Stranger in the Strange Land

While travelling, it’s only after I have breathed enough air that I feel I have reached a new place. It is different, the scent, for every city that you visit. There is a naive smell in the air which makes you feel a particular way about that place.

For those who have been to the hills, or maybe lived there for long, try to recollect that serene essence in the atmosphere. Didn't it make you want to settle there forever? I could have lived all my life amidst that mountain valley of Dharamshala with those amazing Fried Dumplings, or the famous Namgyal Pizza! Likewise, Mumbai had this moisture, that after rain-wanting to eat the mud-smell! And it is surrounded by the amazing aroma of Vada Pao, Cutting Chai and Challis! Haridwar has the smell of water with flowers, and a subtle hint of Aaloo Poori being made at that corner shop at the chowk. That Kheerganga trek. Oh I can still smell marijuana! Please ignore that it is a drug and let us all believe that it is some medicine taken to clear your schizophrenic head with all the people that you meet in your daily routine! (Smiles like a baby, pretending that I never wrote this.)

It’s only after a day that you start visiting the local attractions. They bring a different sense of belonging for a place. For some people beaches and hot chicks get them to groove, while some are happy praying to the lords. While some people were more bothered about the history and religious relativity that Elephanta Caves has for us, some were busy honeymooning in the presence of cute monkey families. It can be trying to capture that snow covered mountain or putting your feet in that rapid flowing river freaking you out as hell which makes you comfortable with the place you’re visiting. It becomes your space, your way of venting out the monotony and your only chance to get lost in the tranquil beauty of the surroundings.

Well, I have never interacted as much with the people of a place as I did in Dharamshala, while I was shooting for my film. Or when I was in Mumbai! For me, those monk kids playing football in the backyard of their monasteries, Epic Cuteness! And those sweet Challi vendors selling challis and smiling at you even when it’s raining cats and dogs, because they somehow see the hungry look on your face, priceless! It could also be that guy in that restaurant ordering for you a plate of chocolate mousse, well maybe because you are the prettiest girl around!

I think it can never be a single factor which makes you like a place. There is always something special, some incident which makes the craze for that place never fade away. There has to be a spot, a teeny tiny stupid thing that you did, or maybe some hot guy you met, that that place will stay in your memory for eternity!

P.S I hope it was pretty clear that food is an inevitable factor for you to like the place. It has to be like super amazing! 

[Written for WordPress Daily Prompts: 365 Writing Prompts. The prompt for today was – Stranger in the Strange Land - What's your favourite part about visiting a new place- The food? The architecture? The people watching?]