Happy are those travel moments when one finds kindred spirits or in this case sant sangathi i.e. the company of fellow spiritual devotees. These are not very often because people are of all different kinds and finding a true sync is tough especially for me.
I was sitting with two ordained folk in Thailand. One a monk from Australia, ordained in Thailand. The other a nun from Germany, ordained in Burma. Of course, in Thailand while there can be bhikkus (monks) there cannot be any bhikkunis (nuns) due to some totally crazy situation. So this lady was a “Mae Chee” and not a Bhikkuni. Anyway, keeping that for later, both these venerable folks were totally excited to find an Indian solo cycle tourer and that too, a girl! Yay!
95% of the time people react with the first Q “Is it safe?“. This gets pretty boring for me. And I usually love the other alternative Qs I get…
Here the German nun exclaimed, “How do you fit in with people back home in India?”
I don’t. :D
And I strongly regulate my interactions with people.
There are two factors that significantly contribute to letting me do my own thing.
Firstly, I don’t have a regular office now that I am a digital nomad. My memories of sitting in the typical Indian office surrounded by people is fairly unappealing. Very, very few people in the office can relate with my adventures. They are busy talking about clothes, parental restrictions in life, cribbing about their lot and boyfriend troubles. Can NOT relate. And they probably know this.
Secondly, I don’t go for marriage functions since the last 4 years. None. And that’s been awesome because it cuts back on interactions with relations too. I meet and spend time with close relatives and friends with whom there is some relevance. But I have no interactions with the whole wide world of relatives and social contacts, who usually want to know about my marriage plans (and if not marriage, then what will you do!!??). Though I must say after my cycling adventures were published in a few regional newspapers a lot of these extended families are quite excited about my travels. And they do enquire about my next trip or previous trip etc… And in general no one pesters me about marriage.
But most importantly the above two steps help me so that I am not often stuck amidst people with whom I don’t fit in.
I love it – the solitude, fine tuning my social interaction as per suitability and of course, cycle touring.
And amidst this solitude when I find truly kindred spirits or like minded folks it’s a real delight.
Cycle touring resonates with a very fundamental calling within me. I am very happy with it.
Also, I never did fit in well with people around me. But it’s only after many totally mad adventures cycling, I realised how big a gap there is between me and many others.
:)
What about you? Do you feel surrounded by like minded folks, or do you have to work on it?
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