Wanderlust: Part One

Remember the time when you were young? When you were in school, there was that one kid who wanted to be an astronaut. He blabbed on and on about his silly dream. You scoffed at him because you knew he wouldn’t be able to. After all, you are the narrator of this story. You are the narrator of every story. He was not a class topper. He barely passed his exams. You too weren’t one. Your marks nonetheless, were more than him, every time. Everyone told you that you are talented, that you will go on and do wonders with your life; that you will do a whole lot of shit that no one has ever done before. You didn’t quite know what talent you had, but if everyone else was sure of it, then you were too. That guy, well he didn’t have the luxury of appreciation. Just like you, others scoffed at him as well. He had nothing except his dream of becoming a scientist. You had nothing too, but more marks than him and a better understanding of how life works, realistically.

Cut to today, where you are a traveller and a ‘freelance travel journalist’. You write for a couple of international travel magazines. You also indulge a little in your hobby of photography. You have a blog with a million unique visitors every month. You are going to become a world famous travel enthusiast. You tell people that travelling is in your blood. It is your second nature. You could not even dream of living without travelling. You live in a bag. Heck, you even have ‘wanderlust’ tattooed somewhere on your body. You get a ton of appreciation on your social media accounts. Recently, your blog was published in a magazine. The headline of that article was ‘Some dreamers achieve.’ The article received more than a thousand shares on facebook, five thousand comments and ten thousand likes. Everyone was congratulating you. You were passively replying to them. You always reply because people are dying to hear even one word from you.

In all those comments, one name seemed familiar. You remembered, yes, it was that guy. You click on his name; his profile is in front of you. You go to the about section and it doesn’t surprise you much.

He is a professor at some college, a regular 9 to 5er. Working like this is the dreadful reality in which ninety-nine percent of earth’s scum revels, your worst nightmare. On numerous occasions, you had shared posts on your Twitter and Pinterest. Each post was different, some were in textual form, some image files; but they all conveyed the same message: ‘if you get stuck doing a 9 to 5 job, you will never be able to achieve your dreams’. You also watched more than fifty movies in all these years, the moral of all being: ‘Follow your dreams!’

You feel relieved after seeing that guy’s profile. You sort of predicted his future in school. You knew that his dream was one that would never be realised. You sigh and think of what to do next. Reluctantly, you send him a friend request and a message. He doesn’t reply. You go on with your life; there are a thousand more people to interact with. You soon forget about the friend request. He replies after a week, when you are on a tour, on to compile your blog post about the best nudist beaches. Small talk happens, phone numbers get exchanged. You are surprised at how politely he talks. You can never be that polite. Your lifestyle has made you loud, no, that is a wrong word. It has made you expressive. You talk and plan to meet.

contd.