I have always been travelling, long before I even said my first word or took my first step. That's what happens when you're born to a Captain in the Merchant Navy and an ever-curious personality. Not many can claim that they have probably been to every continent by age 5, but I can&ndashthanks to my travel-bug-bitten family.
We never had to wait for summer or winter holidays to travel&ndashweekends were a reason enough to pack our bags and hit the road. As a kid, I remember going on many road trips with my cousins and relatives to places like Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar. But because of my father's profession and mother's love for adventure, I was lucky to have seen places far and wide at a very young age. That is how my earliest memory of a family trip came to be anchored in Puerto Rico.
Even though all my family travels through the years have contributed to an overflowing memory bank, the trip to Mauritius&ndashwhen I was 15 or 16&ndashholds a special place. There, I got to experience my first dive and the joy of exploring an unknown world alone, despite travelling with my parents.
The freedom we give each other to do our own thing has been the key to happy travel stories. Since we all have our own interests and ways of doing things, travelling together has helped us accept our differences and taught us to see a silver lining despite it.
Over the years, as I have embraced the inherent wanderer in me, I have come to realise how so much of what I do has been because of my parents. Had they not taken me along on all their little and big adventures, I would not have become what I am today. So now, when I take them on holidays&ndashbe it somewhere in India or abroad&ndashit feels like life has come full circle.
