Song of the Roads

A story about Traveling to Unknown .
People say,'Home is where the heart is' and I say,'I can see my heart lying here ,there and everywhere and I have to find my heart again and again....and build,break and rebuild my home ....again and again....'
It was a high noon of July ,hot and sultry,few years ago .I was taking a stroll on the seaside . A sandy beach near bay of Bengal,East of India,and it was full of purple flowers.I did not know the name.So it was a ‘strange’flower to me.I photographed the fairy path created by the creepers spread all over the yellow surface.A grain of sand .A grain of truth.But how do I know the ‘truth’ if it is ‘strange’ to me.So I photographed the flowers ,the sand,the green leaves,the sky,the turquoise blue waves.I kept on writing about places ,carefully preserved all the photographs to look back again and again to know the ‘truth’.For years I did that and never got to know the ‘truth’.I have to start living with the flowers like a grain of sand ,may be .Perhaps then I will get my answers.I often thought about a travel that never ends till I die.So I stop by the little shops,dark alleys ,local carnivals ,the palmist from a village near-by ,the old accordion-player basking outside the church ……wherever my heart says to stop for a while. And traveling makes me live thousands of other lives in one life .Everyday I am learning …..from every grain of sand.Not like a tourist, rather like a traveler .The colorful pebbles, conchshells that I picked up from the seaside shared with the children of the fishermen’s community playing under the sun ,tireless .Their smiles were like a field of sunflowers growing towards the sky.I was a stranger to them ,a strange traveler.I could feel that they had the same question like the one I often ask myself, ‘shall I go back or stay little more….?’And for this craving to stay little more,I became one of them,no more a stranger ,no more a tourist .And to myself,I became a traveler who has got no way to go back home.Because,I already found a home…..here ,there and everywhere.A fairy path to find home and heart everywhere.No fear of ‘unknown’ but to tread the path of happiness,I will travel endless . I listened to the songs the boatmen sing when they go for fishing at dawn and when I met a wild friend at some other seashore ,I hummed the song to him .Traveling is all about sharing what we find in the journey .I keep a note of every little smile,weird lunch,crazy dinner and all the tickets with my route map.My own map to travel to people’s heart and then only I become a traveler to myself.The geographical details,the tour plans help people to know more about the ‘unknown’ but what makes one pick up a destination is the ‘soul’ of the place.My journey to unknown cultures begins with this quest,and never ends.