Recently, I rode my motorbike to a place about 7 hours away from my home city, to just have a workation for a few days. This is not the first time I have done this. This is not the first time other travelers have reacted to me doing a long bike ride. This is not the first time foreign travelers and Indian travelers have reacted differently.
So here’s how it goes:
Foreign Travelers
Them: How long did it take you?
Me: 7 hours
Them: Not bad…
Indian Travelers
Them: How long did it take you?
Me: 7 hours
Them: Damn how did you do that?!! That’s pretty long. Come on, you must have surely taken breaks in between.
Me: Yeah, of course. I took 4 breaks, why wouldn’t I?
Ok, What’s The Point?
The point, with Indians, is that gasp at the idea of taking break. The surprise. The non-intuitiveness of the simple option of taking a f#$%in break. And when I meet travelers from other countries, they’re on a break after high school, a break after college, or a sabbatical from work.
With Indians, we are taught to run continuously from day 1. Run through school, get into college immediately, get a job right after college, get married right after, have kids asap, and subject them through this brakeless transit through life to a fixed destination called death. And it’s not just the big-picture of life, it’s also the smaller things. No other country I’ve been to honks as much as India does on the roads, and I’m sure at least 50% of the honks happen because one doesn’t want to stop and look around before getting past a cross road. I was taught to honk, so if there is somebody else coming in, they would honk in reply. I was taught its okay to send a wave of noise pollution through the air in order to avoid using my brake. You see, this idea of non-stop motion had not only ruined my mental peace but of others too. This problem is not just temporal, it is spatial too. Tailgating, squeezing into each other in queues, stuffing houses with all kinds of furniture without breathing space. But that’s a separate rant.
In other countries, the typical norm is to slow down / stop, visually inspect and proceed. After witnessing the difference, it took me a good year or two to stop honking and do this instead (literally with my bike and metaphorically with life).
Conclusion: Take Breaks, Use Brakes
- Don’t honk when you can use the brake instead. Commute in peace.
- Take breaks on long rides, you don’t get prizes for not doing so
- Take that sabbatical
- Go one a month-long honeymoon
Because the journey of life is only taking you to death. There is no need to rush to that destination. You’re definitely not going miss it by getting there late.