Travel opens our minds-shapes our perspectives

Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” I have travelled internationally as well as domestically, my view on this topic has been extraordinarily resolute. Living in a metropolitan city like New Delhi, workaholics are ubiquitous. However, in the unrestrictive schedule of travel, you open your mind to the “little things”, little things you might usually ignore; my visit to some hill stations, I saw things that I had never experienced; trekking to a small waterfall in Dharamshala and boating in the Nainital river helped my mind reach a level of peace that it had never reached before. Visiting Singapore and Malaysia broadened my mind the most, where I experienced a whole different culture through food, music, and markets. In Kuala Lumpur, I experienced a familiar yet unique sense of calm in the busy city, in Abu Dhabi, visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the marble palace, made me feel religious even though I identify as an agnostic.

Travel opens our mind to new experiences, and there have been many opinions on this topic, like any topic there were people in favor of it, and people against it, Some argue that it is up to the traveller, and not the trip that opens our mind, Relativism is the belief that there is no absolute truth, only the truth that a particular individual believes, basically saying that truth is personal. Elements of Relativism arose among the Sophists in the 5th Century BC; The Protagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not.”

Culture shock affects some people more than others, but initial communication with a new culture is always eye-opening, no matter how tolerant or learned someone is. It is one thing to read about a culture, how it is different, and keep an open mind. However, It is another thing entirely to experience firsthand a conflict of cultural norms. Unfortunately, many assume that the greater the difference, the greater the culture shock. This is not always the case. Sometimes, subtle differences can be just as disarming because they are so subtle that they no longer appear as cultural differences; instead, they come off as potential personality traits or character flaws.

To sum up, I feel this topic is very subjective based on experience and personal preference. However, I think people should visit as many places as they can because if you travel in only one part of the world, it is not fair to generalize the experience one might come in contact with on the other side of the world.