How I Decide the Time of My Vacations

I have made a commitment to myself that I need to travel at least thrice a year, or maybe four times if I can manage. However, there have been times when I cannot decide the exact time of the year when I need to go on a vacation. Financial and social commitments subside my travel plans, and I have no choice but to cancel or postpone my plans. Even if I go to a nearest city for a weekend getaway, or just sit at the edge of a hilltop fort, I love the quiet time I spend with myself. However, whenever I start feeling the signs of mental burnout, I realize that it is high time that I should pack my bags to leave for a far-off destination.

The negativity creeps in

Whenever everything starts giving a negative impression, or the world starts feeling ugly, I know that I need to take a break. There have been times in office when the job that I love starts feeling boring, the friends that I have fun feel too poky, and the clothes that I wear don’t suit me anymore. I know at that time that the problem is with me, not the world.

The physical symptoms

The best part about being human is that I can think; I can analyze things, even though I may overdo it sometimes. My body does not make sense to me whenever the mental discomfort reaches the head, eyes, or legs. I realize that the body has started getting the signals from the mind that I should relax. I might sleep for the entire weekend without eating much, but the mind will still be occupied by the household chores.

The struggle to sleep is real

I have a serious problem of sleeplessness whenever I am struggling with an issue. I have spent many restless days and sleepless nights just because I could not stop thinking about the office politics, the unfulfilled ambitions, and even the grocery that I have to buy from the store. I know that I am being too foolish to behave like this, but just a weekend getaway can solve this problem. I like to sit on the edge of a fort and just be quiet for a while; it may not solve my problems, yet it gives my mind the much-needed relaxation.

Decision making is hampered 

It is not that I always make mistakes at taking decisions, but I do err a lot when I am restless in my mind. Simple things seem complicated to me. For instance, I forget how much sugar I had put in the pan while making tea, the number of pages I had counted while making files, the left turn I had to take while driving. I would brainlessly think about various things that do or do not matter. When my mind starts wandering, I know that I need to wander too. It is healthy to be on your own during the vacations and travel without an itinerary.

I have not been going to the gym lately, and I do not work out at home either. A simple walk to the grocery store seems difficult because my body feels heavy along with the mind. There have been multiple phases like this in my life of three decades, and I know that they are normal. I just need to book tickets to a new city or village, and free myself for a few days. I am no saint, but I love the solitary feeling for a few days. It is time to look for Self-Drive Cars in Mumbai and leave for the hills. Yes, I will be going soon!

Why I Don’t Quit Traveling Despite Facing Challenges?

Someone asked me in my office that I always tell them the difficulties I faced while traveling, so why don’t I quit traveling? Yes, he had a point, but I also had an answer. I asked him whether he will listen to my stories if I would tell him all the pleasant things. Wouldn’t it get too boring to narrate the stories of places of saw and the cuisines I ate? Moreover, challenges are a part of a journey, which I learned with time and I love those problems.

Leaving home for a long trip is pain; a real pain for sure. No matter I want to leave my comfort zone when I get bored of my regular life. However, when it is time to leave home for a long time, I feel the discomfort in my heart and mind. Moreover, I hate leaving the family behind for more than a week. I know that I would miss my family, friends, pets, and even the stray dogs in my street. Still, I cannot convey my anxieties to my family because they would never let me leave otherwise.

In contrast, the other challenge that I face is returning home after a long time. Just like I find my comfort zone in a regular job and routine, I find the same in wandering around doing random things. It is really tough to leave that solace that I get when I am on the road. In the backdrop, I know that the money in my bank account is vanishing and I need to go home soon, but I never want to do that. I want to be traveling all the time, which makes it even harder to go home again.

In addition, it also distresses me to see that I got out of the city to gain new experiences, but everyone else back home is busy in their mundane lives. Mom still complains about the faulty internet and TV connection. Dad keeps complaining about the politics in his office. And my friends never stop gossiping about people who make more money than them. I don’t want to call them losers, but in a way, they are. They are really harsh words for the people I love, but it is true that when you gain more than your peers, you cannot stop pitying them, if not hate them. I hate myself for saying that, but I have grown a lot more than my peers. I would never say that I don’t like them, but I cannot be like them again. I like to stay attached to my roots, yet, I like to fly high.

I have traveled to many cities in India in the last few years, and I knew that many of these places were not very safe. When I was in Varanasi, I had to be double careful about my belongings and well-being. I could never take my safety for granted because those staring eyes and incidents of crimes made me anxious. When I decided to do the bungee jumping, I knew that I could not guarantee my life. Still, I wanted to kick myself to come out of the box and I did so.

I hired Self-Drive Cars in Bangalore when I had to travel to the remote corners of Karnataka. And I took a flight when I had to travel from Bangalore to Kolkata, but nothing deterred me from being a passionate traveler. I have faced and I still deal with a lot of challenges, but nothing stops me from being who I am.

How I Deal with Difficult People While Traveling Solo

Even though I am an urban Indian female, the challenges of traveling solo are no less for me. I have been lucky to live in Delhi for most part of my life, but I have seen the small town life as well. The narrow minded perspective of the North Indian society makes it challenging for women to travel alone, no matter the distance. With a significant number of experience at hand, I have learned that there I no way I can teach the right way to behave to some people, regardless the gender. There are men, as well as, women who do not know that they need to conduct themselves carefully in public places. However, I know how I should give them a piece of my mind to warn them immediately.

Dealing with men  

Luckily, there are men in my home who are very polite and understanding. I have been to several road trips with them, and we had a blast every time. Yet, when I had to travel alone for the first time, my choice was Rishikesh. Even though I had thought that I would not face any issues, I found that men would not stop staring at me. Yes, I accept the curiosity of men about foreigner and native women who are brave enough to travel alone, or wear modern clothes. Still, the stares from ogling men is not acceptable.

There was a man in the train to Rishikesh who was fiddling with his phone as I enjoyed my journey to my destination. He was smiling while looking at his phone, and I thought that he must be enjoying a funny chat with someone or looking at photos. He was keeping his bags underneath his seat when I heard the sound of flash from somewhere. As I looked up, he was clearly confused about something. It took me a minute to register that he had clicked a picture of mine without my consent.

I went up to him and asked him to hand over his phone. He clearly denied and said that he was clicking pictures of the landscape outside, but did not want to give his phone. All that argument made sure that he had clicked my picture, or probably someone else’s photo, but I had to take an action anyway. People had turned to us within a minute or argument and a guy asked him to do as I had said, or he would report him to police. Thanks to the supportive crowd in the coach that I could check his phone at ease.

He had snapped my photos, as well as of many other females inside the train. When I told this to everyone, they wanted to beat that man, but a few sensible stopped the mob and they warned him t behave in public. I hope that he had got his lesson about public conduct.

Dealing with women

No just men, but women can be really rude at times. I had hired a Car Rental Delhi last month so that I could go to the movies with my friends in South Delhi. Even though this region of the national capital is supposed to be more sophisticated, we had an entirely different experience altogether. My friends had traveled all the way from Jaipur just to celebrate an evening, but there was a women who pushed Rohit, my college friend. She alleged that he was misbehaving her and had pushed her. We were shocked, but we dealt with her sternly, and she had a good dose of learning from all of us along with the public around.

Traveling alone is a great deal of challenge sometimes, but that does not stop me from going solo. I accept the everyday contests and take them as opportunities to grow.

How I Became a Travel Photographer with My iPhone

iPhones are great, no doubt about that. However, the worst part about buying a less expensive iPhone is that its camera is not up-to-the-minute. When I had the iPhone 4 while iPhone 6 was already there in the market, I felt it too frustrating to click second-class pictures with what I had. Now that I have iPhone 6s, iPhone X is already there with many people. And those who have even iPhone 7 Plus or 8 can click breathtaking portraits.

Having vented out all that frustrating aspects of not owning the newest iPhone, nothing can convince me to spend a lakh of INR just to buy a Smartphone that is only slightly better than what I have. I can and I have already saved thousands of rupees just by being 3-4 generations behind in technology. And I get the guilty pleasure of seeing the prices of latest phones dropping down like a rock falls from a cliff, after just one year. Nevertheless, that was too much about why I don’t buy the hottest iPhones. Let me share how I rediscovered my iPhone and became a pro at clicking best travel photos on my road trips. Yes, I have to work extra harder than my peers to have magnificent pictures, but I don’t mind that.

I choose the subject carefully

I don’t like to click everything that I come across when I travel, like I see people doing. I have seen people capturing almost the whole lot of their vacation in their camera rather than enjoying their real time. I carefully analyze the things, places, and people I would like to click and then invest a few minutes in getting the best shot of it. Even if I choose ordinary subjects for my pictures, I make sure that I change the angle of my images to give them an interesting look.

No zoom policy

I hate zooming in to click anything or anyone. Even if I am there at a distance of several meters, I like to reach as closer as I need to because the zoom feature distorts the quality of pictures. I don’t like the grainy and blurry pictures that are too embarrassing to upload on Instagram. Yes, Instagram is another guilty pleasure that I indulge in. In case the background of my subject is too large, I can crop the picture later without compromising on the quality.            

    

Sunlight photos

Thank God that we have sun that gives us blissful daylight for most hours of the day, and we can click awesome portraits with the humblest cameras on earth because of sunlight. I love wearing my sunglasses and have myself clicked to get the best portrait of mine. I happened to be in a professional outdoor shoot a couple of times during the day time. Even though I was feeling uncomfortable because of the scorching heat, the pictures came out surprisingly well. We were shooting for the Self-Drive Cars in Chennai, and the photographer was brilliant in capturing the sunlight in moderation. From that day, I became a fan of outdoor photos.

The best thing that I bought for my road trips was a tripod rather than a Selfie stick. I have always hated Selfies, even when I was not clear about the reasons for it. Now that I see almost the entire world obsessed with those silly close-ups of their nose, I know why I despise Selfies. Anyway, my tripod helps me to click as many pictures as I want without taking help from anyone, which has made me an even better travel photographer.

How I Found the Knack of Making Friends While Traveling

Even I don’t believe myself when I look back and realize that I used to be such a shy person. I was an absolute introvert and unquestionably happy about it. However, I always knew that no one knew about my existence and people would conveniently ignore me while taking group photographs. Whenever everyone in office went for lunch, they would not ask me to join them because I was working on my laptop. But hey, I do eat right! I feel hungry too. And I like talking to people as well.

But let me admit, I would talk to people only when they approached me. I have made a few really good friends from school and college, but they are equally introverts like me. Nevertheless, I was tired of this insignificant existence, and I wanted to change myself. And here I was, I began transforming my personality with my solo trips.

Yes, solo trips, where people who talk too much seek solitary time. Solo travelers are often quiet beings who talk to someone only when they want or need to, but my agenda of going around places on my own was to transmute myself.

Looking at people

I had read and realized it many times that there is a difference in looking at people and staring at them, regardless the gender. Therefore, the first step was to make a positive eye contact with people, which was the quality that I lacked. So I thought of practicing it when I was in office, restaurant, malls, and everywhere else. I would look at people and wait for them to look back. As soon as I made an eye contact with them, I would smile at them. Since it is difficult to look at women in India, I had to be very careful about the opposite gender. Whenever I smiled at a woman, I had to make sure that I was poised enough to strike a conversation to explain myself, if required.

Greeting people

A group of travelers was once talking about the best Self Drive Car Rental in Delhi, and I got interested. So I went to them and greeted them while passing by as I picked up my coffee from the counter. One of the members of that group came to the counter when I was standing there again, I greeted him with a smile. He was very receptive, and I talked to him about the Car Rental experience in India. It was great to know about the new concept of this mode of transportation. Although it was a deliberate attempt from my side to hold on the conversation for a couple of minutes, it felt like I had dropped off a huge burden from my shoulders. I had never talked to a stranger for that long time until that moment, and it felt like a great achievement.

The key take away from my experience from being an introvert to an ambivert is that I should never underestimate myself. At least now I don’t think of my capabilities and looks as any less than those of any other person I meet. Once a doctor told me that she may be good at remembering complex names, but she cannot remember simple names of people she meets. She often meets many patients and people in her professional life, which requires a lot of public dealing, but she forgets the names of people. When a highly qualified person like her is aware of her weaknesses and strengths, I found myself reassuring myself that I too have a few strengths in me, even if there are a few weaknesses. Recognizing my potential has helped me a lot in transforming my persona.

How I Keep Myself Productive While Traveling

I hate travel, especially business travel. Having said that, I must add to it that I love personal travel. I have to travel because my office asks me to do that at least twice a month. However, I have to keep myself productive because first, I have too much of work, and two, I don’t like to sit idle. People call me workaholic, but I don’t care. I do talk to people, but when I have time and willingness to do so. Let me write about how I maintain my sanity when I have too much time on my road trips or flights.

Work on less intensive work

When I am in office, I have many stressful jobs to do. However, I cannot have the same ambiance of my office at a bus station in Roorkee in North India. It is way too much to expect. Rather than cribbing over the lack of private space, I plug in my earphones and gather the less productive work. I can check my emails, pay the bills, register on a few freelancing websites, and do anything that seems too mundane in office. I hate doing these chores when I have more important things to do. But traveling gives me time to accomplish all these seemingly trivial but important things to do.

Advance planning

I have traveled to Bangalore from Delhi at least a few dozen times by now, which has made me experienced enough to understand what I should expect from the city. The situation of traffic, for example, is bad around my office in Bangalore. So I book a cab to reach from airport to office or hotel, and I use the time to do my pending things as I wrote above. However, when I have to travel for leisure around the nearby hill stations, I simply take a Car Hire in Bangalore and set off for the gorgeous hills. Similarly, whenever I have too much time to spend on an airport, I make sure that I carry my laptop charger, a novel to read, at least one academic book, and a power bank for my phone. I hate it if the battery of any of my gadgets goes too low to work. All these things need prior planning and I cannot go without it.

Adjustments, adjustments, and adjustments

Travel is just another name for adjustment and compromise, just like marriage. Even though I am not married, I can still say that I am lucky enough to have gained enough experience of adjusting to adverse situations. I hope it will help to cope with my married life. Nevertheless, without getting distracted from the topic, I should mention what I do to not feel distracted from my work. I know that I can use the headphones and listen to some really loud music, but it is not healthy throughout the journey. I feel several distractions while working in office as well, but I have learned to focus really hard on my work, no matter what is going on around me.

When it comes to kids getting cranky at an airport, I have to ignore them and focus on my work. Sometimes, I have a presentation to give within a few hours of landing in another city, and I cannot pay attention to the mess around me. Therefore, I have trained myself to just concentrate, despite everything.

Isn’t it a blessing in disguise to have developed so many traits just by traveling for work? I feel great when I look back at what I have achieved and I have so many milestones to achieve.

Why I Feel That Indians Are Sweet to the Strangers

While it is entirely true that Indian men are shy to talk to other females, the elderly people are particularly sweet to the younger generation despite their gender. There have been several instances when I have met utterly sweet Indian men and women who would ask cute questions, just randomly. There was a similar incident when I was there at the Delhi airport and was waiting for boarding my flight.

The battery of my mobile was low, so I decided to charge it at the waiting lounge in the airport lobby. I engrossed myself in the newspaper I was carrying since I could not access my phone. It was surprising to realize that I had not read a newspaper in many years. Just because I bought it that day on my way to the airport, holding a newspaper in my hands felt good and astonishing at the same time. 

An elderly man, who must be in his sixties, approached me and asked if I worked at the airport. I said no, but I was curious to know if he needed something because he was clearly disappointed. I asked him if I could help him to find someone from the staff at the airport, to which he said yes. Unfortunately, we could not find any staff member, and I finally asked him about the matter that concerned him.

He responded that he was there to pick up his son, who was coming from Bangalore. He just wanted to inquire about the timing of the flight that his son had boarded. I smiled at his concern, to which, he got puzzled. I told him that I could help him in this regard if he had the flight number.

Now it was his turn to smile because he had the number with him in his phone. I opened the required website and told him that his son’s flight will be landing in roughly half an hour. We sat together talking about things. He thanked me and asked about my job and introduced himself as a retired bank manager from a government bank.

I was impressed and told him that I come from Kanpur and that I live in Delhi for my job in a company that deals with Self-Drive Cars.

Although he was impressed at my introduction, he immediately asked me if was okay living alone. I nodded, and then he immediately kept a hand on my shoulder and advised me to eat properly. He wanted me to learn cooking and gave me his number so that I can inquire about the quick foods that I can manage for myself. He was really careful that I should not eat too much from outside because it is cancerous.

I was so amused at his elderly affection for a stranger that I could not help smiling for the remaining time that we spent at the airport. Many similar incidences have happened with me in India, where people have proven their sweet nature for me and other strangers. My friends are also the witnesses for the same. Whenever I used to visit any friend’s house for the first time, their parents would treat me with such affection that would melt my heart.

I had once gone to Punjab and the warm nature of the Punjabi folks took my heart away. They never asked any questions beyond my work, food, and family. They just wanted to feed the guest in their house with as much food as they can. Without exaggerating things, I want to say that I love traveling in India, even more than foreign countries.