Travel for whose sake?

"Not all those who wander are lost." J.R.R.Tolkien

I dont travel for the state, like Columbus did. 

I dont travel for trade, like Marco Polo did. 

I dont travel for power, like Alexander did.

I dont travel for spices, like Vasco da Gama did. 

I dont travel for knowledge, like ZuangZang did. 

I dont travel for life, like Darwin did. 

I dont travel for gold, like Cortez did. 

I dont travel for records, like Amundsen did. 

I dont travel for conquests, like Hillary did. 

I dont travel for discovery, like Livingstone did. 

I dont travel for revolution, like Guevera did. 

I dont travel for religion, like Francis Xavier did. 

I dont travel for the King, like Cook did. 

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. Its the fulfillment of the ultimate realization of who you are. The relationship with time and space around you. Our Nature lies in movement; complete calm is death. 

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” - Muhammed

I travel not because I am looking for an answer. I travel because there are too many questions. In search of the meaning of ignorance, we start realizing the utter futility of all our knowledge. The hopelessness in the quest of knowledge is we do not know how truly ignorant we really are. The Homo Sapien brain is just not contended with finding the next Bison to hunt, it relentlessly pounds on the meaning of reality. Why are we here? What is the meaning of being? What is that makes us aware of our existence? How do we know what we know as truth? Where is it all coming from and where is it all going to? 

For thousands of years we humans have pondered over the absurdity of existence. From the caves of Lascaux and Alta Mira man has transformed his inability to comprehend this quest into art. Giving a form to the abstraction called existence. It is only our developed intelligence which allows us to perceive our own existence and ponder over it. All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing.  

Maybe we understand our existence because we understand time. If we sit in a dark room wont we lose the perception of time after a certain period? Wont all existence come to a standstill if we drift into timelessness? But in the senselessness of civilization we can never be alone. We can never lose track of time. After all its time which creates that great phenomenon called power. Control over time is the control of power. 

Will we have any meaning to be if we are all alone. 

 

Hampi: Land of Hanuman

Hampi had always been high on my list of places to see. I had heard a lot about the magical setting of the place but what I encountered was beyond anything what words can signify. Many people do not know that ancient Hampi was the fabled land of Kishkinda; the land of Hanuman, Sugriva, Bali, Angad, Neela, Naala and other Vaanars who assisted Rama in capturing Lanka, in the great epic Ramayana. 

I left Bangalore around 10 in the morning hoping to get a bus from Majestic to Hospet and reach Hampi by nightfall. Hampi is a tiny village and has a bus connection only with Hospet which is around 13 kms away. I did not find any buses leaving for Hospet and I didnt want to waste time waiting indefinitely for one. 

One of the golden rules of travelling is always to have a Plan B. 

I left for Chitradurga which is halfway between Bangalore and Hospet and got a connecting bus from there. I reached Hampi at around 10pm in the last connecting bus from Hospet which leaves around 9:30. 

It was a blessing in disguise really because I didn't get to see the countryside and Hampi erupted in the early morning light next day in all its astonishing grandeur. 

The corresponding image is Archaeological Survey of India conducting maintenance at the Krishna Temple. More on it later. 

Genesis

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

Everything starts at a point. 

The story of my wanderings across India starts today. The same story started in the real world in August last year when I left Ahmedabad for Hampi, after months of frustrating motionlessness existence. My photography had saturated the streets of Ahmedabad, and wanted to break out. I had been researching on new avenues for photography to expand in the future, and had zoned in on Panoramas as a great new opportunity waiting to be implemented on the wonder of India's geography, culture, monuments and people. 

Stretching across 15 states and over four months of actual wandering time, covering 5000 kms, across 50 sites including 16 World Heritage sites, I took the decisive step on a shoestring budget. Right now I am back at Ahmedabad, from where I shall document my days as a wandering mendicant. I wish I had written down my experiences along the way, but its still not late enough to do that. I will accompany my text with my images, which was the main purpose of my travels. 

However unlike my previous travels, this time around I avoided traveling like a tourist, but rather like an explorer. Concentrating more on the meaning than the content.