WHY I WOULD RATHER SIT AT HOME THAN TRAVEL
This might be one of those provocative articles that sparks the debater in you and fuels your rage. We have got a separate genre dedicated to Travel and Tourism in blogging, we have several countries promoting Tourisms on a large scale etc. There are families who travel to exotic locations like Switzerland, Las Vegas etc to gain new experiences and learn new culture. As an itinerant you might have 1000 reasons on why you like to travel. And yet, I would beg to differ. These are my reasons for why I would rather sit at home than travel to different destinations!
Right from booking tickets, especially if it is from IRCTC, travel is a pain in the neck. We compete against a hundred thousand citizens who log on to one of the slowest government servers at the same time trying to book a ticket. For those who believe trains are too main stream, there is always the Volvo Bus. Epitomes of marketing specialists are the conductors. Amazing people who can make you travel from Delhi to Kanyakumari with their attractive discounts even if you have no intention of travelling. I feel bus tickets should be combined with back massages coupons because the amount of turmoil the lower back experiences is limitless. Especially, if you travel in one of the ‘special’ sleeper class Volvos, you’ll need a permanent pillar to catch hold of, else, you’ll end up breaking the window glasses and lie on the road, every time the driver takes a turn. The few who fly to their holiday destinations are the next blessed people, because they are given a 100ml water bottle absolutely free of cost with no terms and conditions involved.
After hours of endless journey, the next big hunt for the perfect Hotel to spend your vacation begins. If you are one of those ‘lucky’ people who filled their names in flyers provided at shopping malls, you get to stay at the posh holiday resorts at ‘discounted rates’. These timeshare based holiday resorts are no better than insurance companies. You end up paying for what you’ll never utilize. If you don’t book hotel rooms prior to booking travel tickets, you’ll either end up in a low grade motel or one of your grumping relative’s house. Having settled in, it’s now time for sightseeing! Oops, don’t forget to check-in your tourist spot with ‘Feeling Excited’ symbol in Facebook.
Apart from the experienced holiday goers who taste the area’s special cuisines, learn and interact with the local culture, common people like you and me will at the most end up visiting the city’s largest shopping mall for window shopping, city’s most crowded market for real shopping, famous temple/church/mosque for religious reasons and perhaps an amusement park. Of course, the selfies and DSLR pictures for Facebook and Whatsapp are integral part of sightseeing. Apart from a 24 hour air conditioner, bed coffee and timely room service, I fail to comprehend the difference. Why on earth would I have to spend 10k just to end up doing the routine tasks I perform every weekend?
After 3 days and 2 nights, we finally board our way back home. We are the sophisticated posh individuals right? Won’t it be a disgrace to your iPad and data card if you don’t flaunt it at your airport? We do not wait until we reach home to upload our selfies online. We are so busy replying to the comments and fail to ‘like’ the real world comments from our family. At last, we reach our ‘Home Sweet Home!’ One of the most standard dialogues after every holiday- Amazing journey wasn’t it? But, nothing compared to our city. Home is the best place on earth!” Slowly, we get back to our routine 9-5 jobs. The entire journey becomes nothing more than a folder in your Personal Computer.
As much as I believe in the reasons not to travel, I believe holiday tours are absolute necessary. We live in a fast paced world. Mechanically, we continue to repeat the tasks Monday to Friday. Weekends end up getting wasted by sleeping and eating junk food. Holiday tours provide the ultimate break from our monotonous lives. One visit to your native place or to a never been before location rejuvenates your mind and reenergizes your body and spirit. Every travel should expand your mind. Every tour should expand your knowledge. Every journey should expand your horizon of thinking. The purpose of this article was not to discuss the virtue and eminence of tourism, but rather to make you think how redundant our lives have become that tourism which is considered as a break from the mundane tasks has become a mundane task in itself! Tourism is an experience on its own. Unless and until you utilize it to the fullest, you can rather sit back home!
