JAN PETERS: TRAVELS FAR ENOUGH TO MEET HIMSELF by Mihir Srivastava

Jan Peters is an environmentalist by heart, a landscape ecologist by training, leading an individualistic life with responsibility, having said that, he’s a traveller by temperament and is open to influences. Curiosity keeps him going, exploring new frontiers. He has been to many countries and witnessed communities, garnering intuitive understanding of the way of life, people, environment, geography, biology, economy of a place and what not. A panoramic picture of a place comes to him as a flash of realisation.

For the last five years, he has been heading a global NGO— the Michael Succow Foundation—that endeavours conservation of peatland. Though located in Greifswald, a small coastal city nestled on the Baltic Sea coast in Germany, his work takes him to places all over the world. When he does that, he makes time to meet people, sample local cuisines, go bird watching or walk the city—is the best way to get to know a place.

---

Jan understands the nuances of existence, human-nature interactions at multiple levels gives a place its unique character. A place reveals its story to him bit by bit, the cumulative experience of being there is then saved in his mind as an impressionist image, like the landscape paintings of his favourite German painter Casper David Friedrich.

---

Jan has been a friend for 15 years, and has introduced me to Europe. He has instilled in me the spirit of a traveller—a distinction I draw from being a tourist. I now visit people instead of places.

Jan is selfish about being himself. Curiosity makes him experientially greedy as a witness. His eyes seem to see more; he’s one with his surroundings in no time. The topography of the place he visits gets etched in memory like a google map image (albeit not in those gory details) and he knows where a water body is, what’s behind the hill, the best tea shop in the village, and the roads by the river, the trails around a pond. And then he walks around with the confidence of a native, tries new roads, untrodden paths.

Family is a big influence. Parents are travellers in their own right and love to be close to nature. Jan, is the middle one of the three brothers, takes good care of his things and things, in turn, serve him well, seem to last a lifetime. For instance, his binoculars—constant companion to many sojourns—is 21 years ago and in mint condition. He purchased it when he was living for a year on an island, Langeneß, just after school as part of the compulsory civil service. He likes to go back to places he built a connection with, like Langeneß, at one time with me.

In Greifswald, Jan has literally spent half his life so far, did his university, mostly stayed in shared accommodations with peers and friends. He is so happy with friends, they had a great time together growing up. He likes to go out with them for short trips, music fests and such things. Lately, however, he has moved to a separate house with his girlfriend. It has big glass windows overlooking the harbour. His peers too have settled down to a more family-oriented existence.

Priorities change with time, but Jan remains a quintessential traveller. He travels a lot for work, but also likes to do longer trips, extending for weeks. He intuitively starts to inhabit the cultural landscape with locals; it happens to him with little resistance and his energy is such that he is always welcome.

Jan understands the nuances of existence, human-nature interactions at multiple levels gives a place its unique character. A place reveals its story to him bit by bit, the cumulative experience of being there is then saved in his mind as an impressionist image, like the landscape paintings of his favourite German painter Casper David Friedrich.

He has a bunch of close friends who have a similar world view. Though he describes himself a liberal, he’s fairly radical about his liberal views. Not an armchair critic, he lends support and participates in various campaigns and protests to help make this world a better place to live. He was part of the protests where students blocked the railway track to prevent a train carrying nuclear waste to be dumped at location temporarily in the freezing cold.

A political animal, he reads papers regularly and is acquainted with what's happening around the world. He has unequivocal views on people in power, and is very expressive about it. 

Things come to him, stay with him and become part of his world. His room had things arranged in a manner that may seem clutter to a casual viewer. But each object lives in its designated place in his space, it could be big or small; varied tchotchke adorn his work table. He can retrieve anything from this seeming clutter within 5 seconds. This clutter helps him conserve experiences and motivates him to travel more.

Cycle to him is not just a mode of transportation for him, but an extension of his limbs. It allows him to be faster than walking, yet not too fast, can cover fair distances; he’s close to the ground, almost earthed, exposed to the elements of nature, and keeps him fit and going. He even cycled in Delhi when he lived here for half a year, 16 kilometres every day to work and back, which was, apart from all the things mentioned above, an adventure too.

He likes to combine birding with cycling. Birding, he explains, is not just about birds, but being alert to your environment—as if the doors of perception open. And you see much more, birds, insects, web of spiders contextualising gleeful foliage swaying with wind. Birding is instinctively ‘hunting’ according to him, consistent with our inherent nature during the phase when we were hunter-gatherers.

When we travel for weeks together, there comes a point when there’s not much left to be said, when we are just about to get exhausted with each other's constant presence, is when something new props up, we're revitalized, makes the whole process doubly engaging, and then time starts to pass at a furious pace, and before we know, we’re back to our respective lives.        

Nature reminds us of what civilization has cost us, because we are the only evolved species to wear clothes and perfumes, to qualify us, and have the ability to appear different than we are. Projections to many could be a survival strategy or to gain acceptance. These existential dilemmas. This restless energy. The need to break free. Jan finds travels therapeutic.

An emotional man guided by strong scientific temper, walking-cycling-travelling allows Jan a certain space, a witness perspective to his own life. His travels are an existential exercise unto himself and he, in the process, spreads joy to those he comes in contact with. Jan travels far enough to meet himself and understand life as is lived in its many manifestations.