Rest and Recuperation

I must have been walking around with an expression of pure contentment.

More than a couple of people said I exuded a certain glow, even though I’d been up since 3 a.m. because of jetlag. It did not matter that I had put on a few pounds in just two weeks, or that my ankles had swollen to twice their normal size from almost 20 hours confined to a coach-class seat on an intercontinental flight. 

I even looked forward to Monday and the rest of the week, when several columns were due, a corporate project was waiting to be completed and I was back to teaching 10 classes a week of yoga.

This holiday thing is a saving grace. Two weeks earlier, just before my better half and I left for our holiday, I was a nervous wreck. There was work to be done, deadlines to meet, errands to run and, to top it all off, I swallowed a fish bone just a couple of days before our flight.

I won’t go into the whole incident, but let’s just say it involved a nice but poorly lit outdoor barbecue party, a piece of succulent but bony grilled fish, a trip to the emergency room and, later, an ear, nose and throat specialist.

It’s almost like a cosmic joke that every year I have to engage in a hurdles race, leaping over barriers, overcoming one obstacle after another just to reach that destination called a holiday.

Last year, after just marginally completing the scripts for 13 episodes of a TV show and submitting some columns, articles and essays in the same week before our holiday began, I felt relieved and calm at last. That was until I began to feel a chill while packing the night before we left, and rushed in panic to the ER for some antibiotics to zap a looming fever.

But I could barely stand up the next day at the airport and spent the next 20 hours or so all bundled up in a jacket and blanket, popping pills and vitamins, so by the time we arrived in New York, I’d be as good as new (and strangely I was). Good thing the swine flu had not reared its ugly head then or I would’ve been turned away at overseas airports.

It wasn’t so bad this year. The stubborn fish bone eventually went away without requiring any surgery, and both of us finished all our work so we could leave without any worries about unfinished business. Next thing we knew, we were both on the airplane, sipping orange juice, smiling at each other, giddy at the prospect of being away again.

We decided to visit the US again this time but confined our trip to a few cities on the east coast. We also decided to stay in New York City longer. We had both been there a few times and we love it so much we thought we should probably make this an annual trip. After all, there are so many shows to see on (and off) Broadway, so many neighborhoods to explore and so many shops to visit.

I won’t bore you with the details of the trip, but you know how every day is one of self-discovery? Here’s a thing that I discovered about ourselves as a traveling couple: We are not the most adventurous world travelers.

Our backpacking days of visiting four different cities or countries in a week, staying in dodgy bed-and-breakfasts or hostels and zipping from one tourist destination to another are over. Not that we were really that kind of traveler anyway, even when we were doing it years back.

And this is the thing that I love about my husband, why I realize we get along so well: We both love quality. By quality I don’t mean anything extraordinarily expensive, like branded goods, luxury hotels or a seat in business class.

It means when given a choice of a whirlwind travel – just for the sake of having been there, or saying you have – or taking a little more time at a single place, for the same price, we’d definitely choose the latter.

We like quality time. I find the idea of cramming the entire touristy agenda at a new place into a mere two days exhausting. When we travel, we like to have an extra two or three days to get the feel of that place.

I love doing touristy things – seeing sites, museums, architectural icons, etc. – but to me traveling also means immersing ourselves in the strange place, learning a thing or two about it, having enough time and space to reflect on how the locals live, and even dining like them. As food is important, we are never stingy when it comes to breakfast and other meals.

This has less to do with financial capability – although having a little money to spend does help a lot – than with priorities. We both feel that if we couldn’t afford a comfortable trip abroad, we wouldn’t do it at all; we have made that decision before and picked a local destination instead.

Not that there’s anything wrong with other way – different people, different priorities.

And so as our summer vacation was drawing to a close, sitting beside each other on the flight back, feeling less tired than complete, I reflected on this to my husband. We both agreed that we must be one of the luckiest, happiest, most blessed and in-love couples on earth.

To be able to travel far to see other parts of the world is nothing to take for granted. It is such an enriching experience I wish everyone had a chance to do it at least once in their lives.

Believe me, anything that makes you look forward to going back to work is well worth the money.

+ Devi Asmarani

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