Tuesday, November 08, 2011

To my fellow Wanderers.

A friend of mine posted this picture on Facebook with a remark that brought back some cherished but distant memories gushing back...



I've often found it difficult to explain why two years in Kozhikode (Business School) left such an indelible, intense impression which would take some time to fade. It was like a bunch of 20 somethings had been given their teenage back but with the freedom that comes with your adulthood and for two incredible years stuffed with learning, fighting, drama and romance we got to pretend the world was all about today. So when it ended in a blur of confused days when I did not quite know how to react, a celebratory trip to Goa was a little too much to handle and I decided to cut it short. It was on the journey back to campus for one last time, in the sleeper class compartment of a train (a setting which we had spent two years preparing to earn our way out of) with two wanderers I'd never meet again, I finally found peace.


An American couple into their forties were sitting right across us with their Rough-Guide and a copy of Into The Wild and two small bags barely enough to hold a few clothes and essentials. Over the next few hours we had engulfed ourselves in a rich conversation about their experience in India and "that part" of the US which was wild and not quite New York, the part where nature was still your best friend. The couple, with income meager for an Indian family, had traveled around the world holding hands and setting off to one adventure after the other. But, as much as we admired them for this, it wasn't this but a simple gesture and an innocent little statement which would have the profound effect on me.

The husband offered us his copy of the book (Into The Wild) with a strong recommendation to read it. His willingness to simply give the book away (a book which sold to a second-hand vendor would have covered their trip from Goa to Kozhikode), for a person who was of visibly limited means giving it to two complete strangers struck me profoundly. It struck me so because it wasn't out of charity, it was a heartfelt gift by a fellow traveler to another, it mattered! It was a gesture to show, they understood and felt the same. 

A little further into the conversation which had careened into astrology somehow, we discovered that the woman was a Cancer. This surprised me because I recalled reading somewhere that the people from the sun-sign sought a sense of safety and traveling carefree like this was unusual. After musing for a while she replied.." I don't know...maybe its true...I guess I carry my safety in my purse." That remark, I guess sums up all travelers for me. That simple ability to be able to throw your stuff in a sack and just go, knowing that somehow...it would suffice, no matter where you are or what you do. The ability and incorrigible desire to simply get up one day, dust off your jeans, haul your safety on to your back and move on. That's being a wanderer.