Year Ender...

In a few days its dawn for the year 2009, and when i look back and think how do you want 2008 to be remembered as? Putting aside all the national/international stories aside from a personal perspective , i will remember it as an year which allowed my passport to be filled with a sizable number of visas, the amount of carbon footprint that i would have accumulated making myself not being a "carborexic" to any extent , the of miles i have gathered on my frequent flier cards and in short it would have been a 1and half trip round the globe. Indeed this year has been the "Year of Travel with one abroad trip a month", just looking back i almost spent close to a month in the Boeing's and the Airbuses, another 3-4 months in the ***** hotels, and wouldn't really want to know amount of expenditure incurred to the company. However if there is one significant thing i have achieved out of this constant hops across the continents it would be different kinds of people i got to know across the globe. Like i always keep emphaisizing every person is unique and we should appreciate this unique differences, only than you would get to know a person of similar or a different culture to a certain extent. Now i am pretty much acuqainted with the different APAC cultures, atleast have the knowledge of identifying a chinese,koran, japanese, malay and a singaporean, to certian extent from looks and to a greater extent in the way the speak. During the process of my travel and my interaction with these different people i have got to know lot of things, exhchanged lot of things about the indian culture,traditions. One thing i keep encountring again and again is the whole concept of Arranged marriages which ia quite amusing to most of the people around the globe and i think this is one talk you can keep everybody engaging for a quite a long duration and get the conversation going and extend to different other aspects. Proabably thats a kind of a strategy i have employed in most of my travels and probably the recent development is about terrorism and recession . Well with the year end around the corner i think i don't have much to contemplate about, and its been more of a travel and passive focus on the things that i would have wanted to be associated with but have not regrets. Atleast this year i have made sure that i spend as much time with the people around me who really matter the most , and also not to forget those good old pals and put an effort to be in touch in every way i could. I would have visted most of the countries, have been to the most beautiful places, spent a good time alone, but above all this the trip i had with my college pals recently is something refreshing this year as it brought back the good time i have had and felt nostalgic about my days in Pilani. Well i hope maintain the same in the years to come until than "Hum hain rahen pyar kee..phir milenge.. chalte chalte..." And as i am signing of this years last blog i am off to another Trip..Indeed i am the Traveller of the Year :)