BEFORE SUNRISE

I need to watch this movie again! I remember watching it on Star Movies so very long ago, and it left an imprint on my brain.

Before Sunrise… two strangers traveling through Europe, decide to go to Vienna and then fall in love. Walking and talking all night through an unknown city. And living for the moment, not knowing if they’d ever meet again.

QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE TRAVEL SHOW

Ok, now I have grown up on the Lonely Planet. Ever since I saw Ian Wright in forgone places like Mongolia and Morocco, not only did i fall in love with him, but with the entire idea of travel as well. The show combined history, culture, socio-economics, food, humour, brilliantly composed music, good production and above all lost locales. Nothing more heady than that combination. (actually it can all fit into for a guy as well!)

Hardly anything that matches LP's stature has come out from India. See, nothing comes to your mind. Let me think, Channel V's road trips were good fun with Purab. Else everyting is concentrated over travel tips, where to go, how to go. Staid and boring. No personality, no character.

The ultimate travel show must feel like a journey.

So, Travel & Living is still my best bet.

"The world is like a book. And one who does not travel, reads only a page."

STEPPING OUT ON A JOURNEY?

While I was interning in The Statesman, Kolkata (oh how I feel snobbish while saying that!), there was a fellow intern from - no, not from another mass communication institute, but from London. He was all but 17 yrs of age (and quite tall), and he had just finished travelling all over India. His name was Robert Palmer. Come to think of it, I was on my way towards work, getting off at Esplanade and walking that short but sweaty length of pavement, avoiding streams of humanity, jostling beggars and hiding from the cruel sun at the same time, towards Statesman House. And I saw him, a tall lanky foreigner in a heavy backpack walking in front of me. Our destination was the same, and how I wish I knew how to step out on a journey just like him.

I am fascinated by all those travelling historians that we studied in history during school or college. That fellow called Ibn Bhatuta or Hieun Tsang. They didnt have to worry about flight tickets! They could hitch a ride or simply walk. I know it must have been killing to weather changing climate, storms, bandits and what not. But they ended up being royal guests of all the kingdoms they went to, even securing government posts and amassing huge wealth. Bah!

And then there is the British Empire. On the pretext of being the Company's servants, how many of those pukka sahibs got to travel and live in different countries and return home all bronzed.

When will i get my chance? Well I tell myself - "Traveller there are no roads. Roads are made by walking."

[Photo Credit: Prasad Deshpande]

If you've read the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson, you'd know what wanderlust means. Ever since I understood that piece, in 9th or 10th class, the vagabond in me surged and has been growing ever since.

This blog is all about me, and well, a bit more about everything else.