Travel diaries: A therapy, meditation like no other

Spice of Life: I land on pages that hold stories of unique tours, from the Boeing factory in Seattle to a graveyard visit in a Washington town

Whenever I travel, I take along two of my diaries. Favourite companions, they occupy a prime place on the bookshelf. Despite one of them having run out of blank pages, I still make it travel, which of course holds a richer travel history than the second one.

We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us. During the lockdown months, I often turned to my diaries as they made me travel again. (Representative photo)

During the lockdown months, I often turned to them as they made me travel again and ever since it’s become a ritual to read them every few weeks, especially at bedtime. I may have frequently dived into their deep waters but I’ve never been bored, rather with every session, my fascination soars.

A warm thank you to them, which have chronicled so much – my conversations, museum visits, itineraries, flights, travel column ideas – some got published, some rejected and most importantly many lessons and epiphanies, most of which struck me during leisurely walks or while I’d be glued to the window during road or air journeys.

Some of the pages make me nostalgic, some make me laugh and some allow me to hold conversations with locals I’ve met. Their emails and social media IDs, scribbled by them, sit on many of the pages, and I’m glad that I’m in touch with most of them. When I find coffee marks somewhere, I begin to wonder if they are from some flight or a café.

There are pages where I get stuck and don’t feel like going further, chiefly which carry any flight notes, and I admire the details, from plane type, the airline, the meals and drinks served, the seat number, the views, my co-passengers, followed by first impressions of places I arrived at. One of them, from my first flight to Christchurch on April 1, 2019, reads: “Loving the views of Sydney’s skyline from my seat 5F (Qantas QF 139: Boeing 737) during the push back and enjoying the soothing welcome music along.” With skyscrapers drawn next to these words, the note continues: “During nearly 3-hour flight over the Tasman Sea, my eyes are being treated to the best sunset views, holding a cup of coffee in hand.”

I also land on pages that hold stories of unique tours, from the Boeing factory in Seattle to a graveyard tour in a small town of Washington. It’s a joy to be led by those guides again, and get regaled by their commentary. The cycling experience around 4am along Lake Michigan in Chicago and walking up to the zenith of a hill in New Zealand’s Queenstown, where views of the lake and the Alps left me in awe; are some of my favourites. Sitting there, I wrote profusely, including epiphanies on life that crossed my mind. The diary is proof.

These epiphanies act as a lighthouse for me, like the many beautiful adages I peppered my diaries with, the moment I caught them somewhere. The most inspiring one was while I was at Cape Byron Lighthouse in Australia. Its door had this on display: “Can we be the lighthouse for the world or someone?” Within a New York minute, my pen printed it on my diary.

As I used one of these diaries for my interview with actor Manisha Koirala at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival a few years ago in Kasauli, there are also pages that make me talk to her whenever I want. With many answers on how her mindset changed post cancer, there’s tons of inspiration for anyone who reads them.

My diaries are therapy for me, a meditation like no other and a big chunk of me, which always makes me count my blessings and how travel has enriched me. Someone has rightly said, “We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.” If St Augustine is to be believed, “The world is a book and those who do not travel, read just a page.”

rameshinder.sandhu@gmail.com

The writer is an Amritsar-based freelance contributor