What are your future travel plans?

The passage reflects on the introspective journey of a man. Despite physical confinement, he embarks on a unique form of travel termed “Mental Touring.” He spends mornings reminiscing and thinking deeply about his past experiences, often finding joy in memories of historical places. While acknowledging the contrasting lifestyles of others, he emphasises that true travel is more than just physical movement. It involves understanding and feeling the essence of places and events. He longs to explore India’s rich cultural and historical landscapes. This underscores his deep appreciation for nature and the past, especially those connected to Buddha, Lord Ram, and Krishna.

He would often sit alone in the morning for several hours, musing. With an open book in the lap and a smartphone in his hand, he pensively stares in aether. A potted Sadābahār (Catharanthus roseus) plant near him shook its twigs as if trying to flaunt its blooms. He used to water it regularly, without fail.

While reading the book, he occasionally peeks at his phone. After reading a few pages, he starts scanning his smartphone for messages, news updates, and the like. He lives alone with his spouse in a self-owned house situated on approximately 1,300 square feet of land. For a superannuated person like him, sitting idly, brooding and introspecting is the easy way of spending time.

The book he was reading was an interesting read. It was about the historical account of a famous city. Yet, his mind was not on the book. He was thinking about other things. He scanned the house. It was two decades old house. Its walls suggested that the house needed deep cleaning.

Leaving

What is the reason for telling his story? It was needed to show that he was on a journey.

Journey? How come? How can a sedentary person, confined to the house, embark on a journey? Can a person get on board without even stepping out of the confines of a house? Some will ask.

A journey is not necessarily about visiting places. It isn’t just hopping from station to station with a backpack tied. It’s not only about spending nights on alien beds in a hotel. It is the conventional way of journey which a traveller takes. It doesn’t apply to him totally. His travelling is different, and he used “Mental Touring”, a unique way, not used by many. Does it sound funny? Well, it can to some, but it is the way he now travels.

He journeyed in his life and reached the point he is now. The time when he started reckoning things and incidents after the toddler period was over till now, he was in a unique sojourn. He now has a bundle of accumulated experiences. He met different people. Some were distracted, careless or a lucky-go-round for whom their current was important. They believed in the now which was with them. For them, the moment they were in was most precious, so they lived it to the fullest.

Contrarily, some people were meticulous, carefully planned and took pains to brighten their future. They belonged to the type of ants described in Aesop’s fable “The Ant and The Grasshopper”. Though they succeeded in their mission and got what they wished, they led their life similarly to him except for enjoying authority and position.

When he sits pensively, he slips into nostalgia and his journey starts. Old and probably worn-out memories visit, taking him back in time and making him nostalgic. While roaming in past, the meticulous ones would emerge on his mental screen. The ostensibly successful persons were able to achieve what they wanted, but now, after a gap of several decades, they love to visit their past, as they usually do and dive deep in the sea of nostalgia. He often sees them sailing on the same boat. He smiles and they reciprocate.

He likes travelling, but not for the sake of travelling, as some people would boast. For some, it is a way of flaunting a newfound “hobby”. They don’t bother to go deep while travelling and try to look at the site from a perspective. They just do it mechanically.

He often muses about the journeys he took in the past and remembers them with fondness. Travelling helped him to see the things and people in a different way and with a different perspective. Before visiting a location, he used to collect essential information about it. It helps a great deal in understanding things and even visualising the place or the incidents that occurred there when visiting the place.

Nature and natural places attract him the most. Places of historical importance arouse curiosity. Walls of a fort, spiracles, and ramparts try to whisper their stories in his ear. He used to attentively listen to them and visualise the moments of that time.

He was horripilated when he first saw a vast flat area laid behind the limits of the Fatehpur Sikri fort. It was the field of Khanua where a historic war was fought between Rana Sanaga and his allies with the forces of Babur. The pages of history fluttered, and he was submerged in the river of events. It was an experience inexpressible.

While wandering in an important citadel, he felt the same excitement when he touched a cannon “Kadak Bijli” (lightning thunder) displayed in the fort. The cannon was operated by a faithful commander and artilleryman, Ghulam Gaus Khan, who itrepidly fought and laid his life serving his queen and the motherland.

For him, touring and travelling are much more than merely hopping from place to place and seeing the places with the eyes of event managers and tour guides. It is much more than this. Touching the burned bricks, broken walls, and worn-out stairs gives a sensation, and a thrill passes through his spine.

He has not seen Buddha, nor has anybody of the time. Places related to Buddha aroused curiosity and interest. What would have been the ambience around when Buddha roamed on this land, centuries ago!? He started a monologue with himself when he visited Kushinagar, the place where Lord Buddha breathed his last. The fertile Gangetic plains must have been a verdurous area full of forests.

His longing to visit places has not yet died, though his conditions do not allow frequent travel. He has almost become confined and glued to a place. It is a phase, he believes.

Once telling about his ardent wish to visit new places and his travelling wish, he said that he wished to see and explore places in his country. He expressed that India is a mini world with diverse cultures, languages, history, and natural wonders. He had not visited many places. When asked about his preferences, he said that he was interested in knowing the history and culture of his country, including various natural sites. He wishes to visit Kurukshetra, Panipat, and the Northeast part. It was his ardent wish to see all places before saying adieu to the temporal world.

His tour wishlist was long. He wished to explore places linked to Buddha, Lord Ram, and Krishna, longing to experience history’s pulse while embracing the full beauty of nature.

-END-