Posting now this draft which I had left slightly incomplete in 2019. I have retained most of the original essence of the note, only making a few edits and filling in a couple of lines. About a year ago, on one of the rare occasions I travelled back to Bangalore from home by bus, I as usual decided to put on my earphones and look out the window instead of going to sleep.
I am at home on the road, helmet-clad. I am tripping, yet in tune with the world. I am one with myself and my machine. Detached from my normal life, from the rat race, from the mundane tasks. A simple switch of lenses; wide-angle to macro—a narrow but crisp and focussed field of vision. Attached to the present—to the self and the machine, and to the world. Attached to being alive, to feeling, and to exploring.
Ending an exhausting yet fulfilling adventure, I board the 3.35 back to České Budějovice. On this return leg of my journey, all the cabins in 2nd class seem to be occupied by at least one weary privacy-seeker. The travellers turn away my optimism all the way to the end of the carriage, and I take a seat in the last cabin containing, unsurprisingly, an occupant in one of the window seats.
Hello! What am I and why do I have this blog?