# Window to the World

By [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008) · 2023-08-18

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I have always loved the window seat - for as long as I can remember. Is this a sign of introspection or an inherent curiosity? The window seat offers a view, but much more. It offers a connection.

My earliest memory of jockeying for the window seat is in the train rides from Bombay to Madras. We used to go down South once in a while, to visit relatives, or to visit our native village in Tirunelveli or some of the religious locations such as Tirupathi. I fought my grandma most often for this spot. Sometimes it was easy since we would typically get 2 windows being a party of over 4 and having senior citizens who needed the lower berth to sleep without climbing up the ladders.

Let’s come back to the window seat, whether it is the side facing the train station platforms, which meant, watching people, or the other side, facing other trains, or the cities at a distance, it was always fascinating to see the scenery roll by. It also gave me a chance to look outside the known, outside the comfort zone, outside the usual. Into a world that is new, dive into new experiences and new smells, sounds and I wish I could say sights, but I could barely see beyond a certain distance most of my childhood, so my other senses helped build that picture in my head, and those senses were strongest near the window.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/379e511048440973dfce3e6fd97718525828b5d33541909563eeaa3c02ef1025.png)

Besides these factors that you experience during travel, perhaps it was the small spaces I grew up in, with a TON of people. I enjoyed looking into the horizon, a wider and broader view from the top or to a world beyond, whether that is beautiful, or not is beside the point. It's different and that window, always gave me an escape, into another world.

I wonder now, whether it is an introvert that did not want to talk and would rather get lost in the outer world or an explorer that liked the adventure of hearing, smelling, tasting something new. This love for the window extended to buses, cars, airplanes, seats at restaurants, or even homes where I would stare endlessly out the window or a balcony to look at life outside. In fact, sitting in the middle of facing the inside, being in rooms with no windows gave me a sense of claustrophobia, although fear is too intense of a suffix for the feeling.

Give me a window and I will soak in the world through it.

[#windows](https://www.tumblr.com/rambalaings/tagged/windows) [#window to the soul](https://www.tumblr.com/rambalaings/tagged/window%20to%20the%20soul)

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*Originally published on [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008/window-to-the-world)*