“What I hate about” Series
As you can see, it has taken me almost half a year to publish this. Firstly I was too tied up running around the world making a living. And secondly, I was wondering to myself whether I should or I should not, due to the sensitivities attached, and what response I would get. But then I said, what the heck! ... So here goes ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seriously, I have had it till here with all these travel blogs and posts about different cities and places and how nice they are. I mean, come on. I travel for a living. Out of the seven days of the week, I am traveling for five. Obviously, the ‘Little Dorothy’ syndrome of how nice these places are is extremely hard to keep in such a case.
Don’t get me wrong. I love traveling. Even now, I am sitting in an airport lounge, drinking the mango nectar served by the (pretty) attendant, and watching all this hustle-bustle around me. I love doing that. I love observing people. One of my ‘gurus’ who taught me how to paint taught me first to observe, not just ‘see’. So I do that. And I enjoy doing that.
Although I do not enjoy the actual act of flying much – just like Mark Haddon of ‘Dog at Midnight’ fame has written in his other less-famous book ‘A Spot of Bother’ (“… just the idea of filling a box made of tin metal with people and hurling it through space sounds un-natural”) – I do not mind it. I get to see new people, have new experiences, see new things, and I cherish traveling for that. I enjoy the unpredictability too. Once I spent seven hours waiting and traveling, for a meeting that lasted hardly three hours. I have missed flights, got lost, and travelled for long hours. But I have no qualms about that.
What I hate though is the pretentiousness of these little travel blogs and posts that project as if traveling is the best thing that can happen to you, and that the place that is being described is not that place, but some Wonderland.
I also find these travelogs non-useful, since they do not tell me what to be careful of, what to avoid, and how to survive in places that are alien to me. It is for this reason (and also partly that I am currently reading Saki, whose influence of dark humour is impossible to resist) – I have decided to present a series on – What I hate about different places that I frequent. I hope this will provide a bit of change from those sugary and syrupy write-ups, and will also help you plan the next time you intend to visit these places.
Since this is also the first post after 2010 has dawned, I wish you all a very Happy New Year.
Peace,
Shreekant
8th January 2010
First published on 24th August 2010
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seriously, I have had it till here with all these travel blogs and posts about different cities and places and how nice they are. I mean, come on. I travel for a living. Out of the seven days of the week, I am traveling for five. Obviously, the ‘Little Dorothy’ syndrome of how nice these places are is extremely hard to keep in such a case.
Don’t get me wrong. I love traveling. Even now, I am sitting in an airport lounge, drinking the mango nectar served by the (pretty) attendant, and watching all this hustle-bustle around me. I love doing that. I love observing people. One of my ‘gurus’ who taught me how to paint taught me first to observe, not just ‘see’. So I do that. And I enjoy doing that.
Although I do not enjoy the actual act of flying much – just like Mark Haddon of ‘Dog at Midnight’ fame has written in his other less-famous book ‘A Spot of Bother’ (“… just the idea of filling a box made of tin metal with people and hurling it through space sounds un-natural”) – I do not mind it. I get to see new people, have new experiences, see new things, and I cherish traveling for that. I enjoy the unpredictability too. Once I spent seven hours waiting and traveling, for a meeting that lasted hardly three hours. I have missed flights, got lost, and travelled for long hours. But I have no qualms about that.
What I hate though is the pretentiousness of these little travel blogs and posts that project as if traveling is the best thing that can happen to you, and that the place that is being described is not that place, but some Wonderland.
I also find these travelogs non-useful, since they do not tell me what to be careful of, what to avoid, and how to survive in places that are alien to me. It is for this reason (and also partly that I am currently reading Saki, whose influence of dark humour is impossible to resist) – I have decided to present a series on – What I hate about different places that I frequent. I hope this will provide a bit of change from those sugary and syrupy write-ups, and will also help you plan the next time you intend to visit these places.
Since this is also the first post after 2010 has dawned, I wish you all a very Happy New Year.
Peace,
Shreekant
8th January 2010
First published on 24th August 2010
Comments