Wanderlust.

Dedicated to my childhood friend - Binod Rai (DGH - '90 Batch)

There has always been a curiosity in the hearts of men, what lies beyond the blue oceans, beyond the white mountain tops. In ancient days, when travel was difficult and the travel bug had not affected a vast majority of the population, human imagination would label uncharted areas on the map "Here be dragons“.

There is wanderlust in all of us and it is a big wide world out there that beckons us, as it beckoned the Vikings with their Longships, the Spanish with their armadas, the Portuguese, the British, the French and the Dutch. The fear of falling off a flat earth was not a deterrent for these men. Christopher Columbus managed to convince his Queen to finance an expedition to India but went around the wrong way and landed in North America!

The beauty of travel is best epitomised by an old poem of R.L. Stevenson aptly titled travel. An extract: I should like to rise and go Where the golden apples grow;-- Where below another sky Parrot islands anchored lie, And, watched by cockatoos and goats, Lonely Crusoes building boats;-- Where in sunshine reaching out Eastern cities, miles about, Are with mosque and minaret Among sandy gardens set, And the rich goods from near and far Hang for sale in the bazaar;--

You would love to stand in front of the majestic Sphinx, to walk on the Great Wall of China, to wonder in amazement at the Taj Mahal, to listen to the ghosts of a vanished race in the Temple complex of Ankor Vat, or simply soak up the impossibly blue-green Mediterranean Sea.

There may no longer be any dragons left to discover but the thrill of exploring new places will never leave us. We are like children who enter a forest path, wide eyed in wonder, listening for strange sounds and hoping to see strange sights. As the legend goes, if you reach high enough in the lofty Himalayas, you may catch a glimpse of the dragon’s tail. Here’s wishing all of you a glimpse of the dragon in your travels.