I have a penchant of exploring routes and roads. Inevitably, I find myself on completely new roads on the map. Smaller trails are most exciting for me – though, I am also very wary of those. Because of dogs, but also potential lack of safety from other dangers.
I write this post because today I ventured off on a smaller trail in Coimbatore that I had been curious about for a few weeks now. I had thought of cycling it but today I was on a long walk. And, decided to explore this route.
As I started off, I realized how much more vulnerable walking is compared to cycling. And I don’t just mean from the basic safety aspect – from dogs and men-animals or other such physical threats. But also, from a social interaction perspective. I can cycle through a small village without looking at anyone. But when I am walking inevitably, eyes meet and there is much more room for interaction.
Being an introvert, this situation of being a newbie on a small village road, is a very vulnerable situation of being pushed into awkward social interactions. Though, a lot of Indian villages have a way of putting us at ease. The road I walked today was kind of like that. They put me at ease… but also , they didn’t have a clue what the hell I was doing there. I also didn’t know.
*Ahem* I just like exploring new routes and roads.
Let me now link to a similar experience I had in Thailand. A totally, TOTALLY random walk during my airport transit – it was so fascinating. I loved it! At that time however I was in my often-cocky kind of confidence.
Today, I was not feeling so cocky. And yet, I was on similar exploits of walking totally random roads and responding to their prying eyes with my even more prying eyes. :D You think you are curious about me – this newbie girl walking into your village off the usual road, that to solo? Well, I am a lot more curious about what this road holds and you folks on it…
So, there!
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