My best journeys

Ever wondered what are some of your best journeys? I have had many enjoyable train or plane trips with friends and colleagues – but a few that I look back with fond memory are the ones where I travelled alone. While fun and chitchat with others may be pleasant activities – sometimes our most cherished memories are of times that are spent with ourselves.

 I remember the Jet Airways flight that I took from Bombay to Calcutta – in the summer of 2002. I resigned from I-Sec, and was to join Irevna in two weeks. I was leaving behind the worries of the old job, and the joining date at the new job is still some time away – so the next two weeks promised to be blissful. I was leaving Bombay as well – a city I passionately hated. Overall, I felt very much at peace. The almost empty flight added to the tranquil experience. That was a journey where everything felt nice and perfect – the food, the air-hostesses, the dark sky outside.

 My other favourite journeys were to do with two absorbing cinemas that I watched on my laptop on those trips. One was a evening flight from Chennai to Delhi – where I watched Hotel Rwanda for the first time. Chennai-Delhi is a long, 2 hour 45 minute journey, but I was so totally immersed in the movie, I hardly noticed. Towards the last one hour – they dim the light in the aircraft, which is just as well, as you do not want anybody to notice if tears come to your eyes at the end of the movie. This still remains one of most moving cinemas that I ever watched.

 Recently, after one of my Bangalore trips, I came back by Shatabdi to Chennai. I managed to watch two movies in the train – one of which, ‘Do the right thing’, stayed with me for many days after my viewing, making sure I will always remember this trip with fondness. It is a story about a neighborhood where racial tensions erupt, resulting in tragic consequences. In spite of the heavy subject, two-thirds of the movie is fun – where you get to know the characters with all their idiosyncrasies. You like some of them, you are amused by some of the others – but you really do not feel that any of them is evil, which is why the ending is particularly unfortunate. This movie is a reminder that sometimes circumstances can turn a bunch of good, well-meaning people into adversaries.

 There are experiences that transport you to another world for a brief while. While the real ones come only rarely to our lives, movies are great substitutes, and they are plentiful.