Listen, I’m not a traveller. I hate the lack of structure and predictability travel entails. I can’t stand the suspense of bookings or deal with the frustration of cancellations. I have little patience for other people’s food and toilet habits, and want to yell at everyone and burn things to the ground when things don’t happen on time or in ways I consider correct. In short, I’m the Grinch and you should never ask me to travel with you.
The virtual world, however, is another matter and offers a fair share of delights for the socially-anxious noxious, introverted, control-freak, laptop-loving person like me. No itineraries, no leave applications, no cost and the best part? No people! I choose where I go, stay for 5 minutes or 50, and leave if I don’t fancy it. Don’t come at me with how it doesn’t compare with the real thing because as of July-August 2020, this is the only real thing. So, indulge me a little….
I’ve been in Mumbai for over a decade and have never been inclined to check out what’s arguably the most famous Ganeshotsav in this city. But this year, what with the lockdown and two doses of Section 144, they cancelled the annual public celebration in September around ‘Lalbaug-cha Raja’. And because you immediately want what you cannot have, I was struck by a strong desire to do darshan of Mumbai’s grandest god. So, I chose a virtual tour via click360.in—for some decent 360 degree views of the pandal.
Even on screen, the statue looks imposing—the standard is between 18-20 feet—lording it over from the end of a narrow lane, all wrapped in gilded festoonery and dazzling silks, producing awe and devotion. But the sight of hundreds of bodies pressed against each other in that small space, clamouring for a closer view, also inspires claustrophobia and makes you want to take off and away on to your next destination.
Because my “sickular”, interfaith scholarly self cannot resist a provocation—or a juxtaposition, if you will—my virtual body jumps straight from a holy Hindu site to a holy Muslim one. As a Hindu, I’ll never get to experience that spectacular “sea of crowds” in person, but the wonderful thing about virtual tours is that these boundaries are easily transcended. Many e-pilgrimages are available, including an informative one by Al Jazeera called Hajj 360°, or through an app called Muslim3D.com. I chose one offered by 360tr.com for its high-definition (and silent) views.
‘Walking’ through the expanse of the grand al-masjid al-Haram, its marbled courtyard, and seeing the Kaaba from ‘touching distance’ indeed feels like a privilege. A 360° view means one can actually go around the Kaaba with the faithful—seven times if one wishes, as the Quran commands. You can marvel at the Safa and Al Merwa hillocks, reimagining the Quranic episode of Hagar, or if you’re like me, you may be tickled by the discovery of a KFC outlet inside the mosque precincts!
The next place on my impossible itinerary was the hermit kingdom of North Korea. Which self-respecting journalist can resist a peek inside *those* walls, haan? Not that much is available, but one can choose between an 8:47-min, ABC News-produced tour hosted by Bob Wudruff that offers some views of Pyongyang, or an hour-long tour by Singaporean photographer Aram Peng, whose DPRK 360 project aims to capture all of this secretive land. Both have footage from 2015-16, and show a country with eerily empty streets, large murals and hoardings of the supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un, and some clippings from the state propaganda TV. Peng’s website offers more photographic documentation of landmarks such as the Liberation Monument, the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and the Munsu Water Park, but ABC’s whistlestop quickie was enough to give me the jeepers, and make me want to run right out of that oppressive air and straight up to the moon!
Yes, I admit this was a little bit of a leap but when you don’t have to pay an airline or a space travel agency, the sky really is the limit. I took my chance Googling it, and presto, a virtual tour of the moon presented itself! Produced by NASA’s Scientific Visualisation Studio using footage from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a 5-minute virtual tour offers your inner Tintin incredible 4K resolution views of our singularly pretty satellite along with some useful, non-jargony commentary.
If you switched off the lights, put on your headphones and lowered yourself into the Tycho crater, onto the Aristarchus Plateau or the famous landing site of Apollo 17—the Taurus Littrow Valley—you could be singing that 1996 Savage Garden hit, To the Moon and Back, and totally mean it.
Urmi Chanda-Vaz is an interfaith studies scholar and culturalist