The Japanese Indian

“The gladdest moment in human life is a departure into unknown lands.”- Sir Richard Burton

I had friend from Japan who visited me last year, he was solo backpacking through India. I was quite astonished to find out about his experiences. So, we sat together and he shared his findings about my own motherland.

I was very worried for him when he first told me about his plans as I know my country isn’t exactly friendly to tourists in some aspects but he was adamant.The journey of his trip had started a year back when he decided to earn the cash for the trip, he waited tables for almost a year to get money and when he finally did, he knew he was ready. He came to India with just one plan, to experience it all. He amazed me with every story that he told me about how he travelled on “bail gaadi” to how he almost got robbed in a train bound to Delhi from Jaipur, he had done it all.

He finally visited me in Delhi after a month and he had touched base with almost every major city in the country. Now this was a very humble and soft spoken man but for the first time I heard him swear and that too in Hindi, I was awestruck, as he lost his cool with our rickshaw driver. He had now become a completely change man and possibly even more desi than me.

The reason why I shared this story with everyone is because my friend was travelling alone, he had no plans or any idea on where he was going or what he wanted to do. What he did know was that he wanted to visit India and live amongst the Indians as normal people without the tourist shenanigans. This is what travelling solo does to a person, it makes them start trusting themselves more as they believe that now we are already here and all I can depend on is me and that lets them experience the whole vibe more freely. One learns a lot when travelling alone, they learn to experience without sharing and they learn to deal with everything on themselves and they learn to live.

I can never forget that one thing he said to me that I shall cherish for the rest of my life; he said “I thought about my destination once as my journey had left me mesmerized.”