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As more women travel, leaving their comfort zones and embracing the unfamiliar, we look at 10 life lessons from travelling, shared by community members.
By Aparna Vedapuri Singh & Anne John
Once upon a time, we travelled in the summer vacation to our ‘native place’, to spend the hot, sweet summer with indulgent grandparents, laze around with cousins, and spend endless days wrapped in nothingness – only to repeat the whole cycle again the next summer vacation.
From the magic of familiarity, we have moved on to seeking novelty, unfamiliarity and the exotic. Yet, if travel is about transient pleasure wrapped in the form of new places, people, foods and sights, travel also changes us in more permanent ways. In seeking the unfamiliar, in pushing ourselves outside what we know, we learn.
That is why, we asked Women’s Web community members, on Facebook and Twitter one question: What life lessons has travelling taught you? We got back a bunch of beautiful answers, of which we present a few here. Enjoy!
1. Travelling has taught me that Life is like a River; there are new experiences & surprises at every bend! – @anitaexplorer
2. Travelling taught me to never stop exploring – @dolphinpooja
3. Travelling has taught me who I am and what I love. That a smile is the same in all languages and borders can’t bind us. – @natashakapoor
4. Taste of cultures. To see the world with the heart, not just eyes. To experience & live, not exist. – @ssvik
5. Travelling has brought books alive allowing me to experience culture, history, geo & other subjects personally! – @indianartscene
6. Traveling alone taught me to see beyond the confines of what society had decided would be my world. It taught me to see things from my perspective for a change. Traveling taught me to be myself, most of all. – Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury
7. To appreciate diversity – Satya Viswanathan
8. Travelling has taught me that women are the same everywhere with the same concerns and capacities…It is just their society that either supports or disempowers them! – Chaya Srivatsa
9. Travelling has taught me to accept and explore the unknown and to be adaptable, flexible and happy amongst imperfect situations. – Chandrima Pal
10. Travelling has taught me that history asks nothing of us except that we remember it & get enamoured by it. – @pallavisms
What lessons have you learnt from traveling? How has it made a difference to your life? Do share!
Pic credits to Arianne Leishman, Story Travelers, Barnacles, Jamesy Pena, Greeno777, DIBP Images, Wonderlane, Roland, Jeremy (Used under a Creative Commons license).
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
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14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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