“It’s the same. Even we can see a mountain range from our living room.” My mum burst my balloon when I sent her a picture of the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayan Mountains behind me.
How do parents find it so easy to be content with what they have? Our family house in my hometown, Pune is in the hilly region of Taljai. Birds from all over the country come to our house in the summer. They make nests in the wire mesh when our preschool is closed for vacation. We even host snakes quite often.
Taljai has mountains like the Himalayas and forests like in Uttarakhand. Of course, my mother thinks that – I see no similarity between the alpines of the Himalayas and the deciduous forest of random trees in the backyard of my Pune Home (as in Taljai).
Whenever I am at home, my mother makes me take a longer route to the grocery store, just because that road makes her re-live the scenic bike ride we did in Netravalli in Goa. “It’s the same,” she says.
While the entire country was wrapped up in heat wave in 2022, I took immense pride in telling Mum that I was living in extremely pleasant weather in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. But mom leaves no stone unturned to prove to me what a sinful waste of time and money I commit, each time I board a train or flight. She told me that the day I left home, Pune (as in Taljai) immediately cooled down so much, that they relieved the ceiling fan from its service. In fact, it was me who was missing out. The two mango trees in our backyard were throwing out sackfuls of juicy mangoes each day. My parents set a new record for being the most charitable souls in the world, as they allowed neighbours and colleagues a free supply of the best and most natural Alphonso mangoes.
There’s only one thing that Pune ( by that I mean, Taljai) truly doesn’t have- the sea. But my parents have nothing to regret. My mother has jumped off and swam in enough wells and rivers in her childhood to hold that grudge against Pune. (By now, I hope you understand Pune is equivalent to Taljai. Every other part of Pune is non-existent for us.)
If I travel the whole world, go back home one day and tell my family about it, I know what they will say- ‘We had everything here at home. You wasted your money for no reason at all.’
Here’s a tip for you all. If you don’t want to physically travel but intend to reap the benefits of travelling to faraway dreamlands, buy a house in Taljai. Then, meet my mother- she will give you a perspective on how living in our area is equivalent to living in any heaven on Earth. She will make you see everything in one place- The Himalayas, the forests, or Spiti-like good roads to drive.
If your argument is that travelling is not just about seeing beautiful places; it’s also about meeting different people, I have a solution for that too. Enrol yourself in our preschool upstairs. You will meet new people daily – children, their baby siblings, adults, grandparents, labourers, CEOs- we are home to people of all sorts.
If you take my advice, I’ll be delighted. But when you do that, please don’t ring me up to tell me that my mother is right and I simply wasted my money on travelling.
