Neither here nor there — Bill Bryson

This one took a while as I really struggled with the challenge of summarizing a Bill Bryson book (Also the lockdown has pretty much toppled me into an abyss of procrastination as I sip some Cuba Libre wearing my favorite, oh so soft, pair of boxers). As I grappled with the job of concisely packaging the irreverence of Señor Bryson as he journaled his tales from his travels across Europe I arrived at the conclusion that any attempt would inevitably lead to an enormous and magnificent failure (Much like the wily cayote strapping himself to an Acme Rocket as he chases the Road Runner). Yes Mr. Bryson is a Road Runner, his mind full of mischief, sarcasm and occasional glimpses of pure wonder. His words narrate the tales of natural wonders such as the Aurora Borealis, interesting people and national stereotypes most countries in Europe have been subject to by American writers. For this summary I will take a cue from Mr. Bryson and narrate my own tales (Although not as humorous but hopefully will give you some added motivation to get back to travel once the dust settles on the current global pandemic).

Don’t fall for the common stereotypes:

Wise people say that kindness (& goodness) is the general nature of people and unflattering stereotypes are an aberration. Unfortunately, it is the unkind stereotypes that enable “good humour”, slapstick generalizations and clicks on the internet. We have all heard or read about these stereotypes and some of us may even have experienced them during our travels. Think about the “rude” Frenchman, the “unemotional” German, the “arrogant” American and the “mystical” Indian. Could it be that years of social conditioning has resulted in us actively noticing these national quirks propagated by popular culture while at the same time not taking cognisance of the 99% people we come across during our travels that are perfectly normal (I would go so far as to say that most people are kind and generous). Since I spent a few years of my life in the US I can talk with some experience on my interactions with the “arrogant” American. While I did come across pockets of colleagues and people in general who lived in a bubble where America was the center of the Universe, most of my interactions were with people who were keen to learn more about my culture (beyond Bollywood movies & Yoga) and give me a glimpse into their lives. I had some interactions which stay with me till today and I’ll briefly narrate a tale that left me with a warm feeling in the heart and forever broke all stereotypes I held about Americans. I was at Penn station, New York in the middle of one of the worst cold waves the country had ever seen (they called it the Polar Vortex). As I bid farewell to my aunt who was in tears boarding the bus to Washington DC, I stood behind the line which said, “Do not cross unless you’re boarding the bus”. Watching this incident was a young African American station attendant who nudged me to board the bus to give my aunt a final hug before the bus departed. I looked at him curiously and told him that I’m not travelling in the bus to which he replied, “It doesn’t matter brother, your ‘mom’ needs a hug”. At that moment I realized relationships and family emotions don’t follow any stereotypes or culture, at their very core love speaks the same language and at that moment that young boy understood that my aunt (who he mistook for my mom) needed a hug, rules be damned.

People have very different travel experiences:

Many people enjoy privileges while travelling. I’m not talking about fancy hotels or business class flights or even the luxury of a powerful passport which allows Visa free entry into most nations around the world (Yes, I’m talking about you, my friend from Singapore J). For the longest time my biggest worry while travelling was getting lost or having my passport stolen in an alien country. This was till the time I met this pretty girl (Now my very good friend) at a bar in Munich, Germany. It was my first and till date only solo trip. I was visiting Germany for the Oktoberfest and generally in need for some company. As I struck a conversation with this girl (Who said she was from Ukraine) in the bar we started moving beyond small talk and started flirting with the idea of hanging out in the city and visiting the fest (along with her husband J). During the course of the evening she abruptly asked me a question which I found very strange and didn’t have an answer to. She asked me — “Is there a country whose people you do not like?”. I honestly didn’t know how to answer this question. As I struggled to answer this question, finally saying that there is no country that I have general animosity towards, she looked at me with a sense of relief and told me that the reason she asked me this question was because she was from Israel (With roots in Ukraine). She told me that as a person from Israel she has had to exercise extreme caution when meeting new people in foreign countries due to the surprisingly common anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiments in certain pockets of the Muslim world and people form these countries. Coming form a nation that has seen its fair share of communal tensions I still couldn’t relate to these concerns because I felt that my nationality had limited negative bearing on my social interactions while travelling. At that moment I learnt what a privilege that was and how the reality of travel is different for different nationalities. Till this date this is an incident which stays with me as I look back upon my travels.

Nature is the world’s best architect:

As someone who’s world travel journey began after the age of 28, I had ample time in life to imagine all the sights and sounds I longed to experience in the world. Television gave me a glimpse into the glitzy Times Square, the magnificent Great Wall of China, the towering Eiffel Tower & the mysterious Chichen Itza. I tried to experience these wonders through facebook photos of my friends and travel shows, so as you can imagine, it was always my dream to visit these tourist hotspots whenever I got the chance. Looking back today, I did experience a sense of “living the dream” as they say when I visited these spots and walked around the places I had only seen on the computer screen or television, however, if I had to really think about the experiences which took my breath away, it would definitely be the magnificent wonders of nature. Top of the list for me would be the time I went Kayaking in the Bio Luminescent Bay of Puerto Rico. This bay is home to a certain variety of planktons which radiate light when agitated in water. As one Kayaks their way post sundown, one can slowly start to see the oars luminate with magical irradiance as they slowly touch the water filled with these microscopic photo planktons. As I splashed my hand in water, I saw my hand trigger a thousand photo planktons in a symphony of incandescence. I never knew such wonders of the world existed. I felt like a child transported to wonderland in a scene right out of a fantasy novel. At that moment I realized that while I always longed to visit man made wonders of the world all my life, no such architectural wonder had ignited this sense of joy and amazement that I experienced that day in Puerto Rico. I haven’t had the good fortune to witness the Aurora Borealis in the Nordic countries (As Mr. Bryson did in his book) but I do understand now why Bill Bryson spent almost 30 days in the northern most town in Norway to witness the beauty and splendour of the Northern Lights. As you update your travel bucket list in the post corona world I would strongly urge you to research and add some natural wonders to your list so that you too can experience the sheer joy that nature has beautifully conspired to gift us.