Be A Tourist In Your Own City!

I explored my own city like a tourist one day, I pen down my beautiful experience, and urge you to awaken the tourist in you too!

Arriving recently from a cozy hill town, I have been wondering what motivated me to get up in the early hours of the morning every day, without an alarm, in that chilly weather. I am a person who usually loves to start the day with a morning walk.

But for the past couple of years, I had been losing that urge. Pondering over it for some days, I think I get it now. The explorer in me was awakened in those seven days spent in the mountains. Every day that week, I went in different directions, taking unexplored roads and discovering beautiful spots and places.

Today when I woke up in the morning, I pushed myself to lace up and took a right instead of the usual left. Somehow, the tourist switch got turned on inside me.

My observations as a tourist in my own city

• The cats wake up before we do. The strays, the rescued, the Persian royalty. If you love them and want to photograph them, this is the time.
• It is like an ASMR moment watching the women draw the sacred patterns of Rangoli in front of their houses.
• Flowers! pick’em fresh from the ground. No one has trampled them yet.
• Hesitating to take that Yulu ride during the day? Do it in the morning!
• People in the IT city do get up early in the morning to get a fresh packet of milk.
•  This is a good time to buy from the street vendors you have been watching enroute your office (Be safe though)
• Take random rights and lefts in those residential lanes which you have been meaning to, but never taken.
• The time between 6:30 am to 7:00 am is a good time to step out. The noise is less, and it is within the waking up range and just a tad bit out of the comfort zone.
• This time will also get you that subtle dose of vitamin D, which your doctor constantly says you lack. The sun will gently caress you and be your companion in this walk.
• Carry your headsets if you please, but do not play the music. Listen to the sounds of the city. You will be amazed.
• Watch the amusement in people’s eyes, when they see you clicking pictures of the place they live in, but find nothing interesting.
• If you observe closely, you can see morning scenes of the houses. Reverberations of Shloka chanting coming from some, someone is practicing their musical instruments, peppy workout numbers playing in some, the dogs are waiting by the door for their morning endeavours, in some homes people are quarrelling over housekeeping issues.
•  You wouldn’t mind a manual labour dragging the iron rod along the road. Somehow, it will seem soothing in the quiet of the morning

Amuse yourself as well

• Keep waving at the dogs passing by. Not their humans, just the dogs!
• Start singing a little louder than usual. It helps the mind to open up from the fogginess of the sleep. It will also entertain the passers-by. If you are hesitant what people might think or react, listening to you singing loudly, then don’t be! They anyway wouldn’t recognize you with your masks on.
• With the dug up roads, you would anyway feel like you are trekking in the mountains
• Sit under a tree, you need it! And no one cares. And if you feel uncomfortable that people are watching you, start stretching your arms and legs, pretending to exercise.

The wisdom that I gained in this one hour

 I realized we all have that exploratory gene in us. We use it differently, either to explore places, books, skills, knowledge or adventure. The list is endless. We can all use that gene to explore our true selves!

People look at tourists differently. But they are the ones, who admire and add the charm to the everyday streets we live in, the houses, the pathways.

A change in perspective, losing that rigidness, is all that is required to see the magic happen.

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I believe that by raising our own vibration, we can raise the vibration and energy of people and places around us. So sing and hum, and be merrier around all people and in all places

We are no different and also bloom like the flower, Morning Glory – it blooms in the morning, in the sunshine, in the rain, in the fresh air. Let us not devoid ourselves of these natural pleasures which we are supposed to attain.

I finished my humming and the walk with the most favourite song of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9A94NFAHVM

Reach home, looking great, feeling wonderful and inspired…

Photo by Mental Health America (MHA) from Pexels

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