Foreword
'Wanderlust--Travel Stories' is our publishing house's first travel stories collection. We consider this project very special since we embarked on this project during the pandemic when borders were still closed, and travelling was highly restricted. It is during this time that many of us started recollecting our travel stories, talking about trips that we had undertaken just a few years before--as if it was a distant memory we dearly wanted to hold on to. That is how we conceptualised this book. We had an open call, one author contacted another author--an ardent traveller, or a blogger, and within a year, we had over fifteen authors penning down their travel memories and exceptional experiences for this book. This book attempts to give a sense of the wealth of these solo, family, or group journeys. It is rich with anecdotes from sea voyages, hiking and biking trips, fishing and safari trips, a getaway in a resort during the pandemic, a trip to the North Pole and the South Pole, and many more unique tales of wondering and wandering. We have tried to group these geographically. The range of writeups that we received surprised us. If one story dealt with painting on a cruise ship to Antarctica, then another talked about fishing in Alaska, or restoring the dead in Indonesia; an artist spoke about his experience of painting Graffiti on a wall bordering Mexico, and a travelling spouse spoke about her memories of visiting Nelson Mandela's prison in South Africa; from a metaphysical journey in the Amazon to trekking expeditions to Armenia; from Cinque Terre in Italy to a waterfalls in Argentina, from exploring ancient forts of India, to following Napoleon Bonaparte's route across Europe on a bike. Every story is unique, and it is precisely this nostalgic and spectacular travel tale we have tried to curate and collect in this book. We wish you an exciting journey ahead. Ship Ahoy!
Publisher, July 7, 2022
Publishers, Bose Creative: - "
ACT India: Ms. Nilanjana Das, Director and Chairperson, who helped us structure this book, and came forward enthusiastically to discuss the book's proposal at its initial stage, despite the lockdown challenges in India.
Asha Zurich Foundation: Dr. Pratyush Das Kanungo, Project Lead and Coordinator for outreach activities, Dr. Rajdeep Deb, President of the organization; and Dr. Sampada Bodke, Project Lead, for supporting this project and coming forward to collaborate for this book.
Humane Warriors: Dr. Naveen Shamsudhin and Dr. Rhythima Shinde, Founders, who were active during the Covid-19, with their Humane Warriors team supporting the daily wage workers across India. Despite a time-crunch they contributed to this book with their timely inputs.
Protsaah - Handcrafted Peace: Ms. Saloni Duggal Sreshtha, Director, who was in India to meet her artisans and was unable to fly back to Zurich due to the lockdown for a long time, despite that she took the time to contribute to this book and raise awareness for the cause.
Rice Mill Social Enterprise: Ms. Ruth Mumba, Director, and Abundance Foundation's Co-Founder Dr. Deepa Pullanikkatil who came forward to contribute to this book with their newly found project in South Africa.
Touching Heart: Ms. Helen Yi, Founder and Project Lead Ms. Sumona Das, who relentlessly worked on different projects and produced hundreds of facemasks herself to combat the pandemic in the USA; helped us get the Founder's interview for this book.
Ushthi Foundation: Ms. Olga Egli, PR and Fundraising Director, who contributed with her inputs, and contacted the Founder Mr. Kurt Büuuml;rki and the Executive Director Ms. Alessandra Grosse for the interview in this book; and Ms. Mirjam Hirzel, International Project Coordinator, for her valuable thoughts and inputs.
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