Notes from Jajabara Trips - II

jajabara: in odiya (or oriya if you please) loosely means a traveler...an extreme one...often used in slightly condescending/negative sense. he/she is not expected to have a particular plan or place in mind but in on the go pretty much all the time...this also could refer to a state of mind...




jajabara trips - II



T - could stand for Traveler

F - could stand for Friend



T (over phone) : Good morning!
F (still sleepy) : Good morning!
T: Get ready, I will pick you up at 5.45AM, same place.
F: Okay, but it’s cold out there. Can you come outside my gate?
T: Sure.
F: Mmmm…let it be. Make that ‘same place’
T: Fine. Do carry a jumper.


(....travel for most people needs to have a few basic things is place:


1. a point/place of starting,
2. a point/place of destination, and
3. a reason


Jajabaras usually DO NOT have them.


Why?
1. Can one really say when a particular journey started? One may have started from a particular place but, we are not talking about physical places here. The physical or the gross is just a manifestation of the thought. The actual travel takes place in mind, in the space of thoughts.

If a traveler on a particular journey, sitting in a valley, looking at the edge of the mountain range surrounding the valley, thinks of the green waves of the sea – how in a moment, the seemingly calm surface of the sea slowly gathers more water, rises as more and more water gets accumulated and then a thin ever-changing white line appears at the top of the small water mass which looks like a continuous mountain range and then breaks down as what we call a wave. How the sea wave and the mountain range are the same. We do not need geography and science to tell us that there was sea once where the Himalayas are and there are mountains in the chest of the sea and the why stalagmites resemble mountains. Some things are better understood in the realm of thought and poetry. Returning to the example; the starting point (in time) and place of the journey to the sea is the actually the moment when the traveler thought about the sea looking at the mountain range!


2. The second basic is easy to defy – destination. It has been said in different words by different people but simply put “the journey is more beautiful than the destination”. The traveler accepts no destination as the final stop.


“ these milestones and goals ever keep fooling us,


as soon as we reach one, another one is calling us” – from ‘Silent Horizons’ by the same author The traveler sees the destinations rather his/her life as mere points in a long unbroken continuum. Even death is not accepted as the end of the journey of life.


“ There was no such time when you were not there, or the kings and warriors were not there or I was not there Arjuna,, nor will there be ever such a time”


“Death is but a mere change of wardrobe”


Bhagvatgita Gita Chapter II


3. From ‘The Motorcycle Diaries-


Spanish Couple: Are you looking for a job?


Che : No, we are not.


Spanish Couple: No? And then why are you traveling?


Che : Just because


Spanish Couple: Bless you, blessed be your travels


I have taken this from a website that has the script but I am not sure if Che’s second reply was that. I remember “We travel to travel!”


That for me sums up the reason.


F: Where are we going?
T: Somewhere, I am not sure. Let’s see.
T : A true traveler never ask that.
F: I am learning.

(...is the place defined by the place itself or by our experience and memories? Is the strength of the mountain measured by the height of it or by the hand that helped you to climb up? Is the depth of the ocean measured only by the greatness/noise of the waves or the trust in the person lying down next to you for hours? Is the journey measured by the length of the road or by the number of conversations made?)


F: Have you come here before?
T: Yes.
T: Has it changed much?
T: Yes.

(..The road was familiar, but the horizon was punctuated by new constructions all around. This road used to give an impression of getting lost. There were no milestones, no sign boards, no markers and T could close his eyes for a minute (60 seconds!) and drive his motor cycle at 60kmph and not encounter a man or machine. There could be an occasional beast – wild dogs, jackle and elephants. There was markers and pointers now and this area was ‘developed’. T was looking for some place where he can feel lost! F was looking at T.


After a drive of one and half-hour T stepped off the gas near a very familiar bridge. Bridge would be an aberration as it was only a foot or two higher than the paddy fields over which it stood. T remembers he and his friends could count at least 6 shades of green of paddy fields from that bridge. He could count 3-4 now.


F did not look surprised, there was nothing in her eyes which suggested ‘why have we pulled over here?’ or ‘what are we going to do?’


T liked that. She was learning. She came out of the car and started to stretch. )

F : Look there!
T : What?
F : Isn’t that wonderful. That hut on the other side of the road.
T: Come.

They climbed up the small cardboard-n-bamboo hut very carefully and sat close to each other, hand in hand and legs hanging out. They sat for quite some time until the sun rays peeped through the cardboard rugs that made the roof of the hut. They were looking at opposite sides of the road but no one felt that one missed the view on the other side nor did anyone point out anything to the other.

F: Why did you make me cry last night?
T: Did you cry?
F: For almost an hour after you hung up.
T: I dozed off immediately.
F: You were very tied during the day. Walking and talking the whole day.
T: It seems I spoke much more than what I should have.
F: I don’t know, but I think I am turning more sensitive these days. It works both ways, isn’t it?
T: What?
F: Your capacity to feel and express emotions grows both ways. You can be happier than happy and sadder than sad. It sounds schoolgirlish..no?
T: Go on..
F: I mean you have to be ready for both sides. You can not have only the crests and not the troughs. If you are able to be happy for a thousand reasons in a thousand ways, the same will be true for sadness.
T: That sounds graduate-ish at least.
F: Haha.


T: Look at all the dew drops over the paddy plants. So many of them, and sparkling with the sun rays trying to touch them.
F: It’s as if the stars come down from the sky on to these plants because they are afraid of the sun coming out and chansing them in the blue courtyard of sky. School girlish again?
T: No, beautiful. Or it could be that they are all your tears shed last night.
F : They are so many of them and they look so pretty.
T: That’s why I made you cry last night.
F: Hmm...
T: I was sleepy and agitated by hunger and lack of sleep. I did not know that you will end up in tears after the call. I really didn’t.
F: There are some things even travelers don’t know!
T: Absolutely. The traveler acknowledges that and thanks every person, thing, experience which teaches him something about the journey of this and other lives. But, you have asked me not to thank you for anything.
F: Hmm…but today you can.
T: Thank you.


- Have written after a long time. Have written prose after really long time. I am aware that this post could be a case study of punctuation and grammatical errors but I could not resist sharing. Jajabara 1 will be posted soon. I mean soon.