Travel is an investment in yourself
I was thrilled to see the opportunity to connect with your 5th annual global event. As the tour promotes the idea to get connect with people around the world to learn, to explore and to be part of their great culture with the help of your ‘Connect Live 2020’ programme. With this opportunity, I realised that “travel is an investment in yourself.” This statement nonchalantly enchant me so that i could narrate my story and tell my local audience: why i became a local guide at all?
Firstly, i want to tell who i am as a person. I am lost; not in life but in directions. I am a person who easily gets lost even if someone had directed me thousands of time from point A to point B and i somehow manage to reach point C. Strange as it may seem, with a lost sense of direction, I cherish the untravelled roads which i some how manage to travel because it makes the possibility to explore and experience the unexpected. with point C in my life, i traverse the experience by meeting new people at New places and anticipating that i might end up befriending them and great food or food outlets that I never knew had existed, comes in my life as pizza on weekends. Being lost is first being a guide to yourself and then guiding others. I was lost and i want to be lost again because it helps me to find my own path and to find myself; being lost can be a mini-solo trip where you click the picture of surroundings with the help of your retina so that later on you can recall little things that you could just explore on your own. With the help of Google map, now I’m good at direction and i reach the destination on time and sometimes willingly i get lost to explore. The picture i have posted on Google map demonstrate my findings, not only in the form of cafe’s and old Book Shop but also some forgotten old temples.
The above pictures of the temple situated in Agra, India. People rarely visit this temple of lord Krishna as it is situated beside the Highway NH2. The temple of lord Krishna building around 80-90 years ago; it is very beautiful carved on red stones. There’s also an original and many years old ‘Shiva Linga’ situated in the out court of the temple.
There were times when i didn’t know how to use Google map and i found it very difficult to locate and find places on my own. Sometimes people were also not able to guide me though the place without making me more confused then ever. As a result I ended up wasting my resources, my enthusiasm and energy which was exhausting. This happened with me on several occasions. once i faced utter disappointment and found myself stuck at some such scenario and hence, i decided that i would guide people on an online platform and review the places to save them from getting into wrong places and wasting their time and energy. Traveling to places teaches you things that you can’t learn from the books. It makes you more evolved and it brightens something in you. I’m not sure about others if they feel the same but it makes me feel more optimistic and it gives me heart- warming positive feelings. I put one review and pictures of a shop which i had trouble in searching on Google map because people couldn’t help me to reach my destination and there were people who get easily lost. After few days i got an update about my post from Google and since then it kept me updating about my post on Google map to help people find the best way possible . I started my journeys without any worries as i had Google map. That’s how i took up this tag of a local guide to help people out and this also the reason why this ‘connect live 2020’ is extremely important to me. If i am to be believed i wasn’t the person who goes out and posts pictures but when i got to know that reviewing places that i have already visited; to post about them and letting people know that how they can reach there and what services they’d be getting there etc is also a way to help thousands of people to attain peace and satisfaction on both physical and mental level. It gives the same amount of satisfaction when you help someone physically injured.
Before ending my experience , i would add that neither i am professional writer nor photographer not a professional guide i am .I am local at heart and guiding someone. I’d always push myself ahead to deliver my best to the world . I’m glad that I’m not professional at anything because i can’t filter words or things because everything is beautiful before the filter applications took over. Even chaos of the city is beautiful as it shows the true essence of the place .
" Travel is not reward for working,
It is an education for living."
By Anthony BourDain
I am hoping to become a part of this journey to explore the life around me as the goal is to die with memories , not with dreams .