I started travel blogging a long time ago, 2005. All the stories on my blog were about my personal trips. But gradually blogging picked up and I started getting invited on trips by hotels and tourism boards. Then in 2015 I quit my job as a professor in a private institute to do full-time travel blogging. For me, it has not been a story of answering a call or anything. I just got tired of Indian private sector academics and decided to quit. I do feel at times that I wasted my Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur! Anyway, those are thoughts for another day.
From January 2016 to October 2016 I have done 21 trips of various shapes and sizes. The shortest was a day trip to Lucknow and the longest about 7 nights in Thailand. So when I stumbled on the Asian Paints Video about getting back home I totally get it!
I love to travel, travel gives me a high. But there is an automatic mechanism in my mind which makes me long for my home on the last day. As the trip is about to end, I want to go home with all my might. Only a few places have been an exception to it in all my 11 years of blogging. There are various reasons why I wish to get home. But below are the most prominent ones!
I Get My Cup of Tea
I simply love tea. A day without tea is inconceivable to me. And when I say tea I mean Hindustani chai. The one with adrak (ginger) and tulsi (basil). I get tea in the foreign land too. But I don’t get chai the way I get it at home. I am a vegetarian too. So, my eating options are a bit limited abroad. Surprisingly I don’t miss food. As long as I get vegetarian food to eat, I am fine. But it is the chai that makes me long for home! By the end of the trip, I am desperate for my cup of chai!
I can Wear Faded Clothes
People who know me will describe me as sloppily dressed. But because of blogging and traveling, I now get to stay at swank places. And I have to make an attempt to dress better. I doubt that I succeed at it. But I do try. Once I am home I go back to my faded but comfortable clothes!
Home is Home
I was once asked if I would like to fly out in the morning and come back at night or would it be too hectic. The sponsors were willing to put me up in a nice hotel for the night. I told them I would take the last flight back home. There is something about home that no hotel can match. There are familiar things all around. My daughter would have created a mess somewhere or the other. I have my nephew living a few doors away. I get to see my father and my husband when I am home.
On that night my flight got delayed by several hours. I was dead tired waiting at the airport. But once I reached home, everything fell back in place! Even if I knew in advance that the flight would get delayed, I would had still liked to head home.
My Plants Need Me
I like having plants around me and I feel the plants like me too. But no one else at home seems to care much. I dread 8-9 days trips in summer because I know something or the other will die! I scold everyone before going about watering the plants but they always manage to kill a few. So by the end of the trip, I really get anxious about my plants too. My daughter, Chhavi, shows interest in plants and I hope one day she will be big enough to take care of them.
I Miss my Daughter
Everyone else at home is an adult but my daughter is small, not even ten. Her age is still in single digit. I start missing home and everyone else towards the end of the trip. But I miss Chhavi throughout. Most of the times I am just caught up in activities but suddenly a wave hits me and I start wondering about her, about her smile, her pranks, her reluctance to eat food, a thousand small things. She is the biggest reason why I want to get home at the end of the trip.
People have asked me why I don’t go on longer trips, trips of a month or more. I have always said that my daughter will forget me if I go missing for that long! She is actually happy to see me go because I am the strict one. I am after her life to eat food, to do her homework and everything else. But she is equally happy to see me back at home! Once she goes to college I will probably go on longer trips.
It is all the small things and the small bundle that wants me to rush back home irrespective of where I am! After all, there is no place like home in the world! And after some time I want to travel again!
One thing people like you most is your good naturedness & you having no airs.
Thank you Easwar, that is a really nice thing to say about me!
घर घर ही होता है ! पूरी दुनियां में कहीं भी घूम लें , फिर मन करता है चलो अब घर चला जाए ! आपने जो कारण लिखे हैं वो बिलकुल सटीक हैं !!
Thank you Yogi, if I am traveling in India the chai is not an issue but when I go broad even chai becomes special!
Hi Mridula,
you have made me curious about your Hindustani chai tea. Being a tea addict myself (don’t like coffee and will never drink it) I love to discover new flavours. Tea mmmmmm!
As for the travelling: I love closing the door behind me and venturing into the unknown. There are a million untold stories waiting to be discovered and I’m glad you willingly share your with us. 🙂
Happy weekend my friend from afar!
Hope you are having a great weekend too! Thank you for stopping by and taking time to share your thoughts!
Agreed – it’s lovely to come home to the kids.
And for you it includes the dogs too! 😀
I have been reading your posts since 2012 although I have hardly commented on your posts. I always admired your writing style which is simple and I guess it’s also a reflection of persona 🙂
Even though when we travels we are all excited for our destination but I guess in the end there’s nothing quite like the comfort of home! Since you’re easy going person (I deduce that from your preferred choice of clothes 😉 ) I’m sure you’ll love the ease of being yourself at home.
Thank you Arv, you deduced it right that I like to take things easy, clothes included!
A wonderful post. Loved reading the things you wrote about your little daughter 🙂
Thank you so much Purba!
Home sweeet home…and that is where our hearts lie..a staright from the heart post Mridula..
Thank you so much Sunita!
Sweet post. 🙂 I also wrote a similar one a couple of years back. I also love returning home after a trip. I love my space, my home, my people as much as I love the unfamiliar places.
Ah glad to know we think alike!
Beautiful post Mridula! I love your honesty and simplicity – they really do make you stand out from the rest! 🙂
Thank you Chaitali, but where can you see that? Just out of curiosity! 😀
Loved the post 🙂
Thank you Rupam!
after all home is home…thats all.
very nicely written, simple and sweet.
Thank you so much!
An enjoyable read…
Thank you Rajeev!
Our kids are the biggest reasons for making the home a sweeter one. Chhavi is a smart girl..quite self-dependent she is ( my personal assumption derived from your FB updates 🙂 )
She is she is and naughty too! 😀
Beautiful, welcome back home ! It’s always fun to come back home where the WiFi auto connects 😉
I agree, I so so so agree 😀 Home is where WiFi connects automatically!