Lonely Planet

I don’t know when it was I started writing. My earliest image of writing is when I wanted to escape reading my school books. I used to write answers and that to by seeing the book. Finally I was caught but like a smart kid I escaped punishment. I guess that was what made me love writing only and nothing else. But never did I like to write about a book or a place I travelled. I found it tiresome and too hard to. I didn’t find it inspiring and I always questioned the reader’s interest. Years later, when I entered college, I found a different picture. Write anything catchy and filmy and people are bound to read it. Write on what's trending and people will read it for sure but that also for few days. Ultimately writing was about what you wanted to write, what you wanted the people to read and enjoy not what readers asked from you. Everyone can write but your writing should be something really intriguing and touching, full of passion and feelings.

Few days back I visited Dehra Dun, Nainital, Almora, Kousani, Bhinsar, Ranikhet etc.  After having a wonderful time I thought I will write on my travelling but somewhere the tiredness took over me and I found it very hard to get back my untouched blog brought back to life. After friends asking me about my blog I decided to write but a small post, washing out the travel post out of my mind completely. However it is not so easy to escape from something that is destined in your life by fate. I was destined to write on my trip to the hills but how did this want of writing arouse again is another story. I dedicated this post to the magazine which made me tells myself – NO I HAVE TO WRITE. Thank you Lonely Planet Magazine India. And especially Sarina Singh whose presence made me go and buy it even when friends kept pulling my leg about it.



Now Lonely Planet is a monthly magazine and rightly assigned so. You might think thousand times before buying it, taking in mind the cost of the magazine but in the end, like we say in Hindi – PAISA VASOOL. It is surely going to take you a month to go through the magazine. Like the theme going through it means travelling a wide range of places. From India to Belgium to Singapore to Australia. If you are someone who loves reading and someone who gets engulfed in a piece, Lonely Planet can really make you impatient for a travel to those places. For me it was not only visiting those places but writing about them. Kudos to the ones who made it. Kudos to the people whose column are present there. They have the ability to captivate you in their articles.



Lonely Planet is not new to me. I had seen the book, not the magazine at my aunt’s place. The edition was dated 1978, six years later it was launched. It struck me at first sight, almost like love at first sight. I so badly wanted to go back home and buy one, just before we were planning a trip to North-East India. However for the kid I was then the price was too much, making me buy the worst travel guide and returning home. Honest confession till date I haven’t opened that book and read. Our trip never happened and still now I believe it was because I never bought that book, it was somehow co-related.



Few months back when I was hearing about Lonely Planet Magazine India getting launched I was badly excited. I cheered with many for such an wonderful news, was happy the magazine will be seen in both the street-side stalls and also the big stores. I had to buy once I had to. I did this month however not because I wanted to buy once. Right now when I look back at my decision of buying this magazine (though there are more special reasons to) I cheer the thought I bought it. I might, I won’t say I’ll because I don’t trust my mood, I might go on ‘wasting 100 bucks every month’ on this magazine.



After buying it, I didn’t know where to start from. So many beautiful pictures, the catchy lines, the wishes of many readers, the letters or what. I started with a column of someone I knew. I was happy after finishing it. The first reaction on my face was a small smile, a smile appeared from the corner of my lips, and as if I could see myself smile at someone very closely for some great work I always said about. I always complained about magazines losing themselves to a world which gave more importance to events, facts, reality, history rather than beauty. Lonely Planet has it all.

I might have exaggerated a lot on this magazine but never have I enjoyed a book so much, which made me sit and think – WHAT AM I DOING HERE! Gladly I can say the soft corner that I have for this magazine is well deserved. I simply regret the fact that I didn’t buy that guide book on India by Lonely Planet but having said that everything happens for a reason.



Last but not the least, if you are someone who loves reading about IIT/IIM life or catchy modern life I really doubt whether you will love reading any other genre of writing in life, but if you are someone who loves reading and don’t mind if it is on IIT/IIM or Thomas Hardy, try the magazine for once, it’s more than just a simple Rs.100 magazine.