I am in my mid-twenties now. I lived in Chennai for 3+ years
with awesome friends, one by one moved away to either new city or gone to live
alone after their wedding. In the process I got a chance to move to Bangalore
in the hope of progressing my career. I get to live alone in Bangalore. I
experience a type of pleasure when living alone in a different city. It is
altogether a different experience. You seem to enjoy a type of freedom when
living alone. After living in Bangalore alone for 3+ months, I planned a trip
for 3 days with friends to Munnar – A hill station in Kerala, south India.
Its group of 5 friends planned to go on a trip for 3 days. I
was excited because I am going to go on a trip to an unknown place, & to
stay on the place and experience the unknown.
The excitement started immediately we met to board the
train, all of us are super exited for the trip. I had never made such a long
trip ever before in my life. So this is a new experience for me and for each
and every one of my friends. I know in a few months everyone will either get
married or move to different city and hence to make a trip like this will be
impossible in future.
We reached Cochin, Kerala. A place where there are more
numerous lakes & back waters flowing in between the city. There are ferry
& Jetty transports system to move to nearby places. We actually travelled
on one such ferry to Fort Kochi, a place of cultural importance where
Vascodagama first reached INDIA from South Africa. The place is full of
cultural importance with lot of age old churches,
Next we boarded bus to Munnar, a hill station. It’s a 6 hour
journey on the hill. The journey itself is awesome. We reached there at
midnight and still found a suitable accommodation. We 5 people slept in a
single room with a single blanket on that cold climate. The next 2 days were
completely spent on seeing fantabulous landscapes, dams, reservoirs, forests,
national parks, falls that are spread throughout the hills. I might say Munnar
is a place where every journey is more beautiful than the destination. Every
hill have completely covered with tea plantations.
Now, when I look back about the journey we had together…what
I remember is not the places but the joy of being together with friends, the
joy of doing something new, travelling to a new place together which stay in
memory forever.
I just realize. This life is short, don’t just gather
things, and gather experiences with loved ones that is only thing that matters
when we get old.
At the end what matters most is not how many project we
completed successfully, but the life experiences with the loved ones. So make
time at least once in every 4 months to make new life experiences, try new
things, that will stay with us long even when everything we gather fade away
with time.