I believe travel is man’s best teacher. The different ways
of life and the experiences you gain through travel are lessons that no teacher
or institute can impart. Travel has taught me how to face the world by
overcoming my weaknesses; it has taught me that nothing can stop you from doing
something you are truly passionate about. If you are wondering what I am
talking about, then here is a confession in the form of a short story,
I was scared and tensed and the sleep that everyone was
enjoying at this hour had eluded me. I woke up and walked down to the fridge to
drink some cold water. After drinking some water I splashed some on my face as
I was sweating profusely. Walking back to the bed I had only one thought at the
back of my mind, ‘The dreadful tomorrow should never see sunlight’.
Once I was back on my bed, my eyes fell on the wall clock
and with every passing minute my
Heart
started beating faster. I was lost in time when my father called out
"Abhi... Abhi... Wake up get ready". All hell broke loose and I
started questioning myself, should I say I have a headache? Should I start
crying? Should I lock myself in the bathroom? What do I do now?
When I entered the bathroom, locked it and sat down below
the shower thinking what to do next, a gush of cold water from the shower above
jostled out of my mind the terrible thoughts I had in there. All of a sudden I
started feeling good, the image of the crystal clear water flowing down from
the huge rocks and hitting me with all its force floated across my mind. Chirping of the numerous birds echoed in my ears, the images of a thousand
colorful butterflies flying around passed in front of my eyes, the joy of
walking through the cool damp green wood excited me, a drink of chilled water
from the crystal clear streams quenched my thirst and the satisfying nap under
the large tree in the cool breeze relaxed me.
With these beautiful frames in mind I ran out of the
bathroom straight to my father and said "Papa, I will go for the school
trip".
He gave a confused look and said "What?", then
continued in his normal tone "Of course you are going. Who said you are
not going? And why do you think I woke you up so early in the morning? To play
in water with those clothes on and dirty the whole house?”
I looked down to find myself fully drenched, then looked up and
smiled sheepishly, I ran to the bathroom to get ready.
Under the new found excitement of going for the school trip
to a nearby waterfall the fear that was haunting me the last night started
creeping in again. But I decided not to let that fear of 'Motion sickness' get
in my way now. I had to face my classmates in case of any embarrassing
situation of nausea and vomiting due to motion sickness, but I made up my mind
to go out and enjoy and never let myself fall motion sick.
Gathering all the courage I went out for the trip and I
puked too, but I enjoyed the trip thoroughly. None of my friends made fun of me
as I had initially assumed, but rather they helped me get over it. Believe it
or not I was not alone I had a lot of (motion sick) company, mostly small ones and
some big ones too.
After this experience, I got over the problem of motion
sickness from which I severely suffered. I have been on many trips after that
with friends, family, strangers and sometimes alone but I have never thrown up
since the last 18 years and believe me that is quite an achievement for people
suffering from Kinetosis.
This article may seem silly to many, but the ones who suffer
from it and have been through the fear of facing such embarrassing situation in
their childhood will understand the pain of the spoilsport called 'Travel
sickness', more commonly known as Motion Sickness.
For your information, especially those who are more
technically inclined this happens due to a disagreement between visually
perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement. I am not here
to analyze or dissect the cause of motion sickness but just to suggest some ways
to overcome this problem which hampers one of the most beautiful parts of our
existence on Earth 'Travel'.
The following points are based on my personal experiences
and that is what travel teaches you at every turn you take,
1. The advantage of being motion sick is you get the window
seat, but don't miss the opportunity of gazing out of the window in the
direction of motion which helps in avoiding the nausea.
2. Always sit facing the direction of travel.
3. Keep chewing a gum, saunf (fennel), cardamom, clove or
dried ginger.
4. Sometimes the smell of diesel/engine/perfume increases
the feeling of nausea. Smelling a lime occasionally or getting some fresh air
(not switching on AC) really helps.
5. Keep yourself busy with activities like some interesting
discussion, games like Antakshari or dumb charades. This helps in diverting
your mind from the feeling of motion sickness. However, my personal favorite is
to take a good nap.
6. This point is for others who do not suffer from motion
sickness but have the privilege of traveling with the ones who have a better functional
vestibular system. Do not disturb us and please cooperate by sacrificing the
window seat. Let us do what we wish to do without interference.
7. Do not try to read books, operate laptop or browse
through mobile phones it will only aggravate the problem.
8. Lastly, before following the above listed points, it is
very essential to believe in oneself and be mentally strong to overcome this
problem by ignoring the thought of it at the sub-conscious level. Only when you
don’t let the thought of motion sickness creep into your mind on boarding the
vehicle the above listed suggestions will work.
Remember, it is all in our minds and it is left to us how we
tackle this problem to enjoy what we always love to do... 'Travel'
Note: This is an Eco-friendly solution for motion sickness
as it reduces the usage of plastic bags.
Go Green Go Places...
