MAHABALESHWAR - THE TRIP

Ever wondered what is the difference between a Tourist and a Traveler ?

 As per a Friend of mine who quoted Paul Theourox

“Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going"  

That  is a very direct explanation and I am guessing one of the favorites of all the travelers.

Its actually the difference between the free spiritedness of the traveler and the bound sense of the tourist, the unabated willfulness of a Traveler and a calculated check pointed visit of a Tourist. Let me try to explain more by my experience:-

I never came across this realization until only recently.

Few weeks back I travelled with a bunch of my favorite people i.e. my friends to a place 1000 miles away from everything that knows any shred of my existence

A new place, lively people, a new highway and a new destination ... Everything and mind it everything was having ZNMD feel to it. I am sure my friends must have had the same feel during the trip too considering how a bunch of simpletons we are. Love you all for this.

A distance so big , a ride as if we were chasing the HORIZON and yet with all the playfulness of a mirage it used to vanish only to appear just few more meters away , an endless chase , never ending , till we reached the destination and  forgot all about reaching the end of the road. 

As the roads unfold it was like a new story told with thousands of words unspoken but captured only in the beauty of the surroundings. Mahabaleshwar , a hill station amidst the clouds and the rains was like a strikingly beautiful woman draped in the cloud white. It was only when the misty fog used to disburse due to wind that we could see the actual color of her skin. It was all Black and Green. Rocky Mountains with a lot of cultivated and wild vegetation. Scenic, like a postcard straight out of 80s , if you know what I mean.

While the ecstasy of being at a new place was enough to make us all go crazy but despite all that may be I only got crazy in my head than in action.

I don’t know if I explored much I did not know what was all to be covered but yes I know that whatever we saw it was all outstanding and out of this world especially because of the company I had.

Getting back to the topic ,people like me , still the tourists take travelling or lets say being at a new place as an achievement secured with a one time effort of letting go or chilling out but still not letting go of our comfort zones to the fullest . We still try to stick to it . The best example for this would be the nostalgia we face during the ending days of the travel to be at our homes and in our beds or back to the same life and people . The desire to start feeling at ease or normal again. I had that too.

It was not until we headed back that I came to know ; When the ascending beauty of the highway started descending and we started approaching the city back it was only then that I realized that , the serious mountains , the clouds around them making them all the more mysterious , the willful tiny waterfalls originating out of monsoon waters  with the least care about whether they will exist tomorrow or not , the fauna covering the zenith of the mountains like thick boots , all , all of it  was about to go .. And that I hadn’t lived the place enough. 

And that next time I will take a halt everywhere where I would want to sink it in , that next time I would walk the local paths to see the local culture. That next time I would talk to the local people to know more about the place from them than from Google. That next time I will not just visit the place to chill but I would travel.

To all us tourist if you will ask what was the best feel we will only say it was the achievement of reaching the destination while to travelers I guess it will be completing a destination and getting on the road again ; Yes it will still be the HIGHWAY.

Signing Off

Neha CHAUHAN