Rosalyn D'Mello: Who said solo travel is lonely?

The views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperNow that I got my Schengen visa all thats left by way of uncertainty is a slight tinge of nervousness The idea of being on my own yet being taken care of by friends of being once more the recipient of generosities I may or may not be deserving of is intimidating And yet when I close my eyes I see myself surprisingly at ease in unfamiliar lands at the mercy of strangers struggling to communicate yet somehow finding my way around while unearthing reams of joy on anonymous street corners at traffic intersections at the threshold of the underground Ill be that freak Indian girl walking with an impish smile on her face knowing that each step I make was preempted and hardearnedIn fact my most significant memories have involved being alone in a foreign land Im all for planning trips with friends and partners and having someone to share in the exhilarating thrill of booking flight tickets and waiting for visas having someone to share lunch or dinner to subsidise your basic expenses But its quite another story when youre on your own and are compelled to make decisions follow your whim hone your intuition listen to your body as it experiences a city without anyone to influence your opinion of it Its a different kind of highThe first time I set off by myself was in 2007 when I was a student in JNU Diwali was around the corner and I had no intentions of being in the city Months before in Mumbai Id met this Tibetan activist and poet Tenzin Tsendue with whom Id stayed in touch So I decided to visit Dharamshala where he lives I went to ISBT but all the buses to my destination were packed beyond capacity I ended up in a bus that went to Hoshiarpur after which I managed to get a shared cab with two sweet seeming boys Id met en route I hadnt even booked a room in which to stay But midway Tsendue offered to host me When I arrived I went straight to his stone cottage I suspect the one he wrote about in a poem He took me up to the roof and I drank in my first sighting of the Dhauladhar range then I had tea and within a few hours met a whole bunch of students from the Free Tibet movement Diwali was spent with a lovely family and the three days passed so quickly when I returned to Delhi the whole trip felt felt like an interlude in a dreamSince then Ive prided myself on my ability to always encounter the right people I have evolved an excellent radar that draws me towards interesting imaginative sorts artists poets writers wanderers activists dancers researchers performershellip For instance a day after my arrival in Australia when I was at Byron Bay for the writers festival to which I was invited I struck up a quick conversation with an older gentleman who was wearing what was clearly a photographers jacket He turned out to be Tim Page one of the worlds greatest living photographers someone who Dennis Hoppers character in Apocalypse Now was modelled after He and his partner Mau and Ben Bohane and his partner pretty much adopted me during the three days we were there Every evening was spent drinking excellent red wine stimulated by amazing company and the ensuing conversation The highlight of my stay in Brisbane the next week was the two nights I stayed with Tim and Mau at their home glimpsing through his archives reading his books chatting over many bottles of wineAnother memorable encounter was with the irreverent Aboriginal artist Richard Bell whom Id met when his gallerist Josh Milano had taken me to this paint factory where Bell and a range of other artists had their studios When I entered he was mimicking Jackson Pollock but in a subversively appropriative way synthesising the aggressive dripping of paint with a technique that was closer to his tribal roots Stencilled underneath all the looming layers of paint was a simple political command mdash THE PRICE IS WHITE a commentary on the principle of Terra nullius by way of which the Aboriginal people native to Australia lost their land to the colonising British A week later I was in Sydney at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Richard happened to be in conversation with the then director Suhanya Raffel and the evening ended with him and I walking out into the streets in search of a specific Tapas bar I felt privileged to see Sydney through his eyes through his skin through his history of oppression and vindicationIts likely that what many people say about me is true I do lead a superbly charmed life Im tempted to think its my reward for having the courage to own my solitudeDeliberating on the life and times of Everywoman Rosalyn DMello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover She tweets RosaParx Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom