First memories of Travel

**Many images used in this blog are sourced online. No copyright infringement intended.

More often than not, our first memories remain ingrained in our neurons forever. Be it first day of school/college, first love, first fight and so on. First of a kind gives us a surreal feel which forms the building blocks for our memory. Most of us would’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled at a very early age and we might be having vague memories of that supported by our sensory receptions.

My Early Memories

Like every other kid, my earliest travel memories were associated with our summer vacations to our native places from where our parents hailed. They come from small towns in the not-much-heard Tirunelveli – Tuticorin districts of Tamil Nadu. Since both their places were closely located and all our relatives were situated in the vicinity, it was easier for us to cover all these places in one go. The trip would mostly be on the lines of temple visits and meeting some of our relatives.

The childhood vacations in late 90s

Like any middle class family living in Chennai, summer vacation around April and May marked our annual travel down south. All our trips would involve visits to the temples of our regional deities. Our usual mode of transport was the Bus back then. Unlike today, where the CMBT bus terminus (the largest bus terminus in Asia) is our usual boarding point, back then the buses would ply from Broadway terminus for intrastate travel. I still remember that we used to have video coaches then, which meant there would be television and they would play a movie while travelling. In today’s age of 5G and OTT accessibility, that sounds childish but it was a big deal back then. Buses with this video facility would charge a premium compared to the normal buses. We used to take the night bus and would reach the destination the next morning. If I remember right, it would be approximately 12-14hrs travel depending on the destination.

The visuals that stand apart

There are some visuals that are etched in our memories and it rushes to our aid whenever we try to recollect the past. I too have such instances. Back then, road travel would take longer time than what it takes now. Hence buses had a mandatory halt in the morning way before reaching our destination. This place was usually a restaurant which had tiffin and snacks. This was so much a common practice that the restaurant used to have toothpowder for the travellers at times. We brush our teeth and have a quick tiffin before the journey continues. At times certain songs stick to you for no reason but just because you hear it during a travel. That mere excitement of travel is enough for the song to linger on. One of the earliest memories that I have of a song/album is that of Ilayaraja’s Ejamaan (1993) starring superstar Rajinikanth, especially the ‘Aala pol vela pol‘ song voiced by the legendary SPB and KS Chitra.

When it comes to food, there are 2 beverages that I always look forward to while travelling down south. One of them is a flavoured lemon juice called the Sarbath and the other is the traditional palm nectar called the Neera. Back then it was rare getting these in the metro city. Although in hindsight I am finding it hard why Sarbath was not available in Chennai. Maybe I was ignorant as a kid due to the restrictions for outside food that we had in place in as kids. And of course, coming from Tirunelveli, no vacation would be complete without the halwa – both the Muscoth halwa and the eponymous Tirunelveli halwa.

The nightmares

All sweet and good memories aside, we do have some bitter memories, which at times become our nightmares. One such incident for me was during our 1999 vacation to Tiruchendur, the coastal town where one of the 6 important temples for Lord Muruga is situated. 1999 meant cricket World Cup. We were travelling during the tournament. We even got to watch one of the matches at a shop in the alleyways surrounding the temple. One evening after our mandatory visit to the beach, I was about to come back with my mother, grandmother and my elder brother. We did not have any other plans and were headed towards our accommodation for dinner and rest. Mother and grandmother were planning to go to the nazhi-kinaru, a holy well which contains fresh water despite being situated next to the seashore. My brother was more interested to head back and watch the match, I suppose. He was old enough to remember his way out and back to our accommodation. Hence he informed my mother and headed back. I was a small kid then, provoked by my brother, told myself that even I know my way back and can head back to our place. So, without paying heed to my mother’s advice, I started walking away. Only after walking few metres, did I realise that it was a bad decision to walk alone. I thought I could somehow reach my brother and follow him but my bad, the alleyways looked more like a puzzle that day and with the crowd I was not able to identify where I had to go. At the same time, I was totally clueless where I was. Panic struck, I started running back in the same direction where I came from and reached the well, only to find that my mother and grand mother were just coming out of it. Till date I don’t know what I would have done had I not spotted them when I came back. This would serve on to be a worst nightmare for some more years in my life. Every now and then giving me chills about all the possibilities of how things could have gone wrong that day.

Childhood memories

Waiting for the summer vacations was a great feel in itself. Summer vacations meant such different experiences, although we did not have much to do, some of the places would be breathtaking, like our aunt’s place in Mylaudy, near Kanyakumari. It meant we travel through Aralvaimozhi, where we could see fields of wind turbines! Mylaudy always had chill breeze and we never needed a fan or air conditioner. My brother and I even had an incident there, where we had a tussle on the staircase and came down rolling, memories still fresh of it.

That’s all I had for now. What are some of your unforgettable childhood memories of travel? What are your very first vague memories of travel? Do you still cherish those moments? I would like to hear some of your experiences. Do drop a comment or a message. Until next time, take care.