Countries to Visit ...

Which country/countries I wish/wished to visit?

My wish started with Russia. From childhood, I wished to visit Moscow. That time, Russia was U.S.S.R, and was said to be one of the most powerful nations in the world. The first foreign magazine I had seen during my childhood is ‘The Soviet Union’. It was colorful and most of the time, it had some pictures of snow or people wearing winter dress. As a kid, I thought living in snow is fun.

When I grew up, I became a member of the House of Soviet Culture Library. They had a theater too where they used to screen Russian movies. I read lots of Russian literature during that time. I mostly read translations in my mother tongue and then started reading in English too. I cant recollect the name of the authors, but I can not forget Mikhail Sholokhov, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Anton Chekov, Maxim Gorky (that building/campus was named after him – Gorky Bhavan), Fyodor Dostoyevsky etc. At some point of time, I wished to study in Russia; but I had no idea how.

Russia and U.S weren’t friends that time. There was ‘cold war’. I had heard the word ‘cold war’ during my childhood but I had no idea what exactly it is. Since my love was for Russia, I did not like the U.S. And hence I did not fancy visiting U.S.

Years passed and I became a member of ‘Trivandrum Public Library’, which was one of the oldest and the largest libraries in my city (established during 1829). They had a huge collection of books. I started reading travelogues. This made me think ‘ I wish I could visit this place… oh ! I wish I could visit that place’. Thus, Egypt, Singapore, Bali (Indonesia), Tibet, Greenland, Paris etc started coming into the list, apart from Russia. My wish to travel to the Gulf region was only for the purpose of looking for a job.

Years passed. Technology changed and internet was a revolution as far as information is concerned. I was able to get lots of info about any country. Still, travelling to a distant country was not easy. One needs lots of money and we Asians need Visa to travel to almost every other country. I always wished to have some friends from around the world. When a real Russian, that too somebody grew up in Moscow became a friend of mine, I became very happy. But when I listened to the real stories, I understood that the Russia in my dream was not real.

I got some good friends from Philippines, the U.S., Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. And naturally, I wished to visit those countries. Yes, Estonia too got added up to that list, recently. When one of my cousins got settled in Germany, Germany too got highlighted (another cousin got settled in the U.S. , about 20 years ago…now, two more cousins live there.. but U.S wasn’t on my list till I got a friend from there).

Philippines dominated my internet friends list and thus Philippines became the ‘must visit’ place and topped my list. Indonesia stood second at some point of time. Some months ago, when the ‘racism in Australia’ thing was going on, I got a chance to visit Australia. But by that time, I ended up with no friends there. Though the reason for rejecting that opportunity wasn’t lack of friends there, I was sure that having some friends would have made me consider it seriously.

Thailand became an attraction because of Lord Buddha and there too was a friend connection.

I was almost sure about Philippines visit. I made plans to travel to Philippines during the end of 2009 or early 2010. It wasn’t because Philippines became my dream country but it was because of the friends element. Through my friends (especially one) I saw many places in Philippines. I even saw some places ‘Live’ using webcam. Slowly, not just the people, but ‘the country with lakes and beaches’ too became my favorite.

But things changed over months or years. Friendships started getting scattered. People started moving away from me for this or that reasons. There is no point in getting emotional about it, I know. And it is wise to accept the realities. Thus Philippines started climbing down the ladder. Thus Hong Kong went ahead of Philippines when I planned a vacation, last time..

Now?

Every country in this world will have some good and friendly people living there, isn’t it so? I seriously considered that thought when a ‘white’ lady told me ‘ I will be the last person to consider your skin color’ in response to my ‘I am brown, just in case you want to know’.

So, now, I wish I could visit every country in this wonderful world. No country is same, though it is difficult for me to distinguish people from many Asian countries (other than Indian sub-continent). Every country is special in one way or another.

Alas! Now I feel like meeting my old buddies first and then proceed further...