Travelogs

Travel is a time tested way of exploring the world around oneself. However, the most interesting exploration one can experience with travel and stay abroad is the discovery of oneself. There is a remarkable difference between the view from within and from without the world we live in. One can see a different perspectives if one can remove himself from the very surroundings he wishes to examine. This helps the person understand why people see him or her as they do. That is, he or she gets a better understanding of himself or herself when viewed from an outsiders perspective. This experience is analogous to posing for a group photograph at a college reunion or a party or a family gathering and then eventually examining a few weeks later after it has been developed and printed by the lab. The emotions are present and captured in the photograph when you are posing in the photo. There are the surroundings that affected your mood, there is the wine that cheered you up or there is the cousin you are envious of, yet when one sees this several weeks, months or years later, the perspective of the picture is different. One cant help but notice, that his view of the same situation as portrayed in the picture has matured over a period of time.

Another aspect of this photo experience is that of sharing. When one travels abroad, people tend to interact with the locals and the expats tend to be the subject of interest. Everything figures in the conversation, the culture, the economy, the politics, religion. One makes a choice of whether to comment on each of these topics or eschew it while choosing to broach upon others. It is hard to miss that we also like to indulge others in our most positive experiences from home. The same holds good with the photograph analogy. We like to show off with some photographs because we look good in it, and there are other photographs that we hide, for no one to see, and then there are some that have a story to it. We show different photographs to different people. Each time while we reveal ourselves to others, we reveal ourselves to ourselves. At this point, we are also very aware of the pictures we are hiding from others, that are not for public display, and yet this very aspect of hiding is revealing to our self. This dichotomy of revealing while hiding cannot be experienced, if sharing does not occur. This sort of examination of ones life, land and culture is not possible if one does not leave ones home country to be an expatriate for sometime. And its not for everyone to experience this either. For some, the pictures of the past has nothing positive to show for. It is filled with agony and examination of these snapshots do nothing more than open old wounds. For others, it is a path to self discovery and understanding of oneself and his past.