<p>Rarely at home and often checking into hotels for a stay during cricket tournaments, Mithali Raj, the skipper of the Indian women’s cricket team, says travelling has been woven into her professional life since she was 10 years old.</p>.<p>Then, her worried but encouraging mom handed over something to the youngster, which she carries to this day: a prayer book. “She said it would guard me on my travels. A lot of times, I had to travel by myself,” Raj remembers.</p>.<p>In close companion is her journal, the holder of her “thoughts, observations on and off the field” that helps her go back in time and reflect. Among its pages lies a photo of her dad and that of her late coach, Sampath Kumar, who passed away in 1997. Currency on cards, a mode of communication — a mobile phone, a pair of jeans and tee, and books are her travel essentials. “I love to read; it could be a newspaper, travelogue etc. Non-fiction is my preference, but I’m reading a mythological fiction,<em> The Curse of Brahma</em>, now,” the Padma Sri awardee says.</p>.<p class="CrossHead"><strong>Favourite experience</strong></p>.<p>Mostly, on tours, travelling means hanging out with teammates, but Mithali remembers a time in New Zealand when she visited the magical Hobbiton by herself thanks to luck. “From Hamilton, it’s a 45-minute drive. We tried for more tickets, but got only one. And I personally wanted to see it. So, I went on my own. The two-hour tour within the Hobbiton was all the more special because we had to fly out that same day. It was a very different experience,” she says. Back home, her memories of off-cricket travel are of the city Landour (in the outskirts of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand) and “the beautifully set-up cottages there,” and of carrying light luggage.</p>
<p>Rarely at home and often checking into hotels for a stay during cricket tournaments, Mithali Raj, the skipper of the Indian women’s cricket team, says travelling has been woven into her professional life since she was 10 years old.</p>.<p>Then, her worried but encouraging mom handed over something to the youngster, which she carries to this day: a prayer book. “She said it would guard me on my travels. A lot of times, I had to travel by myself,” Raj remembers.</p>.<p>In close companion is her journal, the holder of her “thoughts, observations on and off the field” that helps her go back in time and reflect. Among its pages lies a photo of her dad and that of her late coach, Sampath Kumar, who passed away in 1997. Currency on cards, a mode of communication — a mobile phone, a pair of jeans and tee, and books are her travel essentials. “I love to read; it could be a newspaper, travelogue etc. Non-fiction is my preference, but I’m reading a mythological fiction,<em> The Curse of Brahma</em>, now,” the Padma Sri awardee says.</p>.<p class="CrossHead"><strong>Favourite experience</strong></p>.<p>Mostly, on tours, travelling means hanging out with teammates, but Mithali remembers a time in New Zealand when she visited the magical Hobbiton by herself thanks to luck. “From Hamilton, it’s a 45-minute drive. We tried for more tickets, but got only one. And I personally wanted to see it. So, I went on my own. The two-hour tour within the Hobbiton was all the more special because we had to fly out that same day. It was a very different experience,” she says. Back home, her memories of off-cricket travel are of the city Landour (in the outskirts of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand) and “the beautifully set-up cottages there,” and of carrying light luggage.</p>
