Epics and history are infested with men who travelled to conquer, to convert, to trade, to plunder, to reclaim their women or to quench their curiosity. Every mountain and ocean aroused his inquisitiveness to see beyond. Its incessant beckoning disrupted his sleep and reason but fuelled his fantasy. The infatuation for the unknown was an inseparable part of that fantasy. And men, as ever, live and die for their fantasies.
Discovery of new lands were celebrated and added to history books. Lands were named after either discoverers or invaders. And invasion was not just on the land but more lasting one was on the culture. Ways of life lost their ingenuity and have been synthesized. Religions and Gods were imported and they belittled each other to prove other’s God is not the God. Even after uncountable years, many communities still take pride in their foreign genesis; amusingly so. Some others travelled to their promissory land leaving their motherland behind.
Throughout the journey men had created realms and destroyed some. Some revolutionaries had inspired the browbeaten to march over 10000 kilometers to topple the oppressors. Still some became revolutionary after taking a ride across the human miseries in a continent. And still there are some others who crossed innumerable mountains and deserts just to plunder the temples.
The reason and motivation for men to travel have been vastly changed now. Invasions are through remote controls and strategic alliances and for the curiosity there is nothing left for imagination. Technology has shrunk and undressed the world. For trade, now it's not just men who travel but women too. Man at last put a euphemistic color on his exploitation of her. He stripped her off, pasted on every billboard and told her to celebrate this as a hallmark of women freedom. His trade flourished. Men always find glorious reasons to justify their sins.
Discovery of new lands were celebrated and added to history books. Lands were named after either discoverers or invaders. And invasion was not just on the land but more lasting one was on the culture. Ways of life lost their ingenuity and have been synthesized. Religions and Gods were imported and they belittled each other to prove other’s God is not the God. Even after uncountable years, many communities still take pride in their foreign genesis; amusingly so. Some others travelled to their promissory land leaving their motherland behind.
Throughout the journey men had created realms and destroyed some. Some revolutionaries had inspired the browbeaten to march over 10000 kilometers to topple the oppressors. Still some became revolutionary after taking a ride across the human miseries in a continent. And still there are some others who crossed innumerable mountains and deserts just to plunder the temples.
The reason and motivation for men to travel have been vastly changed now. Invasions are through remote controls and strategic alliances and for the curiosity there is nothing left for imagination. Technology has shrunk and undressed the world. For trade, now it's not just men who travel but women too. Man at last put a euphemistic color on his exploitation of her. He stripped her off, pasted on every billboard and told her to celebrate this as a hallmark of women freedom. His trade flourished. Men always find glorious reasons to justify their sins.
Now, they say men travel when they get bored with their own land, job and circumstances. There could be many other reasons too. The reason whatever may be, it is a truth that every journey will detune and retune one’s inner self. A lot happens between embark and disembark. Some strings get tightened and some get loosened. Ernesto Guevara, set out as a twenty three years old medical student from Buenos Aires, and returned as Che Guevara, the revolutionary who inspired a whole generation of people across the world. Alexander the great started of as a power hungry young emperor and ended as a philosopher. Nobody returns from a journey.
Rig Veda says, ‘there is no happiness for him who does not travel. The fortune of him who is sitting sits, it rises when he rises, it sleeps when he sleeps, it moves when he moves’. Therefore, Wander!
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