Destination & Goals are important but don’t lose the fun and enjoyment of the journey

On January 13, 2022, we started our road journey from Mulund, Mumbai to Nagda, Madhya Pradesh. This time the road journey was in a day, unlike all previous journeys which started at the late-night as I am fond of driving in the night to save time and avoid traffic. This time I had two pillion drivers with me. Both my kids, Ojasvi and Hrudayangam have learnt to drive. Ojasvi has also participated in Formula 4 racing, and dirt racing and has done some solo drives from Mumbai to Goa as well. Though my wife has learnt to drive and has a license, she never drives. Maybe I have not encouraged and practised with her enough and also broken her confidence very early on. I am feeling guilty for the same and would love to correct the same at the first given opportunity.

My wife always looks forward and is ever ready to explore new places and suggested we eat breakfast at Grape Embassy (Zatka Missal) in Nasik. So as soon as we reached Nasik highway, we took our car inside the city and almost drove for 20/25 minutes to reach Grape Embassy. We reached there so early that they were not even opened their place for their customers. They asked us to wait for 15/20 minutes as they were preparing themselves to open the place for customers. After 20 minutes of exploring the place and taking short videos and photographs, we ordered Missal Pav, Jalebi and Tea. As we were the first customer of the day, we got a bonus of one Jalebi platter complimentary! The food, place and hospitality were very good. Worth exploring the place.

We also stopped at one petrol pump in Maharashtra for filling up the diesel tank and had rabdi chai (Tea). It was awesome tea served in kullad (earthen pot). In Madhya Pradesh, we stopped to have evening tea and tried poha, palak chat and fafda. Palak chat, poha and tea were delicious. I almost had three teas as the cups were very small.

At times I had missed or wrongly interpreted the Google Map and took a wrong turn or missed out to take a turn. I used to get annoyed with myself. My wife always tells me, that if you have already figured out the wrong turn / or missed, out early on and course correction is easy and does not cost more than 5 to 7 minutes of your time, then why be angry with yourself and spoil the mood. Secondly, the right direction is more important than the high speed. So once you do the course correction and are on the right path, enjoy the journey. For me, that was a big lesson to be remembered for life. Also, I tried to restrain my temptation to keep on looking at the updates on my WhatsApp and avoid scrolling down my mobile while travelling with family. Believe me, it really helped me to connect with my family and enjoy the journey.

My son and daughter drove along with me and for the first time, I enjoyed seating in the back seat with my wife and loved looking around from the window, relaxing and enjoying the ride. That experience was out of the world. So delighted to see my kids driving. I love and enjoy long drives and was happy to see kids also enjoying long drives.

Whenever I used to drive to Nagda at the night or return from Indore or Nagda to Mumbai, my target was to shorten the time taken to travel and reach the destination as early as possible. I used to be always in a hurry and never used to take any stop in-between except for filling up the diesel tank. This time I was not in a hurry to reach the destination. I was enjoying each moment spent together with my family during the journey and exploring the places. At the end of the journey, I did not feel tired despite taking 12 hours to complete the journey, which I usually used to complete in 8 hours due to driving at night. Learnt a big lesson, enjoy the journey and do not focus on the destination to be reached alone (goal). If you focus on your goal alone, at times you do not enjoy the fun of the journey and may miss out on the best time to be spent with your co-travellers and those informal but memorable conversations with them. Eventually, you will reach your destination, but if you do not enjoy the journey, do not experience the places along the way, and do not take short breaks, you probably do not enjoy the accomplishment of achieving your goal (reaching your destination). Secondly, each moment spent with family is priceless. This is the longest time you spend with your family where no one is going to disturb you. You need to be there in that moment to enjoy each conversation and each moment and that time spent with family is priceless.