Rollercoaster, anyone?

Imagine this.

A pause-stop-look-go route that passes through major tourist points in the country. Be warned – this is not for the faint hearted.

Let’s get more specific.

Connect the dots.

Mumbai >> Aurangabad >> Mandu >> Gir Forest >> Ahmadabad >>> Bhuj >> Mount Abu >> Udaipur >> Chittorgarh >> Ajmer >> Jaipur - Kumbhalgarh >> Jodhpur >> Jaisalmer >> Bikaner >> Delhi >> Chandigarh >> Amritsar >> Gulmarg >> Srinagar >> Leh >> Pahalgam >> Manali >> Simla >> Mussorie >> Badrinath >> Corbett National Park >> Nainital >> Mathura >> Agra >> Lucknow >> Kanpur >> Gwalior >> Sanchi >> Kanha National Park >> Khajuraho >> Lumbini >> Sarnath >> Varanasi >> Banaras >> Bagdogra >> Darjeeling >> Gangtok >> Manas >> Kaziranga National Park >> Imphal >> Shilling >> Patna >> Bodh Gaya >> Kolkata >> Shantiniketan >> Durgapur >> Bokaro >> Konark >> Bhubaneswar >> Bhillai >> Puri >> Vishakhapatnam >> Hyderabad >> Tirupati >> Chennai >> Kanchipuram >> Mahabalipuram >> Pondicherry >> Tanjor >> Madurai >> Rameshwaram >> Cape Comorian >> Kanyakumari >> Kovalam >> Trivandrum >> Periyar >> Cochin >> Tiruchapalli >> Coimbatore >> Ootacamund >> Mudumalai >> Mysore >> Bangalore >> Belur >> Hampi >> Goa >> Mumbai! (Phew!) (And yet there is so much I have not touched upon yet!)

Catch your breath first. You were warned – this format of travelling is not meant for the faint hearted ones. Maybe we can design something light, delicate and yet totally refreshing even for our light weight travelers. Food for thought, isn’t it?

Travel season is coming up fast. People tend to travel lots during holidays. In Indian context, it would be three main tourist seasons> during-before-after Diwali, Christmas and the summer holidays. So, this being the last day of September, most people will be either looking for travel plans or wondering what to this holiday season.

Here’s the plan.

If you noticed, the idea is to go around in a circle, starting from Mumbai (home is where the heart is!) moving towards the west, deep into the Thar, out at Delhi, up north from there, move from the Himalayan baseline and take a loop to go to central India slide back into the north eastern region, glide down from east to down south, and soar back up hitting goa and back to point one – ready to start all over again!

Like I mentioned before, nothing is very permanent or fixed about this route and it can be easily, wit fully and willfully modified as per personal discretion. So, a person can choose to skip places or add new ones or move from node to node, etc. The choice is yours.

This holiday season make that choice. Step up and step out. Go where you have never gone before.

What we have is just a generic route – unless you are completely nomad – this route still does not make complete sense. Madness, you say? There is always method to madness, I say.

Most importantly, keep watching this space. There is more to tell. This is not it, not yet, at least.

“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.”