It was in 2017 that a friend and I decided to set out by ourselves and travel to different places around the country. We were very excited at the thought of this new adventure, although at that time we had little idea of how it would unfold.
Since then we have managed to do a trip each year (except during the pandemic) and are now quite adept at planning and organising. Our numbers have also grown…
मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए-मंज़िल मगर
लोग साथ आते गए और कारवाँ बनता गया
…and our trips have become longer, better researched and more extensive. Our bucket list of places to visit also keeps growing and the end of one trip has become a start to planning the next. It keeps life interesting and there’s always something to look forward to.
The recently concluded trip to M.P had more (mis!)adventures than all our previous ones but it was also very enlightening in the most unexpected ways. And I’m not referring to any marvelous revelations or life-changing experiences here, it was more about the little things that added colour and flavour to our trip.
As a group of 5 women- all comfortably in the senior citizen category or approaching senior citizenship status, we attracted not a little attention wherever we went. And we drew more eyes in these small towns of Central India than in any of the other places we had previously visited. There could be many reasons for this:
– The most obvious one: we were gloriously unaccompanied by any human male species.
– The next obvious one: we were not really conventionally attired. At the risk of sounding judgy and mean; had we been sari-clad, heads covered and herding children, nobody would have given us a second glance.
– We were clearly enjoying ourselves and showed great interest in the local sights.
A lot of the attention we drew was in the form of sly glances, comments, sniggers, smirks and narrow-eyed stares. But when you cross a certain age, these just bounce off or are returned with interest. We’re pretty good at glaring back and rolling eyes!
But what we found really enjoyable were the chance encounters and conversations we struck up with some of the local people. There was so much warmth, curiosity and an eagerness to share information about their lives that it was a delight to just listen. This was the real ‘local colour’ that travel sites talk about.
– The woman selling chanas and puffed rice on the ghats of the Narmada. She told us about her goats, the special food they made during a particular festival and how we should visit at that time. All because one of our group bought packets of puffed rice to feed those goats who were also wandering around.
– Next morning, at the same ghats of the river, a man taking his morning dip, called out to us as we walked along the banks. He suggested that we visit a very scenic spot where the river flowed over some rocks forming waterfalls and streams. He added that it was not far from our hotel. When we asked him how he knew where we were staying, he replied that he had seen us when going for his morning run. And it didn’t creep us out! We took his advice and did indeed visit the spot he had recommended.
– Another village woman we met outside the Mitawali temple (the one we climbed 100 steps to see!). She was a simple, sari-clad lady who was sitting in the shade of a tree next to us. She remarked that she would also like to wear trousers like us but the men in the village would never allow it. She accompanied us down those 100 steps, chatting all the way and we didn’t even realise that we had reached the bottom of the hill. I could have hugged her!
– The group of villagers we encountered at the Mitawali temple. They eyed us with some curiosity, asked us where we were from and then told us we should have come when the weather was cooler. One of them even ran around the outer circle of the temple to count the number of enclosures there (64!) because we had asked about it.
– The young woman we saw in Indore, outside the Rajwada palace in the evening. She was plying a 6-seater rickshaw and calling customers to take on her route. She called out to us too but since we were awaiting our cab, we could not oblige, unfortunately. We asked her what her family thought of her unconventional work and she replied that it was her family that had bought her the rickshaw! More power to her!
Lessons Learned- Talking to the local people is an important part of any trip. It may not be possible every time, some encounters may be unpleasant, because it does take all kinds… but it is these exchanges, however brief they may be, that make you feel that you have really been to a particular place.
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