This post is a result of intense nostalgia; the nostalgia of the traveling ways of the ’90s. My wanderlust has been a gift from my parents. Though they didn’t know words like spontaneous, offbeat and sustainable our travels definitely included the flavors of all these.
Step one was planning the vacation. There was none! I remember my father watching TV on a Friday night and a tourism board ad about the Taj Mahal popped in him the desire to show this world wonder to his daughter. He immediately looked for tickets and asked my mom if she could take 2 days off of work. For travel, she always could.
So on a Saturday night, we left for Agra. Back then, we hardly took the plane. It used to be buses for short distance travel and trains for long-distance travel. We would rarely travel by AC couches. It was mostly the Non – AC Sleeper that took us places. So instead of looking at the world through a large unclear glass, we saw the world through rusted metal bars. These open windows let in everything, from wind to fragrances and from chocolate wrappers to weird smells. These windows are what I miss the most about my travels today. They somehow gave you an unfiltered path to your destination. Through these trains, one could experience the gradual change in culture, climate, landscape and food.
As a kid, one major attraction for me was the multiple hawkers who got onto the train with each stop. And what in the world did they not sell? From playing cards to candies to chains to toys to hand soaps to torches to magazines. They also bought all kinds of foods with them. Each stop had its own special snacks and as the train stopped they would come barging in armed with their loud voices for advertising and the smell of the food being the proof of quality.
Being the stubborn child that I was (am), I wanted to buy everything and eat everything that passed our compartment. Being the seasoned traveler that my dad is, he knew exactly what was good and what wasn’t. So we often bought the idli’s with the mouthwatering coconut chatni and we bought the masala tomato soup with croutons and breadsticks, and we bought the buttermilk which came in glass bottles and finally for dessert we bought the Vadilal Vanilla ice-cream. Those journeys were exciting, for you would not know what might walk into your compartment or into your mouth next. There was not much need for the internet and its entertainment to pass the time.
After we reached our destination, the first thing to do was to find a mode of transportation. Usually, it would be a Taxi. But before you could load up the carrier with all your bags there was a long game of words that you had to play with the driver to bring him down to a feasible price. Finally, with that settled, we would get in the Taxi. Now, the next 5 mins were extremely crucial, for in these 5 mins it will be decided whether the Taxi driver is our friend or foe, whether we can trust him with the all-important task of showing us good hotels.
So, my dad began his probe through small talk and opened up his gospel of human behavior theories( his intuition) and after some time he would turn to tell us whether we had a friend in the new city or whether we had to find a shopkeeper, a watchman, a hotel receptionist to guide us better. After going through anywhere between 5 – 10 hotels of different budgets, we would usually find the one that we liked. Yes, we would spend 2 hours of valuable time doing this but it was in these 2 hours that we would also figure out the itinerary of what to do on the vacation.
There was no Google or Yelp, there was Uber or Lyft and yet we had wonderful vacations. These days most of my vacations are restricted to long weekends. Hence, I can’t enjoy the luxury of long rustic travels but instead now out of necessity I have to take the air- route to my next destination. I reach the destination alright but somehow I miss looking out of the Window while eating piping hot peanuts out of a paper bag made from a textbook page.
As life goes “ahead” and becomes more “grand” and “comfortable” I often wonder, does happiness lie in simplicity?
