One very common question that I’m asked when I meet people in person who’ve come across my blog is how and why I travel so frequently. Today I received two e-mails from people whom I’ve not even met asking me the same question. I’ve never really given much thought to this per se, so I thought I’d chalk this out here.

Passion: I travel because I need to! Ever since my graduation, I’ve trained my brain to reject monotony in any form. And travel happened to be one major part of it! As you start venturing out, you realise how much you’ve missed and that there’s a lot more to ’living life’ than the regular 8 to 5 job. Travel in a way gives you a different perspective to look at things and believe me, solutions at times too!

Diversity: If there’s one reason why I transformed from an introvert moron to an extrovert[ Still a moron!]- It’s travel. You end up meeting so many different people from different places that the diversity at times threatens to take you off your roots. Okay, thats more of an exaggeration - But you get it. The best part is, you get to relate to things much better once you’re exposed to a different groups culture and habits. It’s basically understanding  history through a different person’s perspective! My latest escapade was to the north - Himachal Pradesh. And boy, what a learning it was!

Finance: I travel on a meager budgets. I set a constraint and see to it that I stick to it as far as possible. Most of the treks[Close to 25] in Pune that I did last year, you won’t believe was each done on a budget varying from 100Rs. - 300Rs. - Food, transport, accommodation all incl. The central idea is to travel in groups. When I say groups, that could range anywhere between say 10 to 30 for one trip. Well, this is also one of the reasons why couple of my colleagues and I started HydVentura- The Hyderabad adventure club. It gives us a big platform to group up and wind out on weekends whenever possible. For long trips on the other hand, I save over a period of time [six to seven months] specifically for this. This could mean cutting my expenses on things that are not really essential [Movies/Branded clothing for instance]. Also, It’s been close to a year that I’ve bought petrol [ I have a beast - The lumala which I ride on wherever I need to go]. So that fund gets allocated to this bucket. Effectively you do not end up burdening yourself at the fag end.

Leave: Needless to say, this is one important thing that can botch all your plans. It pays to inform your team and lead that you would be off for a vacation as early as you start saving for it!And if you think your project would doom if you’re off for a few days, Think again!

This world is full of myriad complexities. And then, there’s something called life. Live it!

On similar lines:  Of things you chose to miss…