From Travelling to Explore to Travelling with a Purpose

My travels before the Trek

In August 2019 I decided to take a career break and travel minimally. I had a carryon backpack and myself and the world was my oyster. I decided to stay in hostels or with locals through my travels. I travelled in Europe and Middle East in a selection of countries I picked as I travelled that exposed me to quite a diverse type of experiences. I had the opportunity to see great modern cities like London and Amsterdam, great ancient architectures like the pyramids, beautiful nature, meet people from diverse backgrounds & make some friends for life, stay with locals from different cultures and background & learn a little bit about their life.. It was a liberating journey. It changed me, gave me a new perception of the meaning of life – I realised that we need very little to live and a lot of love to live happily. I realised the value of relationships be it family or friends. Travelling reinforced my belief that you can only learn something new if you stop being judgemental. I also realised that there is no set script to make friends for life. You just need to be open minded and be at the right time at the right place to meet someone amazing and magic happens.

So one night in Ios, Greece magic did happen! I met a guy by the name Linh from California, US. He was on a similar journey as mine – he took a career break and was travelling like me. We met that night and had a memorable night out with the locals in Ios, Greece. It was in October which was the end of Season. We were probably the only travellers in the bar we hung out that night. On that night Linh shared his life experiences with me and how he & his family escaped from a pirate attack in Thailand when he was 4 and how he was lucky to end up in US to have a good life. He also shared his experience building a school in Malawi, Africa couple of years ago. The combination of some alcohol, Linh’s personal story, the touching images of kids he captured in Malawi, and my state of mind at that time (I had come to conclusion that travelling to explore by itself wasn’t going to satisfy my needs I was after before I left Australia) made me decide on the night itself to join Linh and 3 other amazing teammates to build a school in Nepal in December 2019.

In tail end of October I returned to India to visit my family & celebrate the Indian festival of lights Deepawali (Diwali) with them after 10 long years! The times I shared with my family were so memorable & I will cherish them for many more years to come.

I also decided to spend a couple of weeks in Bangalore and spend time with my mates from the good old days in Bangalore when I was a 22 year old hanging out with other 22 years olds with enough money & courage to be dangerous. 😉

I landed in Bangalore and decided to stay in a hotel through my stay there. On Day 3 I called my old close friend Ajey to meet him. This was me talking to him after 7 long years. The amazing thing about our relationship is that the moment we exchanged the first few words, we got back to the same level of connection we had once upon a time. Ajey insisted I stay with him at his apartment so I moved. The remainder of my stay in Bangalore has been one of the most memorable times I will ever have in my life. We relived old memories, we drank, we ate, we went out, we met our common old friends, we made fun of each other (especially them making fun of me – apparently I have an accent now not only in English but Tulu – my mother tongue!). I also made some new friends while I was there who will be friends forever.

Why am I sharing this? Because I think something in me changed and made me realise how valuable these experiences are which I probably took for granted before. I am now starting to value every relationship I have much more than anything in life.