Why tour ? Why write about it ?

Why tour ? Why, for heaven's sake, write about it ? The first question is a tad easier to answer. Petrarch, that doyen of Renaissance humanists, wrote of ascending Mount Ventoux (now famous for its presence in the Tour de France) in the Provence region of Southern France for the pleasure of seeing the top of the peak. The study of travel literature as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry being, as it has been, under constant reconsideration, men like Petrarch and Gemelli Careri, a 17th century Italian adventurer are revered a second time long after their primal trysts with fame and admiration. Careri, in particular, is much celebrated among the backpacker community for he may have been among the first to tour the world using public transportation. These were men who had no misapprehensions about what was essentially their own wanderlust as is evident from Petrarch's confession. It may have been the beginning of travel, not out of necessity, compulsion or curiosity but for pleasure. This may sound rather fanciful but given the lack of sufficient records to show otherwise, it does serve as a fitting explanation of the origins of tourism.

The dichotomous nature of curioisity and pleasure has to be recognized here, for the two are often equated to be one and the same. It could be said that in earlier times, with hazards aplenty, travel had to be exercised with caution even in cases of necessity, let alone pleasure. In this context, the explorers, them with verve, resource and foresight - Magellan, Columbus, Bartolomeu Dias, Marco Polo may be remnisced as men who set out to sail to satiate their curiosity and advance the interests of their repsective sovereigns.

Pleasure, on the other hand is multifold. It can result from merely having a place to yourself on a particularly deserted afternoon, stumbling onto a much overlooked spot (can happen), serendipitous happenings and most often culminates in being able to plant a tick on one's to-do sheet. This is becoming more and more prevalent with the current day 'been there, seen that' (and of late, 'done this' too) attitude. While this last one is a rather irksome trait of modern man, it does boil down to pleasure-seeking.

It doesn't take too much of 'exercising the cerebellum' to figure out the role of tourism in the years to come. Travel magazines and websites are filled with accounts of spa experiences, health resorts, "wellness" tours and the like. With stress levels on the upward trend, tourism is as much an act of finding a place with which one can strike a chord, as it is an act of finding oneself. The emphasis has shifted from the place to 'you'. Virtual tours that offer experiences architected to suit custom needs à la Vanilla Sky may not be far off.

That brings us to the answer - people tour, for various reasons. It isn't any different with me. Only, of late, I've noticed a touch of profundity creep into my responses to the questions different places ask of you. That should've been cause for botheration just a few years back, now I find myself welcoming and looking forward to it becoming the raison d'être for travel.

The second question is alternatively, easy and difficult to answer. Writing about a place serves as documentation, information for the budding traveller. What cannot be included in a general travel book fits with ease in travellers' accounts of their journeys. Good sense tells us that man's inclination to share the best of his experiences with all is in itself a pointer to the existence of good in man. Good intentions and other notions aside, the forces of change are both outward and inward when writing is done. The writer relives the place through the medium of language, constrained albeit. Constrained simply because language is, more than often, insufficient to express feelings that envelop one.

Description in essence, is effective when the wielder of words is in control of the same. How does one describe the first glimpse of a valley, the sight of fauna oblivious to outside attention or encountering a eulogy at a war monument ? On such occasions, writing isn't adequate. A feeling of disappointment at not being able to visit a place courtesy rain or something along those lines can be put into words, for the first act of moving on lies in one's expressing such an emotion. Not quite the same with exhilaration or a feeling of void.

Although unsure of an all-encompassing answer at this juncture, I'd like to believe that writing while not adeqaute, is a necessity. Let me clarify. What one can write about, one should. What we cannot write about is probably why we continue to tour.

PS :-

This blog will feature accounts of my travails. It will include snippets of use for budding travellers.

Here's to wanderlust !