Travel makes one humble and you quickly realize how irrelevant you can be in this world.

I travel a lot on business – on average fifty to sixty percent of the time at work. When you travel extensively, we all learn quickly to master the bare minimum of travel essentials – a carry-on bag that fits into the overhead bin, a valid passport and driver’s license, all the toiletries and medications, at least one day worth of extra clothes (be ready for that canceled flight at 11 pm) and last but the most important of all, a sense of humor. You also learn to pick your favorite airline and hotel chain since the elite status and the associated rewards not only helps to ease the pain but also helps to plan your family’s much awaited annual vacation. In spite of the daily grind and the burdensome requirements of my “excessive” business travel in the post 9/11 era, what do we do as a family every summer? We travel to far off places …… people, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and traditions.

We, as a family, like to travel not merely to visit new countries and landscapes but to look at the world through the eyes of different people and cultures. For us, travel is a journey of the passions that we share as a family – ethnic food, history and traditions and last but not least, shopping. For a person who got on a plane for the first time at the age of twenty three when I left to pursue my master’s degree, I have been lucky and privileged to visit all six continents and all the states in continental United States. As a family we have traveled to more than thirty five countries over the years.

If you have traveled anywhere you have got stories to tell. My intent is to write interesting stories about my travel as well as my family’s in this blog.