There is a office colleague who has on the wall next to her seat a huge world map. And on that map, marked by coloured pins are the places that she has been to. The pins are peppered all over the USA, Europe and Vietnam her native country. It's my wish to have something like that too one day. If I set about doing it right now, there wouldn't be much variety. A huge number of pins all over India, one in Frankfurt and then numerous more in the USA : that would unfortunately be enough to cover my footloose activities.
But if I started to mark all the places where people I knew very well at some point of my life are or have been, it's a wonderful feeling. My neighbour from the first year hostel is in Luxembourg, the petite European nation. One of my closest friends now works in the glowing sunshine of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. A bunch of my juniors (My 'technical' sons and daughters) are traipsing all over Europe apparently 'studying' with one of them in a little village in France and one in Germany. The USA has been flooded with an influx of RECKERs (my college mates) and QACers (school mates) with whom I was extremely pally with, East Coast, West Coast, Mid West no bar. My friends from college now are back in their homelands of the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal and the South Pacific island of Fiji! I still am in touch with them and our conversation over chat is as casual as it was when we got together over a glass of whisky back in college.
Even though I am miles away from my intention of visiting everyone, it's a overwhelming feeling. The legends of lands far away, of unknown places seem within touching distance now that some person linked to my life lives there and works there, just like I am doing in a small town in north-east USA. It's one thing just to say pompously that "The world is my oyster" but what's really shocking is that it actually might be true!
No comments:
Post a Comment