You just can’t imagine traveling to the most beautiful places and not sharing it with your loved ones. Well, we thought of building a platform, through which everyone can share their unique travel experiences with anyone on this planet. Here are some of the travel experiences shared by some travelers.(Or holidayers as we call them) :-
When Elephants Fight…
A memorable sight of two elephants clashing! We witnessed this when we were on a boat safari on the Kabini River, near Mysore, Karnataka. Kabini river banks are a land of elephants. The recent census of elephants there stated: that there are approximately 6000 elephants in the forests on both sides of the river. These forests are home to tigers too, but they are very low in number. We were sure whether we spotted any tigers or not, we would surely get to see elephants.
As the boat advanced north of the river, we did see elephants moving around in herds. There were seventeen in one of them. As we neared the elephants, it seemed to us that those tiny silhouettes of elephants gained their real size.
Our guide suddenly drew our attention to two elephants who were preparing themselves to charge at each other. I could not understand how he said so because they looked very normal to me. Something inside me told me to believe his words and I positioned myself armed with my zoom lens and Camera set in sports mode.
Just in case he was right I didn’t want to miss the golden opportunity. The boat kept advancing towards the (maybe) battlefield, I was happy the sightings were more clear.
And then it happened. It happened. A head-on collision between two elephants… a mammoth collision.
I was reminded of the African proverb: When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Well in this case we would be the grass, because by now our boat was quite close and in their enthusiasm of fight what if they rolled over the bank, both the elephants would be ‘plonk’ on us.
The common interpretation of this saying in today’s political discussions is “the suffering of a feeble or helpless country when two superpowers engage in warfare or ally themselves”.
Think about the political scenario in the world today in general, there is turmoil and strife everywhere.
It is the common man who suffers the brunt ultimately, it is their life that gets disturbed, and families get uprooted and are forced to flee the land that was their home for centuries. Lifestyles change abruptly and think more deeply it is the children who silently suffer. Any solution to this?
Back to the elephantine fight, I have this to tell to your delight or dismay, they parted soon. It looked like a friendly collision between the two.
It was over in moments. Some of us were like “Oh! No!” and some were like “Thank God!” I was happy I could capture the collision; probably a filmmaker would have been disappointed.
Humanity rules …
We were driving down to Vittal, a tiny town near Mangalore. The darkness had set in and the rains were coming down in sheets minimising the visibility on the single carriage road.
Had my face stuck to the windshield to ensure I stayed on the road. A slight misjudgment would get us off the shoulders and leave us hanging like in the last scene of ‘Italian Job’.
The oncoming truckers could not care less. They were the self-styled monarchs of the road and proclaimed it on their truck behinds in so many ways.
The other way they did it was to beam up their headlights straight into the eyes of any motorist who erred in using the same road. It was blinding. Had managed to outmaneuver most of them but our luck did not last long.
Barely 8kms from our destination the inevitable happened. A slight misjudgment. The front wheel slipped off the shoulder as the trucker passed me by with a mocking roar. Our car could not move unless the front wheel was lifted and put back on the road.
Just then saw an autorickshaw approaching. Hailed him and apprised him of the situation. He gave me one look and reassured me of getting back on the road in a minute.
He walked back 10 meters where there were a couple of guys gossiping over a bidi. Had not noticed them earlier. Strange. Our savior went to them, spoke to them, and brought them to get us out of our predicament.
We were told to stand out while one of them got in and started the car and the other two lifted the car holding the bumper, and Bingo! The car was back on the road.
The driver went around and examined the underside at the wheel well and gave the thumbs-up sign! I approached our savior and offered him monetary compensation for the job done.
He laughed and refused to say it was no big deal. We thanked them profusely as they all got into his autorickshaw and puttered off.
This experience was the best so far in my thousands of kilometers of road crunching.
Life’s too short to miss an adventure
I have always dreamt of visiting a nice, clean, big beach wherein we can enjoy privacy, have fun and at the same time be able to enjoy the pleasure of being with loved ones, no matter how many people are around and how well we are dressed or under-dressed for that matter.
Recently, I got a chance to take my spouse and kid to Singapore during one of my business trips for a week and I realized what I had been missing on all my previous business trips was to have fun after the hard work during the day.
On one of the days in Singapore with them, my spouse and the kid asked to go and visit Sentosa island there, so we took time to go there in the evening and visited a place that can be easily called next to heaven for its cleanliness, privacy, and Enjoyment factor it provided.
My kid lived my dream of visiting such a place and didn’t care about the rest of the world, not even himself. He forgot his hunger, about others watching him, took off his tee and jeans, and went straight for the waters. I finally realized the importance of having fun in this Serious life.
A JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF MUSIC
Journey of Life speaks of the journey as a metaphor for life. They remind us to focus on each precious moment of that journey, rather than looking towards the future. Our true journey begins when we are on purpose, discovering the Passion and the purpose of one’s life.
It’s all about picking up the road that is right for you and enjoying the journey !! Life is a travel to the edge of music. Each song is a lifetime, it begins and ends, and there’s a journey taken within the songs.
Often we journey in search of something–ourselves, love, adventure, understanding, the place we belong. Sometimes we go simply because we can’t stand to stay where we are or because of an almost desperate urge for movement. But this time we leaped onto the roads for spreading our passion…The ‘Passion’ for ‘Music’.
It was in November 2010 when my band HEARTBEATS got an opportunity to rock the stage outside Kolkata for the first time. It cast a light of gladness upon us and our onward journey, to contribute our part towards the building of the kingdom of ‘Our Music’ outside Kolkata.
Packing our bags and all our musical instruments we headed on to the airport for our first gig in the Beach Fest of Goa. Windows down, gas tank full, an open road in front of us, to go and strike the first harmony on the beaches of Goa, to spread our music to all the people of our country all is going through my mind sitting at the window seat and looking down to the earth below. In the late evening, we are on to the roads of Goa heading towards our hotel from the airport.
Our six band members, Ankit, Shreya, Sounak, Prithwi, Avi, and Me, and with our four other friends in the car banging our heads with the song ‘Wherever I may roam’ by Metallica which might try to tell us “when you’re able to find a place for passion on the roads, you know that you’ve reached a new level of travel and you no longer care how the world defines you”.
The night passed by with lots of liquor, giggling, and chuckling among ourselves. The next day we got busy preparing for the gig which was in the evening. Ultimately the moment arrived that we had been eagerly waiting for–to rock the stage of Goa, to break the cup which holds the wine of silence, to integrate souls, to derivate griefs, with ‘Our Music’. Everyone approaches a journey’s end.
The end is a goal, not a catastrophe. Joy doesn’t come at the end of the road, but it can be found during the journey. The frustrations of airports, the struggles with packing, and the tedium of days spent together, on-stage as a band together, and giving everything you have to others in the form of Music fade away all tiredness.
Today I am apart from Music and HEARTBEATZ due to my professional career but still, it takes me through the lane of memories and makes me glad for bringing home from the journey ‘ ‘ Great Story’ to cherish throughout my life!!
Unforgettable experience @ God’s Own Country – Kerala :
I was in Trivandrum, Kerala for 3 months for my training. These were beautiful moments of my life because Kerala is a very beautiful state and the people are very good.
Kerala has got best beaches in India. My personal favorites are Kovalam and Varkala Beach. I used to visit the beach on weekends with friends and do full-on masti.
Cheers 🙂
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Indian Holiday
Indian Holiday Pvt. Ltd. (IHPL) is a 2 time National Tourism Award winning destination management company based in Delhi. This travel blog is an initiative to inform the visitors about all aspects of India that include her history, heritage, culture and tourist attractions and destinations.
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