Soul-Sister
03 Dec, 2014
Monsoons,
my favorite time of the year when I joined a group of women for a '
freedom weekend' last August. It was a four nights sojourn to Bhainsrorgarh
Fort, a beautiful family run boutique fort hotel just two hours from
Bundi in Rajasthan. We traveled overnight on a train and spent two nights at
the fort. There were nine of us – a photographer, a yoga instructor, a young
corporate executive, a school teacher, a travel consultant, a journalist, a
bureaucrat’s wife and the two organizers. Intimate, diverse and very
interesting; though I must admit I only knew the organizers. Irrespective, for
the next three days we walked, did some yoga, looked out for birds, went boating,
learned to make laal maas, secretly consulted an astrologer, ran up sizable bar
bills, listened and talked and talked and talked…… it was therapy of a
different kind.
My
darling women friends, soul sisters I have traveled with sometime or the other
will bear testimony to this. It has always been memorable and life changing to
travel together. Adventure, laughter and stories to tell our grandchildren or
nieces and nephews for those who have successfully evaded the drama of
matrimony and motherhood. Times are when we have sworn that out there (
whatever the destination - Goa, Udaipur, Jaipur, Kumaon ) we are no one's
mother, daughter, sister, wife, girlfriend and what happens on the trip stays
between us ! And plenty happened !!
Honestly
I have not had as many opportunities to travel with women's groups, at least
not as much as I would like to. However if my inbox and Face Book is any
indication , I must say the ilk is growing. There is a sudden splurge of women
travel groups and companies that facilitate them.
A
group of women from any part of the world will always have some shared interest
and once past the initial reserve will fall into a perfect and easy friendship
which is essential if you are planning on travelling together. Having travelled
with both homogenous groups of friends and cousins as well as group sign-in's,
given some adjustments I have enjoyed both.
One unforgettable trip was when I was coaxed to
celebrate Holi in Udaipur. It was early days with my business partner and also
a new friend I had earned from the industry, the rest I was meeting for the
first time. Six of us ended up exploring the city, joining in the royal
celebrations at the Palace and playing Holi like never before, a festival which
is really not on my list of favorites. I returned rejuvenated and with a
certain clarity I needed at that point in time. When traveling with
someone I have not known before, the anonymity allows for a
different kind of freedom and I have often come away with friendships
that have endured through the years.
In the end, I feel it all
comes down to bonding, sharing and empathy which I share among my girlfriends. Female
bonding is for real and I often refer to social animal and bird groups who look out for their sisters as I see a lot of that when in the jungles.
Reading some of the mythological stories, I am no less intrigued by the
'sakhis' around Shankuntala, Sita or Draupadi and the slightly audacious
dialogues between them. I believe there is always something you can only share
with your women friends and be perfectly understood.
When
friends plan to travel together, it is less daunting than joining a sign-in
group. You are among friends may be from childhood days or from the same
school, college, neighborhood, work place and almost always with some common or
shared background or interests. The tricky one is when you sign up individually
for a women's group, the primary incentive is ofcourse shared costs, group
dynamics is then based on camaraderie and common interests.
I
asked a few women why they would travel with a group of women that they have
never known before. Besides the cost factor, the answers were approximately the
same. That once the ice was broken it did not matter that they have never met
before and the next week or two promised to be fun, you came back with more
friends, and the possibility of more travel !
My
favorite 'soul sister' travel stories of recent times is Sex in the City and
it's hilarious sequel....absolutely wicked I tell you, and delightfully so.