Scuba diving in the Maldives

My article in the DNA newspaper  

For the complete story see my journey from learning the basics of scuba diving in Mumbai to becoming a certified Open Water Diver in Maldives. 

Travel More

Are you a checklist traveller or an experience traveller? The first question posed by my morning paper. Without a doubt, being the exotic places seeking, pillow loving, long story book liking lazy daisy I am, me being an experiential traveller seemed more like it.

Besides, the sound of a ‘checklist’ traveller seems like a lot of work(be  forewarned, pillow loving person talking)  

Entering the maze of cabinets, I begin sifting..sifting through memories of all my travels. 

In Paris, rambling along the Champ Elysee, reaching the Louvre but not necessarily entering it, sitting by the lawns, rosé in hand, appreciating a beautiful watercolour painting unfold in my midst..

Come to think of it, a similar memory back home, in Mumbai, sitting by cafe by the sea, watching as another beautiful painting takes form. Both memories were neatly stored in the same cabinet, top drawer, file number 1a and b.

 Both experiences gathered from a different time and place.

So don’t go to Paris you ask? Nahi nahi! The Holidaywalas will go out of business!

It’s a contemplative attempt to understand the romance; or rather the enlightenment; experiential enlightenment of travel.  

Each experience makes me free to explore my own land.

Rather myself.

Each travel experience taught me that people are all essentially, fundamentally the same.

So by going to Paris, crossing off every famous monument from your check list, heading back triumphantly to tell your colleagues of your touch and go tour, what I ask have you experienced?

I ask myself..is this the pillow lover talking or the experiential traveller?

You’d rather not say! Let’s just say: 

Travel where your feet take you.

Roads oft Travelled

Trying to get myself to sleep last night, I got this random thought (one of the zillion, I'am sure you’ll agree) – A thought that life seems like a series of roads – roads we travel by to the destinations we have to reach.

Let me explain.
Starting from base camp – Mumbai.
Mumbai’s pot holed roads. Tell me, sometimes doesn’t life get way too bumpy, so bumpy that your eyes stray into the rare view mirror and say, “Hey, this has to be Mumbai??”

Or talk about some stomach lurching bends – everything’s going awesome, your friends are back, great job, a promise of something lovely and then – a steep hairpin bend – am back to the roads of Ladakh!

A synonym, a metaphor, but life sure seems like the roads we travel by...

Happiness..pure bliss – like the Mumbai-Pune express way! A new beginning in a relationship or friendship – like the mystery of an undefined forest trail, a dirt track – like the first question to a terrible exam paper... you see the metaphor emerge!

They indeed are, Roads oft Travelled..