Traveling is more than just stepping your foot into a place you do not belong. If I hadn’t been traveling around, I wouldn’t have been able to look above the horizon that most do not get the opportunity to. I haven’t yet visited every country, but yes I have received the change in perspective and keep receiving it more each time.
The change in perspective, visiting other countries brings with it, in viewing the world as ONE.
Traveling brings to you a lot of reality. I have got to know the people there and their lifestyle. I realized that every person is a human being just with different ethnicity. Even though their language is different for communication, they all have the heart to convey the same respect, love and compassion that I and the people from my origin can. This also boosted up my self-confidence and independence, as it provides courage to live with them as normally as I would with people from my place. It helps to feel the mere essence of what we call ‘unity’.
Atithi Devo Bhava
Traveling also introduces us to the values that are inculcated in the younger ones. Recently, I traveled to Bali. At Amuk Bay, I met a few Balinese kids there. They greeted me with flowers and treated me with kindness and affection whilst praising my beauty. They walked along with me till I reached my car to leave back for the hotel. During goodbye, they took my hand and touched it to their forehead. It was the first time I ever felt the essence of what we are taught in India “Atithi Devo Bhava” (Our Guest is equivalent to our God)
Traveling unveils a lot of history about a place and the people living there. I have learnt history as a subject in school and how an event has an effect on the people living there at that time. Visiting a place exhibits me how the event still has captivated its people and the entire environment of the place. It’s amusing to see and feel the change.
It is in a great respect, a huge myth buster. I have heard a lot of stories about places from my peers. These often tend to build a certain stereotype about the place and its people. Visiting it helps to look through it with transparency and analyze the scenario and situation more effectively.
Traveling has given me a lot more than picturesque and exotic landscapes as great backgrounds for my pictures. It is not just about the traditions and cultures of a place that you get introduced to. This healthy addiction gives you many return gifts: memories, courage, affection, friends, reality, new skills, unity, bliss, its food, lifestyle and religion, and a lot more, which by all means is enormous in front of what a place or a person can take from us. It has helped me look out of the small box I have been living in.
