food and fun are as much my passion as books and music. When I travel, and I have travelled with sparse resources, I like to live in the best possible place, experiment with all local food, and see all the “sights”. Till a few years ago, I would rely a lot on the books I read to choose the places I wanted to see. I have had the good fortune of reading authors who loved the places around them and made sure the readers travelled to those places through their books.
I plan to take all of you on each of these journeys, to get you to ramble on the unknown streets, to see the places and people the way I have seen them.
