Saturday, May 15, 2010

Thoughts on visiting a country again

Sometime during the six months of my stay in South Africa, I had a brief discussion with a colleague on "tourists who are second-or-more time visitors to a country". I questioned - huh, why would someone want to visit an already-visited-once country again, unless he has already seen every other country that he wants to see in his lifetime? I reasoned - in a utilitarian manner - that once someone has seen/visited a country, it doesn't make sense to spend money again to visit that same country. Instead, it makes more sense to me to see a different/new country when one next goes on a holiday.

That was when I was in Jo'burg. Now I'm in my home country, and I have a slightly different viewpoint on that topic. Do I want to visit South Africa again? Yes. Am I willing to spend money to visit SA, thus making an unvisited country as the opportunity cost? Sure!

Why this change of thought? I seem to have realized one of the reasons why people visit a country again. They come again because they like the place and the place makes them feel good. And seemingly, their primary purpose of doing a holiday is to make themselves feel happy, and not merely to visit a new country.

When I think of SA - especially Johannesburg and Cape Town - I start to feel happy. When I look at photos of SA, I feel so good. Perhaps that's why I too am happily eager/willing to be there again.

Johannesburg at night (source)

There are two learnings that I've got from this change of opinion:
  1. It's okay - and not wrong - if people visit a country again, instead of exploring new parts of the world. They want happiness, which this country is sure to provide
  2. Although I usually have an unassailable opinion about most things, I must remember - as I've also realized at other times - that my opinion can sometimes change. And so the vehemence with which I sometimes voice my opinion might get invalidated later, when my viewpoint changes

4 comments:

  1. The post 'Human Brain Could Be Storing & Retrieving Information As 'Related Blocks'' is very interesting...
    and
    'Is information recall better in dreams?'
    I too agree on that. It's very long time back (>=3 years) thing but I remember once or twice using vocabulary which was not part of my daily talks then but I read or heard those words somewhere...And I actually felt good on waking up and having the feel of that dream...though I think I didn't remember the words (not sure) on getting up... So it's true in various ways...Kaash soye soye paper bhi diye jaa sakte hote...but ya here it won't work actually...coz text is very large...so overflow ho jaayega...lolz
    Mind is a very complex but quite interesting thing!

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  2. Haan merko kayi baar lagta hai ki dimaag me hai bahut kuch but recall is usually poor. Which is sad. Agar wo dimaag me hai to bahar kyu nahi aa raha?

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  3. I think what u mentioned there is totally right that when we r awake our concentration/focus shifts.

    & other reason for 'bahar kyon nai aa raha' can be as follows: :)
    parso 'karthik calling karthik' movie aa rahi thi...maine bas uska ek dialogue suna (heard not listened actually) but what I can interpret from it now is- We already know about conscious & subconscious mind & probably latter might be playing the role in what is being discussed.Hum jis knowledge(whether we talk about shape/place of objects,words, any past experience, someone we have met once somewhere...etc) ko daily routine mein use nai karte ya daily uske baare mein nai sochte vo hamare subconscious mind mein store hoti hai & this knowledge can get linked/shifted to conscious mind sometimes, somehow...& dreaming might be one of the way...ho sakta haina?

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  4. Possible. During the awake mode, memories related to the frequently done tasks seem to dominate. During the sleep mode, other memories possibly get a fairer attention from the recall mechanism.

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