"The word 'travel' comes from the Old French word 'travail' (or travailler), which means 'to work, to labor;a suffering or painful effort, an arduous journey, a tormenting experience.' ('Travel', thus is 'a painful and laborious journey'). Whereas 'to wander' comes from the West Germanic word 'wandran', which simply means 'to roam about.' There is no labor or torment in 'wandering.' There is only 'roaming.' Wandering is the activity of the child, the passion of the genius; it is the discovery of the self, the discovery of the outside world, and the learning of how the self is both 'at one with' and 'separate from' the outside world. These discoveries are as fundamental to the soul as 'learning to survive' is fundamental to the body. These discoveries are essential to realising what it means to be human. To wander is to be alive." Robert Payne.
Rolling off from the bed in one city, breakfast in another, lunch somewhere else, dinner in a different place.. is a dream I often fantasise. Each day welcoming Sun from a different place, seeing him off from another. To lose myself. To find myself. Wander till I get lost. Wander where my feet takes me. Wander till the roads end. Wander when the earth sleeps. Wander around the world before the world takes me back.....
Not all wanderers get lost. But they will definitely lust for more. I can't recollect when and how this passion was infused in my blood. I love to be on the move. Like the meaning of my name. Ever moving, ever flowing. Earlier, books took me to exotic and unexplored lands with very familiar strangers. From one place to another in a second. But the most I liked was my own. The world I had created for me alone.
I love the mountains. I feel the mountains hide many secrets. I want to walk through the untrodden trails, filling my lungs with crisp fresh air, and listen to the music of the snow. I want to lie down in their folds, explore its deeper and higher reaches, and wander through the mystifying valleys and peaks. I like the idea of shivering to keep myself warm. I am hooked. It summons me to rest in its lap. I know that the mountains are not what they seem from a distance. They seem to me impossibly far.. still I know it can be approached. There is a saying, "When you fall in love with mountains, they keep calling you again and again." How true! My heart vibrates from the call of the mountains.
I wander. Frequently. In my dreams and with my dreams. On the roads and off the roads. there are places I love. There are places I feel at home. There are places etched in memory. There are places erased from memory. Wandering through all those places again... reliving each moments.. in my mind, through my words.........
