Hippies were known for their incessant travelling ways. The whole world was their home. They would leave one home and move to another home. I guess, normal people felt a little jealous of their 'free world' policy.
But those were the glorious 70s(an era that I personally identify more with than the one I live in), slowly & gradually, this 'tribe' began to wear out. More and more people joined the mainstream (Some actually became the CEOs of big MNCs :P did someone say Steve Jobs? ). Today hippies are mostly folklore, a nostalgic reminder of the past that was. No more men/women with long hairs, no more people with weird glasses (not really weird, but just tinted, big & round actually is more like it :)), no more drug and marijuana overdoses, and no more unanimous contempt for the 'establishment' without really caring about the reasons for it.
But mind you, 70s or not, long hair or not, dirty filthy stink or not and ‘pot’ or not :P, hippies still do exist, right amidst the normal people, disguised as THE normal (sometimes more normal than the normal people). Now this new "tribe" has two clans, the one who were born that way and the others who had to become that way.
The first clan have learnt the way to masquerade themselves, to 'gel well' into the society. Even though in our modern world, nobody really cares even if someone is really weird, members of this clan take due precautions. They are, from the day they were born, the citizen of the free world. And they love this world, where travelling is so much faster and reaching out to people super easy.
The other clan is just the boring non weird kind junta who has to go the hippie way, because they have been forced to live this life for very long time. Did you ever noticed the ways of a perpetually travelling salesperson, consultant or just a plain person whose job hopping involved moving a lot ?
Being a hippie is not how you look; it is for my utter lack of creativity," the state of mind". They are the people who can never really settle down in a place because who knows when they will have to make a move. They keep most of their essential stuff in the front pockets of their travel bags, so they can access it without ever really 'unpacking' their stuff. In fact, they are good at packing, but really bad (or downright lazy) at unpacking. It just seems too much work, when one has to undo it anytime soon.
This attitude towards unpacking stretches itself to everything. Friends are made but not really. Who knows when one would have to say good bye. The less involved one is, the less it hurts. Relationships are best avoided, especially ones with the strong strings.
This also means that at times one has to fake a lot of things so to avoid being called the 'stoneman', but long term faking, they say, becomes a habit hard to break. Hence when it comes to something real, one doesn't really remember what 'real thing' was like. And before one actually remembers, one is too far away to really do something about it. And then there is the next thing waiting for one to fake. Who's got the time to mull over the water under the bridge?
For those who care, I belong to the second clan; you can choose yours and be glad if you don't belong to the tribe at all. These are tough times for "proselytized" hippies.
Sitting here in a waiting lounge moving from one juncture to another juncture of my life, I hope that I would be able to settle down soon. I still hope to see the world, and yeah the whole of it. But I also hope to find a place where I know I would want to come back to, when I am weather beaten, jet lagged and too tired to travel any further. The place where I would plant some seeds and see them grow into trees, the place I would be able to keep a pet, the place I would lay down knowing deep in my dazed slumber that this five and half feet ( let's add 3 more inches for some 'leg space' here :P) of earth would not mind carrying my weight till the day I would sleep never to wake up again. But then, I have a job to do in a “globalized” world and to an extent I have made my peace with my inescapable mobility. Now I look forward to seeing new places, trying out new things (food, clothes, and habits among other things) . Well, what choice do I have? It’s fun at times and at times plain frustrating. But such is life, utterly oblivious of one’s likes/dislikes. It just loves to have fun at our expenseJ.
So to make peace with the life that I had, here is to all the places I have been to, to all the dirt I washed off my feet and body, to all people who came by, stood by me and then wished me farewell, to all who loved me, liked me and hated me to all the joys, to all the sorrows, to all the heartburns and to all the pleasant surprises,. And finally to all the years that have gone by, not for being golden or anything, but for being the years of my own life, the parts of my very own story. They are my most precious possession.
Here is to having some more of them :)
Cheers!!!
Stay Beautiful
