You can plan as much as you want but be prepared for the same to not work exactly the way you had planned, so be ready to enjoy the change. Accept. Go with the flow.
There were so many open-ended items in all my travels that after a point I stopped planning for “What If ?”. Taking connecting trains in foggy winters, staying in houses where I have never stayed before, surviving on food that was available (this is my biggest bug bear because of my weak stomach), Uber canceling even though I booked it the previous day, train tickets not confirmed and no place to stay. It all worked out in the end. That constant reassurance which you give your mind clams it to a point where you don’t need it anymore.
Joy of connecting with unknown people - say the first ‘Hi! Where are you headed?’
The beauty of speaking to an unknown person or a person in transit is that there is no past and there is no future to that brief relationship. You both just revel in the proximity of the brief moment you are thrown in together with nothing in common except the train or the flight or the bus like Aamir famously mentioned in Dil chahta hai - All 3 of us are going to Sydney, you me & the plane.
I had a long and deep conversation with a wife who is carrying a bag full of food and (this is unbelievable) raw fish for her husband from Cal to Agartala and how she likes painting and has changed fields from art to science but still struggling to find what she wants.
I spoke to a 2nd year student in DU and what she is studying - we exchanged thoughts on film scripts & books and how she wants to be a professor like her mother and come back to the hills. I helped a doctor couple take some shots of Himalayan range on my flight to Guwahati and the wife explained in detail how the hills were formed.
The Pause. Reflection. Finding your story.
I shot and shot and shot. It was like photography in overdrive. One of the famous words in our family lexicon is ‘composition’. This was my patented word when kids were growing up, the wife was guarding them and I was the family jester/photographer. During my trip I realized how much I love it and how a story forms in my mind before I shoot a picture / pictures. In travel you will find these stretched times when you cannot do much - like when I was waiting for the baraat to come and I had nothing to do, so I walked and found a place where paddy fields were stretched as far as your eyes could see and at the horizon there were mountains. It was a beautiful place and I just loved the tranquility and peace and the scenery was so beautiful that it reminded me of Vincent Van Gogh and his trips to fields where he would set up his aisle and draw. I could relate to probably what was going in his mind when he drew - at times the natural beauty can be an inspiration.
Extra effort to explore and maintain connections.
Early morning walk / run at the beach, lake and taking some lovely shots as well. Catching the kachori with tea in a shop which opens at 6am, juggling time and convenience of the person you want to meet and meet him. All of this requires extra effort & extra understanding especially if you are traveling with your family (the wife in this case). It’s not easy to get a balance but you have to be ready to settle with what you can do. After the trip you appreciate the connections you have made but you have to still work at keeping them alive. But at least a beginning is made and you know that the extra effort was worth it.
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