Traveling is good
large-heartedness and generosity has made him popular with our writers and his poetic prose has won many-a-hearts, earning him a long list of loyal readers at Ghumakkar.
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with immense patience and came across as someone who will always be comfortable in whatever situation he is placed in. There was no dearth of topics we could talk about
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y a series of three after my visit to Khajuraho. As you may know Khajuraho captures your heart and brain both. It was a very engaging trip
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Once in a while it happens that even before you speak to someone you know it is going to be special. I had that lingering feeling when I was getting ready to interview Ajay Sharma
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When Nandan informed me that this month’s Featured Author is none other than Dr Taher Kagalwala, I was delighted, because not only is Dr Taher a gifted writer, but is also an extremely inspiring human being, both as a person as well as a professional. I have had the privilege of knowing him for several years now. I “met” him on a writing website, where he was leading “Team India” in a competition. The team did pretty well in the competition, and he came across as an able, thoughtful, and fair leader, settling arguments and misunderstandings, and at times taking hard calls wherever required. I took a break from the writing website, but we stayed in touch through emails and messages.
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What do we look for when we are travelling? I know the list can be endless. I have a long list myself – peace, closeness to nature, fresh air, a break from work, time to contemplate, and so on. But in spite of that, I often end up finding what I wasn’t even looking for. When you find something that you were looking for, you experience a sense of fulfillment, but when you find something that you weren’t expecting to find, it can change your life.
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At any given point in time, there are always at least a dozen options available to us and at least a hundred ways to evaluate an option. Making a choice isn’t easy in most of the scenarios. So when a traveler needs to plan a trip, the dilemmas are no less complex. One of the most risky things to plan is to find a suitable place to stay. The choice of the place can decide the success and failure of your trip. So it isn’t surprising that we often take days to decide upon a place.
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Imagine living in a world where the knowledge that the earth is round and not flat is relatively new. And you are a traveller. Ideas are popping in your head and you are dying to try them. Logic tells you that you can sail around the world and not fall off the edge as people had earlier feared. You have the will but no money. What would you do? Find sponsors, of course. But sponsors need to be rich, powerful and you need to make them believe in your dreams. And rich and powerful in that world were also impulsive, often sentencing people to horrible deaths just for amusement. And if you prove to be a bad investment, you cannot even imagine what kind of terrors await you.
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There are several stories that we love to share with everyone. I have some such stories as well. And one of them is of Jim (name changed), my friend from the UK. We were in the same batch. Five of us would often hang out between classes for lunch and a coffee. While the four of us were always buying full meals, Jim would first look into his wallet. If he found enough money in there, he would order a coke and a burger else would go without lunch. Sometimes he would allow us to buy meal for him. But he would always repay it some other day by buying a meal for us when he had money. No, he wasn’t poor.
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Coming back to the music. Those were the days when patriotism rode high with the pride of a successful freedom struggle still fresh and a series of wars with the neighbouring countries. Aao bachchon tumhein dikhayein jhanki Hindustan ki was another travel song with generous sprinkling of patriotism or should I say the other way round. The song has impeccable rhyme and rhythm and the pace ensures that you cannot stop yourself from tapping your feet.
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Travelers perhaps have more opportunities to run into adventures than anyone else, and are also more likely to find themselves in risky situations. But if they weren’t willing to take risks, they wouldn’t be travelers, right? We pride ourselves in taking charge of life and heading out into the unknown, ready to take any trouble that fall into our path by its horns. And the particular community of travelers who are likely to tread glaciers, or explore jungles on foot is constantly growing larger. And through all this, they take a lot for granted, in particular their own safety.
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These are some of the proverbs we have practically grown up hearing and, unfortunately, all of us have been “bitten” at least once and, in most cases, multiple times in our lives. All of us experience minor failures every day without realizing their impact on our psychology. At times, these so-called minor failures have such a huge impact on our confidence that we can hardly gather courage for a second try. Every New Year Resolution that we are not able to fulfill leaves us with slightly less confidence in our ability to achieve goals. Each promise that we make to others but are not able to keep, not only impacts the trust others place in us, but also makes us lose faith in ourselves.
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