When I ventured out to see the world two and a half decades ago, the craze had not caught on. The reach was not beyond Matheran or Mahabaleshwar. A bit better off visited Mysore Bangalore with Ooty thrown in as icing on the cake and for the elite-st one Kashmir was the ultimate. Now any Tatya, Dattu, and Haribhau, [maybe Tom Dick and Harry, their counterparts in English ], worth his salt, is on the first foreign bound plane when enough cash jingles in his pocket.
Indian Rupee had much weight-age then, a dollar for thirty, but they used to come hardly by. Credit cards issued in India were accepted only in Nepal and Bhutan, and they doled out peanuts under the garb of FTA aka foreign travel allowance, maximum $250 per person for man on the street. Travellers' cheques were the order of the day. Netas and bureaucrats enjoyed even then at the cost of poor Janata! Internet was years away, proper and elaborate information hardly came by so the total dependence was on books like 'Lonely Planet' or alike. Hotel bookings were done by prepaid letters only available at Dadar post office. And I had managed everything to the last detail. But the travel agent turned out to be a sweet-tongued cheater. Till the date of the flight, he did not get us visas for Austria. And that was a huge setback. All the hotel bookings done, went down the drain as we had to postpone our journey only by a day. Luckily enough we got the hold of home address of the charge the affairs of Austrian Consulate in Mumbai. We just stormed into her home very late in the night. She was a Maharashtrian lady named Ms Shinde who after hearing our predicament immediately stamped our visas at her residence in Bandra at unearthly hours of 10 PM. In those days every country had a separate visa, no combined Shenzhen visa then like today. And we could fly a day later.
Indian back-packers was a rare tribe in those days, and even now! We Indians just don't go for the adventure and so the orchestrated conducted tours by dime a dozen travel operators on the board go jam-packed. 'Get in the bus, get down from the bus, enjoy the site seeing, [ as if they tell you at the gun point] get in the bus, have Indian meal [ and be happy, and that's a plus point ]' and say we did Europe! And likewise in the next vacation, they 'Do' Malaysia, Singapore, Australia or any damn country on the planet. It's like signing the muster. We 'DID' it! I have heard people boasting about 'Eating Puran Poli on the Eiffel Tower' or 'Playing Dandia on Jungfrau'. If you go to Paris and do not enjoy a glass of French wine or French Cuisine at the roadside cafe or go to Switzerland and do not taste Swiss Fondue, why the hell venture out. Be happy in your two-bedroom hall tenement eating your Puran Poli or Dhoklo with stretched legs on the sofa cum bed !.
There is another tribe of tourist-ers who studies the country to visit in so much of depth, so well in advance, that by the time they step on the plane, they are experts on ' the entire Lineage of Royal family of France, right from Henry the 1st to Louise the XVI th.' or' How much cu-secs of water flows down the Niagara in a minute'. I have seen one of such tourist-er arguing with the travel guide because he quoted few cu-secs less ! One guide on Rajasthan route was grumbling once, about Bengali batch.' They come with books in their hands and cross us at every minute detail. "Mansingh was in 1700 AD and not 1750 AD or Udaypur palace has 1199 windows and not 1200 as you mentioned !" He ended the sentence saying ' Gujrati lot is much better, in 1st 5 minutes I tell them the places serving good food and they are happy! Don't ask any further questions. That's it !'
Me as a tourist-er? 'If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium' type of conducted tour managed by a tour operator, not better than the herd of directionless sheep, is definitely not my cup of tea! I always travel with a clean slate. Equipped with minimum required information and a very loose plan, I set out and I long for the surprises of the unexpected. It is so phenomenal that it can not be expressed in words. I just enjoy the moment! I am not lusty to get to know every nuance of the place, because I, very well know that it's not possible for me to visit every nook and corner of the world. So if I visit Brazil I am going to miss on Antarctica or if I travel on 'THE' Orient Express I would definitely be missing ' The Trans Siberian Train ride.'
To be frank, in the end, it's a global village, David from Budapest is not much different from Liu from Shanghai or lush green Konkan is no less than vistas in New Zealand. Ultimately beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder! And the peace comes from within, what remains are few beautiful memories and as it is aptly said, " A traveller sees more than he can remember and remembers more than he has seen."
Indian Rupee had much weight-age then, a dollar for thirty, but they used to come hardly by. Credit cards issued in India were accepted only in Nepal and Bhutan, and they doled out peanuts under the garb of FTA aka foreign travel allowance, maximum $250 per person for man on the street. Travellers' cheques were the order of the day. Netas and bureaucrats enjoyed even then at the cost of poor Janata! Internet was years away, proper and elaborate information hardly came by so the total dependence was on books like 'Lonely Planet' or alike. Hotel bookings were done by prepaid letters only available at Dadar post office. And I had managed everything to the last detail. But the travel agent turned out to be a sweet-tongued cheater. Till the date of the flight, he did not get us visas for Austria. And that was a huge setback. All the hotel bookings done, went down the drain as we had to postpone our journey only by a day. Luckily enough we got the hold of home address of the charge the affairs of Austrian Consulate in Mumbai. We just stormed into her home very late in the night. She was a Maharashtrian lady named Ms Shinde who after hearing our predicament immediately stamped our visas at her residence in Bandra at unearthly hours of 10 PM. In those days every country had a separate visa, no combined Shenzhen visa then like today. And we could fly a day later.
Indian back-packers was a rare tribe in those days, and even now! We Indians just don't go for the adventure and so the orchestrated conducted tours by dime a dozen travel operators on the board go jam-packed. 'Get in the bus, get down from the bus, enjoy the site seeing, [ as if they tell you at the gun point] get in the bus, have Indian meal [ and be happy, and that's a plus point ]' and say we did Europe! And likewise in the next vacation, they 'Do' Malaysia, Singapore, Australia or any damn country on the planet. It's like signing the muster. We 'DID' it! I have heard people boasting about 'Eating Puran Poli on the Eiffel Tower' or 'Playing Dandia on Jungfrau'. If you go to Paris and do not enjoy a glass of French wine or French Cuisine at the roadside cafe or go to Switzerland and do not taste Swiss Fondue, why the hell venture out. Be happy in your two-bedroom hall tenement eating your Puran Poli or Dhoklo with stretched legs on the sofa cum bed !.
There is another tribe of tourist-ers who studies the country to visit in so much of depth, so well in advance, that by the time they step on the plane, they are experts on ' the entire Lineage of Royal family of France, right from Henry the 1st to Louise the XVI th.' or' How much cu-secs of water flows down the Niagara in a minute'. I have seen one of such tourist-er arguing with the travel guide because he quoted few cu-secs less ! One guide on Rajasthan route was grumbling once, about Bengali batch.' They come with books in their hands and cross us at every minute detail. "Mansingh was in 1700 AD and not 1750 AD or Udaypur palace has 1199 windows and not 1200 as you mentioned !" He ended the sentence saying ' Gujrati lot is much better, in 1st 5 minutes I tell them the places serving good food and they are happy! Don't ask any further questions. That's it !'
Me as a tourist-er? 'If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium' type of conducted tour managed by a tour operator, not better than the herd of directionless sheep, is definitely not my cup of tea! I always travel with a clean slate. Equipped with minimum required information and a very loose plan, I set out and I long for the surprises of the unexpected. It is so phenomenal that it can not be expressed in words. I just enjoy the moment! I am not lusty to get to know every nuance of the place, because I, very well know that it's not possible for me to visit every nook and corner of the world. So if I visit Brazil I am going to miss on Antarctica or if I travel on 'THE' Orient Express I would definitely be missing ' The Trans Siberian Train ride.'
To be frank, in the end, it's a global village, David from Budapest is not much different from Liu from Shanghai or lush green Konkan is no less than vistas in New Zealand. Ultimately beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder! And the peace comes from within, what remains are few beautiful memories and as it is aptly said, " A traveller sees more than he can remember and remembers more than he has seen."
No comments:
Post a Comment