Have spunk will travel
February 2013
by Archana Srivatsan
Quitting her job in favour of travelling across the world, launched Archana Srivatsan on the road less travelled, and enriched her life manifold.
 Archana among the mustard fields of Kashmir |
A cardboard box was packed with the remains of my desk. After 10 years, I was going to walk out of what had been my world, which had transformed me from a college kid to an adult and a professional. The personalities, emotions, and loyalties, which surrounded them I would carry within me alongside a nervous excitement, in anticipation of the unknown. Entering the lift, my eyes stopped at a colleague passing by. “I heard you are leaving to take a break,” she gasped. “Yes,” I replied with a self-assured smile. She stared at me with an innocent amazement in her eyes and asked a question I will never forget, “Are you sure you are not making a mistake?”
I froze, and shut the lift doors. Needless to say, my bosses, mentors, colleagues, friends, and family, in that order, had all asked this question. I had a uniformly foolish and dreamy answer, “I have a bunch of regrets as I am nearing 30. I don’t want to have these regrets when I am 40 too.” So far, life had followed a socially accepted norm, a seemingly pre-determined path. After school came college, higher studies, and a job. Work was great, the experiences, interactions, pressures, demanding clients, impossible timelines, and even disagreements, made me a much better professional and person than any textbook ever could. But I sat back and realized that I had surrendered to going with the flow for the last 10 years. I had forgotten who or what I was, and what I had really wanted out of life. The set path, which brought with it a smile to the bank, and a planned calendar, no longer felt comforting. I wanted to not know for a while, to steer away consciously from the safety net I had woven around myself. More than anything else, I wanted to experience a little brand of adventure, to challenge myself by travelling somewhere, alone.
A gut feeling
During times of apprehension, my mentor (always gifted with the art of knowing how to say the right things at the right time) said, “Trust your instinct. If you have a gut feeling about it, then go for it.” Those words sank into my veins, replaying in my head again and again, and shook me up. I was convinced that there would never be such a thing as ‘the right time.’ If it feels liberating to you, then it is the right time, no matter how ill-timed it may seem to others.
Doing it my way
Thus, I embarked on the self-enforced crusade of no excuse and no return. There were many questions to which I had to find answers. But for starters, I wanted to see some parts of the world we live in, without a tour company, and a planned itinerary, just my way, just by myself. All it took to reclaim charge over my own time and life was a cabin-size bag, a small backpack, and a plane ticket. I hopped on a flight to journey through Europe for two months.
Being my first truly solo adventure, my nerves were as restless as my imagination, while my trembling fingers possessively clenched the passport pouch. If there ever were a contest of ‘best of the worst’ in reading maps and understanding directions, I would win it hands down. That is why it was so important for me to roam the streets of a foreign land alone, to grasp subway, and metro routes, to remember how I had reached wherever I got, to be able to find my way back (literally). On my very first day, I roamed the streets of Paris without a clue of where I was, how I got there, or how to return. Suddenly, stumbling upon a lovely green garden (which I later realized was the Luxembourg Gardens), I distinctly remember wondering, “How on earth am I going to find my way back?” Resting aching unsure feet beneath a tree with my backpack for a headrest, a buttery croissant consoled me. Somehow, I was reassured that no matter how, I would find my way. I had to. From then on, there was no looking back. Hopping (and sometimes literally prancing!), sometimes alone or with a fellow backpacker, I explored the continent to my heart’s content, one day at a time.
Random conversations
 Archana Srivastan: Discovering the self by discovering the world |
Eight countries and two months later, I eventually learned to interpret a map, and comprehend directions. I enjoyed sitting with myself for company, be it in a park, on a street bench, in a restaurant reading a book, or at a bar, occasionally chatting with the bartender. Comfortable in my own skin, I did not feel nervous or restless anymore.
On a local train in Prague, a co-traveler I had met at the hostel a few days ago joined me in exploring the charming historic city. After a visit to capture Prague Castle, mesmerizing under seductive spotlights, a friendly native struck up a conversation on the metro train asking us where we were from. My Californian friend replied, “Why, Algeria, of course.” in an American accent, I may add. Looking startled, he turned to me with the same question in his eyes. “Oh, umm, West Indies,” I said nonchalantly. We got off at the next stop and my American friend turned to me and said something I would never forget, “I love that about travel. You can just be anyone you want, from anywhere you want.”
He was right. We think we know the kind of person we are, our habits, and preferences, until we travel. That is when you really know your limits, comfort zones, and expectations. It does not need an exotic destination, and a fancy budget. Travel alone, travel in a group, travel even to the neighborhood park, or a corner of the city you have not visited, or a pub or restaurant you have always wanted to explore, just travel. See the world we live in. You can make a fresh beginning with yourself, be anyone you want.
Since then, the insatiable urge to travel enveloped me. Thirteen countries, six Indian states, a tattered backpack, and countless unforgettable experiences later, I have realized that travel does certain things to you, which cannot really be defined in words. It changes something inside you, makes you confident, liberated, realize the grand scheme of things, acknowledge the larger picture, and changes you. It teaches you that there is beauty in everything and everyone. And if you take a moment to look closer, there are splashes of heaven all across this earth: From the star-spangled skies of Ladakh, to beautiful underwater life in Thailand, to Kashmiri children rowing boats across Dal Lake to return home from school, to a solitary guitarist in Florence singing to the listening breeze, to watching an old couple plucking flowers from their garden on the Netherlands countryside, to a tranquil mountain-lake tucked away at 16,000 feet in the Himalayas, to drinking hot butter tea with lovely Tibetan folk, to standing alone with the Aletsch Glacier staring at me, to dancing without a care to the beats of street drummers in Barcelona. This journey has changed me forever in ways I cannot describe. All I can say for sure is that I never want the journey to end. And as for where it has taken me, that is another story altogether.