The Vacation

When you are stressed out, confused or probably just wondering “What the hell am I doing with my life?”, the typical advice from most people will be to take a break and go on a vacation. Following this age-old advice, I embarked on my version of “eat , pray , love” journey to find myself.  Here are a few snippets from my travelogue.

 Wedged in the middle seat with a snoring lady on one side and a total stranger on the other in a low budget aircraft with 3 hrs jouney ahead wasn’t that appealing in the beginning. The stranger soon exchanged with his son and having nothing to do, I started talking to the kid. I took out my usual questionnaire of “What do you want to be ? …What do you like?.. blah blah”. But I was just not prepared for his answers. The boy being an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu had his fb nickname as ‘”Pranshu “. His aim was to become the Prime Minister of India and before that he wanted to make India pollution free. Apparently, he never let his parents use polythene covers at home .. My hands quietly pushed the sandwich wrapper deeper inside the bag.. Having a few degrees in hand and considering myself  knowledgeable enough to talk about global warming ,pollution and any environment issue, I started wondering what I had actually learnt. Here was a 10 year old who  was actually implementing the little that he had learnt in everyday life!He did leave me speechless for a minute there!

I went to give a shot at basketball  and to burn off a few calories from the butter aloo paratha, with my younger cousin . We were soon joined by a friend of hers and we invented a game with various levels to see who can shoot hoops better. With the beginners luck, I was doing well for a while until I became tired and began shooting aimlessly in my turn and just passing it on. The kid had advanced 2 levels ahead of me and I had already given up hope and I let out a dramatic sigh and was about to march towards the wooden chair to slump on it and watch the remainder of the game a spectator. Just then, the kid said” Stay positive and concentrate na. You were doing well. Why are you giving up so soon?” The kids words stayed with me for a long time after the game and made me wonder whether as we grow old, we just too many obstacles and tell ourselves that we are too old or too tired or not good enough to follow our dreams and reach our goal.

The trip to Manikaran was totally worth braving the cold and the scary curves in the mountains. Hot springs are found everywhere right beside the ice cold beas. The hot springs inside the Gurudwara are used for preparing food for the Annadhanam served there. While we were trying to cook rice by lowering in rice in cloth pockets inside these springs, the people who were responsible for taking the cooked food inside turned up. Taking away two pots of Dal, they warmly invited us to join them for  the meal. The phrases “ warmth in the eyes”  and “warm hospitality”  shown by strangers suddenly made sense in the minus 5 degree environment.

Whether it was the temples we visited or the strangers we met or just the pure environment , I felt a difference. No, I didn’t find out overnight what I wanted to do in life. But then, the vacation made me realize that there is life outside the four walled AC room and the Acer laptop that I spend more time with every day. It made me look back and wonder when it was that I lost all the lessons learnt as a kid and started calling myself a proud member of the adult society only to pollute the country and become self obsessed.

The age-old advice works .And I would repeat the same. When you are just out of a love failure or facing a tough time in your job or stressed out by problems in a family, “Take a break and go on a vacation”. You might not find your knight in shining armour waiting for you in the end of it with open arms or a sudden solution to every issue in your life, but you will realize that there is life out there and when you meet different people , you start seeing your problems from a different perspective. So go on and take a vacation!