What’s the best way to explore a new city?
Exploring can take many forms—either actively through firsthand experiences or passively through reading and discussion. An explorer seeks to learn about a place’s customs and traditions, drawing on both personal experience and historical accounts. While famous landmarks attract tourists and generate economic growth, they can also lead to superficial understandings guided by embellished narratives from locals. A genuine exploration involves engaging with a location’s culture, history, and cuisine rather than merely enjoying its modern comforts. Ultimately, the richness of exploration is subjective and varies greatly based on individual curiosity and engagement with the environment.
Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- Exploration involves active and passive methods, with firsthand experiences offering deeper understanding than superficial visits.
- Curiosity drives exploration, as seen in historical figures like Charles Darwin, whose travels shaped theories of evolution.
- Touring in India reflects a rich tradition influenced by foreign travelers and local accounts, enhancing cultural insights.
- Firsthand information and engaging with a place’s culture are essential for genuine exploration, beyond mere luxury tourism.
- Different perspectives impact how we explore, making subjective choices crucial for meaningful engagement with a location.
Exploring
Exploration is a process; humans try to experience new things, places, customs and traditions. The word explore has a Latin root, explorare, that means to investigate. Investigating something also reveals that it already existed and was rediscovered or unearthed. Thus, the one who explores is an explorer. Those who took daring expeditions gave many invaluable shining pearls to humanity. In medieval times, when science was in a developing stage, people viewed science and scientists with awe, as exorcists. Scientists of chemistry were especially depicted as dishevelled, tousled, carefree, with long, flowing beards, and as shabbily dressed people who used to make things colourful by adding different solutions in a tubular glass tumbler. They were considered master witches. They were not considered explorers.
Exploration is an act or a process; thus, it is a noun, but explore is an action; it is a verb. Dealing with the word explore is the point of discussion. One can explore a thing in various ways. It can be active or passive. Reading about a place and discussing it with others is a passive way to explore a place, while visiting the place, touring and experiencing things first-hand is an active way to explore. The paths appear divergent, but the goal is the same with a subtle difference. While the latter gives a real feel of the place or city, the former can be a notion built based on others’ narration.
Curious humans
Human nature is curious. They ask questions and seek answers. The process passively gives them knowledge about a thing, place or person. There are things that can’t be visited. Asking probing questions and seeking reasonable answers with verifiable facts is also exploring things, especially abstract ones. The probing is the philosophical way to reach a conclusion, though it can be modified. Charles Darwin extensively travelled on HMS Beagle for five years and collected extensive study materials to reach a conclusive result. Based on his observations and experiences, he propounded his theory of evolution, known as Darwin theory of evolution. He suggested that Nature selects the best ones to survive. He named it Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest. It was the first-hand result of his exploration. Later, the holes were plugged, and neo-Darwinism came, but the basic facts remain the same. (The Inertia)
Touring, Exploring and India
With the advancement in learning, humans learned new things. Community life gave rise to societies which cemented humans and made them dependent on each other for the common objective of human welfare. This led to exploring the world from different perspectives, giving varied accounts depending upon the perspective of the person describing them. India has a long and glorious tradition of visiting places and exploring them for knowledge, trade and commerce. Touring, a noble and important work in Indian society, promoted trade and religious activities.
Various foreign travellers visited India in different eras and gave their views about Indian society, city planning, studies and their way of living. This became the bedrock of historical accounts of India’s history. Notable ones are Megasthenes, Fa-Hien, and Hiuen Tsang in the ancient period, while Al-Bairuni, Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta in the medieval period. New routes explored, and new countries discovered. Similarly, to explore new sea routes, several sailors like Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, and Vasco da Gama were among the notable intrepid voyagers who took to sea and, facing all odds, discovered routes and even new lands.
Different approaches
As the way to explore differs widely, so does the approach. The difference in views depends upon the way people perceive a thing. For some, a place is mediocre, having nothing worth seeing or experiencing, but for others, it is important for other spiritual or religious purposes. Those who visit the latter type of place also significantly contribute to the development of that place, albeit differently. The historical monuments, ruins and even fields where iconic wars fought arouse a mixed sensation. Standing on a vantage point, watching the field arouses horripilation. Fighting columns of armies become lively, and one feels swayed by the past events. On one such occasion, standing on the ramparts of Fatehpur Sikri fort, he felt goosebumps when he saw a vast field of Khanwa where the epic battle fought between the forces of Babar and the combined forces of Rana Sanga in 1527.
Exploring new places
It takes time for a place to develop its local culture and history. Mere visiting places, confined to the artificially created luxury of modern star hotels, resorts and watching dance performances by local folk artists, is a mere superficial thing. It doesn’t give a real feel but rather showcases the best things in a controlled and guarded environment. This type of outing, though, gives the sensual pleasure of luxury but is not sufficient for an actual sense of exploration.
Superficial
Famous places attract people. The beeline creates various tourist facilities, hotels, resorts and homestays. This creates job opportunities for many and increases the living standards of local people due to increased economic activities; this has some dark sides as well. The increased economic activities lead to cutthroat competition among the stakeholders. In addition to this, hoodlums and conmen become active in their fishy activities to deceive people. This is common in places of historical repute where tourists visit to see the oft-visited monuments. They see the history through the tainted lenses of local guides. Local guides present a romantic history in flowery language. They present an imaginary history by exaggerating accounts in such a manner that they appear real. Sensation-loving people feel thrilled and excited by the calculated dose of imagination and storytelling.
Firsthand information
To explore a place, it is pertinent to have firsthand information by reading a dispassionate account of the place, its history and culture, cuisine, and traditions. It helps create a rough sketch of that place.
Blank slate visit
Visiting a place with a blank slate is desirable. Fond of visiting places of natural attraction and historical importance equally, he had a longing to visit Jhansi: the place of Rani Laxmibai, a great heroine, epitome of courage and valour. It was a blank-slate visit. Without any idea of the city, he entered into it. The thought that he was in the historical city where the warrior queen Rani Laxmibai lived and fought bravely with the forces of the British East India Company hovered in his mind.
He grabbed the first opportunity and, boarding a train, he took an overnight journey. Reaching early in the morning, he freshened himself up at the station and came out after having a refreshing tea. He didn’t take any vehicle but sauntered. Reaching the iconic Jhansi fort and touching the famous cannon “Kadak Bijli”, he felt a cold run through his spine. The plaque told him that the cannon operated by the most faithful warrior chieftain of Rani Laxmibai: Gulam Gaus Khan. He is still resting in peace on the premises of the fort.
An almost identical feeling occurred when he visited a relatively insignificant place, Maghar in modern Sant Kabir Nagar of Uttar Pradesh (India). It is the place where the great poet-saint Kabeer left the mortal world to become one with the Supreme Soul. The shrine, in the form of a mausoleum and a tiny temple on the bank of a small river, is a peaceful place, conveying the teachings of the saint.
More things in the offing
Other than a historical background or natural beauty, a city or place offers many things. The main attraction, which is the primary attraction for gastronomes, is the cuisine of the place. Rest, traditions, customs and local culture are of equal importance. Combined, they give a composite picture of a city. Varanasi, for example, is a religious city, situated on the banks of the holy river Ganga. People believe that the eternal city rests on the trident of Lord Shiva: Baba Vishwanath. Wandering in the narrow alleys gives a feeling of tradition, culture, lifestyle and language. The language may, to some, appear rough, but people are very kindhearted and helpful in nature.
Epilog
Enjoying a tour of an interesting place is purely subjective and depends on personal choice. Some boastfully add yet another destination to their bale without getting a real feel for the place, while some want the real excitement of visiting a new place with a desire to understand things from the right perspective. It is a purely personal choice, and it should be respected.
Further reads:
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Kamal Kishore Srivastava
A retired government officer turned writer and photographer, Kamal Kishore Srivastava is a regular blogger and essayist who explores life’s deeper meanings through immersive reflections on nature, impermanence, and happiness. On his blog Nature’s Narrative, he blends philosophical storytelling with practical insights. Writing 1,200–1,500 words or more regularly, Kamal is committed to refining his craft, expanding his audience, and building a sustainable space where thought and feeling intersect.
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