I have always believed one should follow his innate passion which resides at core of soul, driving the person. For far too long I thought I was happy doing my businesses; real-estate/land development along with trading/customisation of fabrics, which were fairly profitable too. But only money steering the car of life wasn’t suited to me.
Destinations are given too much importance and journeys have been robbed of their values. Live the journey, enjoy the journey, and grow with the journey! Finally one is bound to reach some place and that too will be beautiful in its own way. Many times in life some forced bending’s have given life new dimensions and meanings; altering the whole course along with its goals. So is the case with this Avatar of mine!
Travelling for me isn’t important for to gain commercially as much as it’s important to grow; improve, share, transform, cultivate, join! My travel escapades are not touristy flings but journeys of soul searching and long term affairs. India being one of the oldest civilizations on earth and culturally-historically-geographically ‘one of the’ if not ‘the only’, inherently richest also.
To be honest this wanderlust trait in me is genetic to me from my parents, my father majorly I feel as from a very young age itself road trips were intricate part of family life. Don’t even remember dates of my first real road trip as I must have been very young, but there are innumerable memories of countless trips scuttling in and out of cities, villages, hinterlands of India.
Sharing my experiences and putting them down in words and pics was evidently going to happen since long. Just the courage to write and give it structure, a form, the unhindered time and effort was thanks to many forces. Many people kept inspiring and pushing me. As various curves of lives converged many times pursuing many activities, thy urge and want(wanderlust) grew more and more stronger. Hopefully this memoirs will inspire others to break their shackles which they themselves have bounded into. And thus also making others travel got shaped down the years. We are undertaking FITs, customised group tours, FDs, MICE, all with the sole aim & purpose of slow meaningful travel always with the backdrop of being Socially & Ecologically aware of our footprints we have on nature & places we visit. Striving to make the least damaging effect on our natural surroundings and maximizing our internal gains by knowing about new cultures, new ways, new habitats, new food & social ways of people from those regions.
Most of our Himalayan journeys or yatras as i call them have been hard ones outwardly ofcourse but soul contending inwards always. From multiple trekks into Himalayas like Stok Kangri, Rupin pass, Kashmir great lakes, Chopta Chandrashila, then ofcourse the once in a lifetime Kailash Mansarovar yatra, the Panchkedar yatra, the adventurous 8500kms drive into Kashmir/Ladakh/Himachal regions, the riding trips into Kashmir, Ladakh, Pangi, Killar_Kistwar, multiple long cycling expeditations to Ujjain Mahakaal & Kedarnath, yatras to Amarnath & older then Himalayas Girnar; all persnolly undertaken the hard long way without shortcuts anywhere.
Following on our motto of empowering & saving local customs & culture we join hands with the local people & products from our regional hinterlands and give them the platform we have made thru years of hard work & experience. Be it the world’s best Kashmiri dry fruits & Kesar directly from Kashmiri farmers or the soothing Kutchi ghantdi only made by generational artisans only in few border villages of the Culturally rich rann land of Kutch. Many such products we strive to bring into the mainstream of our city based people who are simply unaware of these genuine arts/products because of their fast paced lives.
Travelling isn’t only about having good times at new destinations or submerging one selves into a luxurious holiday mode. That’s only tiny fraction of tremendous potential that undertaking journeys offers you. Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things but not their end, life and all that lives is always conceived in the mist and not in crystal as who knows but a crystal is mist in decay? Conquer your fears, outgrow your limitations, and erase your comforts inside the self-created boundaries. Acceptance of newer cultures, meeting whole new lot of amazing native people, integrating harmoniously oneself into with nature in general, cutting down on negativities and life sucking energies for to focussing more on life giving pranas; that’s the whole new definition of journeying for me!
Khalil Gibran is all his wisdom prophecies “you give but little when you give of your possessions; it is when you give of yourself that you truly give!” same happens on “mysticmusafirs” journeys; souls give unbounded unselfishly, and abundance of life comes into orgasmic climax.
Other than exploring; via all modes available, I pursue major interest in spiritualism, healing forces, philosophy, alternate music, poetry, running, yoga, trekking, riding, driving & reading! In fact reading and spiritualism are the two driving forces that took me more and more deeper into travelling. A good book is equal to 10 friends! And a ‘good friend’ is equal to 100 books! Hence it’s a beautiful circle. Many voracious readers are more often vague travellers too. And almost all mystics; blessed this earth has been to taste them; have been nomadic musafirs in their own beautiful rebel way. India has many famed Triveni-sangams; points at which three mighty rivers converge at. They are revered for their immense scope of life and creation. So travelling & making others travel is our way of making a conscious effort to make the life journey too a ‘triveni-sangam’ enriched by immense potential of “words-mysticism-journeys” and hence by sharing them fulfilling the inter exchange human want of life.
