Happy journey

Every year, butterflies, fish and mammals migrate from one part of the world to the other. Birds are the most adventurous migrants and travellers. The Spotted Flycatcher flies to Africa, which has a large crop of summer insects ready to eat. The frigid northern climate in Ireland wouldn’t have provided them with this kind of food to survive or raise their babies. Swallows or the Arctic Terns, too, fly thousands of miles to their feeding and nesting grounds.

Humans travel but usually not for food or to bring up their young. While we travel for business or to meet family, we are increasingly travelling for fun and entertainment. Every year it takes less time to fly across the Atlantic and more time to drive to office.

Travel can make you a suave and urbane citizen of the world. On a holiday, you are protected from intrusions and everyday worries. Travel can provide a beautiful, restful sanctuary, though often one needs to rest or recuperate from the “holiday”, at home afterwards. It is a great opportunity to experience a new culture, meet new people and sample new cuisine.

But such life-stretching experiences are for those who embrace newness and change. Reluctant and timid travellers tend to experience all newness as threats and carry home comforts and food to filter out the newness.

Some of our best accounts in history are from travellers like Marco Polo, who looked at civilisations with the objective gaze of outsiders. Travel can inspire you, break down your barriers against other cultures. On your journeys, you may encounter the unexpected — even a volcano or a coup. So this season, take off like the birds, to strange new climes.

Experience other worlds and return knowing more about yourself than you ever did, As Lin Yutang put it, “No one realises how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.”

The writer is the author of Everyday Happiness Mantras