No Place For Politics

NOT ALL TRAVEL IS ABOUT EPIPHANIES AND GLORIOUS SUNSETS. SOME OF IT DEALS WITH UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS

- Kareena Gianani

Not too many days ago, a colleague told me of an eyebrow-raising conversation. The person on the other end of the line seemed perplexed that a travel writer had been to Hong Kong and returned with stories not of its glittering skyline or steaming bowls of wonton noodles but of sombre tales of its WWII connection. “Why does a travel writer even need to get into politics?” he demanded. The conversation was a short one.

It did however get me thinking: what does travel writing “need” to be anyway? Sure, virgin beaches, magical sunsets, and never-less-than-turquoise waters have never ruffled any feathers. Everybody seems to love the story of an inner demon killed in the Caribbean, or an epiphany in Italy, glass of sangria in hand. But those aren’t the ways most journeys really unfold anyway. You aren’t always the hero of your travel story. Journeys aren’t all Eat, Pray, Love; they come with kinks and creases, with encounters that yank us out of our comfort zones. And not just the lost baggage sort of inconveniences—but a deeper kind; realities you can’t airbrush away from a place.