Travelling with someone

If something can make you come face to face with someone's real character is when you travel with them.

Are they whiney? Are they super excited? Are they lazy?

Two non-Indian friends travelled to India together. Before one came to know their "real" selves, the older one of them (it appeared) was stronger, wiser, tougher, more well-travelled, a lady of the world. The other, as it seemed at the time, was more fragile, nervous, more likely to have food allergies, a greater tendency to get tired and sick.

Yet, the two were completely opposite in their temperament when push came to shove in Delhi.

The older one fell ill very quickly, was whiney about food, about mosquitoes, about the water, the noise, the dirt.. After staying in and then rejecting two apartments/guesthouses (and these were not the Pahargunj types; one was in Lajpat Nagar and the other in Hauz Khas), she finally checked herself into a bungalow with a pool on Pritviraj Road, meant only for foreign travellers.

I never liked travelling with N earlier. He'd be more frustrating than he usually is. He'd have no idea where we were going, and would just turn left if I said left and turn right if I said right. Which meant, that I had to plan everything and book everything. I still do, but he does take over now once we get to our destination.

Even while flying with him, he'd bury himself in a book or in the newspaper and I'd not be able to get a word out of him.

When he was doing his PhD and was constantly thinking about his PhD, I even stopped going with him out for a drink or dinner. He'd either just eat in silence (completely distracted with what was going on in his mind) or he'd sit in the bar and watch TV. At the most, he'd talk about his work.

Now of course travelling is so different. It's got nothing to do with holidaying or a vacation or even relaxing. And in any case any relaxing that you might have done on the travel spot, all comes out of your ears on the flight back home.

You just travel because you must. Because you're bang in the middle of Europe and if you didn't, you'd miss out this crazy opportunity. Because Geneva is the most sucky city there is. Because there are so many places you've got to see before you die. Because, what else you gonna do?