I generally do not watch movies when traveling. Flying is usually a quiet time for me, often spent reading, writing, or merely collecting my thoughts before the start of any academic program. However, on this one evening flight from Dubai, heading off to Iraq as a faculty member for the course ‘Temporal Bone Dissection & Ear Surgery,’ I found myself browsing through the movie list, seeking something soft, meaningful, and gentle. Thus, I chanced upon ‘The Way, My Way,’ a movie that progressed so genuinely that I found myself absolutely helpless, glued to the TV screen.

“The Way, My Way” chronicles filmmaker Bill Bennett’s reluctant journey as he undertakes the Camino de Santiago. He sets forth on this trail with some reluctance, skeptical of, and unprepared for, what he will encounter. This is exactly what makes “The Way” so engaging: its unassuming, forthright truth. Rather than project a self-congratulatory image as pilgrim, Bill Bennett opens himself up to the Camino’s revelations of his own deficiencies: impatience, frustration, self-doubt, so that, through this self-exposure, transformation might occur. At one stage, in keeping with the sentiments of his own memoir, he reflects, “I thought I was walking the Camino, but the Camino was walking me.” This, in itself, reflects the humility that permeates this movie.

Watching Bennett make his way through the undulating trails of Spain, I found myself inexorably drawn into comparisons with my own experiences. ‘The basic beat of walking: one foot, then the other, one breath, then the next,’ as any hiker will confirm. Like Bennett, I often leave behind all professional personas as I walk alone through the mountains. It is there, beyond the din of the world, that one becomes, simply, a human being in motion. “We’re all the same out here. Just people walking”–as a fellow pilgrim says in the movie, a sentiment that absolutely speaks to me.

Watching “The Way, My Way” also reminded me of the purpose of the different kind of journey that I had been wanting to undertake this year—a family trip to Everest Base Camp. After so many years of going on this kind of journey alone, I felt that something was different this time. Solo journeys allow you to meet yourself, but joint journeys allow you to meet others, meet vulnerability, meet strength in numbers. “The Way” transformation of Bennett is not something that happens in seclusion, but through conversations with strangers, through narratives shared with every step, through the warmth of joint silence. And this is exactly when I realized that traveling with the family to EBC would not only be a physical journey but would also be a shared experience.

But the movie still portrays other realities that come with going on a pilgrimage. Progress may not always be spectacular. Often, Professor Bennett seems irked, irritated, or disappointed, but he still pushes on. At one point, he reflects, “What I was seeking was not found. I came to the Camino seeking answers. And in its own way, the Camino questioned me.”This is the nature of every transformative journey. Mountains, paths, and pilgrimages do not provide us with the answers we seek. They provide us with exactly what we need.

With every passing moment in my own flight, heading further towards Dubai, with the movie slowly coming towards its end, I began realizing that Bennett’s path was a mirror. His Camino was not so different from mine. His transformation was not so different from mine. His Camino was a path that was unfolding for him, much like mine was, from solitary journeys to finding the right family trip, from self-reflection to shared experiences. Finally, of course, “The Way, My Way” is not a movie about traveling. Rather, it is a gentle reminder to walk through life more mindfully. It shows that the journey, in fact, is the teacher, that the solution, the answer, lies only in moving forward with an open heart. And hope, healing, truth, purpose, as evidenced in the hesitant pace of this storyteller, much like our own, may often emerge only with baby steps.

Dr. Prahlada N.B
MBBS (JJMMC), MS (PGIMER, Chandigarh). 
MBA in Healthcare & Hospital Management (BITS, Pilani), 
Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Leadership and Innovation (MIT, USA)
Executive Programme in Strategic Management (IIM, Lucknow)
Senior Management Programme in Healthcare Management (IIM, Kozhikode)
Advanced Certificate in AI for Digital Health and Imaging Program (IISc, Bengaluru). 

Senior Professor and former Head, 
Department of ENT-Head & Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, Cochlear Implant Surgery. 
Basaveshwara Medical College & Hospital, Chitradurga, Karnataka, India. 

My Vision: I don’t want to be a genius.  I want to be a person with a bundle of experience. 

My Mission: Help others achieve their life’s objectives in my presence or absence!

My Values:  Creating value for others. 

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