Vagabonds.

Travel.

What reading this word evokes in you decides whether you’re a traveler or a tourist.

You’re a tourist if you wish to escape from your monotonous routine and have slight interest in visiting places that hold a relevant place in your country’s heritage, or maybe some one else’s.

But, you’re a traveler if this word made you both anxious and excited. If sitting at a crowded untidy railway station can make you feel content, then you’re definitely among those who take the road less traveled by (quite literally) and you do that with complete zest and confidence in yourself; You’re a traveler if despite your acute insomnia the sound of a train moving  makes you sleep sound. Looking outside like you’re in a movie, at the houses far away from your city, towards the countryside and thinking how the lifestyle of people living in those houses would be. I know I’m not the only one who does that.

I often wonder why so many people have written about nature, about how artful the trees are, how stunning the moon is, how engrossing a journey is if you’re sitting and enjoying the landscapes pass by and then when I let myself indulge in the same, I understand why.

Reading a short story by Rabindranath Tagore while enjoying the changing landscapes makes me feel…complete.

Well, I don’t understand the concept of one human completing the other. I’ve read extracts from Plato’s symposium, and as much of a ego boost the text was; it wasn’t quite convincing.

Individual identity, centuries of remorse against women, patriarchal society and the Victorian era flashes through my mind whenever I think like a hopeless romantic. It’s all too obscure in my head, and the only time I get to think about it is- during a journey.

Seven shades of sky, Indefinite trees, creatures of all sorts, unusual architecture and a life beyond my understanding and experience is what I can let myself see through sitting right there.

With all the feminism blooming in the society I live in, there are a lot of people who claim to be travel enthusiasts. I always ask them one question, ‘What is it about traveling…’ and I let them complete this sentence. If what they answer with is -silence, a wicked smirk or a story; that is when I like to believe that they know what sort of a dopamine rush roaming around the world is.

Although, as many people are willing to take up a profession that involves marking places in the map, places and people that you’ve been accustomed to sometime in your life, and you’ve been paid for it. It’s definitely not as pleasant as it sounds.

It isn’t a treat leaving your group of friends, your family and even your room for that matter. Being out of your comfort zone becomes your natural habitat. It’s a job that requires detachment which is unattainable and challenges human tendencies.

Having complete knowledge of how complex your working structure is going to be, yet wishing to pursue it is the trait of someone who can act beyond procrastination.

It’s like being aware that you’re in the fugue state, and enjoying it.