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. The thought may sound too far-fetched, but it happens more often than you can imagine. It may have happened several times with you, but you may not have realized it. Some people find wisdom, some make friends for lifetime, and some may actually find their calling while travelling. But these things have a way of happening when you are not actually looking for them to happen and may lead to the start of new journeys.
You never know where you will chance upon your calling
I have some interesting thoughts and experiences to share with you, but let me first give out the names that I know you are searching for in this Editorial:
And before we go back to the topic of our editorial, let me also mention a change that is just around the corner. I think of the Editorial as a conversation between you and me. It is a place where I express my thoughts freely and get to hear your responses to my stories and theories. You have appreciated, critiqued, agreed with, and also disagreed with my ideas. It has been a very fulfilling interchange. We have got to know each other and have also found out some very interesting tid-bits about each other through this conversation. Now, 2 years and 24 editorials later, I think it is time for me and the editorial to take a break – we have both achieved what we set out to achieve with this conversation. While this is definitely the end of one conversation, at least for now, I will look for ways to begin new ones– though as of now I do not know how or when. During my break from Ghumakkar, you will still find me at the periphery, perhaps a little away from the ground where the main action happens, but still keeping a watch as I am too fond of Ghumakkar to let go of it.
We have also found a new home for the announcements that you so look forward to every month. They will now be a part of the month-end newsletter, which as some of you may know, is now hosted right here at Ghumakkar. Click here to read the latest edition.
Now coming back to the topic I started with, the first story goes back a couple of decades. I am a super-excited little girl who is seeing the mountains for the first time as our taxi climbs the green hills, inching closer to our destination, Mussourie. When we reach our guest house, we find all that we are looking for: lush, green hills, tiny waterfalls, solitude, silence, and clouds that you can touch. But we aren’t expecting to chance upon a happy family who are also there to enjoy their vacations, and who would be our friends for several years to come. We would visit each other’s homes, share each other’s joys and sorrows, and grow up together. At the culmination of our journeys in search of peace and relaxation, our new journey as family friends begins.
Each new commitment is a journey and each new relationship an adventure. At any given point in time, we are all travelling towards one destination or the other….
When Nidhi (name changed) joined her MBBS, she was anxious as well as happy. She was moving out of her parents’ house for the first time ever and she was headed to a completely new place and to a completely new way of life. She was going there to build a career of her choice but she never knew that she would run into the person she would be spending her life with. Both of them together concluded their journeys towards becoming doctors, and are about to embark upon a new adventure together, through which they will rediscover each other again and again.
One doesn’t always need big plans to be able to change one’s life. At times, you just need to give life a chance to spring a surprise upon you….
When Jodie Underhill arrived in India in 2009 from the UK expecting to conduct some workshops here and then return, she had no idea that she would stay on and become committed to the cause of a clean India. She would battle hardships, cross roadblocks, face disappointments, and bring about the change she never expected to be the cause of.
Jodie Underhill, Founder and Managing Trustee of Mountain Cleaners, recently resigned from her job as a Project Manager
The surprises that our journeys spring upon us may be tough at times, but they leave us with new knowledge and experiences and give us strength to go on…
It is wonderful to live life like a traveler…
It’s bye for now, but I will be back in some time, in some other avatar.