1.7. Why we Travel - Class 12 - English Yuvakbharati

Author: Siddarth Pico Raghavan Iyer (Pico Iyer) | Genre: Prose (Travel Essay)

1. Comprehensive Glossary

2. Introduction & Summary

Ice Breakers:

• Travel Benefits: Travel teaches us to be prompt, quick, prepared, organized, careful, and cautious.

  
  

• Expectations: Travelers often expect delicious food available on demand, safe accommodation, and friendly locals.

  
  

• Types of Travel: Includes solo travel, culinary travel, adventure travel, and pilgrimage.

  
  

Summary: In his essay "Why we Travel," Pico Iyer explores the deep psychological and spiritual reasons behind the human urge to wander. He argues that we travel initially to "lose ourselves" and eventually to "find ourselves". Travel opens our hearts and eyes, teaching us more than newspapers ever could. By leaving our "beliefs and certainties at home," we see the world from a "crooked angle".

Iyer distinguishes between the tourist and the traveler based on whether they leave their assumptions at home. Travel acts as a "crash course in cultural relativism," shaking up our complacencies. It rescues the humanity of places from mere abstraction. Ultimately, the author suggests that the most significant movement is internal; travel is a search for an "innocent eye" that returns us to a more open, childlike self. He concludes that travel is like love—a heightened state of awareness ready to be transformed.

3. HSC Board Activity Sheet Pattern (Prose Section)

A1. Global Understanding (2 Marks)

• Set 1: True/False – 1. We travel to find ourselves and to lose ourselves. 2. Seeing without feeling can be uncaring. 3. A tourist is someone who leaves all assumptions at home. 4. Travel can revive or resuscitate cultures. 5. The author believes travel is a way to reverse time.

  • Answer: 1-True , 2-True , 3-False , 4-True , 5-True.

    
    

• Set 2: Complete the Web – Reasons why we travel according to the text.

  • Answer: To open our hearts/eyes , to find/lose ourselves , to become "young fools" , to shake up complacencies.

    
    

• Set 3: Sequential Order – 1. We travel next to find ourselves. 2. We travel to bring what little we can to the globe. 3. We travel initially to lose ourselves. 4. We travel to open our hearts and eyes.

  • Answer: 3, 1, 4, 2.

    
    

• Set 4: Match the Literary Quote – 1. Oliver Cromwell -> "A man never goes so far as when he doesn't know where he is going". 2. Camus -> "What gives value to travel is fear". 3. Sir Thomas Browne -> "We carry within us the wonders we seek without us".

  
  

• Set 5: Correct the Sentences – 1. A traveler complains that nothing is like home. 2. Travel is a quest for the known and knowing.

  • Answer: 1. A tourist complains that nothing is like home. 2. Travel is a quest for the unknown and the unknowing.

    
    

A2. Complex Factual (2 Marks)

1. How does travel provide a balance between wisdom and compassion? -> Travel allows us to see the world clearly (wisdom) and feel it truly (compassion). Seeing without feeling is uncaring, while feeling without seeing is blind.

   
   

2. What is the difference between a tourist and a traveler? -> The real distinction lies in assumptions. A tourist stays attached to home, complaining that nothing is the same, while a traveler grumbles that everything abroad is the same as other foreign cities.

   
   

3. How do travelers become "walking video screens" in impoverished places? -> In censored or closed places like Lhasa or Havana, travelers are the only contact with the outside world. They carry news, values, and dreams to people who cannot access them otherwise.

   
   

4. Explain the term "monasticism on the move." -> On the road, travelers often live simply with only the possessions they can carry, surrendering themselves to chance. This simplicity and surrender mirror a monk's lifestyle.

   
   

5. What did the author experience after his first trips to Southeast Asia? -> He would lie in bed in New York, kept awake by memories rather than jet lag. He would wistfully read his diaries and look at photos, realizing he was "in love" with his experiences.

   
   

A3. Inference / Interpretation / Analysis (2 Marks)

1. Analyze the statement: "A passport can be a diploma." -> This means traveling to foreign countries enriches a person with knowledge and wisdom of the world. It serves as an education in "cultural relativism" and global reality.

   
   

2. How does travel "reverse time"? -> By surrounding ourselves with things we cannot understand—much like in childhood—we slow time down. A single day of intense travel can feel as long and significant as a year.

   
   

3. Why does the author search for an "innocent eye"? -> He travels to find a more "innocent self" that is not hardened by routine or existing beliefs. This eye allows him to see his own home and the world with a "new appreciative" perspective.

   
   

4. Explain: "We carry within us the wonders we seek without us." -> Quoting Sir Thomas Browne, Iyer implies that what we find outside must already exist within us. Reality is a creation of our own perception and imagination.

   
   

5. Interpret the pun on "ecstasy" (ex-stasis). -> The word implies that our "highest moments" (ecstasy) come when we are "not stationary" (ex-stasis). Movement precipitates or follows "epiphany" or sudden realization.

   
   

A4. Personal Response (2 Marks)

1. Do you think solo travel is better than group travel? 

   -> (Model Answer) Solo travel allows for the "sovereign freedom" mentioned in the text. It forces one to be "prompt and quick" and allows for a deeper search of "self and anonymity".

   
   

2. How does learning a new language change a traveler? 

   -> Speaking a foreign language educes a "more childlike self" that is simple and polite. It focuses the traveler on "making sense" rather than complex self-expression.

   
   

3. Why is it important to "leave assumptions at home" while traveling? 

   -> Assumptions act as filters that prevent us from seeing things in a "different light". Leaving them behind allows us to be "mindful, receptive," and ready to be transformed.

   
   

4. Can technology (virtual travel) replace real travel? 

   -> While technology offers "availability" through cyberspace, it risks replacing the real thing with "synthetic versions". It cannot provide the "pure hazard" or "travail" that sharpens life's edge.

   
   

5. How do your travels "never really end"? 

   -> The best trips stay with us as memories and "internal movements". They change our "states of mind" permanently, making the journey a part of our ongoing "imagination"

END

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