I have always enjoyed traveling, ever since I was a little kid., which is great since I was born in Washington D.C to parents from India. My parents are from South India, in the Guntur District of the State of Andhra Pradesh. So travel was mandatory and my parents never planned to stay in the US, moving back to New Delhi, India when I was 4 years old. That is where I grew up and it was a different place than today. In the 70s and 80s, New Delhi felt open, big and the roads were empty. But travel was still needed to go from New Delhi to Guntur or Tenali. It was part of what we did.
My father traveled overseas a lot for his job and when I was 11 years old, my father was posted to work in New York City at the United Nations for 3 years, so we packed up our lives and moved to NYC. I remember that we had to fly Air India as my father worked for the Government of India and as part of our travel, we could travel in Business Class. The flight to NYC was on a large Boeing 747 that had the Business class on the upper deck or level with only a few seats. So even though there were 400 passengers, you had your separate space with only 10-12 people. You boarded and went upstairs and drinks were served and food was great, and for a kid this was great. The first time I found out that I could order coke by pressing a button next to my seat, I was in heaven. I would push the button and the air stewardess (now they call them flight attendant) would come over, ask what I wanted, "Can I have a coke, please", (not sure if I did say please in those days), she would say, "of course", she would pour in a cold glass and the bubbles were amazing with one ice cube and I would enjoy it. Then I would do the same thing again and again. I don't know how many times I did that but think it was a lot but she never said no and my parents were asleep, so no one to stop me. I never hit the call bell now when I travel and try not to bother the attendants but I did in those early days of travel. I loved the experience and who would not love traveling in business class, watching movies, ordering coke and food with little supervision (at times none). No schoolwork or chores to be done, just travel and think of the destination and all the fun ahead of you. Is there a wonder, why I love to travel? I was fortunate not to have motion sickness, or that would be no fun to travel. Anyway, I love to travel.
That is why every time I can, I look for upgrades and try to enhance my travel experience. I don't want to just travel to get there, I want to enjoy the experience of travel and don't mind traveling in style. I really want to enjoy the whole experience and feel special about the travel many years from now.
Nowadays, travel involves traveling with my wife and kids. The experience is changing as my kids grow older. We used to travel with so many bags, filled with diapers, breast pumps, strollers, car seats, and so on...and I was like a coolie, carrying all of these bags from the car to bus, to plane to off the plane and back on the bus and to the car. I was much younger and able to do it but I did it because I loved to travel. As the kids have grown older, we have much less stuff to carry especially on to the plane. We went to Arizona recently and everyone was in their chairs and quiet and we could enjoy the flight and all trip. There are the usual fights on what to do and eat but it is a lot different than it was; I hope they find travel as enjoyable as I have found it and enjoy the experience overall and all their lives.
It is another technology marvel that we can travel all over the planet and see things and this is something that not every human can do, because of cost and opportunity. For those of us that can do it, consider how lucky you are to be able to do this, so enjoy it and appreciate the ability to travel and enjoy the experience.
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