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It’s funny how if anything in life is a certainty it is that at any point the one person you’re always going to be around is yourself, yet that seems to be the one person that most people can’t get along with. I took a rather, apparently bold, decision to go on a vacation, a road trip of sorts by myself. Now the reaction to that has been two fold, on one hand, there are the few who thing it’s awesome, then there is the majority who think I’m mad. The primary reason for my madness being the fact that I fail to see that I’ll get bored.
Yet as I sit here enveloped in a forest, with nothing but an ornithologists favorite symphony playing in the background and tiny little yellow butterflies to keep me company, I can call myself a lot of things but bored isn’t one of them.
Now most of you are probably already half way through to tagging me as a loner, but let me be the first person to admit, company is a good thing. We all need to counter our own thoughts and re-assure our decisions. But at times its good to let the voices in your own mind come to its own decisions. I mean independence means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me true independence is when you’re comfortable with your own company.
The other thing a lot of people don’t realize is, a solo trip isn’t a trip to a deserted island, you’re never really alone. For instance on this trip, I met an aging yet sprightly forest official who asked me if I could drop him on the way, and all through the drive he went on and on about old jungle stories. Of course since my Kannada is not that great I understood only half of it, but he got a kick out of telling them and I was more than willing to play my part of quiet listener. I also met two rather exuberant north Indian couples who were more than willing to give me company, though for the most part I only played the role of silent observer. Then of course there are the people curious enough to go “ But why alone” expecting a popcorn worthy story out of it, but to which I have to simply reply it’s an experience worth having. So with all that to be frank the amount of time you have to yourself is quite little, but immensely precious.
There are but a few things in this world that you can truly call your own, and your thoughts are perhaps the most sacred. Give them a chance to stew and refine in your mind before giving them away with speech. If you still think that’s mad, well someone once said there is a joy to madness that only a mad man knows. So try your own company sometime, he/she might be more fascinating than you know. After all they are your only true BFF.
