Bitten By The Bug!

Almost two years have fled past and travelling plans for most folk have unraveled at the seams, thanks to the little tyrant of a shape shifting virus lurking just beyond the safe confines of our respective front doors. While enjoying a peaceful holiday at home for the first time in many years was a novel experience for many, the dragging pandemic has left most of us bereft of one of the better experiences which enriches our lives, the bite of the travel bug.

All of us were nomads in the distant past and this atavistic trait still lingers in latent form. There must be very few who don’t feel a thrill of excitement at the mere whiff of an outing in the offing. Throwing all caution and better sense to the winds, most people have flocked to the great outdoors whenever the pandemic has showed the least sign of receding, like so many sheep let out of a barn. I don’t mean to sound judgmental or preachy, I have been one of them.

Joining this great migration got me thinking. Perhaps it was time to revisit those memorable journeys ranging all the way from childhood to the golden middle, and write a travelogue with a twist. Humor to bring back the bright shades of happiness that the pandemic has temporarily snatched away. I am being pompously presumptuous that wit can replace the want which makes us travel for there are those who live in foreign lands and have not been able to visit their near and dear ones for a couple of years now. But I hope that my bit of buffoonery can from the comfort of your armchair, at least rekindle fond memories of journeys past and make the wait for new journeys to begin again seem that much shorter. Ibn Batuta, the famous Arabian traveler must have foreseen what was to come for he rightly pointed out

“Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story teller”.