Vis: a dream destination

 

Vis: image from The Guardian

Like poet Yeats I too long for Innisfree. Unlike him, however, I am not in search of peace. I want to see some places and have a different experience of life. Both India, my country, and Kerala, the state where I live, have disappointed me terribly. India has been swallowed by the hydra-headed monster of sectarianism. Every institution in the country including the judiciary has been converted into one of those many heads of the vicious monster. Kerala was doing pretty well until recently when one woman called Swapna emerged as a phantasmagorical nightmare that roams the corridors of power in the state. Moreover, the Covid pandemic has kept me home for too long shrinking my horizons pathetically.

I want to be in some place like Yeats’s Innisfree: with water lapping with low sounds by the shore on one side and mountains towering like seductive sirens on the other. What about Vis in Croatia?

Croatia is a relatively unpolluted place. Tourists haven’t done much damage to it. It has beaches and mountains and islands, things which I love. Even the towns there are very charming, I have been informed, because they are the least crowded in the whole region. The country has a unique history too with its Greek cemetery, Roman baths, and the English fortress. As a bonus comes Croatia’s wine whose greatness was chronicled by famous travellers as far back as 300 BCE.

Vis is a small island in Croatia. Some pictures of the island that I stumbled upon gave me this longing to visit the place which is a rare blend of the sea, mountain and human habitats. I’m not sure I’m particularly enamoured of human habitats. But I know that they are inevitable along the way. I’m sure of one thing anyway: I would love to climb that mountain while listening to the gentle sound of the lapping water in the background, or like Yeats, in my “deep heart’s core.”

Old Stone Houses in Vis [The Guardian]

PS. For Indispire Edition 339: Once the world wins against Covid-19, which place would you love to visit first? #BelovedPlace