5 ways to beat FOMO of travel #TravelFromHome

The Covid-19 era is something that even a Hollywood production couldn’t have scripted or a wildly creative mind dreamt of. As I look at more and more old You Tube videos shot in January 2020, of people planning the year’s travel schedules or astrologers predicting that 2020 will be a year that brings immense joy and global well-being, it starts becoming painful and gloomy.

That’s a slippery slope if we focus on what we missed out on and that negativity would only make matters worse for us mentally. So we devised a plan, much like many others, to beat these travel blues and make the best of all the time available on our hands. Here we will try to list 5 things we engage in these days that make us travel virtually to all the exotic locations within India and around the world

OTT – Over The Top and Over To Travel

Ever since Netflix and Amazon Prime entered our homes, visits to the nearby movie theatres have definitely plummeted and this covid-19 is almost like a blessing in disguise for these OTT platforms whose subscriptions are just skyrocketing. Now that we were in the midst of a lockdown, we wanted to explore all the content available on these platforms. But wouldn’t it be more fun to witness great stories of travel , and this idea came to us after we once watched a movie called “Wild Karnataka” and even though we have travelled to a few places in that state, the visuals were so enticing that we started chalking out more travel plans to Karnataka. So every day we would pick from a collection of travel documentaries or just movies shot at breath-taking locations. Taking notes from these movies was like a catharsis and a substitute to actually travelling.

Instagram- instant gratification:

Social media could have moved away from its original intentions and we too as consumers are partly to blame for that debacle, but one of the primary reasons people login to these networks is to be present even in remote destinations. I prefer Instagram over Facebook because of the niche perspective of travel and photography that the medium offers, and as long as you follow great inspirational travellers and pay attention to their stories, you will hardly feel the stress of being locked indoors. Not only that we also have an endless collection of pictures from our past trips and so we revisit them and pick the best ones to be posted on Instagram. This whole activity keeps the desire to pack our bags and get back on the road intact.

Cooking channels – Great appetisers

We have always been huge fans of cooking shows, and have never missed a single episode of Masterchef Australia till date. Its just the way food from various parts of the world gets made and presented , this not only draws our attention but also helps us learn so much about other parts of the world. Anyway, both me and my wife make food a very important part of our travels and so trying local food on the streets and in restaurants is always one of our most primary activities in these trips. So we spend a lot of time watching cooking shows showcasing unique Indian dishes which we never knew about. We also end up cooking these dishes and feel we’ve travelled to some of the deeper parts of some states in India.

Travel Books – unravelling expeditions

Now that we all have a lot of time in hand, it is the perfect time to dust off those books in the bookshelf. The smell and texture of real books is truly something that can never be replicated or explained. So we went to our cute home library and drew a few books pertaining to travel. There are some amazing writers who almost make a place come alive and give us the experience of visiting the place in reality. Some of my favorite books that I have enjoyed recently are Chai-Chai by Bishwanath Ghosh and The shooting star by Shivya Nath. Another wonderful quality we can develop from such books is penmanship and how to help readers visualise and enjoy travel.

Weekend bonus – Blast from the past

When we sit at home all day and lose track of date, day and time, the lines between weekdays and weekends tend to blur and this can be very discomforting. So we never wanted to allow this to happen, and the way to beat this was have a celebratory Friday evening every week. Just like normal times, we would start making big plans for Friday evenings and this involved an elaborate dinner of exotic dishes from a particular cuisine from some part of the world. Then we would set up the table and have a feast followed by a photo watching session. I would pick one destination where we travelled to and see all the pictures and show them to my in laws. We then describe the stories behind every frame and picture well into the night, only to welcome a bubbling weekend. This experience almost virtually teleports all of us to a particular state or country.