Be novel, give coronavirus the slip to go on your own trip

Giraffes strolling on the open savannah in the masai mara -Kenya with a blue cloudy sky and mountain background

Dhanushkodi

Why must coronavirus travel the most and have all the 'fun', demand netizens who throw open a challenge on social media asking friends to post pictures from their travels so as to go on a virtual spin.

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In such trying times when we're confined to our homes, albeit for our own good, taking a trip down memory lane is one way to beat the monotony and the gloom that's been engulfing most of us.

The challenge doing the rounds has got people posting pictures of landscapes from places visited by them in the past so as to give a twist to the current situation. Travel is indeed the forbidden fruit at present, but rummaging through old photographs to pull out that one picture brings back fond memories.

Shradha Rungta, an entrepreneur who manages a real estate business while also running a company called Cheesecake Alley, believes that such a challenge gives one a peek into the choice of countries people picked for their travels and offers a window to explore the place if ever one got the opportunity. "It's a good way to create the vibe of looking forward to some sort of travel plans once things settle," she adds.

Author and corporate trainer Ramesh Menon feels, "posting pictures from your previous travels once again, takes you there and reminds you of the wonderful times you had, the experiences you went through and what a blessing it was to be privileged enough to be there. My trip to the Masai Mara grasslands in Kenya would be my obvious choice for the challenge."

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So how real is it to go on a virtual trip? Well, if we're stuck at home, it definitely offers the much-needed calming effect as you can seamlessly go wherever you want. It is no wonder that many museums abroad like France's famed Louvre Museum, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Washington DC's Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery have been offering virtual tours not just for prospective tourists but also for students who are pursuing online studies due to the lockdown. You could now virtually tour Hawaii or closer home, get a darshan of Lord Venkateswara at the famed Tirupati Temple (a first in its history).

For those like homemaker Kavita Jagadish though, virtual can never be a reality. A recent solo trip to Meghalaya was a life-changer for Kavita and she for one, is not up for this challenge. She says, "There's no thrill viewing others' travel pictures. There is no replacing being there yourself. Pictures are one-dimensional." She's a big fan of English adventurer, broadcaster and writer Ben Fogle and his Where The Wild Men Are. "Love the offbeat track he takes and would love to do that any day," she adds.

Travel blogger and social media influencer Saloni Kilam Rampal is of the opinion that, virtual travel can excite and ignite a travel orgasm. But it can't replace the experience of real-time travel and adventure. "Hence, it definitely would cause agony if I were to only get restricted to virtual travel," she says.

As a travel blogger, Saloni feels virtual tours are all about consuming different experiences and curating new ones. "The Northern Lights is a dream destination and when I see pictures of people enjoying this lifetime experience in Finland, it encourages me even more to witness this spectacle in person," she adds.

The best takeaway of such a challenge would perhaps be an actual breather for the earth. Saloni has been trying to post travel pictures appreciating nature's beauty. She feels that in times of a crisis like COVID-19, nature is giving us signals that we need to respect, appreciate and restore its sanity at all times to ensure we continue living and experiencing the world in its purest form.

"My takeaways from a challenge like this would be to celebrate a day/weekend where we can give the earth a break by not travelling out of our homes. This will turn our travel experiences into much brighter and positive memories in the future," believes Saloni.