My Greece: Mirrors & Metamorphoses: Discover Each Journey as Sacred Destiny

by Ambika Talwar

I visited Greece in 2002, and it is only now that I have been able to complete the process. Diverse challenges over the years, professional and personal, demanded my attention; I could have discarded the project completely. But my tenacity and my love for Greece would not allow me to fail myself. In 2013, I started to edit and rewrite the travelogue. Re-writing reminded me how much I had loved being in Greece and years later traveling in Italy, Spain, Portugal and other places, including, of course, always India. Picking up the threads was not difficult, but not easy either. I had started to forget incidents. Somehow, this forgetting, this emotional distance worked out better as I gained a clearer perspective and expression of wonder.

I found Greece to be wild, enriching, exhausting, and almost elegant. I traveled with companions and sometimes on my own; I visited many places old and new; I met people of many persuasions; I relished the foods; I felt exalted among ruins and antiquity. At times, I also felt alone and exhausted, and I was not able to write as per my plans. But I loved swimming in the different seas. I would love to return some day to this glorious country, to be again reminded of things both familiar and foreign.

I returned home excited about documenting my adventures to extract from them deeper meaning. This process became another journey as I chose to stay with my direct and remembered experience without research. This is a personal journey and narrative.