How Did I Get The Bug

Written by Shah Parwez.

Travel enthusiasts always quote ‘got the travel bug’ or ‘have the travel bug’ in their bios of various social media accounts or when describing their love for travelling to their colleagues and friends. As the great filmmaker Martin Scorsese said:

        “The most personal is the most creative”. 

So in this write-up, I am going to delve inside my personal life and dig out the people, instances, movies which influenced or helped me to get the Bug.

I can surely tell, you might also relate with two or three of my influences…So let’s get this started.

Father

One of the very first people responsible for germinating the seeds of travel in my mind was my father. As the saying goes “like father like son”, it totally describes our relation. My father himself was a great travel enthusiast.

Being an Educationist, he used to take his students for study trips. One of my early memories of travelling is of accompanying my father on those trips. We went on road trips to Bangalore, Mysore and Mumbai although I can’t remember any part of those trips as all those trips were in my toddling years.

In one of our family storytelling sessions, he once narrated to us how he took up an all airport to airport trip in the 80s and 90s when travelling in Airplane was a big deal. Whenever we open up albums of those road trips my mother has this ritual to always ask questions like do you remember this photo, do you remember this place, do you know when this was taken (“Mummy I was only 2 or 3 how would I remember this”). I now aim to write down my father’s adventures through my words and share it with other people who love travelling.

Bunny/Kabir from the Bollywood Blockbuster “Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani”

Second, on the list is a movie character which has almost inspired half of the travel enthusiasts of my generation.

Yes, I hope you guessed it right Kabir Thapar/Bunny from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (as mentioned in the subheading). This 2013, Ayan Mukherjee directed film showed us a whole different world where one could simply live the life which almost every traveller wants to live (Getting paid for travelling). The whole arc of Bunny played by Ranbir Kapoor is based upon chasing his dream, his only dream. He relentlessly worked towards his dream leaving his family, friends just to fulfil his dream, travelling around the globe. The dialogue between him and Naina played by Deepika Padukone “Mai udna chahta hu Naina, daudna chahta hu, girna chahta hu, bas rukna nii chahta” surely inspired most of us.

PS: Whenever I feel I am losing hope in my dream, I watch the movie to rekindle the hope.

 

Imtiaz Ali films

Imtiaz Ali’s Films are praised for two main reasons: first modern, complicated and at the same time relatable love stories, second the locations he chooses for his film shoots. Along with great stories he treats us with some heavenly places of the world unknown to most of us. From a train trip to ranging through the hills of Himalayas in Jab We Met to exploring Delhi and Kashmir in Rockstar. Travelling through the scenic countries of Europe in Jab Harry Met Sejal to revealing the beauty of unknown Corsica in Tamasha. Imtiaz Ali’s films have educated and inspired us all along. We have seen in his arc of his protagonists, whenever they seem to get lost in themselves travelling, love and their dreams are the ones that pull them out from the loop.

It was this diverse world of his films that educated me on different cultures and places that I didn’t even know of.

It was his films that provided the food for my bug to survive. So thank you, Imtiaz Ali, for the visual delights

 PS: Imtiaz Ali and I share the same hometown…

Ulysses (Odysseus)

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem Ulysses is the last inspiration for my bug for travelling and exploration.

Travel is an important theme in Tennyson’s poem. It suggests a process of mental development, as well as a life of commitment. Many of you must have seen the movie Troy starring Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt based on the Greek- Trojan war when the Greeks were running out of ideas it was Odysseus who came up with the idea of Trojan horse which led to the fall of Trojans. Enough of his background now let’s come to the inspiration part.

“I cannot rest from travel, I will drink

Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy’d

Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when

Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known,- cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, government,

Myself not least, but honor’d of them all”

Excerpt from Ulysses, Lines 6-14.

Ulysses apart from being a great warrior had an eye for travelling and exploring. He exclaims that he cannot rest from travel, as travelling and exploring was his life.

He was told that gentle death will come to him from the sea. Although he knew the way of his death, he undertook the last sea voyage because his love for exploration overcame his feelings for his family and death. In the figure of Ulysses, we have the eternal traveller, forever seeking a new experience, but whose final journey marks the dissolution of self.

The poem just lit the fire for travelling to full flame inside me as there was just a man who didn’t care about his death, he went to the god by doing what he loved the most. After reading Ulysses the bug inside me had grown full-fledged and ready to come out. It inspired me to pick up the bag and let the roads take me away…

PS: Always believe in your dream and keep following it because as Late Irrfan Khan in his last movie said: “Aadmi ka sapna tut jata haina toh aadmi khatam ho jata hai”.Keep working towards your dream. Also being a literature student you come to read a lot of stories where you can find inspiration for your dreams. Ciao..

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Shah Parwez is a Content writer at The Strong Traveller. He is a nature and travel enthusiast always looking to explore new horizons. A literature graduate, Shah loves to write personalized travel blogs,as he aims to pursue career in Travel and Lifestyle Journalism.

 

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