- Barkha
✈Behind the Instagram story: the impromptu escape 📷
I think humans were born to explore. Whether it's the universe, the human, our own thoughts, the environment around us, we are all born with that restless feeling of wanting to know more, do more, try more. And sometimes, you get that big kick in the butt telling you it's time to act on that feeling.
- I'm going to Oman for three days.
- You're going where- Oman.
- Why? (Won't you have to cover? Will you be allowed in? Isn't it dangerous?Will you be allowed to move around?) Why are you going to Oman?
Now that I've told you about the stunning 72 hours that I spent in Oman, experiencing the culture, the desert and the water, I want to tell you something else about it: why I went to Oman in the first place. It was a spontaneous, utterly unplanned decision.
I walked into the Emirates airline office one afternoon after work with the intention of buying myself a ticket to London. At that point the famous Emirates sales were on. As I sat there by the counter, I felt a great reluctance to go back to London. Inasmuch as London is amazing, I felt a bit tired by its grand-city charm. My heart was tugging me to try something else; something different. I thought of blazing sun, wide spaces, baking sands, men and women flowing by in robes as the breeze carried the scent of spices and incense and the sound of a far-off call to prayer.
For no reason whatsoever, I asked about the cost of a ticket to Oman and walked out of the Emirates office with my airmiles and bank balance lighter, and a trip to Muscat in my inbox.
The truth is, I was feeling overwhelmed. By Life, Death, Work, a cornucopia of guilt and exhaustion and mindlessness, all of which had turned into a maelstrom of depression and anxiety that I couldn't cope with.
The other thing is that death is funny. It activated a restlessness to live as much as it triggered a desperation to find answers about my father. I inherited his love for travel, his curiosity about new cultures. I felt that one of the ways to connect the above two was to travel. To retrace his footsteps, across Asia and Africa.
So Oman it was.
And no, I did not experience any miraculous presence or revelation about him while in Oman. I did think, constantly, how I would never again be able to share my pictures with him. But in the night that we camped at the desert, the stillness of the setting helped me clear my mind for the first time in 6 months; the bright shiny moon was a conduit to reflect on life and death and I felt I was connecting briefly with the unknown.
In a nutshell; Oman - with its beauty, culture, sensuous offerings - rekindled the desire for life on my own terms; for drawing my own path; for embracing wanderlust with an open heart and exploring places in Mauritius and beyond. Let's see where we go next.
