My Maps - My Souvenirs, My Treasure!

Maps are my souvenirs and treasures that I would cherish forever. As I said that there's a travel bug that resides in me, no matter how stuffed my suitcase is, there is always room for my maps and pictures. To protect them from any damage, getting wet or curling up, I often consider adding few plastic packs whenever I pack. And more often than anything else, this is the first thing I look forward to while I begin any traveling.

Here, I would proudly say that consciously and conscientiously slipping each acquisition inside my bags becomes a lifetime souvenir, I cherish each time I look at my traveling memories.

Maps are the beautiful reminders to all the places I have been to, walked around, for maps are the scales that hold my little traveling secrets, for I love traveling  and covering distances and I would not look back to make a point that distances turned into beautiful paths leading me to amazing destinations, when I took exploring places with the maps in my hands.

Maps along with me on my journey have made me realize that world is enormous and wondrous in its own ways and there is no point in hurrying without having cherished a place. Walking for hours and miles with the route maps, has become as automatic, as unremarkable, as breathing, as the life is; for at the end of the day I don’t think, “Hey, I did sixteen miles today". It is just like one does not think when it comes to something like, “Hey, I took these many breaths today.” It is just what one does, and this is one of the main reasons maps have become that close to me and I would treasure them lifelong, as with them I have marked several miles on the world map.

And as it goes, that once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I now know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life. The impulse to travel is so mind- blowingly beautiful.

Adventure is allowing the unexpected to happen, and with that exploration is experiencing what one has not experienced before. How can there be any adventure, any exploration, if one has not travelled with the maps in hand?

- Hardik