1.7 Why We Travel
Title- Why we travel
The title raises the question about the need of travelling. It makes the readers curious to read the essay. The writer gives his ideas about the purposes of travelling.
‘Why we Travel’, by Pico Iyer is a classic essay. He gives the reasons for his passion to travel and shares them with the readers. He quotes famous writers and puts forth his own observations while describing his own instinct to travel.
Writer- Siddarth Pico Raghavan Iyer:
He is also known as Pico Iyer. He is a British –born American essayist and novelist. He is best known for his travel writing. He has written several books including Video Night in Kathmandu (1988), The Lady and The Monk (1991), The Global Soul (2000) and The Man within My Head (2012). He is working as an essayist for Time since 1986. He also publishes regularly in The New York Review of Books and The New York Times and other renowned publications.
Ice Breakers Activities-
1) Share your views on how Travelling can be a hobby.
Answer:
Yes, travelling can be a hobby. We can develop travelling as a hobby. It will help us to use our time suitably and effectively. Travelling helps us to understand various cultures, customs, traditions, and style of living. It improves our social skills and communication. Purpose of travelling is to forget our worries, stressful thoughts and release the tension. All these are the also the benefits of pursuing a hobby. So, travelling is a hobby.
2) Complete the web giving benefits of travelling.
Answer:
|
To be
careful and cautious |
Travel
Teaches You |
To prepare
or organize |
|
To be
prompt and quick |
To improve
social skills |
|
|
To boost
confidence |
To know
different cultures |
|
|
To try new
cuisines |
To develop
communication |
3) Make a list of your expectations when you travel to some new place.
Answer:
When I travel to some new place, my expectations are as follows-
1) To get good accommodation.
2) To get suitable transport system.
3) Food should be delicious and available whenever hungry.
4) The place should be safe to travel.
5) There should be interesting places to visit.
6) To get good help, if needed.
7) To get affordable food.
8) To get true information about the new places.
9) To get guide to get proper information.
10) To get entertainment.
11) To get pleasant company.
12) To get good weather.
4) Complete the list of various types of travels.
Answer:
List of various types of travels:
1) Solo Travel
2) Business Travel
3) Medical Travel
4) Culinary Travel
5) Educational Travel
6) Religious Travel
7) Adventure Travel
8) Family Travel
9) Group Travel
Why We Travel-
Glossary
Guess the meaning-
riches are differently dispersed- rich cultures that are found in different areas
George Santayana- George Agustin Nicolas Ruiz de Santayanay Borras- a Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist.
lapidary- relating to the engraving, cutting, or polishing of stones and gems (of language- elegant and concise.)
solitudes- a lonely or uninhabited place.
running some pure hazard- accepting a risk or danger
travail- hard work
sovereign- supreme and effective
provisional- temporary
provincial- limited in outlook, narrow minded
complacencies- satisfaction with one’s own achievements
abstraction- something that exists only as an idea
Michael Jordan- an American former professional basketball player
Kyoto- once the capital of Japan, now is a city on the island of Honshu
ikebana- Japanese art of flower arrangement
impoverished- reduced to poverty
Proust- a French novelist, critic and essayist, one of the most influential authors of the 20th century
subtler- more difficult to grasp
resuscitate- make active and vigorous
Hazlitt- an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator and philosopher
impulse- a sudden strong and unreflective urge to act
Oliver Cromwell - an English military and political leader
educes- brings out or develops something latent or potential
risumi- a risumi is a special kind of resume (frame of life)
crucible- a situation in which people or things are severely tested
monasticism- living like monks or their way of life, living alone
Camus- Albert Camus -a French philosopher, author and journalist
Christopher Isherwood- an Anglo- American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist
Wistfully- full of longing
ecstasy- great joy
scrutiny- careful and detailed examination of something
ex-stasis- boredom
Teriyaki- a Japanese dish of fish or meat marinated in soya sauce and grilled
inalieanably- in a manner that makes it impossible for something to taken away.
Oolong teas- dark coloured partly fermented China teas
exotica- strikingly different or colourful, belonging to distant foreign countries
many- tongued- a person who speaks many languages
mongrel- someone of mixed cultures
inheritance- the acquisition of possession from past generations
notions- ideas
in flux- undergoing constant frequent changes
Sir John Mendeville- the supposed author of ‘The Travels of Sir John Mendeville,’ a travel memoir in French which first circulated between 1357-1371
ineffable- too great or extreme to be expressed in words.
Emerson- Ralph Waldo Emerson- an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher and poet.
Thoreau- Henry David Thoreau- an American essayist, poet and philosopher.
Sir Thomas Browne- an English polymath and author of varied works.
Sagely- wisely
Prodigies- wonders
Peter Matthiessen- an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA officer
Oliver Sacks- a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science
atoll- a carol island consisting of a reef surrounding a lagoon
prejudice- bias
fosters- encourages
apostles- vigorous and pioneering supporters of an idea or a cause
See More -
See activities with model answers in the following book-
Activity Workbook for Std. XII English by Prof. Tushar Chavan
Price Rs. 400 + Rs. 50 Post or Courier Charges
Total= Rs. 450
To buy the Activity Work Book, do send whats message to:
Prof. Tushar Chavan
9850737199
Brainstorming Activities- Why We Travel
A1) Read the first two paragraphs and discuss the need to travel.
Answer-
We need to travel for the following reasons-
1) We have to lose our self-identity for some time and gain it again in a new way.
2) To see and learn the world with open hearts and clear eyes and get more about the world than what our newspapers tell us.
3) To get knowledge about the cultures which are rich than ours.
4) To become ignorant and young fools again to desire to learn more.
5) To get solitudes and enjoy life accepting dangers and risks.
6) To sharpen the edge of life and to understand the hardship of life.
7) To broaden perception about others’ thinking.
8) To leave personal beliefs and attitudes at home.
A2)
(i) Read the sentence ‘If a diploma can famously in cultural relativism.’
(Pick the sentence which gives the meaning of the above statement from the alternatives given below.)
(a) A diploma certificate can be used as a passport and a passport can be used as a diploma certificate.
(b) If one has a diploma, he does not need a passport and if he has a passport, he does not need a diploma.
(c) One can acquire permission to travel to foreign countries for educational purposes based on her academic achievements and travelling to foreign countries enriches one the most regarding the knowledge and wisdom of the world.
Answer-
(c) One can acquire permission to travel to foreign countries for educational purposes based on her academic achievements and travelling to foreign countries enriches one the most regarding the knowledge and wisdom of the world.
(ii) Prepare a list of the litterateurs and their quotations mentioned by the writer in the essay.
Answer-
The litterateurs and their quotations-
1) George Santayana.
“We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment at no matter what.”
2) Marcel Proust
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new places but in seeing with new eyes.”
3) Oliver Cromwell
“A man never goes so far as when he doesn't know where he is going.”
4) Camus
“What gives value to travel is fear.”
5) Christopher Isherwood
“The ideal travel book should be perhaps a little like a crime story in which you're in search of something.”
6) Emerson
“Travelling is a fool’s paradise.”
7) Thoreau :
“I have travelled a good deal in Concord.”
8) Sir Thomas Browne :
“We carry within us the wonders we seek without us. There is Africa and her prodigies in us.”
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