In one of his Poem Rabindranath Tagore had written…
“Dekhite giyachi porbotmala, Dekhite giyachi Sindhu.
Dekha hoy nai chokkhu melia,
Ghor hote du pa felia,
Ekti dhaner sisher opor, ekti sishir bindu. “
The English meaning is something like..
“Went to see the mountain ranges, saw the Sindhu river…
But never got to look with my open eyes
Just two steps from my door where lies
A dew drop on the sheaf of paddy thither…”(My own translation--so,no literary criticism invited)
The inner meaning of the poem is, we often miss the inherent beauty of trivial things very close to us. We travel to see the tourist marvels, enjoy remote destinations, but never care to watch the little beaitiful entities that exists around us.
I don't really remember exactly since when I had harbored by dream of 'traveling round the world'.It is weird, because I vividly remember the history of most of my thoughts,likes,dislikes desires and so on-- starting from important things(to me) like since when I developed my passion for writing to trivial matters like how I first came across words I never heard,i.e. slangs.However, thinking hard, even now, I hardly seemed to remember the development of my ardent wish of seeing the whole world.
Of course, I can make some guesses from where the wish came from. Was it when I found so much interest reading Jules Verne's 'Around the world in eighty days', which was the required text for my seventh grade English Literature? Or did it develop when my favorite maternal uncle(mama) took early retirement from his job and announced that he will go on a trip round the world?( he never went on the tour though and joined another job after a year; but some of my friends still know that I have a mama whom I called "round the world" mama)Or did the desire develop through the numerous tours I took around the country with my family during most school vacations almost every December?I don't know, I don't remember.
But it was definitely not my childhood dream. I didn't really enjoy my first out-of-country trip to London; I missed my country Bangladesh badly and was relieved to be back after 3 weeks. I remember during the family trip to the most distinct parts of the mangrove forest Sunderbans,when we stayed in the vessel for 5 days, I was lying down and reading books most of the time while everyone else armored with camera and binoculors feasted their eyes with the amazing wildlife around. As a child, I liked to discover the unknown more through second-hand experience of writers of books, than living the discovery through first-hand experience.
Who knows how the desire developed, at least I don't! But I do remember while I was a member of AIESEC and came across the nomad blog, the experience of global experience of AIESECers made me sad. I felt I wasn't widely traveled; till then I had visited only one country England;one city London to be more precise; two if I counted Doha, where I stayed 2 nights for the transit. As an enthusiastic AIESECer,I immediately opened a blog at nomadlife.org; but then never made any entry. I felt I was not even near to identify myself as a "nomad, adventurer or traveler".I promised myself, I will make my first entry when I'd go on my first international AIESEC conference, which of course never happened(mosty because I never had money, and once because we got the visa late). Did my desire to travel,discover and adventure develop while I was in AIESEC? I can't be sure;I don't remember.
When I left AIESEC, I suddenly found a lot of free time. I started thinking a lot about what I wanted in life(which I was supposed to have determined by the 'goal-seeting' sessions in AIESEC, but seemed like I never actually set my goals of life)Of course, I wanted to be successful professionally, , be apprasied by people around me, make my family and friends proud of me,leave some marks so that the world remembers me after my death and be happy at the same time. I guess most people have similar goals for their lives. Then I thought, what if there was no society to which I desired to be a part of; no peer-pressure to succeed in life; no family to whose expectation I had to live up to-- what would I still want to do?what would make ME happy? The first answer that came was, I would like to write. Not for money, not for publishing, not on a specific topic with a given deadline; but just for myself-- just to feel good. The second answer that came was to experience the excitement of meeting new people,visiting new places, seeing new thing,stumbling upon new idea; learning new perspectives,all of which can be experienced first-hand through travel and second-hand through reading.
I was already an avid reader and a writer(well,I'm counting my personal diaries,some articles,short stories,few poems and an unfinished novel, all of which I've written with great love); I thought I should incorporate these two passions with travelling. I started reading effusively about traveling: got hold of books,registered to a few travel sites and so on. I had always thought that I hadn't traveled enough, so I should gain experience through other's writings so that when I'd finally have the money and independence to travel, I can make the most out of my experience.
A few days earlier, I don't know why I suddenly started feeling, I'm not as less travelled as I thought I was. Thanks to my parents, I have travelled to most part of my country unlike many of my friends and peers(the fact that I remember little about those experiences is another story though). I have so far set foot to four countries: visited England and Indonesia and been to Qatar and Singapore for transit). I thought why not immortalize these experience until I get o fulfill my real desire to travel worldwide?
So, this blog is about My Journey which is "Amar poth chola" in Bangla. The journeys may not be to exotic places,may not be breath-taking adventures, may not be interetsing incidents; but I'm writing them down because they are my moments,my experience and I want to immortalize them by incorporating my three loves: writing my travel journeys so that it can be read.
I hope I always remain in love with them: reading,writing and traveling.
