Goa and the way it makes me feel :)

Eat Pray Love is so close to what I have felt that it has made me cry. To read words that you have said to some one somewhere, to hear Julia's alter ego speak to her like mine has spoken to me at some point and time, to have those moments of realisation that I need to change, to set out on a quest to look within, it is all that I can relate with. Its like seeing my own life unfold scene by scene.

As I was watching, I thought of the moments when I told myself I would set out to travel, that I will travel solo. I thought of the number of times I swore to myself secretly that I would be a serious travel writer, the number of times I made plans to go on weekend trips or diwali hols only to see them go down the drain and then going to a supermall and buying shorts and tee and telling to my friends this is for my goa trip.. I have had it planned in my head so much, so many times, it had to materialise.

Today when Julia was telling her friend in the movie about how strongly she felt the need to travel to 3 places, I felt fantastic. When she relished on her pastas in Italy, when she piled on weight and dint give a damn, when she missed her love, when she sat in Augustine's cave and wondered about her own life, when she gorged on food and along with this learnt to speak Italian fluently, I felt that unquestionable faith re-instate inside me. Her stay at the secluded indian ashram, her awesome friendship with Richard from texas her meditation cum last dance with her husband and her purpose to come to India being fulfilled and at last the wild elephant coming to her was like Gods affirmations for all the hours of meditation she put in there.

Julia's lessons with Bali's medicine man Ketut Liyer, her destiny that leads her to meet The Man who she finally ends up being with takes me to another planet. The concept to travel solo is so beautiful from the start. The way the journey is laid out is so flawless. How can you go wrong when you consciously set out on a mission to search within you. How many do that? How many Elizabeth Gilbert's out there? I will hesitantly raise my hand here. I might not have plans to write a book on my own life, love and loss but I definitely want to go exploring the world. The nomad in me is always groping for those moments of solace, those times walking alone in flea markets in some hippie land, those lazy times sipping a cup of coffee sitting inside a shack while withdrawing my gaze from the distant ocean, of having to listen to guitar at night near the fire on the sea shore... hmmmm

I am already in Goa!!