10 Years of Blogging

Today, I complete 10 years of blogging. What a journey it has been!

Pausing at this milestone to look back and look ahead, sharing some of my thoughts.

World is divided in three parts – one I have lived in and I know intimately, the one I have visited and is like a friend and the one I am yet to visit and is still a mystery no matter how much I read or heard about it. When someone says the name of the place – my mind visualizes the map of the place in two colors – visited and not visited before the conversation begins.

Travel = Trust - When I reflect on what travel does to people, based on my travels and based on numerous couchsurfers that I hosted at my home, I realize the biggest ROI of travel is Trust. Travel establishes trust among strangers. It brings humanity together by establishing understanding about each other. When you visit someone you come back with a bond and it is nearly impossible to hate people you know. Take a minute and think about all the places you have visited and compare them to the perception of places you are yet to visit. I owe the pleasures of my travel to the people who guarded me when I needed security, who told their life stories to me, who shared a laugh and sometimes food with me - always building a bond of trust.

We are more similar than we think - Differences across geographies and cultures exist on the surface – the way we look, the way we dress, what we eat and what language we speak. Scratch the surface and we all go through the same rigmarole of life – our emotional journeys are not very different. Sources of frustrations can be different, but our joys come from more or less the same sources.

Discovering Art, History & Art History - I was a typical science and technology student and do not remember anything else that I studied throughout my student days. It is my travels that introduced me to the world of art, history and art history. It started with observation that led to curiosity that took me to reading about the art and history. In time, I took small courses in art history and now I am an eternal student of ancient Indian Art history. I do not think I am capable enough to write about it yet, but whenever I have attempted a post or two on Indian Arts, the response has been amazing and I hope to do it more often. 

Living a dream - Blogging connected me to so many diverse worlds both in real and virtual world. I meet people who are unlike me from various walks of life. I receive e-mails from all corners of the world – appreciating, admiring, connecting and most of all telling me that I have managed to touch people I may never meet. In the offline world, people have acknowledged being aware of my work and more importantly my thoughts. Could I have asked for more? I can only express my gratitude to all those whom I met on the way and e-way. Traveling, reading and writing and living in a place of your choice - is that not living a dream.

It was totally a road untraveled when I began as blogging itself was a nascent space. 10 years later, I am a part of a thriving tribe called Travel Bloggers. And as the cliché goes – Most exciting time for bloggers are yet to come.

PS: If you have not noticed already – the blog has a new web address – www.IndiTales.com and a new video channel.