Before my heart could fail because of the spiked beating, I pushed the enter button to submit my resignation letter. It came as quite a shock for everyone, but for me, it was a well thought decision. I quit my 4.9 years of IT job in Accenture and then the notice period of three months passed with the lightning speed. Office footwear got replaced with the trekking shoes, my huge wardrobe with a set of two quick dry t-shirts and trek pants, the company’s bag with a 60 L backpack and a huge collection of perfumes and lotions with a small sachet of each. Soon the day came when with the tumultuous thoughts about the coming time; I boarded a flight to Delhi, to join a trekking company.

That’s how I gave wings to my travelling dream.

This is how it all started:

Being born and brought up in a small town of Himachal Pradesh, my exposure was limited to engineering and medical only. I wanted to pursue my career in Fashion Designing but back in days at my place, arts used to be for students who failed to perform well in academics. So, eventually I ended up taking non-medical and then getting into an engineering collage. Since childhood, I had an inclination towards creative fields. I use to design dresses, write poetry and capture photographs. It all got subdued for a while for those four years of my college. I joined the race of securing a college placement and set aside my dream of fashion designing for later years. Not that I was a geek, I was a part of college dance, fashion show and basketball team and fairly active in organizing fests as well. I even got flunked in Maths in second semester! That was a huge blow to me and I slowed down a bit in my extracurricular activities and focused on studies. Eventually, I managed to maintain 7.5 pointer and got placed in UST Global. And with that, I got teleported to Trivandrum, Kerala.
Just when I expected that now I’ll get time to have fun, I was put into Java batch and worst, my roommate into more chilled, testing batch. When I used to fidget with the Java codes in my laptop she use to binge watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S sitting right next to me (good old days!) J

Kerala is a place that offers you so many weekend gateways and I, by no means was there to sulk with Java Codes.
We had huge gang which eventually diminished to five people, all hungry to travel and that was it. Every weekend we explored some new place, tried some new restaurant, and got wasted on some new drink. Rest two years was all about, travel, trips and tipple, the 3 T’s.

We had enormous rounds of drinks and I got addicted, addicted to travel.
Eventually, everyone started moving out because everyone wanted a hike and I started questioning what do I want? The loaded pockets would not satisfy my soul that craves for new learning and new experiences and new places. I knew, I want to be a full time traveller. But the question was, how to and where to start? It took me 2 more years to gather my guts and figure out how to start, during which I shifted from Kerala to Gurugram and then to Mumbai.

The Turning Point:

In August 2017, I went for Pin Parvati trek with Bikatadventures and that’s when I got to know about the job profile where you get to trek some exotic peaks and passes and in return have to produce content in form of photographs, videos and articles. I was a blogger for more than 5 years! Since then this job profile was stuck in my mind. I got back to Mumbai but the question of ‘where this IT job is leading me?’ would not let me sleep and one fine day, I gathered all my guts and quit my job to chase my dream of being a traveller. I contacted Bikatadventures, luckily they were looking for Travel Writers and after couple of rounds of Interview, I got the job.
With that started my daily routine of running and skipping and stair climbing with 10 Kgs on my back and within 3 months I was standing at the foothills of Mt. Swargrohini at Uttrakhand. Har Ki Doon was my first trek as a Content Writer.

 

Life as a Trekker and Content Writer:

To be honest, on every trek, during the pass crossing day, I would curse question myself. Why did I put myself through all this? And that, I would ask for a break once I’ll be back to the base. But once I reach the top, I would be filled with the exhilarating feeling of completing one more challenge, so much happiness worth the strive and so much peace of the beautiful nature that my eyes get to witness, on every damn trek. On the way down from the pass, I would put my boosted morale in the box and let the ecstasy feeling of happiness took over me. The ‘curse questions’ of mine would mock themselves and once back at base, I would itch to head on to next trek as soon as possible.
Sounds easy? It was back breaking, utterly harsh, extreme environmental conditions but it moulded me in many ways, physically and mentally and my life as a trekker is going to be a big part of what I would become in my life.

I trekked for almost five months and then winters happened and I had to search for another job. I immediately got another job, in a travelling company that organizes road trips all around the country and even few international ones. Lucky me? Read ahead.
My world came crashing down when I voluntarily had to quit the ‘dream job’ conducting road trips. It was the perfect job profile, just what I was looking for. Meet new people, take them to see places, get to see new places and write about it, photograph it, video graph it and it was a permanent one but then I learned a very important lesson of my life. Nothing, nothing in this world is worth your ‘Peace of Mind’. I choose Peace of Mind over Passion.

Back to zero. No job, no money. A part of me wanted to fall back and get a job in IT, get financially secured. The part where I was sitting at home, penniless and jobless was troubling me but then I made up my mind, not to give up. I took that plunge few months back, and if I go back to the job I don’t want to do, I may not get out of it ever. And then, it takes guts and more than that perseverance to change your dreams into reality. Just little more faith and I am sure something good will come out of it.
So, as of now, dated 05^th January, 2019 I deny to give up on my dreams and give everything of mine to chase it, so that, years ahead, at least I won’t regret that I gave up too soon. I believe and I shall receive, what I desire, what I dream. One day.