Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Bits of This and That

I was going through a lot of Facebook pictures the other day, and what struck me was that what almost everyone was uploading were pictures of their travels. One reason for this could be that we do take most pictures when we go to a new place, and not really when we are sitting around at home on a lazy weekend or just going about with our daily lives. But there is a deeper reason behind this – that one of the charms of travelling comes from sharing your experiences and stories with other people.

That is why there are so many blogs dedicated to people writing about their weekend trips and putting up random travel pictures. That is why there are so many online forums which provide people with the space to share their travel stories and experiences. That is why most pictures on social networking sites have people uploading their trip pictures.

A large part of the pleasure of travelling, I guess, comes from sharing what one learns and experiences during such travels. You go to a new place, you see and experience so many new and exciting things – and it makes enough of an impact on you to want to share it with other people, maybe family and friends or even complete strangers. It’s like when you make a discovery, small or big, you want to share it with others – not exactly an appropriate example, or even close, but you do get what I mean.

But sometimes, this can lead to a little trouble. When avid travellers exchange stories and experiences, the unsaid rule that travelling means sharing is understood. But when there is an avid traveller and a person who isn’t really interested in travel, then it becomes awkward. For example, we may be having a conversation about traffic jams and I come up with ‘When I was in Jakarta…..’ This is fine once in a while to make a point, but when one does it very often (as an avid traveller is wont to do, since it is second nature for him to want to share his stories and experiences), the other person, if not interested in travel, can feel like this person is a show off, always taking about this place and that.

One of my dreams, one of the things on my long list of things to do, is to become a travel writer. Today, I was telling my manager that someday I hope to become as effective a public speaker as the partner leading the project we are working on. The manager pointed out to me that I have to take the opportunity to start practising from NOW in order to be able to reach that level sometime in the future. That I just sit back and wait for the opportunity to come, instead of taking it up myself. He was so right – and not just about this but a lot of other things. Like how I want to be a travel writer but do nothing in that direction. I could start by writing travel stories or articles on blogs or online forums, and that would be a great way to start off! But then, I’ve always been big on ideas and low on implementation.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok firstly, people put up pics of their travelling on public fora coz it gives them a sense of importance...they want others to view the pics and say "wow, you;ve been here, how awesome blah blah"...

and secondly, now that you finally realise the annoying aspects of relating travel stories to a non-traveller, i hope the europe rants will finally cease!!!!

Anonymous said...

How was Sidney ... and how much does one have to save in Indian Rupees to be able travel and have a good weekend ..AS Always I envy u .. @ Travel and Flirting with Life so often ..

Da Enigma

Da Underdog said...

Oops ... mind telling me which kind of Job shud I 'barge' into to be able to Travel as often if not more ! And am serious about this Q :)

DaEnigma

Shilpa Colluru said...

Girl...
Start on the travel writing!
I have!!!
And it's the funnest thing ever!
:) :) :)

Mahesh Sindbandge said...

Of course that is one of the ways to tell yourself how great i am that i have traveled so much in my life.
secondly they are your memories and who the hell doesn't wants to lock memories in any possible way?
nice job...hope ur dream comes true

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