Have you noticed how a second look at something or someone and our second thoughts about them are sometimes better than our first? On occasion, another look helps us to see things more clearly, weigh the pros and cons, reverse the conclusions we had jumped to earlier and take what everyone refers to as an ‘informed decision’. And of course, on other occasions (maybe just as frequently), that relook at first impressions serves to reinforce whatever conclusions we had reached by sheer gut instinct initially and we move away, convinced and relieved that we got it right the first time.
When travelling in other lands, not everyone is fortunate enough to get a second look at places they have been to or get a chance to have second thoughts and act on them.
As travellers we are novices, only recently having been able to fulfil our desire to globetrot. So, each time we set foot on foreign soil, we are amazed that we actually managed to make it here, and we are convinced that we are never going to come this way again. The first time is miracle enough – and so we try to make every second count. Thus, we cannot miss out on the singing fountains or the Burj Khalifa or the Dubai Mall, we cannot keep the desert safari and the global village for ‘another’ time.
It all has to be done in the here and now. And if we get run off our feet, get cross-eyed with confusion as we race from one site and sight to another, grow corns and calluses and need a month to recover from a one-week trip – we are fine with it. ‘We’re not going to come this way again,’ we say, ‘let’s take it all in now.’
So, wherever we go, we ‘consume’ the sights and sounds as eagerly and as greedily as those who are enjoying their last meal.
And when the unexpected happens and we get a second chance to visit some of the places we really loved, we are suddenly more thoughtful, all our senses prepped to prolong the pleasure.
This time, we are in no tearing hurry. We can linger at the museum, we can drag our feet as we walk around monuments and read every word that is written there, we can wiggle our toes in the sand on the beach, we can wander down side streets we had no time to set foot on during our earlier trip.
Couldn’t spare a few hours
We can finally touch the tigers in Thailand or cruise along the Danube or walk the streets of Madrid or climb to the statue of the Buddha at Lantau Island — do all the things we couldn’t spare a few hours for the last time we were there.
And best of all, we can go back to the streets, the shops, the parks, the eating places we had been to before. We can find our way unerringly to the same shelf in the same shop in the same market and buy the book of folk tales we had dithered over the last time; we can try out the speciality of the house on that street corner café; we can get the cushion covers we knew would look wonderful on our couch but we were reluctant to spend a small fortune on when the exchange rate was too much against our humble currency…
When we take that second look, we catch the subtle hues and tastes, we relish the beauty below the surface… We have had the advantage of time, thought and hindsight: An almost impossible-to-get second chance.
I wonder what we would do if we had a second chance in our everyday rush of life and our everyday relationships.
— Cheryl Rao is a journalist based in India.
