I lose my sleep when I think that it’s a shame and a terrible waste of all the efforts of my ancestors if I end up not having visited all the countries and cities, not having tasted all the cuisines, not having been part of and appreciate all the cultures, their festivities and ways of life.
To get my point, let this remarkable story and the ensuing thought sink in –
We as a species have always been migrating for one reason or the other. It all began 70,000 years ago, when some folks woke up one fine summer day and were like – ‘I am done with you Africa!’ and packed for an Euro trip. The travel bug has bit them. They never stopped. The vast deserts of middle east couldn’t stop them from entering Asia. The mighty waters of the Indian Ocean couldn’t stop them on whatever the raft they managed to build 50,000 years ago, to get into Australia. The bone-chilling arctic winds couldn’t stop them from getting into the Americas. We made it across the globe against all the odds.
Now that we are all over the globe it is an interesting demography and a remarkable spread of intelligent minds across such a diverse habitat. Just visualize the masterminds working all over the planet building technology and civilization starting from the neolithic revolution.
Mesapotamians, Egyptians, Harappans and the Chinese gave rise to cities with an economy running and a social structure. We never stopped migrating though. We were always on the move for trade, in search of knowledge, technology, resources and a better life. With every passing day, with better vehicles and rafts and planes.
Fast forward to today – We are done with the earth and we are into search of extra terrestrial intelligence and civilization. I live in an era where I have at my disposal, the results of thousands of years of human efforts extremely well connected, just a flight journey away.
It’s already bad enough that I was born too early to do intergalactic travel. What a waste of a lifetime it would be if I go six feet under thinking my country is the best, my culture is the best, my religion is the best, my cuisine is the best, blinded by irrational pseudo patriotism, without even making an effort to get to know other ways and lifestyles that my contemporary civilizations have mastered over thousands of years.
Hi Writer, I was going through your Blog and I really like the look and feel and the colors which are blend together, not to forget the photos which takes your blog to next level.I always feel your writing has a lot of words which are not so common, so that s a positive point. But I do feel that you went negative in the last paragraph, wherein you told that your culture isn’t the best, the food etc. Here I was expecting the hunger of exploration rather than the negative connotation.
But I really like the way you write.
Keep writing 🙂
Thanks for the kind words. Perhaps you didn’t get my point. I’m not saying my native way of life isn’t best, I’m not saying it is best either. My point is I haven’t seen enough to say mine is best. I just prefer to keep an open mind and embrace every different way of life than to constrict myself in a small circle by declaring mine is the best (like generally we tend to do). Once you do that you kind of close yourself from rest of the world as you will start looking down upon other ways of life. All I’m saying is I don’t want to pack up rice and sambhar powder and carry my country in a backpack everywhere. Hope you get my point.