Writing — Travel & Culture
Globetrotters Writer Spotlight — Bits and bots
Hello to all my fellow Globetrotters and everyone else
Hi Globetrotters. My name is… Deb
I love to travel because… it is the surest way to unlearn and re-learn. The plethora of experiences that come with traveling and the fact that everyone interprets the same experiences differently lends a certain poetic beauty to the whole process. Travel brings out the nerd in me, in the best possible manner. From multiple hours of research in order to figure out the best possible medium of transportation to then just piecing together time in a new city is beautiful. Traveling also gives me quintessential clarity of thought and the best decisions in my life have been made at airports while waiting for flights. I see it as a process that I get to own end to end.
My number one travel activity is… getting lost. This is not meant in a romantic way, but just that I like to walk around without Google Maps and stumble into already known places, but with a delight of self-discovery around them. This is how I found the Tour de l’Horloge in Paris. I try to visit small stationery stores and bookstores in every city and observe the tiny piece of joy in the store owner’s eyes. Another travel activity I undertake is to hike/trek once during the course of a singular trip. It is a good way to get a reminder about one’s fitness level.
I come from… India (short and simple 😊)
I work as a…software developer. I have an undergrad degree in Computer Science and Engineering and I have always loved technology ever since I had known. I meet varied people during the course of my travel and realize that technology is still inaccessible as a source of information for several people. I wish to change this 😊
The best place I’ve been is… this is going to be a longer, preachy answer. With time passing, I do not believe in the construct of superlatives anymore. The same city could give one a different experience on a different day. A lot of it is to do with the kind of day you are already having. Having said that, the place I have felt calmest is Kalimpong, which is a town in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal, perched above the Teesta River. The small uphill lanes where kids rushed to their school or rushed again to play football in the evening had such a simple charm, reminding one that life could do with some pauses.
In my spare time, I like to…write and daydream about traveling to more places. I make google map itineraries of various locations and build on my research, just in the hope that one day I will be able to travel to these places, and then I would not need to put any effort into research.
My top travel tip is… to pack light and have a hand luggage at max, if possible. It saves so much time waiting for baggage collection. Another tip is to always check in prior to reaching the airport to avoid any issues owing to overbooked flights or such. A personal tip is to stay with locals to have a safety net in an unknown city and to discover the city through their eyes. I also take walking tours to gain more perspective around the place without indulging in expensive activities.
If I could live somewhere else, I’d live in… across the world. This has always been a dream of mine. I do not want to settle down in one place but keep moving every few months/years, to absorb the maximum from any culture/place. I want to keep it this way and revisit this article in a few years to see how I have evolved as a person.
My favorite way to travel is… motorbikes. I fell in love with the idea while traveling across Vietnam, which popularizes motorbike rides through the various ride-hailing apps as well. It might not be the most convenient for long distances, but it is pretty quick, and cheap and the joy of feeling the wind in your face, with minimal chances of nausea is bliss in itself.
Three lessons I’ve learned from traveling are… that we can choose to be open-minded regardless of our surroundings and we can also choose to have a myopic worldview in a first-world country as well. For a major part of my teen years, I used to believe that better access to infrastructure and education, would equate to better individuals, but the more you come across people from different backgrounds, you realize that such tools exist to only facilitate, the choice to learn and evolve still lies with us on several occasions.
I have also learned how to appreciate the historical differences that each new place brings and that the present is laid on the foundation of so many choices at different points in time. The fact that the world has chosen to thrive with all the unkindness in the past in some countries (for instance, the Vietnam war or the Communist era in the Czech Republic, etc.) and still work towards a hopeful future.
The last lesson would be to be comfortable in my own skin since the surroundings change so frequently when you are traveling that you can never fall back to gaining solace from the validation of people around you. Something which is frowned upon in some places might be accepted in a different culture. So, in the end, all it boils down to is being a good human and liking yourself, and believing in your instincts and insights. Just extending yourself a degree of kindness every new day 😊
I conclude this spotlight story with one of my favorite images. Looking forward to being a part of this wonderful community 😊
